“Forget it!” he said. “Just be happy that we are home and I want to tell you that you are the bravest woman I have ever known.”
He handed her a glass of champagne as he spoke and Harry said,
“I am going to propose a toast to ‘Highland dress’!”
He drank and went on,
“I have often teased you in the past, Bruce, when you were wearing your kilt, your plaid, your jabot, and your skean-dhu. But I will never again laugh at your sporran!”
He finished his champagne as he spoke and Isa said, looking at the Duke,
“I think we must both drink to Harry, who was clever enough to see the otter’s eye by the cascade. If the Archangel Michael and all his angels had come to rescue us, I could not have – been more – grateful!”
“I agree with you,” the Duke answered. “To Harry! And we are both of us eternally in your debt.”
He drank to Harry as he spoke, but his eyes were on Isa and after a moment Harry asked a little hesitantly,
“Am I – imagining things or during those long uncomfortable hours in the cave, has anything – unexpected occurred?”
“What you are asking,” the Duke said quietly, “is whether I have yet told Isa that I love her. And I have!”
Harry gave a whoop of joy.
“That is the best news of the day, apart from finding you both,” he cried. “I can only wish you every happiness. At the same time, Bruce, damn you for having got there first!”
Isa blushed, but the Duke laughed and said,
“If you blush like that, I shall never believe that you are the famous Concert singer that Lovat knew you to be.”
They finished their light meal, the Duke saying as they did so,
“I am still quite prepared to eat a large dinner!”
Then they walked out of the breakfast room and, when they reached the hall, he said to Isa,
“I am going to send you to lie down while Harry and I discuss what we should do about Talbot.”
She wanted to be with them and to stay with them.
At the same time, she knew that she was tired.
“Do as I tell you,” he said quietly. “We will have dinner at nine o’clock, so that there is time for you to sleep.”
She went upstairs knowing that he was right and she was really exhausted.
When she climbed into bed, before she fell into a dreamless sleep, she thanked God as intensely as she had prayed for help that they had been saved.
*
Downstairs in the study the Duke said to Harry,
“What do you suggest I do about that swine?”
“I have found out where he is staying,” Harry replied, “or at least your Factor has. I intended to tell you at luncheon about it, and was deeply perturbed that you were not here.”
The Duke looked at him questioningly as Harry added,
“Your Factor said that Talbot had been seen down at the harbour with two very unpleasant-looking fishermen, who come from the North where they are suspected of being engaged in a number of illegal pursuits, but have not as yet been caught.”
“We ought to be able to pin something on them,” the Duke said, “although it will be difficult without publicising exactly what has happened, which, to tell the truth, would not show me up in a very good light.”
“That is true,” Harry admitted. “It would be a great mistake for this to get into the newspapers.”
“That is the last thing I want,” the Duke replied. “But I was actually thinking of the Clan.”
“Who expect you, of course, to be a Knight in shining armour,” Harry said mockingly.
“They would certainly not expect me to allow myself to be trussed up and, except for your cleverness, left to die within a few yards of The Castle, while Talbot took my place as Chieftain.”
There was a note in his voice that told Harry how much it angered him and he suggested,
“I think the best thing to do would be to say nothing about it at the moment. At the same time Talbot might strike again.”
“Not for a week at least,” the Duke said.
“Why not?” Harry asked.
“Because he is waiting for me to die of starvation first. Then he will be certain of taking my place as Duke and Chieftain and it will only be a case of my legally being pronounced ‘presumed dead’ before he becomes the sixth Duke.”
“I see your reasoning,” Harry responded.
“What we have to do is to make his followers desert him,” the Duke went on, “and the best way to do that is to make sure that he has no money to pay them with.”
“Now you have given me an idea,” Harry said.
They started talking earnestly while Isa, with a smile on her lips, slept peacefully until it was time to dress for dinner.
Chapter Six
Just before Isa left her bedroom to go down to dinner there was a knock on the door and the old maid who was dressing her went to answer it.
There was a conversation in low voices outside which Isa could not hear.
Then the maid came back to her side to say,
“His Grace’s compliments, miss, and you’ll be dinin’ in the small writin’ room.
Isa looked surprised, but she thought that it would be a mistake to ask questions and a few minutes later she went down the staircase to the first floor.
The writing room was, she knew, beyond the Duke’s study, a room kept for guests staying in the house who wished to write letters.
She entered the room to find that the two men were there, the Duke looking resplendent in his evening clothes with a lace jabot at his neck.
Harry looked less smart but, she thought, more comfortable in a velvet smoking jacket frogged with braid.
She was surprised to see the table laid in the centre of the writing room with silver candlesticks and some of the Duke’s exquisite pieces of silver.
The Duke put a glass of champagne into Isa’s hand and said,
“It was Harry’s idea that we should dine here and he has a very good reason for our doing so.”
Isa waited and he went on,
“Harry thinks it essential that Talbot should not know that he has failed in his attempt to kill us.”
Isa’s eyes widened in surprise, but she did not speak and the Duke continued,
“I have therefore made certain that no one in The Castle will talk about our safe return and we will keep out of sight as much as possible until Harry has put his plan into action.”
Isa looked at Harry curiously, but at that moment the servants came in to serve the dinner and the conversation ranged over a great many subjects except anything to do with Talbot.
She noticed after a little while that they were served only by the old retainers who had rescued them from the cave.
She was eager for the dinner to be finished so that she could learn what was to happen.
The table they had dined at was lifted out of the room and she sat down in a comfortable chair by the fire.
She saw that there were several vases of flowers which she was sure was not normal in this little-used room and she thought that the furniture too had been rearranged.
She looked enquiringly at the Duke.
He smiled at her with such an expression of love in his eyes that she forgot everything except that her heart had turned a somersault.
She wanted above everything else that he should kiss her again.
She was thinking how wonderful it would be for him to do so, when he could now hold her in his arms as he had been unable to do in the cave.
Then with what she guessed was an effort he looked away from her and said,
“Now, Harry, you must tell Isa what you are planning.”
Harry rose from where he had been sitting to stand with his back to the fire and began,
“You will realise, as I do, that to protect Bruce in the future, we have to catch Talbot red-handed and make certain that he does not continue with his determination to become Chieftain.”
&
nbsp; Isa gave a little cry of horror.
“Are you saying that we cannot get him convicted of attempted – murder and sent to – prison?”
“Bruce and I have talked it over,” Harry replied. “First of all it would entail a great deal of unpleasant publicity. Secondly the only witnesses to his crime are you two, who are most vitally involved, and myself, who did not actually see Talbot truss you up and leave you to die.”
This was something that Isa had not thought of before, but now she was intelligent enough to realise that Harry was speaking the truth.
It would be difficult to get Talbot convicted on such slim evidence.
“You will understand,” Harry continued, “that if we capture Talbot now and confront him with the crime he intended, his confederates will vanish into thin air and, if we do hold them, they will deny that they were involved.”
Isa clasped her hands together.
“Then what – can we – do?” she asked in a frightened voice.
She knew as she spoke that she was desperately afraid for the Duke.
Having heard Talbot McNaver railing against him and the spite and cruelty in his voice when he condemned him to die, she knew that he would not give up.
Of course he would go on fighting both to take the Duke’s place and to obtain the money he needed so desperately.
The only thing that mattered, she thought, was for the Duke to stay alive.
She put out her hand to him as if just by touching him she could reassure herself that he was there.
“You are not to upset Isa,” the Duke said quietly.
“She has to know the truth,” Harry countered, “and perhaps she will make you more careful than you have been up until now.”
“I am – afraid for – him,” Isa stammered, looking at the Duke and his fingers tightened on hers.
“Harry saved us by a miracle,” the Duke said, “and I cannot believe that, now you and I are free, we cannot help him outwit anyone so despicable as my cousin.”
“It is not a relationship you can be proud of,” Harry said. “Quite frankly, I shall not feel that you are safe until he is dead!”
The Duke did not reply and after a moment Harry said speaking to Isa,
“Now what I have planned is that first thing tomorrow morning, a trusted servant will go to where Talbot is hiding and tell him quietly and seriously that he is wanted at The Castle.”
“You will ask him to come here?” Isa questioned in horror.
“I have to assume that, because we have sworn everybody to secrecy, he will not know that you and Bruce have escaped. He will therefore suppose that he has been asked here so that he may be informed that the Chieftain is missing.”
Isa drew in her breath, but she did not interrupt and Harry went on,
“I will then confront him with both of you and watch his reaction. Then instead of proclaiming his guilt to all and sundry, Bruce has a proposition to put to him.”
“I am going to suggest,” the Duke said, “that I pay his debts and give him a generous allowance, if he lives abroad.”
“Abroad?” Isa murmured.
“Anywhere except Scotland or England,” the Duke replied.
“And what if he – refuses?”
He was silent and she realised that this was a possibility that neither the Duke nor Harry had considered.
“After that, we will have to play it by ear,” Harry said. “To begin with I do not trust Talbot further than I can throw him and, if it was possible, I would challenge him to a duel.”
“Doubtless he would trick you,” the Duke said, “and perhaps kill you.”
“We have to do something,” Harry pointed out, “and more important than anything else is to make him convict himself out of his own mouth or else make a move that will definitely enable us to bring him to justice.”
The eyes of the two men met.
Isa knew without being told that they were both thinking that Talbot would try to shoot the Duke or kill him in some other way.
Then there would be no escape for him.
“It is too – dangerous,” she said, as if they had spoken aloud of what was in their minds.
“There is no alternative,” Harry replied. “Bruce cannot go for the rest of his life with a bodyguard constantly at his side.”
“That is something I utterly and absolutely refuse to do,” the Duke emphasised firmly. “As I have already said, the sooner we face up to Talbot and come to some sort of decision with him the better.”
“I agree with you,” Harry said quietly. “At the moment I would not wager a shilling on your living to be an old man.”
Again Isa gave a little cry and then frantically because she was so afraid she turned to the Duke,
“Suppose you went – abroad for a short – while and let everything calm down? And perhaps your cousin will be put in – prison for some – other crime and you will at least be – safe while he is – there.”
“That is not practical,” Harry claimed.
The Duke lifted Isa’s hand to his lips and said softly,
“I am grateful that you should worry over me. At the same time I am convinced that Harry’s plan is the only way.”
“But – suppose,” Isa cried, “when he finds – you are alive – he fires at you – before we can prevent him from – doing so?”
“I shall be ready for any sort of violence that he is foolish enough to attempt,” Harry said before the Duke could speak.
He moved from his position in front of the fire to sit down in an armchair beside her and added,
“I am utterly convinced that the only thing we can do is to act quickly and take Talbot by surprise.”
“But – suppose – ”
“As he took you!” Harry interrupted. “If my plan fails, then we must think again. But for the moment, since we hope and believe that he thinks you are his prisoners, we have the upper hand.”
Isa looked indecisive and the Duke said,
“Harry is right, my darling.”
There were a number of points she wanted to make, but she was, however, aware that neither man would listen to her and that they had already made up their minds.
With an effort she rose to her feet.
“I think,” she said, “I would like to go to bed. I am very tired and will need to be quick-witted in the morning.”
She looked at the Duke as she spoke and he knew that she was trying to think of some other way that she could save him if they could not outwit Talbot.
He rose and put his arm around her.
“You must be exhausted,” he said gently, “and I have told Harry how brave and wonderful you have been.”
Harry walked towards the door.
“I am just going to see that there is no one about who could find out our secret,” he said. “Wait here while I make sure that the coast is clear.”
He went from the room, but actually Isa felt that his purpose was tactfully to leave them alone.
“Now I can tell you,” the Duke said, “a little more eloquently how much I love you!”
He did not wait for her reply, but drew her almost roughly against him and kissed her as if he was afraid that he might have lost her.
For a moment his lips were painful.
Then, as he became more gentle, yet still insistent and possessive, Isa felt as if he was carrying her as he had before up into the sky towards the stars.
The moonlight enveloped them both and the glory of it was like the Divine touch of God.
‘I love you! I love you!’ she wanted to say, but she knew that there was no need for words.
Her heart was beating against the Duke’s heart as she felt an ecstasy seeping through her body and knew that he was feeling the same.
It was all so perfect and so wonderful that she could hardly believe it was real and that she was not dreaming.
Then, when she thought that no one could feel such rapture and still be alive, the Duke raised his head and looked down at her with a tender
ness that she had never imagined she would see in his eyes.
“How soon can we be married?” he asked. “I am afraid to let you out of my sight.”
She wished that they could be together through the long hours of darkness and did not have to be separated.
“Soon – let it be – very soon,” she whispered in reply to his question and sensed that it was what he wanted to hear.
*
When Isa was alone in her bedroom with the old maid who had attended to her before, she learned that she was the wife of one of the men who had released them in the cave.
As the maid undid her gown, she suddenly realised that she was staying in The Castle without a chaperone.
She thought that it would shock her mother and she was glad that neither of her parents would know what a terrifying situation she had been in earlier in the day.
Or that she was facing another one tomorrow morning.
The old maid helped her into her nightgown, then, as Isa climbed into bed, she said,
“I dinna ken whether His Grace has told you, miss, but Donald’ll be in the room next to yours keepin’ guard on you tonight.”
Isa looked at her in surprise and asked quickly,
“I hope someone is guarding the Duke.”
“Aye, you mebbe sure of that, miss,” the maid replied. “Mr. Vernon is in His Grace’s dressing room with Andrew outside his door, both of them armed.”
Isa gave a little cry.
Then, as the maid extinguished the lights and went quietly from the room, she could hear her speaking softly to somebody next door and knew that it was Donald.
He was the Duke’s personal piper who had played his bagpipes round the dinner table on the night of the ball.
She had thought then how strong and muscular he looked and was sure that if he was on guard it would be impossible for anybody to hurt her.
She stayed awake for a little while saying her prayers.
She thanked God again and again not only that she and the Duke were safe but that they loved each other.
How could she have imagined that love would come to her in such a strange and unexpected place?
Yet she loved the Duke with her whole heart.
She fell asleep with his name on her lips.
169. A Cheiftain finds Love (The Eternal Collection) Page 10
