Jane pulled back. “It looks like both of our lives will be very different come Christmas Eve.”
Margaret’s smile faded. “I told Lord Galloway I would not marry him until you were settled and I could leave you with someone I trusted.”
Jane forced a smile to hide the sudden stirring of her nerves. “Six more days. Five suitors. Three more competitions.”
Margaret’s mouth quirked. “When you say it that way, it does not sound very romantic.”
Closing her eyes, Jane let the word tumble around in her brain. Romance.
She was not certain how much more romance she could take.
The next morning, upon waking, Nicholas stretched and put aside his memories of last night with Jane. He had to concentrate on winning the prize for good, regardless of any competitions or other foolishness. Today her suitors were to compete by running an obstacle course that Angus, Egan, and Ollie had constructed at the far end of the open field.
Nicholas quickly folded his great kilt, then dressed and hurried downstairs to breakfast. The stakes of this next competition were higher than they had ever been before.
He and David met in the great hall. Over breakfast they reviewed all the information they had separately gathered last night. “The girl, Clara, claims the ghost of Jane’s mother is somehow responsible for placing poison in the wine.”
David frowned over a bit of salted pork. “Why would a mother do that to her child in this realm or any other?”
Nicholas’s hand halted as he set down his ale. At times he had longed for his father to do something so sinister—to do anything to end the torment he had put Nicholas through on a daily basis. Poison would have been kind.… He shook off the thought. “The servants revealed nothing. Were you or the other men able to find any sort of evidence at all?”
“I made a rather startling discovery,” Colin said, sliding into a chair across from them. “He is currently occupying space in the dungeon.”
Nicholas and David shared a startled glance. “You found the villain?”
“I do not think so,” Colin admitted. “But the man has been working for Bryce, gathering information on all of us in an attempt to rule us out as marriage partners for Lady Jane.”
Nicholas snorted. “So the ‘I have changed act’ is just that, an act?”
Colin shrugged. “It appears so.”
David’s frown deepened. “When did you apprehend this man?”
“Last night after we broke from supper, I followed Bryce out of the castle where he met with Barker. That is what the man calls himself.”
Nicholas held David’s gaze for some moments before saying, “Then Bryce could not have been the one to poison the wine.”
David shifted in his seat. “If not Bryce, or any of the rest of us, or the servants, then who? Because I am not inclined to believe a ghost did it, or carried out any of the other attacks on Lady Jane or Lady Margaret.”
Nicholas caught and held David’s, then Colin’s, gaze. “Perhaps it is time to do a little ghost hunting after the competition today?”
David nodded. “We could set a trap. But this time we would be prepared for whatever folly the villain has planned.”
“An excellent idea. It is time to turn the tide in our favor.” Colin finished the last of his breakfast and pushed away from the table. All three men stood.
“But first we have an appointment with destiny,” Nicholas said with a grimace. He was strong, and his life with his father showed he could endure pain when needed. But agility was not his strong suit. Though today, for an eternity with Jane, he would find whatever skills he needed to be declared the victor.
Most of the castle’s staff lined the outside of the open field, waiting for the contenders for Jane’s hand to appear. Excited chatter filled the morning air as Jane took her seat in the stands. Only a short moment later, the voices around her grew louder, the chatter almost deafening as the challengers approached.
Jane tightened her grip on the arms of her chair as the five remaining suitors entered the lists for their fourth challenge. She had known they would dress for the part they would have to play today, but nothing could prepare her for the sight of them rounding the corner, all dressed in plated armor.
They were the army she had so desperately tried to gather, but they were so much more. They were her hope for the future. She knew she should be thinking of their safety during this feat of skill and torturous trial, but the sight of them, in all their glory, took her breath away. She had never thought she would be intrigued by power, but today, and with these men, she was.
“Goodness,” Margaret said, the word as breathy as Jane herself felt. “They are quite a sight, are they not?” Her aunt was seated beside her, with Lord Galloway hovering close on her opposite side.
With an effort, Jane pulled her gaze from the men to look at her aunt. The color had returned to her cheeks, and apart from the weakness in her limbs that still lingered, she appeared unharmed despite her trial. “Are you well enough for this?” Jane asked.
“Of course.” She reached for Jane’s hand and patted it reassuringly. “I would not miss this challenge for anything. Besides, Lord Galloway has seen me through the worst of my illness.” Margaret sent a breathtaking smile to the man beside her, a smile that illuminated her face and made her aunt appear years younger.
Lord Galloway captured her hand and brought it to his lips. “Our journey has just begun.”
Jane shifted her gaze back to her remaining suitors and to the contraption Angus, Egan, and Ollie had created. This test, more than any of the others, would prove to her who she could trust to head up her army. She forced all thoughts of Nicholas away. For the moment, she had to focus on her military needs more than physical ones.
The men approached Angus, who stood with five pieces of straw of varying lengths hidden in his fist. The men would draw straws to determine the order in which they would attempt the obstacle course.
Jules drew first and pulled the shortest straw.
Jane inwardly groaned. Of all the men, he was least likely to succeed in this challenge due to weakness and injury. He could have benefitted from watching the other men progress through the trial before he had to take his turn. However, such a benefit was not to be his this day.
The other straws were drawn. The order determined—Jules, Colin, Bryce, Nicholas, and David. The first man to complete the course was the winner, regardless of who had yet to take their turn.
Jane tensed as Jules approached the first challenge of climbing one vertical wall, then another. He scrambled up the first wall with enthusiasm, but the second wall was taller and proved to be more of a challenge for his injured body. He clung to the top with only one arm as he struggled to pull himself up. Several long moments ticked by before he fell to the ground, defeated.
Angus rushed to Jules’s side and helped him to his feet, escorting him off the field and out of view. Jane shifted in her chair, debating if she should remain or go to Jules’s aid, when Colin took the field. He bolted over the walls as if they were no challenge at all, then dropped to his knees to crawl through a mud pit covered with a low net of barbed spikes.
Jane held her breath as he gained his feet and jumped through a ring of fire before entering the section of the course that held five swinging logs. They moved back and forth at uneven intervals. Being hit by one of them would send him to the ground in defeat. Colin made it past the first, then the second. He hesitated at the third, moved to take a step forward, and the second log hit him in the back, sending him sprawling.
Ollie rushed forward this time to drag Colin off to the side of the course and signaled for Bryce to step up and take his turn.
“What happens if none of them make it?” Margaret asked, her hands clutched together.
“Then perhaps we will choose the man who made it the farthest?” Jane offered. Three more competitors. Surely one of them would finish.
Bryce climbed the walls without hesitation, but then he ran alongside t
he mud pit. The crowded roared their disapproval as he moved to the swinging wood. He captured one of the smaller logs with his hand, forcing it to stop swinging, then reached up with a dagger he pulled from his boot and sliced through the rope suspending it from the wooden frame above.
Jane sat forward in her chair. “What is he doing?”
“Cheating,” Lord Galloway growled, standing. “I will take care of this.”
Margaret caught his hand, pulling him back toward her. “There is no need for you to take on Bryce. We established no rules.” She shrugged. “We did not say there would be a penalty for skipped obstacles.”
Bryce tucked the two foot log under his arm and ran past the spider walk on a horizontal rope ladder with swinging clubs, past the balance beam. Two of David’s warriors rushed him, but Bryce knocked them to the ground with the log in his arms. He ran unchallenged past the final ring of fire to the finish.
Bryce tossed the log on the ground and pumped his arms in the air. “I won.”
“He cheated!” The crowd hissed and growled their displeasure, the sound increasing with every heartbeat.
Angus picked up a horn and with a blare of sound cut through the noise. Silence followed. “Only Lady Jane can determine the outcome,” Angus proclaimed.
All eyes turned to Jane. She in turn looked at David and Nicholas. Both men’s expressions were dark. Jane drew a slow, even breath. They both wanted a chance to compete, and part of her wanted to give them that opportunity. Yet a heartbeat later, it was that very irritation on Nicholas’s face that steeled her answer. He wanted to win. He wanted the opportunity to spend time alone with her again.
Her body warmed at the thought, but her mind rebelled. He had hurt her when he had started rumors about her passionate nature. He had forced her to suffer both other men’s repugnance and rude offers. She had an opportunity to make him suffer some small measure of what she had endured. The beginnings of a smile tugged at her lips. It might not be fair to the others, and she would be the one to pay for this folly by spending time alone with her cousin, but all that paled in comparison to what she would gain with this one act of rebellion. “I will accept Bryce as my champion,” she announced.
Beside her Margaret gasped and the crowd roared, the noise heightening to a fever pitch.
“Are you certain?” Margaret asked.
Jane watched Nicholas’s features turn icy before he headed off the field with David at his heels. “I can tolerate one night alone with Bryce.” She returned her gaze to her aunt’s. “Bryce and I used to spend time together as children. He was different back then. Perhaps this time with him will help me understand what has changed. Despite his change of heart, he still seems so angry.”
Margaret frowned. “And perhaps dangerous. I am not certain this is a good idea at all.”
Jane stood. “I will make certain he has no opportunity to harm me. Besides,” Jane reached down and patted the dagger she kept concealed on her calf. “If he tries anything, I am not defenseless.”
At her own words, Jane’s mood darkened. Nay, the only time she seemed defenseless was when she was in Nicholas’s arms. With a sigh, she left the stands, heading back to the castle. She had a prisoner to deal with before her time alone with Bryce.
Jane stood in the stable near the prisoner’s horse with her puppy, Angel, pouncing in the hay near her feet, searching for something to play with. She had saddled the man’s horse herself while she waited for Angus to bring the informant to her. Footsteps sounded outside. Jane’s hand hovered above her hidden dagger until she saw the familiar silhouette of Angus appear in the doorway of the stable.
“I’ve brought the man to ye,” Angus said, and he propelled the man forward.
“I demand to be released,” the man said, trying desperately to twist out of Angus’s iron grasp on the back of his jacket. At the sight of Jane, he stopped moving and simply allowed the big man to escort him forward.
Jane frowned at the odor that clung to the man. His shirt was covered in dust. His boots were scuffed and his face marred with a streak of mud across his right cheek. Still, he might be dirty, but other than that, he had escaped the dungeon of Bellhaven relatively unscathed. “You are free to go, Master Biddleton, as long as you promise never to return again.”
Barker Biddleton narrowed his gaze on her. “Bryce MacCallister hired me. I was only following his orders.”
Jane straightened to her full height. “Your orders come from me now since you are on my land and I am the law here.”
He swallowed. “I meant no harm.”
“You have delivered all the information that you retrieved on my suitors?”
He nodded. “I know how to write. I put it all on paper and handed it over last night.”
Now all she had to do was get the papers from Bryce and she could correct whatever mischief Barker had stirred up. She did not care what he had discovered on any of her suitors. She of all people knew what happened when falsehoods were spread, and worse, believed, by others. “Very well. Your services are no longer required. You may leave.”
He stood there a moment. It was a moment too long as far as Angus was concerned because the servant jerked Barker up by the collar and the back of his pants and nudged him closer to his horse.
Taking the hint, Barker mounted. He offered Jane a nod, then rode his horse out of the stable.
“I will make certain he leaves,” Angus said, ambling after the horse.
Jane watched them go. She did not like the idea that Bryce had spied on his competition in the hopes of tarnishing their reputations. Had her cousin been wise, he would have taken more care with his actions. Instead of endearing him to her, his actions had the opposite effect.
She had no choice but to spend time alone with Bryce this evening. That was his earned reward. But nothing said she had to stay with him for long. A few minutes with him, a brief conversation about how disappointed she was by his behavior, and she would be in her bed and asleep before long.
She bent down and lifted Angel in her arms, hugging the playful puppy to her chest. “What do you think about an early bedtime tonight?”
The puppy wagged her tail.
“I could not agree with you more.” Jane laughed as she headed back to the keep.
Bryce knew he had taken a big risk, cheating as he had during the obstacle course challenge. But what other choice had he had? If he had played fair, David or Nicholas would have won the challenge, and neither man needed more time alone with Jane. She was too attached to both of them for Bryce’s own comfort.
He might have had to cheat to accomplish his goal, but he would use this opportunity to persuade Jane to see his side of things. After tonight, she might very well agree that marrying him was the only solution to her problem.
And he had the perfect evening planned. Bryce looked around at the scene he had set. He knew his cousin better than any of the other fools here. He remembered what had made her heart take flight when she was young. Such things did not vanish with age. He smiled to himself as his gaze moved over the lanterns he had set along the edge of the frozen pond. Then his gaze shifted to the huge bonfire that roared on the east side of the pond. He had cleared the area of snow and had built a small wooden bench so that they could sit together and watch the flames. The heat from the fire would keep them warm while they remained outside and away from the others.
The ice, the fire, the solitude. All these things would work to his advantage tonight as he wooed Jane. Satisfaction brought a true smile to his face. Nothing would end this night too soon.
Moving to the edge of the pond, he waited for Jane to appear. She came only a few moments later, escorted by Lord Galloway. The other men walked behind them. At the sight, Bryce allowed himself a moment of irritation. The other men would stand nearby all night in order to protect Jane.
Bryce straightened as his cousin approached. He was determined to ignore the others. He took Jane’s hand in his and instead of pressing a kiss to it as he wanted to, he simp
ly placed her fingers on his arm. “Milady, welcome to the past. This night, we will spend time together as we used to when we were younger.”
“Let us get this over with,” she said with a touch of irritation before signaling the others to retreat. They all left, except Nicholas, who hesitated a moment before he turned and walked back toward the edge of the walled garden gate where the others waited. They were out of earshot, but close enough to lend aid should Jane need it.
Bryce put the others from his mind and turned back to Jane. Her greeting was in no way encouraging, but he smiled at her nevertheless. The smile of a man who knew her well enough to bring her around.
“What do you have planned?” she asked, raising a hand to brush back a loosened lock from her temple. When she noted his eyes following her fingers, she dropped her hand to her side.
“Come,” he said, gently guiding her to a bench near the bonfire. “Let us sit for a while and talk.”
Jane nodded and took a seat on the bench. She had left enough space for him to join her, but he did not sit down. Instead, he moved back a little, giving her space to get used to the idea of them being together.
She turned away from the fire and met his gaze. “I want to talk to you about Bar—”
“Your army,” he interrupted. “Not the army your suitors brought to you.”
Jane’s eyes widened. “Without them, I do not have an army.”
“Not yet. But you could have one tomorrow with my help.” He reached into his sporran and pulled out one of the papers Barker had delivered to him last night. He unfolded the coarse linen paper and handed it to Jane. On the sheet were the names of forty men.
Her brows drew together. “What is this?”
“This ledger bears the names of all the men who have agreed to fight for you, for us, should you choose me as your bridegroom.”
For a heartbeat, excitement flared in her eyes before they clouded with worry. “Bryce, why did you hire an investigator to uncover information about my other suitors?”
A Laird for Christmas Page 18
