Captured by a Laird (32 page)

Alison felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her in a hard fall and could not draw breath.

“At least, Gelis
was
his mistress,” Isabella said, continuing with her stitching as if this was nothing. “I imagine she’s still there. Waiting.”

“You’re speaking of
David’s
mistress?” Alison said, her mind slow to accept what she was hearing.

“David’s not the sort of man to go from bed to bed,” Isabella said.

Never once had Alison heard of him disappearing with one of the serving women, though more than one had given him the eye. She had taken his fidelity for granted.

“So naturally, he kept a mistress,” Isabella continued. “Same one these past two years.”

“He wasn’t married at that time,” Alison said.

“Aye. Did I say her name is Gelis?” Isabella tied a knot and bit her thread. “Can’t say I like her much, but she has the sort of curves that leaves men with their tongues dragging on the floor, if ye know what I mean.”

Alison felt as if a blade had been stuck in her heart.

Isabella gave a small sigh. “I assume he’ll take up with her again now.”

“He wouldn’t,” Alison said.

“A man has needs,” Isabella said, giving Alison a sideways glance, “particularly a
vigorous
young man such as David.”

The thought of David touching another woman,
vigorously
or otherwise, made her feel sick to her stomach.

“What are ye going to do about this?” Isabella’s voice broke into her thoughts.

“What can I do?” Abandoning the pretense that she was stitching, Alison tossed her needlepoint across the floor.

“Well, the first thing ye can do is not leave him alone with that Gelis,” Isabella said.

“David ordered me not to leave the castle,” she said, blinking back tears. “The last time I did, it ended verra badly.”

“A wife must have the good sense to know when to ignore her husband’s orders.”

“David doesn’t want me. He wouldn’t have left if he did,” Alison said. “And he’ll
never
trust me.”

“He told me he cares for ye,” Isabella said. “And God knows that’s not something David would admit to lightly.”

“He did?” Alison asked, sitting up straight.

“As for not trusting ye, well, running off certainly didn’t help, dear,” Isabella said and patted her arm. “But I suspect that the true reason David mistrusts your loyalty is because, in his heart, he doesn’t believe he’s worthy of love.”

Alison’s hand went to her heart. What Isabella said struck a chord of truth. Despite David’s devotion to his family and clan, he stood apart. There was a core of loneliness deep inside him. She felt sure that she had breached the walls around his heart to reach it before she had gone to the abbey.

Surely she could do it again. She had to.

“I’ll ask Brian to arrange an escort for me and leave at once.” Alison stood and leaned over to Isabella to kiss her cheek. “Thank you.”

Isabella gave her a knowing smile.

Before Alison had taken two steps, Flora entered the hall, waving her hands in the air.

“I can’t find them! They’re gone! They’re gone!”

***

David refilled his cup with whisky, tossed it back, and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

He did not miss her. And he most definitely did not need her.

But when he closed his eyes at night, all he saw was Alison. He had to drink himself into a stupor to sleep at all. Even blind drunk, he heard her voice, her laugh, her sighs. He remembered exactly how her fingertips felt on his cheek.

The woman’s hand on his shoulder was familiar, but it was not Alison’s. Her scent was not Alison’s either.

He felt warm breath in his ear.

“Come to bed,” the woman said. “I’ll make ye forget her.”

“’Tis not possible.” Even if it were, he did not want to forget Alison. Memories were all he had, and he clung to them like a man lost at sea grasping a broken plank from his sunken ship.

“I’m willing to try,” the woman said in a throaty voice.

David shook his head, which made the room spin and blur. “Just pour me another.”

Soon after, his forehead hit the table and his vision went blissfully black. He had no idea if hours or days had passed when next he woke, but his neck was stiff from the awkward angle his head lay on the table.

“How long has he been like this?”

David heard Alison’s voice as though through a thick fog. But he’d heard her voice in his head so often that he knew better than to believe it was truly her. She was miles away in Blackadder Castle, out of his reach, enjoying her freedom and hating him. Which was what he deserved.

“Someone should have sent for me.”

He smiled at the irritation in Alison’s tone. Usually he thought of her in her softer moments, but he liked to see her riled, too, with her violet eyes flashing.

“David!”

Her voice in his ear and the touch of her hand on his shoulder were so real this time he wanted to weep. Ach, what a ruin of a man he was.

“Get up,” she said, and shook his shoulder hard. “I need ye, David Hume.”

She needed him? Not likely.

All the same, he risked spoiling the illusion by cracking one eye open. Her lovely face was just inches in front of his. Her violet eyes were startlingly beautiful this close.

“Is it really you?” he asked, his tongue thick in his mouth.

“Aye,” she said, and brushed his hair back from his face with her fingers in a soothing gesture he never thought he’d feel again.

He should lift his head off the table, but it was heavy, and he still suspected he was dreaming. But when he focused his eyes and saw fine lines of distress pinching her brows, he sat up. The abrupt movement gave him a blinding headache and roiling stomach, but he ignored them.

“What’s happened?” he asked. “Are my brothers safe?”

“They are. But David,” she said, her bottom lip quivering, “our girls are gone.”

David had been drinking for days, but he was suddenly stone cold sober. The image of Beatrix’s and Margaret’s sweet faces was as clear in his mind as if they stood before him.

“Sit down,” he said, taking Alison’s hand, “and tell me all ye know.”

“Flora woke to find them gone from their bed. She thought nothing of it at first, but when they missed breakfast, she went to look for them.”

“They must be somewhere in the castle,” he said.

“I had the entire household looking for them,” she said. “Will knows all their hiding places, but they were nowhere to be found.”

What mishap could have befallen them inside the castle? David’s heart lurched as he thought of the castle’s deep well.

“Then one of the guards found their pup barking outside the gate,” she said.

“Outside?” Good God, the lassies must have left the castle. The guards who let them pass would feel his wrath. “They couldn’t have gotten far on their own.”

“We called and looked for them,” she said, wringing her hands. “Others are still looking, but I came for you. I fear someone has kidnapped them from the castle.”

It was possible. The guards checked carts coming in, but not those going out. The pup must have followed the cart or horse with the lassies out, but he was too young to keep up for long.

“I am so sorry, love.” He enfolded Alison in his arms and kissed her hair. “I will get them back. No matter what it takes. If I have to move heaven and hell, I will get them back.”

“I know ye will,” she said. “But I’m so frightened.”

This time, she had sought his help, not her brothers’. He hoped he was worthy of her faith. She leaned back, and the warmth in her violet eyes made the ice around his heart melt.

“I intended to come for ye even before I knew the girls were missing,” she said, brushing her fingertips over his cheek. “I love ye, David Hume, and I want ye to come home.”

David pulled Alison against him and buried his face in her hair. With her in his arms, he was already home.

***

Patrick could not believe his luck.

“’Tis a pleasure to see you two lasses again,” he said, smiling down at them.

A couple of the Blackadder women Wedderburn had thrown out of the castle were in the village, probably asking for handouts, when they saw this pair. They caught them and brought them straight to Patrick, expecting a reward.

“I can’t help but be curious. How did ye happen to be walking on the road from Blackadder Castle to the village all on your own?”

The two exchanged a look, and the older one shook her head.

“I asked ye a question.” The smaller one was already weeping, so he picked her up and gave her a shake. “Tell me.”

“Put my sister down and I’ll tell,” the older one said.

“See, I can be verra agreeable if ye do as I say.” He set the sniveling bairn on her feet, then sat down in the ornate chair that had belonged to his father and propped his feet up. “So, lassie, tell me the tale.”

“We sneaked out when the gates were opened for carts bringing supplies for the kitchens,” the older girl said. “It was early and still half dark, so no one saw us.”

Patrick threw back his head and laughed. After all the trouble Wedderburn had gone to, the pair of wee lassies had walked out the front gate on their own.

“Ach, I’d love to see Wedderburn’s face when he realizes he’s lost his heiresses.” Patrick had not been this amused since he watched his father thrashing on the floor. “Where in God’s name did ye think ye were going?”

The girls exchanged another look instead of answering. But when he started to reach for the younger one, the older girl spoke up quickly.

“To Hume Castle,” she said. “To bring our laird home.”

Patrick leaned forward. “Wedderburn is not at Blackadder Castle?”

Both girls shook their heads.

“But your mother’s still there?”

They nodded. More good news.

“I answered your questions,” the older girl said. “Can we go home now?”

“Home?” He laughed again. They were such idiots.

But what should he do with them? He drummed his fingers. Killing them was the simplest solution to eliminating their inheritance claim. He could dump their bodies by the village, and the blame would never fall on him.

That, however, would not satisfy his need for vengeance against Wedderburn. He smiled at his puny captives as a plan formed in his head. For now, at least, they more valuable to him alive than dead.

CHAPTER 44

“I see you’re awake, Laird,” Gelis said, leaning in the doorway.

David watched Alison eye her and wondered how in the hell she knew who Gelis was. He’d heard that women could sense that sort of thing, but he had not even thought of touching Gelis since he returned.

“Now that you’re awake,” Gelis said, and sauntered over, swinging her hips, “a message came for ye earlier.”

She was doing her best to make Alison believe there was something still between them, judging by the suggestive look she was giving him. Ach, he did not need Gelis making trouble for him now. Not when he finally had Alison here.

He pulled Alison tight against his side and kissed her cheek.

“Gelis, this lovely lass is my wife, Lady Alison.” His voice thickened with emotion at the word
wife.
“Ye can take the whiskey away. I’ve no need of it now.”

He heard the door shut, but he could not take his eyes off Alison. He could not imagine wanting anyone else.

He forgot about the message until Alison picked it from the table. He broke the seal and looked for the signature at the bottom.

“It’s from Patrick Blackadder,” he said. Patrick signed it as laird, so his father must be dead.

“I knew it,” Alison said, her hand going to her throat. “He has Beatrix and Margaret, doesn’t he?”

David took the letter to the window to read it in the fading light. There was nothing subtle about the message. He had let Patrick see his weakness, and his enemy was taking advantage of it.

Lady Alison swore to me that the Beast of Wedderburn truly cared for her daughters. Pretending affection toward her daughters to win the mother’s was a clever trick, but now you must make a choice. Will you keep all that you’ve gained and cause Alison to hate you? Or will you prove as foolish as your father and give up everything?

“What does he want?” Alison asked, leaning over his shoulder.

David scanned the rest of the letter. Patrick was demanding he give up everything he had fought for.

“I will relinquish one daughter,” David read aloud, “in exchange for possession of Blackadder Castle.”

“For only one of them?” Alison said.

“In exchange for the second daughter,” David continued, “you must submit yourself to my custody so that I may deliver you to Edinburgh to face charges of treason for murdering the Crown’s warden.”

Alison sat down hard. “Oh, David, what will we do?”

“We’ll meet his terms,” he said. “We’ve no choice. We can’t risk the girls’ lives.”

“Surely we can find another way,” she said. “Ye can’t put yourself in that man’s hands.”

“The exchange is to take place tomorrow,” David said. “That doesn’t give us time to plan a subterfuge, even if I were willing to take the risk, which I’m not.”

He glanced again at the last lines of the message, which he had not read to her.

Alas, the health of children can be so precarious. Remember that before you consider attempting to take the daughters from me by force or trickery during the exchange.

“With Albany gone, I’ve a good chance of fighting the treason charge,” he said, trying to reassure her without actually lying. “The English king is threatening to invade. The Council will want a strong man on the border to keep English troops from reaching Edinburgh.”

“I don’t trust Patrick to stand by the bargain and take ye to Edinburgh,” she said. “Do you?”

He shrugged and said, “We’ll see.”

There was no chance in hell Patrick would give him up. He was as set on revenge as David was—or rather, as he once was. He looked at Alison. Now that he had so much to lose, vengeance was not worth the cost.