My Wild Highlander (31 page)

Neilina and Lachlan went their separate ways.
Pushing herself up, Angelique forced her trembling legs to carry
her to her bedchamber, where she blocked the door with two chests,
crawled into bed and covered her head. Oh,
Mère de Dieu
, she
could not breathe. Her corset compressed her lungs. Her throat felt
as if a rope tightened around it. Slowly, she drew air in and the
force of the devastation struck her.
Lachlan. No.
A sob tore
from her body
. No. Do not! You are mine. You do not touch
her!

What was this horrid emotion devouring her
from the inside out, like a vicious lion? Crushing her and sucking
away her life like a great wave smashing upon her?

I do not love him. No!

But she did. Nothing else could be so
painful.

"I am so stupid. Stupid, stupid!" She pounded
fists against her pillow, hot tears gushing from her eyes.

She would kill Neilina…or confront her and
send her away. But if she did that, Lachlan would only find another
woman.

I will not go to the tower. I will not go
there to witness his betrayal.

But she had to. She had to have proof. She
had to confront him and tell him, see, you are not capable of
fidelity, as I told you.

And her life would end in that moment.

***

Lachlan met Rebbie and Dirk in the solar and
closed the door.

"I have problems and I need your help,"
Lachlan said in a low voice. "I'm riding out this morn to Robertson
Clan holdings to purchase a couple of white mares for Angelique as
a wedding gift. Chief Robertson has another buyer interested, so I
need to make haste. 'Tis a surprise and I want her to know nothing
about it ahead of time. I'll take six clansmen with me to ride as
guard. I want both of you to stay here and keep Angelique from
knowing where I've gone and protect her in the event there's an
attack. Also, I'm suspicious of Lady Neilina. She's just offered
herself to me."

"What's so unusual about that?" Rebbie lifted
a brow.

"I don't trust her. I'm thinking she may be
Kormad's spy."

"But Kormad attacked her party, did he not?"
Dirk asked.

"Supposedly. Or it could be a grand cover
story so we would welcome her more openly."

"Ah. You may be right," Rebbie said.

"In any case, I'm not interested in her. I
intend to be faithful to Angelique." Besides, he simply didn't
desire any other woman now. Angelique had captured his attention
completely, and he took his marriage vows seriously. "Dirk, I have
a job for you, which I'm thinking you'll enjoy."

His friend scowled. "What?"

"I want you to pretend to be me, put on one
of my kilts and meet Lady Neilina in the south tower chamber just
before sunset. Make sure the room is dark so she can't see your
face. We are of about the same size, and since she doesn't know
either of us well, she shouldn't be able to tell the
difference.

"Hmm, you're right. I could see myself
enjoying that." Dirk grinned.

"Most importantly, find out what information
you can from her," Lachlan said.

"Of course. 'Twill be my pleasure."

***

Hands shaking, Angelique slipped along the
passage and up the narrow steps of the south tower. She hadn't seen
Lachlan all day. Undoubtedly, he was avoiding her because he had in
mind to bed another woman. Whoremonger! The man had no ability to
feel guilt. Her stomach ached from hunger and disgust. She hadn't
been able to eat all day. Her world was about to shatter yet again.
She sensed the impending doom. Why had she dared to dream?

She had waited too long and sunset had come
and gone.

Pausing outside the door, she listened.
Rustling came from within. Then a male groan.
The bastard. I
will kill him and my whore of a cousin.

Covered with cold sweat, Angelique quietly
pushed the door and inched it open. He had been so stupid as to not
even lock it, likely too excited to remember. A thick cloth covered
the narrow window in the round stone room, further dimming the
twilight. Their silhouettes were clear—a tall kilted man with long
hair stood behind a woman, bent over a table, her skirts hiked.
Gripping her hips, he serviced her from the back, moaning. The
woman gasped and whimpered. "Oh, Lachlan. Yes!"

Severe nausea tore through Angelique. She
fled down the steps, tripped at the bottom and crashed to her
knees. Though she knew not how she found the strength, she shoved
herself up and ran to her room. Once inside, she again sank to her
knees and retched. But nothing came up.

I will not feel. I will not feel! He is dead
to me.

Once her stomach settled, she arose.

"I cannot stay here." Her whole body
trembling, she flipped open a trunk lid and crammed clothing into
it.

"What are you doing?"

Angelique jumped, turning to face Camille in
the doorway. "Leaving."

"Why?"

"Lachlan is swiving my cousin as we speak.
The bastard! I knew he could not change."

"What? You saw this?"

"Yes, with mine own eyes. This morn, I heard
him tell her where to meet him. Then, they were there when I
arrived."

"The swine. I did not think he would do such
a thing. He seemed besotted with you, cousin."

"Oh, he is most charming and deceptive, more
so than Girard." Even Girard had not hurt her as much as Lachlan
now did.

"Where are we going?" Camille asked.

"You are willing to come with me?"

"Of course. I go with you everywhere. How
could you think otherwise?"

She had one true friend—Camille—whom she
believed would never betray her or let her down.

"We go to London. I will seek a divorce."

"On what grounds? Clearly, the marriage has
been consummated. Not impotence."

"That is not amusing. Incest."

"What?

"He is having sex with my second cousin who
is now also his second cousin by marriage. Therefore, incest by
affinity. If that doesn't work, I'll use the impotence plea. I'd
love to see him prove his virility before the court."

Ha. She would love nothing. She was dead
inside and never wanted to see Lachlan again.

"Where will you go after that?" Camille
asked.

"I have not yet decided. If he leaves here, I
may come back. If not, then France. We will go to Uncle Louis in
the south of France. My mother and I visited him once a few years
ago."

"But what of your castle here? Your
clan?"

"What do I care?" Her throat tightened, but
she forced the words out. "I do not even want to live. My clan
hates me. They love Lachlan. He is their leader as I will never be.
I do not fit in here as I had hoped. And I cannot abide an
unfaithful husband and his whores."

"At least talk to him first. Angelique, I
know you love him."

"No! I will never speak to him again. Have
the grooms ready the coach in the stables so no one will know it's
us within when we leave. Send some servants up to carry our trunks.
And have them keep their mouths shut. No one will know we have left
for a great while."

A half hour later, they slipped out the side
door and to the stables under the cover of darkness. The coach was
waiting with their trunks already loaded.

"We go into Perth," she told the driver and
her two armed bodyguards. They nodded and climbed on board. One
guard sat up front with the driver, and the other on the back. They
needed protection passing Kormad's estate, and she was not so
stupid as to forgo that.

The driver whipped the horses into motion and
they rumbled through the gate which he'd had the guards open
moments ago.

Sitting beside Camille, Angelique gazed back
through the blackness at the glow in the windows of Draughon and
the torches lighting the bailey. Her gaze found the south tower.
Inside it, Lachlan had broken her heart a thousand times over.

I am just like my mother.
Running from
a heartache she would never escape. Though other men had loved her
mother, she had loved none of them back. Not the way she'd loved
Angelique's father.

Her throat constricted. "I shall never love
again," she whispered. "I swear it."

"Oh, Ange." Camille moved to the seat beside
her and pulled her into a warm embrace. "I knew you loved him. You
should have confronted him."

Angelique shook her head. "No. I might kill
him or his whore if given the least opportunity."

The lane became rougher. The driver slowed
but they bounced back and forth. Outside the window, the night grew
darker as clouds hid the moon and stars.

Nearby, riders on horseback, the many hooves
thudding against the ground, startled Angelique.

"Whoa!" someone yelled. The coach slowed.

"Where are we?" Angelique asked.

"The village?"

"No, we've not had time."

Angelique had forgotten to load her pistol.
She drew a dagger instead.

***

Halfway home from the Robertson estate,
Lachlan glanced back at the two white mares glowing in the
twilight. Aye, indeed Angelique would love them. They were
beauties, strong and spirited. Two of his clansmen led them. He had
hoped to be home before dark, but the Robertson clan's hospitality
knew no bounds. They had shared food, drink and lively talk too
long.

A war cry sounded from the bushes. Horses
galloped at Lachlan and his party of six.

"What the hell?" Lachlan drew his sword and
charged them on horseback. Kormad again? The bastard!

His blade struck one of the attackers.

Pistol fire exploded, lighting the gloom for
a second. A man cried out. Horses neighed and reared. In the melee
and low light, it was hard to identify anyone. The men released the
white mares and they galloped away.

"Don't kill him yet!" someone yelled.
Kormad.

One man on foot grabbed Lachlan's horse's
bridle, while two more came at him from the side. Before he could
strike either, one latched onto his sword arm. A fist punched him
in the stomach.

He struck out but could not free his arm from
the clinging leech who near wrung his shoulder from its socket.
Pain sliced through him. The bastards dragged him from the saddle.
Once on the ground, Lachlan dropped the sword and closed his hand
around the hilt of the dagger on his belt, better for close combat.
Before he could withdraw it, something bashed into his head and
blackness descended.

***

"If that is Kormad, why are my guards not
shooting them?" Angelique whispered inside the coach.

"I don't know," Camille said. "What if it is
Girard?"

Dread sank like a stone in Angelique's
stomach.

"M'lady." One of her bodyguards opened the
door. "Laird Rebbinglen is here. He must speak with you." He moved
back and Rebbie, holding a torch, took his place.

"Lady Angelique, what are you doing so far
from Draughon this late?" Frowning, he ran his midnight gaze over
her and Camille.

Angelique's lips seemed sewn shut. How could
she speak the words, the truth, of Lachlan's betrayal?

"Lachlan has been captured," Rebbie said.
"Kormad took him on his way back from the Robertson's."

"Robertson's? What do you mean?"

"Lachlan took a few Drummagan men, including
the steward, and went to the Robertson's holdings this morn. On the
way back, Kormad and his men attacked their party, killing one man.
They knocked Lachlan out, made off with him, and sent word by the
other men that they would hold him hostage until they had what they
wanted. If they didn't receive it within a day, they would kill
him."

"Mère de Dieu."
Angelique's thoughts
were a jumble. How could Lachlan have been gone to the Robertson's?
She had seen him with her own eyes in the tower. Was this some kind
of trick to get her to come back?

"The stable lad told us you'd left. I don't
know what you're doing out here, or how you slipped past us, but
you must come back to Draughon with us."

"Yes. We go back." No matter what Lachlan had
done, she would not abandon him to Kormad. If he was indeed
captured, she would help him.

The driver turned the coach, though it took
several minutes. A short time later, they arrived back at
Draughon.

"Where were you going?" Rebbie asked, once
they, along with Dirk, Camille and Fingall, were in the solar.

"I do not wish to speak of it. It is between
Lachlan and me," Angelique said, her stomach feeling queasy when
she remembered what she'd witnessed in the south tower.

The room was silent for a long, tense
moment.

"Why was Lachlan supposedly gone to the
Robertson's?" she asked.

Rebbie and Dirk exchanged a glance. The sort
of silent communication men do when they don't wish a woman to know
a secret.

"He went to buy you a white mare as a wedding
gift," Rebbie finally said.

"Two white mares," Dirk added.

"Is that so?" How long had it taken them to
think up that story? And they couldn't even get it straight.
Lachlan's two friends would lie and cover for him no matter what.
They were loyal unto death and she didn't trust them to tell the
truth any more than she trusted Lachlan.

"Indeed."

"So, Kormad has him. How do we get him
freed?" she asked, trying to stay focused on the task at hand and
not her mangled emotions.

"Kormad does not work alone. I believe you
ken who Girard is."

The sensation of a chilling wind blew over
her. "
Mon Dieu
. Not Girard. He is there, helping
Kormad?"

"Aye."

She stared into Camille's terrified eyes.
"God help us all. He will kill him."

"We're going to make sure that doesn't
happen," Rebbie said, his voice stern. "Girard wants something he
believes you have. Some sort of diamond pendant."

The diamond now hung suspended from a chain
around her neck, the large icy stone lying between her breasts. It
was no comfort at all. The thing was more like a noose.