The Magnificent Rogue (39 page)

“Landfield said you could be dangerous,” he murmured.

“Not if we’re striving for the same goal.” She paused. “And we will not win the crown by dissipating our strength in battles over trifles.” She nodded at Jock. “Take your man and get him out of here.”

She held her breath, but this time Malcolm made no objection.

Jock fetched a stool from across the dungeon, stood on it, and holding Gavin around the middle with one arm, he cut the ropes binding his wrists.

“Be careful.” Jean struggled to her feet and ran forward out of the darkness. “His legs are broken.”

Jean’s face was as bruised as Gavin’s, and pity and rage brought bile to Kate’s stomach. Jock placed Gavin carefully on the ground and knelt beside him, his hands running exploringly over the younger man’s body.

“The wagon,” Kate prompted Malcolm.

His musing gaze had never left Kate’s face. “You may just be right in this.”

“I am right. I’ve thought the matter over very carefully.” She saw him hesitate and said fiercely, “We mustn’t make blunders now. All my life I’ve been without importance to anyone. Now, I have a chance to be a queen. I won’t let you spoil my prospects.”

He threw back his head and laughed. “You may be a more exceptional queen than I anticipated.” He turned and sauntered toward the door. “Very well, Your Imperial Majesty, I’ll tell the guard to fetch the wagon.”

As soon as the door shut behind him, she flew to Gavin and fell to her knees. “How bad?” she asked Jock.

“Not good. Both arms out of the sockets, right leg
broken in two places, left in three, his back is lashed to ribbons.” He glanced down. “Three fingers broken on the right hand.”

“Will he live?”

He nodded. “I think so. He may even come out of this without being a cripple, if I can set those bones right away.”

“Can you do that yourself?”

“It’s a battlefield skill I would have been foolish not to have learned.” He frowned. “I only hope there’s no damage that I can’t see on the surface.”

“That’s all,” Jean said dully. “The whip and then the rack.” She looked at Kate. “He made me watch. I told him about the handfast. I would have told him anything to make him stop.”

“By the saints, do you think I don’t understand? I would have done the same.” She looked down at Gavin’s poor bruised face and felt tears rise to her eyes. “It will be all right. Once you leave here, you’ll be able to care for him and get him well.”

“If my father lets me go with him,” Jean said.

Another problem, Kate thought wearily. Now she had to think of a plausible reason why Malcolm should send Jean along with Gavin.

“What a tender picture,” Alec said from the doorway. “You look quite the ministering angel, my lady.”

The hint of suspicion threading his voice must be instantly banished. “I hear my mother was splendid in that same role while she nursed her husband Lord Darnley.” She met his gaze. “Before she went off one night to a party, and gunpowder blew his house to shambles. Naturally, she claimed she knew nothing about it.”

The suspicion in Alec’s face disappeared in a roar of laughter. “I had forgotten that story.”

“I have not. I’ve studied every strength and every weakness she possessed.” She stood up and brushed the
dirt from the skirt of her gown. “Jock will need a board or stretcher and another guard to help carry Gavin.”

“I’m surprised you don’t wish me to do it,” he said mockingly.

“You’ve done enough for the moment.” She moved toward the door, then turned as if a thought had just occurred to her. “Oh, the girl is to go with him.”

“No!” Malcolm said sharply.

“If we don’t kill Gavin Gordon, then we have no use for her. They were married in the church, and you can no longer negotiate an advantageous marriage for her. She was formally accepted by the clan, so there’s even a possibility of them trying to take her back if you don’t release her.”

“Then perhaps I should rethink killing the lad,” he said softly.

“Why? You don’t need her now, and you can do it without cost to us after we have the throne.”

“Very reasonable.” His gaze narrowed on her face. “Perhaps you’re a little too reasonable.”

She had gone as far as she could. If she ventured more aggressively, it might destroy everything she had accomplished. She shrugged casually. “Do what you like. It’s nothing to me. I only thought to save us trouble.” Perhaps it would be wise to show a bit of womanly weakness. She opened the door. “Now I must get out of here before I faint from this stench. I’ll wait for you in the courtyard.”

When she reached the courtyard, she drew a deep breath of cool morning air. Had she overplayed her hand? She did not think so, but she didn’t really know Malcolm. She could only wait and see. She began to pace to release the stored-up tension of the last minutes. Why did they not come?

The dungeon door was thrown open, and Jock and one of Malcolm’s guards carried a stretcher bearing Gavin into the courtyard.

Jean?

Jean walked into the courtyard a moment later, and Kate breathed a sigh of relief. As Malcolm came out of the dungeon, she turned away so that he wouldn’t see her expression. “I’ll be with you in a moment. I must give Jock a message for Robert.”

She walked across the courtyard, watching as Gavin was carefully slid onto the bed of the wagon. Jock covered him with his cloak and then moved around to the front of the wagon.

Gavin gave a low groan and opened his eyes, startlingly blue in his swollen, livid face.

She stepped closer, glancing eagerly down at him. “How do you feel?” she whispered.

“Terrible …” He shook his head. “Sorry … Didn’t mean …”

“Shh … Just get well.”

“Broken …”

“Jock says he knows about setting bones. I’m sure your legs will be fine.”

“Not my legs.” He attempted to smile but could only flinch with pain. “Fingers … Tell him to fix my fingers.”

She didn’t understand. “I’m certain he’ll set everything that needs fixing.”

“Important … How else … will I play the … bagpipes?”

She blinked back the tears. Those blasted bagpipes. “I’m not sure anyone in the clan would thank him for that.”

He shook his head. “Important …” He fainted again.

Jean crawled into the wagon and cradled Gavin’s head on her lap. In the strong light of day she appeared even more haggard than she had in the dungeon. It was as if every artifice she had cultivated had been burned away, leaving only a pale husk of the enchanting woman who had come to Craighdhu. Her expression was hard as she looked at her father, standing across the
courtyard watching them. Her lips barely moved as she said softly to Kate, “I want him dead, Kate.”

Kate looked down at Gavin and felt the same rage she knew Jean was feeling. “He will be.” She turned and walked to the wagon seat where Jock was now sitting. “Try to delay Robert from coming here as long as you can.”

“Why?”

“Just do as I say.” She moistened her lips and smiled recklessly. “And give him a message for me. Tell him he wouldn’t give me Craighdhu, so I decided to take Scotland instead.”

“And I’m supposed to make him believe it?”

“Why not? He knows I’m not without ambition. Turn him against me. It’s the opportunity you’ve been wanting since I came to Craighdhu. Isn’t that true?”

“Aye, it’s true enough,” he said slowly.

“Then seize the opportunity.”

“What opportunity?” Alec Malcolm was approaching the wagon.

“The opportunity to save his life by leaving me and getting this wagon out of here. You must have heard how loyal he is to my husband. He doesn’t wish to relinquish what he perceives to belong to Craighdhu.” She stepped back and motioned for Jock to go. He gazed at her with his usual impassiveness and then snapped the reins to start the wagon rolling.

“Ah, he may be loyal, but it appears he’s not a fool, my lady,” Alec said.

Kate watched the wagon roll away from her and for an instant felt very much alone. She might never see any of them again and would certainly never see Craighdhu. Then she squared her shoulders and turned to Malcolm. “My lady? But why are you so formal?” She gave him a brilliant smile. “I wish you to call me Kathryn.”

•    •    •

A single tent occupied Kilfirth Glen when there should have been at least twenty.

Robbie MacBrennan reined in beside Robert on the hill overlooking the glen. “What is this? You told me your lads would be gathered here.”

“They’re supposed to be. I told Jock I wanted him here by sunset,” Robert said grimly. That was Jock’s horse grazing nearby, but there were also two workhorses and a wagon drawn close to the tent. “I don’t like this. Wait here until I signal you to come ahead.” He spurred ahead down the hill toward the tent.

Jock Candaron came out of the tent. Both his linen shirt and his fair hair were darkened by sweat. He wiped beads of perspiration from his forehead on his sleeve as his gaze went beyond Robert to the men on the hill. “You must have been very persuasive. How many?”

“Three hundred strong. Jamie Grant and his men will join us in an hour or so.” Robert jumped down from his horse. “Where the hell are our own forces?”

“I told Ian I’d send for them if they were needed.”

“What the devil are you talking about? We do need them. Now.”

“Perhaps not. You may even decide to send Grant and MacBrennan back home.” He nodded at the tent. “I have Gavin.”

“What!” His gaze went to the tent. “How is he?”

“In a faint. A state for which I’m sure he’s fervently grateful. All day I’ve been setting broken bones and repairing the damage Alec inflicted. That little fluff of a wife he chose has more backbone than I thought,” he added. “She was a great deal of help to me, and it wasn’t easy for her to see him in agony.”

“Jean is here too?”

“Aye, don’t you think that’s a brilliant coup?”

“How the hell did you do it?”

“I traded Kate.”

The words tore like a sword thrust through Robert.
For a moment he couldn’t even speak, and then shock was followed by rage. “You son of a bitch. I’m going to cut your heart out.”

“I thought that would be your response.” He shrugged. “That was the chance I took. Your lady-wife gave me little choice. She said I would either make sure the trade took place or she would see to it herself. I thought if it was to be done, it should be done right.”

“And you could get rid of a threat to Craighdhu.”

“Aye, I admit that part appealed to me.” He paused. “She gave me a message for you. She said to tell you not to come after her. She said since you wouldn’t give her Craighdhu, she would take Scotland instead.”

Robert rejected the words immediately. Kate had a fine mind and a taste for power, but cold calculation would never be her way. “And I suppose you believe her.”

Jock hesitated and then said quietly, “I believe Alec was right in one thing. She would make an exceptional queen.” He shrugged. “But I think she lied. If she gets the throne, it won’t be through Alec Malcolm. She has a softness toward you and Gavin and wishes to save you both.”

“By sacrificing herself?” Robert asked thickly.

“I doubt if she has that in mind.” Jock’s smile had a curious element of pride. “She was no pale, trembling martyr at Kilgranne. She intends to best Alec Malcolm.”

“And she has as little chance of that as Gavin of besting you in battle. Alec has years of experience on his side.”

“You did not see her as I did.” He paused. “But if you have doubts, perhaps you’d better help her.”

“Indeed?” Robert’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “May I ask why this change of heart?”

“You will obviously not be content until you rescue her from Alec’s clutches.” He smiled. “And I’m not sure that it wouldn’t be safer for Craighdhu to have her
safely under our eye at the island than on the throne of Scotland. At least we’d have a measure of control over her there.”

“You didn’t exercise much control over her in this matter. You should have kept her at home.” He should not be blaming Jock when the fault lay with himself. He had known how upset Kate was when he had left, but he had been too filled with worry and rage to think about anything but getting Gavin away from Alec. Christ, but he hadn’t expected her to—but he should have expected it. Kate was capable of anything, of confronting any hazard if it meant enough to her. Well, he could not stand here thinking about the danger to her. He would go mad if he did not take action. He turned toward the tent. “I’ll go in and see Gavin. Mount up. We’ll ride for Kilgranne at once.”

“If you like, but I’m not sure she’ll be there.”

“You believe that Alec will have secreted her somewhere?”

He shook his head. “She asked me to delay you. She clearly didn’t want you to lay siege and will see that you don’t.”

The rage, fear, and frustration within him were mounting more by the second. “For God’s sake, she can’t manipulate Alec to suit herself. She’s only a woman, scarcely more than a child.”

“No? I saw her in a different light. The coup at Kilgranne was entirely Kate’s, not mine. I believe you may change your mind.”

Duncan rode out of the castle toward their forces before they reached the gates.

He was alone.

“They’re not here,” he said as he reined in before Robert. “She said to tell you they had gone to Edinburgh to join with Mary’s sympathizers.” He flushed as he glanced uneasily at the clansmen surrounding
Robert before adding, “She said that since she has left you, the marriage is over, and you would be without pride to pursue her when she no longer wants you.”

“You see?” Jock murmured. “Another coup. A public rejection to sting your pride before she flits out of reach. It’s one thing to rally the clans to avenge an abducted wife—it’s quite another to chase down a reluctant spouse.” He lowered his voice still more. “And you cannot tell anyone the real reason Alec wants her, if your purpose is to get her back before he announces her claim to the throne.”

Robert knew that was true, and he swore beneath his breath. It was not enough he would have to battle Malcolm; he had the damn woman herself with whom to contend. “When did they leave?”

“Before noon,” Duncan said. “But you can’t hope to catch up with them. My father was in a great hurry, and he planned to set sail from the harbor at Jacklowe by sunset.”