The Seduction of Miss Amelia Bell (25 page)

“Which one is he?” A man whom Edmund recognized as the chancellor gawked at him and
then narrowed his eyes on Amelia. “Is this the one who kissed my lady? Grant is it?”

“Walter,” Amelia’s mother fawned, “we don’t know that she kissed any of them. Ennis
Buchanan wasn’t telling the truth. Isn’t that correct, Amelia?”

“Aye, Mother.”

Edmund looked at Amelia while she denied him. He didn’t want to think about why she
was doing it. He hoped it was to protect herself.

“I’m a MacGregor,” he told the chancellor. “And I can tell ye fer certain that she
didn’t kiss any Grants.”

The chancellor glared at him, then at the duke. “Did I invite this uncivilized criminal
to speak to me directly?” When the duke shook his head, Seafield rounded on the captain.
“Teach this savage his place.”

The captain hit Edmund in the belly a second time and then in the jaw.

This time, Amelia shouted at him and grasped his arm to stop him from striking Edmund
again. Someone shoved her out of the way and sent her sprawling onto the floor. Millicent
Bell shrieked at the sight and John, Amelia’s father, turned a deadly glare on the
man who had struck his daughter.

But it was too late.

They all watched in disbelief as Edmund, bound at the wrists, spun on his heel and
faced the soldier who had put his hand to Amelia for a second time. Before anyone
could stop him, he reeled back his head then brought it forward into the soldier’s
forehead with a resounding crack. The soldier sank to the ground. His body twitched
once, twice, and then ceased moving.

A
melia had never seen a man go down so fast. Even Captain Pierce took an involuntary
step back when Edmund turned to face them. Everyone in the tent, including Amelia,
shifted his or her gaze from the duke’s prisoner to the lifeless soldier on the floor.
Amelia thought she might just faint with terror for poor Edmund. If her uncle wasn’t
going to kill him for kidnapping her, Edmund would surely hang for killing one of
his soldiers. She wanted to beg him to plead for his life. She would beg her uncle
to spare him.

Surprisingly, it was her father who stepped forward first and spoke. “Mr. MacGregor,
why have ye come here? Ye understand, ye are an outlaw.”

Something passed between them that only Amelia noticed because she knew and loved
them both so much. Her father knew about her and Edmund. She had told him everything.
He’d reminded her then, as he did Edmund now, of the consequences that befell anyone
who sympathized with the proscribed clan. He was afraid for her.

“After I let yer daughter go,” Edmund informed him, sensing the reason behind her
father’s words, “I realized she had stolen my dog.”

Her heart plummeted to the ground, knowing that if Edmund lived, he would never forgive
her.

“Gaza,” he supplied and turned to cast his heavy blue gaze on her.

“Well,” her father asked her, “are ye in possession of his dog?”

“Nae,” she told them delicately, hating to have to inflict more pain on Edmund. “She
ran away.”

He caught and held her gaze, speaking to her as clearly without words as if he’d uttered
them.
Same as ye.

“MacGregor,” the chancellor spoke up, not getting too close. Amelia hadn’t realized
how short Walter was—not as short as her uncle, but short. Neither had she noted how
skinny his calves were in his hose. “I’m not surprised at seeing you murder one of
the duke’s soldiers, but I question your reason for killing him. Do you care for Miss
Bell?”

Walter might be short and frail in comparison to Edmund, but he was clever. He moved
closer to her, close enough to warm her cheek with his breath. “Did this sweet innocent
slay your heart, Highlander?” He smiled at her, then smoothed a tendril of hair away
from her cheek. He slid his dark gaze to Edmund and with a satisfying quirk of his
mouth, turned to Amelia’s uncle. “He grows angry. It’s clear to see in his eyes that
he didn’t follow her here for a dog. I want the truth before I take her to my bed.
I won’t go where a savage has already been.”

Amelia paled and slipped her gaze to Edmund.
Please, please say nothing
, she silently begged him.

He seemed to have heard her and let Walter pass him unharmed when he left the tent.

“Walter.” Millicent Bell moved to follow the chancellor outside. “You can be assured
that despite my daughter’s faults, she would never share a bed with one of them.”

Amelia dipped her gaze to her shoes. It amazed her how much worse her mother could
always make her feel. Just when she thought nothing could get any worse, her mother
proved her wrong. Amelia realized now that Millicent Bell would never change. She
loved Amelia, in her way. But Amelia was too much like her father to ever gain her
mother’s respect. She didn’t care anymore.

“My lord,” her father spoke to her uncle, dragging her attention back up. “My daughter
is fully aware of the impossibility of a union between herself and a man who has opposing
beliefs.”

“Is this true, niece?”

She felt all the men’s eyes on her. Everyone waited for an answer. She wanted to look
at Edmund, but she was afraid that if she did, she might fall to his feet and prove
herself a liar.

“Aye, Uncle,” she said, hoping that it wasn’t too late to save Edmund. Her father
knew she loved Edmund, but this wasn’t the time to confess it. “I am fully aware.
What the chancellor fails to remember is that I escaped and came straight to ye.”

“I thought Mr. MacGregor let you go.”

“I lowered myself from the lowest window,” Amelia said, controlling the quaver in
her voice. “He saw me making a run fer it and let me go without chase.”

“Until he discovered his dog missing,” her uncle reminded her.

Amelia nodded and turned to look at Edmund. She couldn’t keep her eyes off him, but
she had to. She ached to run to him, touch him, free him. And then run away from him.
Leaving him was the only way to ensure his safety. Or so she had thought. She’d run
away and he’d followed her and now he was in more danger than before. What could she
do to help him? How could she save him?

“You have caused my family a great deal of trouble, MacGregor.”

“Uncle, if I may—”

“You may not!” The duke didn’t shout. He cut her off like a blade coming down. Clean,
precise, final. He turned to his captain. “If she makes another sound, remove her.”

Amelia didn’t break eye contact with her uncle right away. She’d grown up watching
him intimidating everyone around him. She’d had enough of it. She would not defy him
as long as he didn’t threaten Edmund’s life. No one, especially Edmund, would lose
his life because of her, again.

“You do realize”—Walter returned and set his attention from her mother to Edmund—“that
you could be tried for treason?”

“Treason against whom?” Edmund asked. “Queen Anne?” He shook his head. “She favors
moderate Tory politicians, as do I. Or d’ye mean to charge me against our Parliament,
which is soon to be dissolved?”

“England’s Parliament will be dissolved as well.” Walter smirked at him, as if Edmund
were too ignorant to know. “The two kingdoms will finally stand on equal footing.”

Edmund’s smile was just as mocking. “And we have reason to trust England because they’ve
upheld every promise made in the past?” No one spoke, but they all knew the answer.
“Ye will all lose yer power, and then yer rights, just as the purer Scots before ye
will have already discovered. Chancellor,” he said, returning to him, “’tis not too
late to change yer mind. If ye decide in these coming days to fight fer yer country’s
independence from subjugators, ye would have the support of many.”

Walter narrowed his eyes on him, and then laughed. “A zealot. Now I understand why
your kind are always the first to die. You cannot control your passions. Tell me,
Amelia.” Unexpectedly he turned to her, catching her off guard. “How often did he
speak to you about his opinions, and was he always this passionate about them?”

“Leave her, Seafield,” her father warned. “It isn’t too late fer me to refuse my blessing.”

Amelia cast her father a proud, slightly surprised smile.

She knew what Walter was trying to insinuate and so did the others. She hardened her
jaw against him. Would he charge her with treason as well? Threaten to beat her? She
took her time speaking, wanting to show him how little he intimidated her.

“Mr. MacGregor has many opinions and is passionate about all of them. But he forced
none of his beliefs on me.”

“What did he force on you, dear?” the chancellor asked.

Edmund moved toward him but was stopped by Captain Pierce, who, upon a second order
from Walter, punched Edmund in the kidney. Amelia fought desperately against the tears
welling up in her eyes when Edmund doubled over. She glared at Pierce first, and then
at Walter.

“He forced nothing on me,” Amelia answered, glaring at both of them. She was telling
them the truth. What she had done with Edmund, she had done of her own free will.

“Then you remain pure for our marriage bed?”

“Seafield!” Amelia’s father intercepted. “This interrogation of my daughter has gone
far enough. I will not stand here and listen to ye dishonor her with such questions.
Have me removed. I don’t care. In fact, throw us out of Queensberry—”

“John!” his wife snapped at him.

He ignored her and continued—or tried to. The duke’s subtle nod to Captain Pierce
ended John Bell’s uncharacteristic tirade.

Amelia watched her father being escorted out of the tent and wanted to follow. But
she wasn’t about to leave when Edmund’s fate rested in her uncle’s hands.

“For my sister’s sake, I will not allow you to be questioned further tonight, Amelia.”

Amelia didn’t thank her uncle.

“Let us turn our attention to the prisoner. Shall we? Mr. MacGregor, let me assure
you that the union between Scotland and England will take place. Kidnapping my niece
wouldn’t have stopped it. The only thing you accomplished was wasting my time and
the time of my army by forcing us to come here. You distressed my sister until I had
to pay four more physicians to examine her and confine her to her bed.”

Amelia looked at her mother across the tent and shook her head, answering her silent
questions when her mother severed their gaze and turned away.

“And most important,” her uncle continued, “you incurred my wrath by stealing from
me. I don’t care about your cause or your beliefs, MacGregor. There are hundreds like
you whose voices will be silenced eventually, just as yours will be when we return
to Edinburgh. You will become their example.”

“Uncle—”

He held up his hand to quiet her. “Defend him and his death will be slower. Captain!”
He shouted for Pierce, then ordered that Edmund be taken away. “We leave at first
light,” he announced to his men when he left the tent.

Amelia watched Captain Pierce lead Edmund away. She had to do something to help him.

She refused to speak to her mother and returned to her tent unescorted. When she entered
it, a hand over her mouth silenced her scream.

“There now, lass, ’tis only us.” Malcolm’s hoarse whisper fell across her ear.

“Let her go, Cal,” Lucan said, leaving the shadows. “She’s not goin’ to scream, are
ye, Amelia?”

She shook her head no, so relieved to see them that she felt a little woozy. They
would help him. They would save Edmund.

“Why did ye come back here?” Malcolm let her go and moved to stand before her, his
eyes hard on hers. “Ye had to know he’d follow ye.”

“I had to return for many reasons,” she began, hoping they would understand. “I thought
I was keeping destruction from Edmund and complete ruin from my father.”

“How are ye keepin’ destruction from Edmund?” Malcolm asked quietly and more meaningfully
than she’d heard him sound since she’d known him. “We could have escaped the duke’s
army, lass. No harm would have come to any of us.”

She shook her head and wiped her eyes, determined to keep her wits about her after
such a terrible night. “Ye don’t understand. Grendel. I…I bring disaster…I—” Nothing
was coming out right and it didn’t help that she had begun to sob. Lucan was staring
at her with pity shining in his topaz eyes and Malcolm stared at her as if her head
just rolled off her shoulders and hit the ground. “My father…he has been my source
of strength fer so long. No matter how much I love Edmund, no matter how badly I want
to live my life with him, I cannot simply abandon my father to—”

The tent flap opened again. The Highlanders drew their claymores, ready to fight.
Amelia’s father paled at the size and height of them but held up his palms and shifted
his gaze to his daughter.

“Are ye in danger from them?”

She would have smiled at him if she weren’t afraid for his life. She shook her head
and placed her hands on the edges of Luke’s and Malcolm’s swords to lower them.

“Nae, Papa, and neither are ye.”

“Well, we will see—”

“Malcolm!” she hushed him with a dark look. When they were quiet, she peeked outside
to make certain no one else was coming. She turned back to the men and met her father’s
sorrowful gaze. He looked away before she did and her heart ached to run to him.

“We know ye loved Grendel, lass. What happened to him wasn’t yer fault.”

Amelia loved Lucan for trying to comfort her. He just didn’t understand. “And ye should
know how much I love Edmund. But what happens to him is indeed my fault. My uncle
wants to bring him to justice in Edinburgh. We must save him.”

“We will,” they assured her. “Darach has…” They paused and looked at her father.

“My loyalties belong solely to my daughter,” John Bell told them. “Ye may speak freely.”

Malcolm waited another moment, eyeing the baron carefully, then said, “Darach has
returned to Ravenglade to get William and bring more men here. We’ll get Edmund away
from where they’re holdin’ him but I fear he may no’ leave here withoot ye.”

“I cannot go with ye,” she wept.

“Of course ye can,” Lucan corrected her.

“Lass.” Malcolm took on a more serious tone. “He already lost Grendel. Dinna’ put
him through more fer some reason ye think is noble.”

“Are ye suggesting,” her father finally spoke up, narrowing his eyes on them, “that
my daughter give up her life with the lord chancellor and run off with an outlaw?”

Amelia looked away. Here was her biggest obstacle. Even if fate wasn’t against her,
her father would suffer if she chose Edmund.

“Papa, I…”

“Because I think ’tis the best idea I’ve heard in a month.”

Amelia blinked and let her jaw go slack at what she heard. “Papa, what are ye saying?”

His eyes fell on her, a loving, sacrificial gaze that pulled a small sob from her
throat. “I heard what ye said before, Mellie. I’ve lived my whole life miserable because
I wanted to please my father. I don’t regret wedding yer mother because she gave me
you, but my years…If I had to do them over again, I would. I saw how yer Highlander
looked at ye, how he was willing to fight for ye. Ye didn’t have to tell me ye loved
him because I can see it clearly in yer eyes. Ye don’t need to worry about me. I don’t
care about power and prestige. I want ye to be happy and if that means ye living in
a hovel—”

“A hovel?” Luke laughed. “She’ll be living in a misty paradise guarded by two hundred
warriors.”

“Papa, what about Walter? Mother will make yer life miserable if I don’t marry him.”

“I don’t care.” He went to her and took her in his arms. “I will be fine knowing my
gel is happy.”