Border Storm by Amanda Scott

went another way, I’m like to have heard about it from one of the men. ’Twould be noted, ye ken, just as Mistress May’s palfrey were noted.”
    She agreed. “Thank you, Willie. Now, go and shift that gate guard.”
    A moment later, she heard his low whistle.
    Riding out of the stable, she crossed the narrow space between the stable end and the narrow postern gate in the outer wall. The gate opened as she approached, and a moment later, she was outside on the narrow dirt track that skirted the wall.
    Hearing Willie’s low-spoken “God speed, mistress,” Laurie raised her hand in farewell and let her pony have its head.
    Near the main gates, the little track joined the wider one leading down to the tumbling burn from the crag. She half expected to hear a shout from the ramparts, but the night remained silent. Doubtless, with the moonlight revealing only her dark, hooded figure on a bay horse, those above assumed that whoever had let her out knew who she was and where she was bound.
    “Who dares meddle with me?” she muttered. Repeating that ancient motto of the Halliots and Elliots under her breath, Laurie the Bold rode into the night.

Eight
    For it never became a gentleman
    A naked woman to see.
    T HE MOON HAD MOVED nearer the horizon, and it cast long shadows over the land. Scudding clouds and a brisk wind made those shadows dance and stippled the landscape with an eerie light that looked as if ghosts had been set free to wander. The third time Laurie had jumped at a shadowy movement, a tiny voice in her mind muttered that she had been mad to keep quiet about May’s plan and madder still to follow her alone. No longer feeling very bold, she pushed on nonetheless.
    Her only plan had been to catch up with her sister and talk her into returning to Aylewood, but she had feared for the success of that plan from the moment she realized that May had slipped out of the castle without challenge.
    May was too far ahead now, and in any event, she would not stop merely because Laurie shouted at her to do so, even if Laurie caught sight of her and were close enough to make May hear her.
    In fact, Laurie realized belatedly, if May truly believed she was in love, she was unlikely to listen to anything that her older sister said, in any event. And Laurie did not feel confident that she could force May to return if May refused.
    The terrain was rugged enough so that she had to pay close heed to where she was going, and for a time she could not see much of the way ahead. But when at last she reached the top of a rise and saw the dense blackness of Tarras Wood sprawled below her, a pale horse and lone rider stood out clearly against it.
    Laurie saw no sign of Bridget, but she realized that if May looked back, she was likely to see her silhouetted against the sky unless the moon conveniently chose that moment to disappear behind a cloud. But she dared not slow down if she wanted to catch her.
    Her horse would not show as easily as May’s did, and Laurie’s clothing was dark, too. Once she was below the ridge top, she felt confident that May would not see her even if she did look back.
    May did not pause, however. Indeed, she had put her pony to what was, for her, a reckless pace. Clearly, she realized that the more quickly she put distance between herself and Aylewood, the more likely her mad scheme was to succeed.
    Laurie urged the bay to a lope. The faster pace was risky, but she dared not let May get too far ahead. As it was, the chance that at any moment she might lose sight of her was all too great.
    May skirted the eastern edge of Tarras Wood, moving away from Tarras Burn and heading toward the forest’s southern end, where it met the Liddel. From there, she followed the river east. Passing through the elongated shadow of an abandoned peel tower called Corbies Nest—an old, deteriorating hilltop tower that many claimed was haunted—she rode on without pause toward Kershopefoot.
    Laurie had hoped that May would not go so