“Dense woods ahead,” Adeline commented, keeping her face forward.
Richard looked and saw that they were, indeed, approaching a dense wood and within minutes, they had entered the forest.
“How is it so dark in here? The sun is shining brightly today and the trees are only barely beginning to re-grow their leaves,” Richard said, trying not to complain too much.
“Aye, but this is Scotland. Some parts are too cold for leaves, others too rainy not to have leaves, other parts the wind has destroyed the growth of trees altogether. She’s a complex land,” Adeline laughed.
Richard laughed along with her. It was true. Of the land and the women who inhabited it.
“Do ye hear that?” Adeline asked.
Richard was alert and nodded silently.
It was only seconds, but suddenly a hunting party was upon them and Richard recognized the man in front, who stood before him as others surrounded he and Adeline.
“And who are ye, Englishma-” the leader cut off.
The man’s eyes trailed over to Adeline in astonishment and she looked back with something akin to fear or embarrassment in her eyes. Richard was confident that the two knew one another.
“Adeline?” he asked, a rage slowly coming over his face and causing his nostrils to flair.
The man turned immediately to Richard and pulled his gun to aim it directly in Richard’s face. Only two feet away, Richard knew he was a dead man should the trigger be pulled.
“Camry!” Adeline screamed. “Dinnae do it!”
“Release her!” yelled the man named Camry, ignoring Adeline’s plea altogether. He looked at Richard with such hatred as Richard had never seen and was wondering if there was any way out of this. It was clear the man thought he had abducted Adeline and there would be no way of convincing him otherwise.
“Please, it’s not what you think,” Richard tried anyway. He knew that the man would not be swayed by his words, but he had no desire to be shot the day after his wedding and to leave Adeline to this man in the wake of his demise. He needed to explain, if only the man called Camry would listen.
“Not what I think? Ye mean to tell me that ye didnae abduct her?” Camry accused. He nudged the gun further in Richard’s face as a threat.
“Truly, I did not. I was traveling by the massacre from a few nights before. I wished to stop those men, honestly,” Richard pleaded. He saw that his words were falling on deaf ears. Ears that would never trust the words of a Hanoverian.
“Ha!” Camry scoffed. “So ye mean to tell me that not only did ye not abduct Adeline, but ye were actually a man trying to stop those others and then ye happened upon her now? What bullocks! Ye think I’m daft?” Camry exploded.
“Camry, please, it’s true!” Adeline said desperately, looking between the two men with wide, terrified eyes.
Richard eyed her with sadness. He didn’t know what to do. He knew he would die if he tried to defend himself. He would die if he tried to stop Camry. However, he had the relief of recognizing that if he allowed the men to take her with them, at least she would be with her own people, her family, at Dunmore, until he could think of a plan.
The thought of doing that, however, was the most painful one he had ever had.
“Adeline, I dinnae ken what this master manipulator has threatened ye with, but I ken that ye arnae safe with him. Come. Now. I’ll not leave ye with the bugger another second,” Camry said, turning back to Richard with the last words.
“No, Camry. Please. Ye have to listen to me. I’m telling ye the truth! Dinnae touch him!” she yelled passionately.
Camry looked at Adeline again, as if sad that she was under such duress from the lies Richard was forcing her to tell. Richard saw this perspective and how true it was in the Scotsman’s eyes. He knew that there was no way he or Adeline could convince the man or his group of the truth.
“Come with us, lass. Yer uncle would be worried sick if he knew ye’d been abducted and he’d have our heads,” said another man. The other was older, rounder. He had a kindness about him though. He didn’t view Adeline in the way this man Camry did. The older man looked at her as a father.
Camry, on the other hand, had a different look in his eyes. It was as if he saw her as his. Like she was his possession. Something up to him to protect and hold onto. Richard was the horrible man standing in the way.
“Please, don’t hurt him,” Adeline whimpered. She looked at the men around her. They were her own. Richard knew it. They were a comfort to her because they were home. He also knew that she loved him and would be hard-pressed to be taken away from him.
In Richard’s heart, he knew what he had to do. “Take her. Do not harm her or allow her to be punished in any way. Please, take good care of her,” he said compassionately.
Camry looked surprised for a moment, but then an arrogant grin spread over his face. Richard saw the word ‘coward’ being shot at him from all sides.
Nothing was as painful as seeing the look Adeline gave him. He could see that she knew he was doing this to protect them both. However, he also saw that her heart was broken. Shattered. She was destroyed by his willingness to give her up, even for a moment.
He would come up with a plan though. He would do something to get her back. It would not take long, Richard was certain. He could go back to his camp and regroup. Once the men forgot about him as being a threat or a kidnapper, he could make his way to Dunmore to confront her family. He could speak with her uncle, beg the laird to let them be together.
Richard didn’t know exactly what would happen, but he knew that right now was not the time to fight. It would be much wiser to wait.
“Wise choice, Hanoverian,” Camry said with a bit of a laugh. Then he mumbled that word under his breath, the word all men, especially soldiers, despised. “Coward…”
Richard raged within. He knew that he was making the right decision, a decision that would keep Adeline safe. He had to secede on this one, to allow the other man to get what he wanted in order to keep himself and Adeline safe from the wrath of a gun fight.
“Adeline…” he said, but she only looked at him with sad longing. They would be together again soon, he was certain of it. He gave her a nod that held his promise and she nodded back with a half smile.
Richard pushed away the hopelessness he felt, clinging to the fact that they could get through this setback. He would not allow her to be torn from him. He would come for her. He only needed her to be sure of it.
The men slowly pulled away the circle they had made on their horses and led Adeline off into the thickness of the woods.
Richard remained for a moment on his steed, unable to move, watching them disappear, one by one, into the darkness. Then, with sudden ferocity, he turned and bolted for his camp.
A Need To Escape Firbrooke Manor
“I said ye ought to remain quiet until we can get ye to the house. It’s just there. Inside. I didnae mean ye should start yer babbling again the moment we saw it,” Camry said in obvious frustration.
Adeline was furious. Every time she had tried to defend Richard and explain the truth about the situation, Camry would tell her that she was being hysterical and was undone by some trick of manipulation. He had asked her to remain quiet until she could be seen by his father’s doctor. He told her repeatedly that it was for her own good.
So Adeline held her tongue, but she remained infuriated by this insistence that she was not in her right mind. Camry knew nothing! He could not tell her that she was wrong or foolish! He was the one being a fool. He was the one lying.
They reached the stables at Firbrook Manor and left their horses with the stableman. Adeline clenched her jaw until the moment they got within the doors of the house.
“Camry, listen to me! Ye have no idea what ye’re on about! He didnae abduct me and he did, he really did, try and stop those men at the wedding!” she yelled, stamping her foot at the end.
“Adeline. I ken I said ye could talk about it once we got here, but hones
tly. Ye’re making a huge scene and it’s best the doctor see ye. Now, there’s no sense in sending for Joanna, she’d only urge ye on. I never really trusted her…” he added, trailing off.
Adeline felt her cheeks go red in anger. How dare he speak of Joanna like that? How dare he question her without knowing anything of who she was?
“No, we have a good doctor nearby. He will help ye, Adeline. He will get ye through this nonsense ye’ve come to believe about a Hanoverian actually caring about yer wellbeing and all that,” Camry said, as if she was a child.
“Ye dinnae ken anything about him. Or me. Or Joanna for that matter,” Adeline spat.
Camry looking at her as if she were endearing herself to him, again as a child. “Well, now, Adeline. Why dinnae we just move on for now, then? Ye can get some rest and we will talk later,” Camry said, as if it were final. He walked away and allowed his men to lead her up the stairs.
“I love him, Camry! I love Richard Holloway!” she screamed, kicking at the men who had easily lifted her into the air.
“Whatever ye say, Adeline. Get some rest and we will talk when ye arnae so overwrought,” he replied over his shoulder, not even caring enough to look at her directly as he spoke his words.
“Ye’ll regret this foolishness!” she yelled again before the guards turned the corner with her and Camry disappeared from her vision.
She was put in a beautiful bedroom with everything a woman could want for comforts and before long, she was brought wine and fruit with cheese and bread so she could eat.
Adeline knew there were guards stationed outside her locked room. She was a prisoner and there was no other option.
For an hour, Adeline would not touch the food. She was too angry, too distracted. How could she eat?
Then a heavy depression set over her. Adeline found herself lying on the bed, with silent tears drying on her skin. Her body felt heavy and she began to eat out of sadness.
Each bite felt like a simultaneous comfort and a betrayal to her emotions.
Once she had cleared the plate, there was nothing to distract her and she found herself wanting more food.
At the perfect moment, a knock came on the door and a maid entered with a heaping plate of haggis, neeps, and tatties.
Adeline eyed the food suspiciously until the maid left, and then broke down all over again. It was strange, this feeling. She knew that being here meant being apart from Richard, and yet, the comfort of her home food was refreshing.
It had only been a day since marrying Richard, but she had already noted differences in how they did things. It wasn’t only with the food. It was how they rode their horses. It was how they used certain words. It was how they got ready in the morning and how he saw the earth as land to be covered for a purpose whereas she saw it as a beautiful gift to enjoy.
Moreover, here she sat, with a plate of her favorite food. Richard was nowhere near her. However, she could enjoy these tastes of home.
She could overcome it all, she knew. They would find one another again and they would make it work. They didn’t have to see the world the same as one another. They didn’t have to be just alike. They would be together and that was all that mattered.
She didn’t like having to convince herself of that though. Adeline wanted her love with Richard to be uncomplicated, free of all this dramatic nonsense. Why could they not simply enjoy their marriage?
Adeline wanted to escape, but couldn’t think of how she might be able to do it. She was being held captive in a high point of the manor, by a powerful young man who wanted to marry her. She faced wrath if she escaped and was caught.
Knowing that Camry would never hurt her didn’t make it any better. He would still have a say in how her uncle handled the situation after the fact.
Adeline wondered if her only option might be to run and find Richard and never come back, leaving all her life behind her and rejecting who she was. It would be sad to leave her friends without saying goodbye.
As her thoughts raced, Adeline became more and more anxious. Finally, another knock came to the door. She wondered if they were mad enough to bring her even more food, but as the guards opened it from the outside, a man was revealed. Adeline knew at once that this was a doctor.
Camry had made good on his threat. The doctor was old and had an imposing presence. He was tall and deathly thin, with hollowed cheeks and sunken eyes. It gave Adeline shivers the moment she saw him.
“Ye are the girl they have said needs to be checked?” he asked in a low voice. “I am Doctor McPhee. I will see to yer wellbeing.”
The doctor smiled what was clearly meant to be warm and kind, but only revealed mottled teeth, proving to Adeline that this was not a man who knew well how to care for the human body.
“I am fine, really. They are choosing not to believe me. I was with Richard because I love him. He is me husband. We will be together for the rest of our lives and Camry cannae stop it,” she insisted.
“Miss MacGowan, I have heard what happened. I heard that ye were found with the Hanoverian. I heard that he had taken ye. And I am a man who has lived many years and know well what those men are like and what they can do. I have no doubt of what I’ve been told and ye had best understand that, Miss MacGowan,” he said coldly.
“Now, yer dear friend, Mr. Camry Grennock, has instructed me to give ye something to help ye sleep. Ye have been through a hard time and it has turned yer mind. This will help ye and ye’ll be well in no time,” he added.
The thought horrified Adeline. She was going to be drugged. She was going to be forced to sleep when she needed to be plotting an escape. It was wrong, it was terrifying. It was torture.
“Ye cannae do this! Me uncle, Laird of the Clan MacGowan, he will have yer head for this! How can ye do this? I’m just a girl. I’m telling ye that I wasnae abducted. I was with him because I wanted to be. Ye’re not listening!” she yelled.
“Please, lie back,” Doctor McPhee instructed.
“I willnae! I’ll never lie back and let ye drug me! I didnae do anything wrong. I only rode with the man I loved. Ye dinnae have any idea what ye’re doing, not really!” she insisted, continuing to yell. It was clear the doctor would not be appeased no matter how hard she tried. Adeline didn’t want to give up, but fighting was not an option. She had no chance of overcoming these men and this situation.
Adeline finally decided her best chance of getting through it all was to give up and give in. She would allow this horrible man to give her the drugs and, if she were fortunate enough to wake up in the morning having survived this madman, she would pretend to have come to her senses. She would not deny anything about Richard, but she would remain quiet.
She would be the perfect laird’s niece until they took her back home to Dunmore, where she knew she would be able to get away again, or at least to send a letter to Richard. Yes, she would pretend until they gave her what she wanted. She would show her peaceful, docile side until she was back with her family.
“Lass, just relax,” the doctor ordered her harshly.
Adeline looked at him once more, anger still seething in her veins. Finally, she relinquished her need for release. She drank the tea he handed to her, though it tasted as terrible as it smelled.
Adeline squeezed her eyes tightly closed and a tear fell, a tear of desperation to be back in Richard’s arms. She kept her eyes closed while listening to the doctor pack up his little roll of tools, and he stood and walked away. She listened to the turning of the key and the door opening to let the man out and heard it close again and lock once more.
Adeline tried to hold onto these sounds, but the sound of a waterfall was crashing over her. It was like water thundering in the distance, but coming closer, creeping into her thoughts, which were growing more and more jumbled.
Richard was suddenly beside her. She saw his face, but his mouth was upside down and it was speaking, but she couldn’t hear the words. His hand took hers, but it wasn’t a hand. It was a talon, like that of a bird. Hi
s face was suddenly the face of the doctor and then back to his own, and he opened his mouth to speak again, but only the waterfall came out.
Adeline was reaching for the memory of knowing she was under the drug, but it kept running from her and she couldn’t remember if this was real or not. Was it real that Richard was leading her down the stairs with that talon and they were out into the forest, where the beast from the house was lying under a tree, waiting for them? Was it real that Camry turned into a bird that followed them, but saw the bed and flew away?
Adeline’s eyelids flew open. Light streamed through the window and her mouth tasted like she had wool stuffed in it. She tried to stretch her body, but it ached, probably from the drug.
Nevertheless, she pushed herself until she was finally sitting up. A rush came to her head and she wanted to faint or vomit or cry, and for a moment she didn’t know if all three were going to happen at once.
However, she managed to stand and make her way to the window. She opened it and allowed the breeze to rush in, washing over her.
Adeline gasped in the air, wondering how far away Richard was now and how long it would be before she was back in his arms.
Orders, Obedience, And A Regrettable Choice
“Lieutenant Holloway, the major has sent for you,” informed Mr. Hudson.
“He has?” Richard asked nervously.
Mr. Hudson nodded. His eyes were wide and anxious, just as Richard’s now were. This was not good news.
Having returned to camp the evening before, Richard told Mr. Hudson of the events that occurred with Adeline. The kind man had been sympathetic and vowed to help Richard find a solution. It would not be easy, but he promised he would aid his friend in making things right.
Richard had also learned that Major Dashfield was back at the camp. An imposing horror of a man, the major was greatly feared by any who crossed him.
With a figure built stronger than anything Richard had ever seen, it was his eyes that struck terror in the soldiers. One pale blue and the other a deep brown, almost black, it was as if the gods had struck him harshly for some small infraction.
Kidnapped Highland Bride: Ladies of Dunmore Series (A Medieval Scottish Romance Story) Page 11
