I felt another wave of tears welling up, at the mention of Penny and the reminder that I would likely never see my dear friend again. Not wanting Alva to see me cry under any circumstances, I turned away again and allowed her to prod me up the stairs and down the hall to my chamber. Upon our arrival, she gave me one last rough push over the threshold. “Now then, dear,” she said, “give me your key.” She held her hand out, but I hesitated. “If you do not do so willingly, I shall have no qualms about tearing your dress right off your body to retrieve the key,” she warned.
It was no idle threat, I knew Alva well enough to know that. I reluctantly reached into the key’s hiding place in the folds of my skirt and untied the cord. In my nervous state, the key slipped to the floor before I could hand it over. Seeing that, Alva shoved me away before I could bend down. I lost my balance and landed hard on my bottom at the foot of my bed. Alva collected the key and withdrew into the hallway. “Lord Galbraith shall be here at first light,” she said. “Don’t waste your breath asking to be let out before then; there will be guards on hand outside your chamber at all times.” Just before she slammed the door shut, she added, “Enjoy your new life, Brianna. It’s far better than a wretch like you deserves.”
And with that, the door was slammed and locked on all I had known in my life.
With the sting of humiliation now past, I did not weep. I gave no thought to undressing and going to bed, for I knew I would never get to sleep in the state I was in, but neither did I weep. Rather, I thought. Jumbled, confused thoughts, I confess, but I thought long and hard nevertheless. I thought of Lord Galbraith and how I might elude him on the morrow. That I must leave home was clear to me now; Father would never tolerate my presence again, and in light of all I had learned in the past hour I could hardly stand the thought of continuing to live under his roof in any event. But marry Gordan and live in that horrid, frigid village on the coast?! Hardly! I would find my own way in the world, free of the constraints of nobility and femininity and Father’s silly rules. I knew not how, but I was quite certain I would find my own way. Certainly that silly oaf Lord Galbraith would never be able to stop me!
It was not so much that Lord Galbraith was a bad sort. Rather, it was simply that he was chief among my father’s minions whom I had grown to hate so. Of course, the man could have been a living saint and I’d have nevertheless resented every bone in his spry, taut body when I learned of Father’s plans. But Lord Galbraith was anything save a saint. A terror to behold in a hunt or a game, he seemed to bring that same grim determination to everything he did. Where so many of Father’s other men were playful and good-natured when Penny and I wandered about underfoot, he was always terribly serious in telling us to mind our manners and remember we were young ladies. While I could not say he had ever been rude to me or treated me as less than a lady, he had long been the very epitome of the horribly dour atmosphere that had enveloped Father’s home for as long as I could recall, and which I should have been properly delighted to be escaping if only it were on my terms.
Of course, I knew “my terms” did not exist. I had known that for as long as I had known the difference between a boy and a girl, and my own cursed fate as the latter.
Lord Galbraith did look marvellous in a kilt, and back when Penny and I were only just coming to notice men as anything other than a nuisance, we had taken every opportunity to observe him from a safe distance and speculate as to what he might look like underneath it. That pleasant memory put me sufficiently at ease to lie down in the bed of my girlhood for that final night and imagine the view in the morning before I took my leave of him. After an hour or so of tossing and turning and thinking of Lord Galbraith’s body, at last I fell asleep.
I was not disappointed when Alva appeared at my bedside in the morning, ordering me to arise and dress. “For everyone’s benefit, you had best be on your way before your father is awake,” she said.
I sat up and focused, and saw Lord Galbraith standing at the foot of my bed, unsmiling as usual but resplendent in his tartan. “I am no happier about this than you are, Brianna,” he said. “But there is no use in fighting it. I shall wait in the hallway for you to dress.” Without awaiting a response from me, he turned and left the room.
“The ladies have packed a few changes of clothing for you,” Alva said. “You will find the pack waiting with your horse downstairs.”
“Honey will be joining us, then?” I asked hopefully.
“You shall ride her to Gordan’s home, but Lord Galbraith will return with her,” Alva said.
“But she’s my horse!” I protested.
“No, dearie, she is your father’s horse. Of course, if I were your father, I shan’t have even allowed you any of your clothes, much less your horse. But I suppose your father will have no need for half a dozen dresses in any case.”
“You bitch,” I growled.
“I’m a bitch, yes, but only one of us is still in your father’s good graces, dearie.” With a hateful smile she sauntered away. Castigating her further would only postpone the inevitable, that I knew, and so I cast off my nightdress and hastily put on the one remaining change of clothing I found in my wardrobe – clearly Father had planned everything quite carefully before breaking the news to me – and stepped out of my chamber. I had hoped Alva would at least have taken her leave now; but she stood there smug and silent beside Lord Galbraith. He was looking sombre, to my silent cold comfort.
“Well then,” he declared, flashing me what passed for a smile in his case. “We’d best be on our way, hadn’t we?”
He held out his arm for me, and I linked mine through it. “You can go now, Alva,” I said without looking at her.
“I am under strict orders from your father not to let either of you out of my sight until you are gone,” she said sternly. I doubted that, but there was no point in arguing. What Alva wanted, Alva got, always. Yet another silver lining to my miserable fate, I told myself as the three of us plodded silently down the stairs I had known all my life, through the parlour I had known and loved, and out into the dawn. Alva stopped in the doorway, but I did not need to look back to know she remained there with her hateful eyes upon me.
Brendon, the stable boy, had our horses at the ready. “Terribly sorry about this, m’lady,” he assured me as I swung up into the saddle, not caring in the least that I was wearing a gown and would have caused a scandal had any of the villagers seen me riding thusly. Just let anyone try to tell me I was acting unladylike in that moment!
“I’m sure you are, Brendon,” I said. “No more peeping opportunities below my window.”
“Good heavens, you knew that?!” Brendon at least had the decency to look shocked.
“I had no idea, actually, but I know now,” I said. It didn’t surprise me in the least, knowing Brendon’s attitude about nearly everything.
We clopped off in stony silence, Lord Galbraith on my right and the edge of the ridge – our ridge, I had always called it – to my left. I gazed down wistfully into the dewy glen where Penny and I had rambled through the endless summer days of our childhood. Today was going to be a lovely day for lazing about there, and I could hardly believe it would never happen again. Once again I vowed that, somehow or other, I was not leaving forever. Someday, some way, I would make it back. I would depose Father and avenge his beastly treatment, and build a new and bigger estate for Penny and me to live. Down by the pond, it would be, so she and I could swim naked to our hearts’ content in privacy and peace, and an arena for Father’s men – now our men – to fight to the death if that were what we wanted, and for either or both of us to take any of them to bed should the fancy strike us.
Someday!
Lord Galbraith at least had the sense to hold his tongue until we were just past the town line, officially out in the wild countryside where I was no longer a nobleman’s daughter, but rather just a rebellious young woman in a bit of trouble. I found I preferred that. I had but a few yards past the border to muse about all that before he
broke the silence for the first time. “Look, Brianna,” he finally said, “I want you to know why I volunteered for this.”
“I know why you did!” I snapped. “You are Father’s most loyal minion! I suppose I can hardly blame you for that, since you’ve done awfully well for yourself doing his bidding all these years, but don’t expect me to –”
“Enough!” he said. “You’ve got me all wrong, my dear. I respect your father greatly, but you were never meant for fulfilling the appropriate role of his daughter. I’ve known that all your life, and from the first time you were old enough to frolic about in the courtyard on your own, I could see you had inherited your mother’s free-spiritedness and your father’s smarts, but none of your mother’s sense of obeisance or your father’s gravity. That is neither a good thing nor a bad thing, Brianna, but it has always been clear to me that this day would arrive eventually. Having loved you since you were an infant, I simply wanted to do what I could to make the inevitable as painless as possible for you.”
Tears welled in my eyes at the mention of my mother. The consumption had taken her when I was seven, and I had only the vaguest memories of her. As the woods encroached on both sides of the road and we were well and truly alone, I nearly gave in to my tears…but not in front of Lord Galbraith. I doubted that he even knew what crying was.
“I only hope you understand, Brianna,” he said. “And I am sorry to bring up your mother like that. It is only that I loved her a great deal, and you remind me of her every day. She’d have been very proud of the feisty young woman you have become, you know.”
“Shame I seem to have got my father’s looks rather than hers, haven’t I?” I said. I inherited my father’s strong features and black hair, rather than the soft red locks and round features that peered out from the numerous portraits of my mother that dotted the walls of our home.
“I would not call it a shame at all,” Lord Galbraith told me. “You are your own woman, and you are a wonderful blend of both of them. I, for one, shall miss you a great deal, Brianna.”
I couldn’t resist looking at him for the first time. Unsmiling and serious as always, even as he delivered such flattering lines! But what else might I have expected? In any event, I was in no mood to be conciliatory. “You’ll miss me, but you’re going to deliver me to that horrid Gordan!”
“Gordan is a good man,” he said, though he sounded somewhat reluctant to say it. “Yes, I know he eats and drinks a bit more than he should, but he will take wonderful care of you.”
He looked just as dour as ever as he said it. I couldn’t resist asking, “If you believe that, why do you look so unhappy as you say so?”
At long last he cracked a smile. A ridiculously subtle smile, such that I could scarcely detect it as I glared at him; but it was there. “If you have a hard time understanding why I am not more cheerful, Brianna, recall that I have been doing the bidding of your father for well nigh unto thirty years!”
I enjoyed my first genuine laugh since before being called on Father’s carpet the night before, and he joined in. I almost felt a sense of goodwill now, and was even tempted to tell him how Penny and I had always admired him from a safe distance when we were younger, to say nothing of how attractive he was in that moment. But I found I could not. I was still his prisoner – ever a prisoner to one man or another in this lifetime – and he was still marching me off to a life with a man I could never hope to love. I simply said, “I understand all too well, Lord Galbraith,” and left it at that.
The road veered ever so slightly to the west, winding its way between the mountains just north of our town. Having not travelled that road in some time now, I struggled to envision what was before us and when and how to make my escape. To the best of my knowledge, there was precious little between us and Inverness, a ride of two days at the rate we were going. Of course, if left to my own devices, I knew I could spur Honey to get me there much more quickly, and the city would surely be large enough for me to remain lost to Lord Galbraith…all I needed to do, then, was wait for an opportunity to ride off without him. Best, of course, to make him think I had other ideas as to where I might escape to. With that in mind, I heaved my most dramatic sigh. “I do hope we shan’t have to pass through Inverness along the way,” I announced. “Such a crowded and filthy place, isn’t it?”
“We can skirt the city rather than passing through if you like,” he said, “But I must warn you, that could add some time to our journey.”
“I shouldn’t mind a longer trip into the arms of Gordan anyway,” I grumbled. Truer word was never spoken!
“I suppose I cannot blame you for that,” he conceded. “Yes, if you prefer, we can keep clear of the city.”
“Cannot blame me?” I asked. “If you agree that this is such a wretched fate…”
“Now, I did not say that, Brianna,” he corrected. “Gordan is an honest gentleman who will take good care of you, and that is just what you need at this point in your life. I merely said I cannot blame you for being unhappy about being compelled to marry a man you scarcely know. But I can tell you from experience, one does learn to accept these things and get on with life.”
“Experience? What experience? You’re a bachelor, aren’t you?”
“Precisely,” he said, in a tone so stark I nearly felt sorry for him.
“I…I’m sorry, Lord Galbraith,” I forced myself to say. “That was rather thoughtless of me.”
“Yes, I’m afraid it was,” he said. “I am indeed a bachelor, but not entirely by choice. My life has nevertheless been a full and satisfying one, and I am sure yours shall be as well.”
I was now dying to ask just what had transpired to lead to him never marrying, and also found myself wondering why I had never questioned it before. Probably, I concluded, because I myself had never wished to marry either. I had, naturally, always been aware that the choice was not mine and that one day I must be handed off to some gentleman or other; but I had never once looked forward to that fate. Seeing no way to rescue the conversation now, I once again held my tongue as we rode on, always waiting for the opportunity to make a run for it.
That moment arrived before much longer. As we arose higher into the mountain pass and the trees thinned out, I became increasingly aware of my need to retreat into the trees at some point while they were still present to offer their bit of privacy. I thought of asking Lord Galbraith for a moment to visit the woods, but then it occurred to me that if I needed to make water, the odds were good that he did as well. So I held my tongue and my bladder, and waited.
Sure enough, within a matter of minutes, he called for a halt. “Don’t know about you, Brianna, but I’m feeling an urge to go water the bushes,” he said with a naughty grin that I had rarely seen before. “We won’t have any cover for it much longer, so now is the time.” He slid off his horse. “I shan’t pretend not to know you’re the kind of gal who’s perfectly capable of tending to her own business in the woods,” he said. “You just go off to the right and I’ll take the left.”
“You’re quite right, I don’t mind at all, I said.” It was true, Penny and I had never developed any ladylike qualms about such things. I made as if to slide off Honey, but hesitated as I watched him retreat. Gentleman that he was, he never looked back, and so just as I had hoped, he never noticed that I did not dismount.
I could not resist the naughty thrill of waiting a moment longer for him to lift up his kilt and let loose with a torrent that I could only hear rather than see. But it was enough just to know he had his cock in his hand, the very essence of manliness as I had known it from all the many times I’d seen Father’s stallions relieving themselves ever so powerfully in their pasture. It did have the rather unfortunate effect of reminding me of my own increasingly pressing need, but the scintillating arousal I felt was worth it!
There was, however, no time to waste while an escape was still possible. And so I tore my gaze away back to the road, and prodded Honey into a gallop. “C’mon, girl, let’s go!” I ord
ered in a husky whisper, and Honey obeyed as usual.
Naturally, Lord Galbraith knew instantly what had happened. “Hey!” I heard him call from behind. I laughed, knowing there would be several more seconds before he would even be able to get back to his horse. I pushed Honey on at a punishing pace for several more minutes, looking behind me occasionally to see if he was on our trail, and there was never any sign of him. It was only as Honey began to break her stride that I realized the enormity of what I had just done. I was well and truly alone now, nothing to my name but my horse and the dress on my back, and the bit of money I had stashed in my girdle that morning lest Alva try to take it from me. That money would last me for a few days, no more, and where could I go in any event?
I had no idea. But at least I was free, and I knew there were ways a common girl could survive on her own, and that sustained me for the time being.
When we came to a fork in the road, Honey was clearly tired and not likely to put much more space between us and Lord Galbraith. The right fork was better-travelled, clearly in the direction of Inverness. I had no idea where the left fork might lead. I had, of course, told Lord Galbraith I had no desire to go to Inverness. But he wasn’t stupid, that I knew, so it seemed more than likely he would guess I had taken the right fork. I took the left.
It led downhill into a village I had never visited before. I clopped through it at an easy pace, hoping to avoid drawing any attention to myself, and evidently succeeding. There was an inn on the village square where I gave serious thought to stopping for a bite to eat, but quickly thought better of it. It was best that I stayed out of sight for at least a few hours. So I steered Honey on through the far side of the village and off into another wonderful wooded area with a babbling brook. Honey was desperate for a rest and I was desperate for a wee, and so I drew her to a stop by the water and she lost no time in bending down for a drink. Careful to walk downstream of her, I found a bush nearby to attend to my needs.
To Catch a Highlander: A Highland Erotic Romance Page 2
