My Highland Love: Highland Lords Series (13 page)

Surprise flickered across Margaret's face,
then disdain settled on her features. "I have seen it before and
with women possessing far more charms than you." She raised a brow.
"You are… twenty-six, twenty-seven, perhaps?"

Despite the fact Elise knew it made no
difference—tomorrow she would be gone—the barb hit its mark. Marcus
never asked her age. He, too, probably thought her younger than her
thirty years.

Margaret raked her eyes over Elise in an
unladylike fashion. "Men are intrigued by the new and unusual." She
waved her hand in the same dismissive manner she had with Mary.
"That will change once we are wed."

Elise couldn't prevent a gasp.

Margaret lifted a brow. "He did not tell you?
Pity. You can't be surprised he kept the news from you, of all
people."

Elise narrowed her eyes. "Marcus is no
liar."

"He hasn't lied. The news has not yet been
announced. We are awaiting permission from King George." Margaret
regarded her with a curious intensity. "You don't believe me." She
laughed, the sound filled with disdain and, to Elise's surprise,
pleasure. "Tell me," Margaret said, "do you like the way he slides
his tongue over your lips?"

A chill pooled in Elise's belly.

"Or perhaps you find the way he runs his
hands along your body more memorable. He is a man who enjoys
touching a woman—and let us not forget the way he moves in a
deliciously languid motion—"

"What do you want?" Elise demanded.

Margaret slapped her gloves against her hand.
"You have nothing I want. His fancy will pass soon enough—as it
always does." Then, under her breath, "Though it doesn't please me
he has so openly taken his pleasure while I have been away."

While I have been away.
A clear
explanation for why Marcus had avoided the issue of his
wife-to-be.

"He has not taken his pleasure, madam," Elise
shot back, remembering all too well how he had nearly done that
very thing just last night. How she was just hoping it was he who
came looking for her to
take his pleasure
.

Surprise shone on Margaret's face. "Why,
there must have been many opportunities…" Her eyes widened. "You
mean to marry him."

Elise jerked. "What?"

"You think if you make him wait, he will
marry you. My girl, Marcus does not marry out of lust. The
Marq—"

"It is quite evident love is not the driving
factor in your marriage," Elise snapped.

Margaret's eyes blazed.

"My congratulations, madam. I wish you,
Marcus, and all his paramours a happy union." Elise hurried past
her toward the door.

"How dare you, you little—"

Elise yanked the door open and slammed it
behind her as she stepped into the hallway, leaving Margaret's
final words behind. She stumbled forward. Tears clouded her vision.
She reached out a hand to the wall, steadying her progress, and
discovered she still held the book. She gripped it tighter and took
one wobbly step after another until she reached the stairs. She
started down, but the sound of voices echoing up the stairwell
stopped her. Cameron. She turned, scanning the hall for some form
of escape, then remembered the small alcove around the bend she had
just passed. She dashed up the stairs and down the corridor.

Elise reached the alcove and yanked back the
tapestry, nearly falling headlong inside. She straightened, then
turned and backed up, stopping only when her shoulders touched cold
stone. Sliding to the floor, she dropped the book and hugged her
knees to her chest.

"Nay." Even from the distance of the
stairwell, Cameron's voice boomed within the narrow confines of the
corridor. "'Tis likely he won't be back for several days."

"I hadna' realized he meant to stay so long
in the fields," came Daniel's voice.

"He believes the Campbells mean to do
mischief during the harvest."

"The guards around the wall remain on double
watch," Daniel said.

Elise held her breath as they passed the
alcove.

Cameron sighed. "His thirst for revenge is
likely never to be quenched. He cannot forgive them for taking
Elise."

She stifled a gasp. Winnie's words
unexpectedly rang in her mind. "…
it was Marcus who made it clear
threats against his own would be met with an iron fist
."

The male voices faded down the hallway and
Elise rose to her feet. She tiptoed to the tapestry and drew the
fabric back a fraction. She glanced left then right in the empty
corridor, then stepped from the alcove and hurried to the
stairs.

Memory of the previous night rose in even
more vivid detail than when she'd faced Margaret. If not for the
arrival of Marcus's guest, she would have given herself to him.
Heat flared in her cheeks. He had held her intimately. So
intimately that in her dreams he had caressed her, taken each
nipple in his mouth as he slipped a finger between the wet folds of
her womanhood. She had never experienced a dream so real… so
erotic. Her vision blurred on the stairs and she slowed.

In her dream, it hadn't been him who took
her, but she who had willingly parted her thighs, then pulled him
between them. She had wrapped her hand around his swollen rod and
teased him—teased herself—by rubbing the tip against her throbbing
sex, then between the folds before finally guiding him inside her.
Elise halted and collapsed back against the wall, her breath heavy
and the throb between her legs as real now as it had been in the
dream.

The cool of the stone penetrated the thin
fabric of her servant's dress. She forced her breathing into a more
natural rhythm, then started down the stairs again and didn't stop
until she reached her room. Elise closed the door with a soft
click. Her knees shook and she suddenly doubted her ability to
cross the few paces to the bed.

"Fool," she hissed. She had almost spread her
legs for him. A stab of longing startled her. Dear God, the deed
would have meant nothing to him.

The unexpected sound of footsteps racing down
the hallway jerked her attention to the door. The light tread
belonged to a woman and she approached at a run. Elise darted from
the door, headed for the screen in hopes of ducking behind the
barrier. The footsteps halted outside her bedchamber and the door
burst open before she reached the screen.

"Thank God!" Mary cried.

Elise whirled.

"You must come quickly!" Mary dashed across
the room and grabbed her arm, then tugged her toward the door.

"What in God's name is wrong?" Elise wrenched
free.

"'Tis Lady Margaret," Mary wailed. "She's in
an awful fit and is sure to beat Jinny."

Elise pushed past Mary and rushed from the
room, along the corridor, then down the steps into the great hall.
She raced across the great hall, coming to a skidding halt in the
kitchen.

Jinny cowered in a corner with Margaret
standing over her.

"What is the meaning of this?" Elise
demanded.

Margaret turned.

"Cease this nonsense," Elise ordered.

Margaret stared, slack-jawed.

"Close your mouth," Elise snapped. "In polite
circles, it is considered rude to stare."

Margaret's mouth twisted into a gruesome
frown. "How dare you?"

"What right have you to terrorize this
household?"

Margaret's eyes gleamed with malicious
satisfaction. "I have every right—as you know."

"Don't count your chickens before they are
hatched. I venture Marcus will not take kindly to your
actions."

"Marcus again, is it?"

Elise recognized the jealousy in the woman's
eyes and gave her a calculated look. "Jinny," she addressed the
young cook who still cowered, "fetch Cameron."

"Cameron?" Margaret's brows rose in a mocking
manner.

"Yes. Jinny, I saw him upstairs only a few
minutes ago. He was probably on his way to the library."

"Stay where you are," Margaret
threatened.

Jinny's wary glance darted from Margaret to
Elise.

"It's all right," Elise urged.

Jinny shot a sidelong look at Margaret, then
eased a foot to the side. Lady Margaret took a step toward the
girl. Elise slid between them.

"Don't take your petty jealousy out on her."
Elise stepped so close Margaret was forced to look up in order to
maintain eye contact. "Are you such a coward you will only fight
those who don't have the power to fight back?"

Margaret raised her hand and swung, palm
open, for a hard slap. Her gaze flicked past Elise and her eyes
widened as a much larger hand intercepted her palm before it hit
its intended mark.

"Enough, lass," Cameron commanded softly.

"I—" she began.

"Never mind," he said. "Marcus isna' here.
'Tis best if you go."

Margaret looked as if she would say more but
lifted her skirts and headed for the door.

Cameron looked at Elise. "Are you all right,
lass?"

She kept her gaze on Margaret's retreating
form then, as Margaret stepped from the kitchen to the great hall,
Elise started forward. Cameron stayed her with a firm grip on her
arm.

"Whoa, lass. Where are you going?"

She shook his hand from her arm. "Why did you
interrupt?"

"I heard you tell Jinny to fetch me. I would
think you were glad for my timely arrival."

"A timely arrival would have been three
seconds later."

"But she would have struck you by then."

Elise saw Margaret open the postern door.
"Correct."

"You wanted her to hit you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Elise looked at him. "Because then I could
have hit her back."

Elise stopped before Winnie's cottage. Her
sharp rap on the door quieted the evening crickets and she entered
without waiting for an invitation.

Winnie looked up from where she sat at the
table. "What's wrong?"

"Something must be wrong?" Elise asked.

Winnie rose and bustled to the door. "Supper
is finished and you are visiting me. If you had good news, you
would have told me then." Winnie prodded her into a chair at the
table, then turned to the hearth and grabbed the kettle from the
fire. "Have some tea."

She set a cup in front of Elise, picked up a
tea strainer from the basket sitting on the table, and plopped it
into the cup. Winnie filled the cup with hot water, then did the
same for herself. She replaced the kettle over the fire, seated
herself across from Elise, and stared, an expectant look on her
face.

Elise dipped a finger inside her cup and
fiddled with the tea strainer so that it bobbed in the water. "I
haven't spoken about my life before Brahan Seer."

"Nay."

"Perhaps that was unfair."

A silence drew out between them before Elise
said, "The details no longer matter, only that I lost everything. I
began again here," a tremor rippled through her at the lie, "but
now I see myself entangled in a mess no better than the one I came
from."

"A mess?" Winnie repeated.

Elise smiled gently. "By now, all of Brahan
Seer knows what happened today between me and Lady Margaret."

"Aye, though no one was surprised by such
mischief from Lady Margaret."

Elise lifted a brow. "Indeed?"

"Aye," Winnie said. "She's a bitch."

Elise blinked, then couldn't help
laughing.

Winnie frowned. "Well, she is."

Elise released a breath. "That doesn't change
the truth… or the fact I must leave."

"Leave?" Winnie snorted. "Surely not because
of Lady Margaret?"

Elise leaned forward on the table. "Winnie,
he is to marry her."

The older woman's shocked expression said she
knew nothing of the betrothal. Elise experienced a sense of relief
she hadn't hoped for. Winnie hadn't been a part of the
deception.

"I don't believe it," Winnie said.

"No?" Elise asked. "Because you don't like
her?"

"Nay." But this time, the denial held less
conviction.

"I am going. Tomorrow."

Winnie's brows snapped together. "So soon?
Mayhap you should wait just a little while, give Marcus a
chance—"

"A chance for what?"
To win me over
?
The very thing she couldn't allow. For she would submit, then the
leaving would only break her heart all the more. And she would
leave. For Amelia. For Steven. And because he had lied to her.

"Marcus is away," she said. "It's better I go
now."

"You plan on returning to America?"

Elise nodded.

"I suppose you can manage there as well as
here."

"I need your help."

Winnie gave her a wary look. "I dinna' like
the look in your eye."

"I must leave early if I am to reach Glasgow
before nightfall. Leaving so early is sure to raise suspicion. If
you and I go together to the village—"

"Lord save us." Winnie rolled her eyes
heavenward.

"You know it will take trickery."

"Oh, it will take trickery."

"If you know another way?"

"There is a secret passage leading outside
the gates."

"A secret passage? Where does it emerge?"

"Near the gate."

"That might work," Elise murmured.

Winnie unexpectedly shook her head. "Nay.
'Tis a bad idea."

"Why?"

"If you are caught, the jig is up. We will do
as you said and go early. Only you cannot go all the way to Glasgow
alone. Peter will go with you."

"Peter?" Elise's heart thumped. "I won't risk
another person's life."

Winnie's face softened. "Peter is no green
boy. He's my niece's cousin, a seasoned fighter and a crack shot.
And," Winnie paused for emphasis, "he knows nothing of Marcus's,
er, desire for you to stay." Elise hesitated, and Winnie added, "He
would have returned home anyway. Glasgow is not far out of his way.
Trust me, he can get you there safely."

Elise nodded, despite the knot in her throat.
God help her if she miscalculated again.