“Come,” she said, “tell me what this is about.”
“Ye acted disgusted by what David did to that French bastard, but ye don’t know why he did it,” he spat out. “And ye don’t care why.”
David had already told her why. Blood for blood, a lesson had to be given. Apparently Robbie felt the need to explain that to her too, so she’d let him.
“I do care,” she said, “so why don’t ye tell me.”
“D’Orsey was going to murder our Will,” Robbie said. “I tried to save him, but D’Orsey knocked me sideways and sent me flying, as if I was one of those wooden toys.”
Robbie paused to wipe at an angry tear that slid down his cheek.
“He had his sword raised over Will.” He swallowed. “I saw David coming on his horse, but he was too far away. He could never make it. I thought my little brother was dead.”
Alison touched his arm, but he jerked it away.
“D’Orsey’s blade was no more than a breath away from slicing Will in two,” Robbie said. “But David came riding up at a full gallop and struck with such force that it lifted D’Orsey backward off his feet.”
Her hand went to her throat. Tears sprang to her eyes at the thought of how close they’d come to losing Will.
“Why did David not tell me?” she asked.
“Loyalty is everything to him,” Robbie said. “He expected ye to trust him, to believe in him, without requiring an explanation.”
She had failed David, and he could not forgive her.
***
Alison watched with a lump in her throat as Robbie picked his mother up off the ground in an embrace and spun her around.
“My, you’ve grown so tall,” Isabella said through her tears.
All through the introductions, Alison’s gaze strayed to the door. David must have stopped to talk to the guards at the gate or to give instructions regarding the horses to the stable lads.
“Will spoke so much of you, that I feel as though I already know you,” Isabella said to her.
“Mmmhmm.” Alison smiled and leaned to look past her. She feared she was being rude, but she was distracted, waiting for David. It was pouring rain. What was keeping him?
She was anxious to apologize to him and set things right. He’d saved Will’s life and rescued Isabella, and she had upbraided him.
“Pardon me,” she said, touching Isabella’s arm, “but I must find David.”
She opened the outer door and squinted against the driving rain. She spotted David walking his horse through the muddy courtyard. Why was he leading it away from the stable?
“David!” she called, but he didn’t hear her.
She picked up her skirts and ran after him. Though the distance was short, her skirts were heavy with mud and rain soaked her back by the time she reached him.
“David,” she said, catching his arm. “Where are you going?”
“I’m leaving for Hume Castle,” he said, his face expressionless.
Disappointment weighed down on her chest.
“So soon?” She wiped at the water streaming down her face with her sleeve. “When will ye be back?”
He shrugged, and she noticed a raindrop caught on his lashes. He had such beautiful eyes. But he looked tired, and she longed to brush her palm against his unshaven cheek.
“When?” she asked again.
“I expect I’ll be back from time to time,” he said. “But I’ll be living at Hume Castle now. I’ve left Brian in charge here.”
“Living at Hume Castle?” She blinked against the rain pouring into her eyes as she tried to absorb this news. “Can’t we leave tomorrow? I need a bit of time to pack my things. And shouldn’t we wait for this storm to pass?”
“You’ll be staying here. Brian’s a good man and will keep ye safe.” He started to reach for a dripping strand of hair that was stuck to her cheek, but dropped his hand. “Go inside before ye catch your death.”
“I don’t want to go inside,” she said. “Tell me what ye mean. Say it outright.”
“We’ll remain married,” he said, turning his gaze away from her. “But I think it best we live apart.”
“Why?” she asked, stunned. Was he that disappointed in her?
“Ye wanted your freedom,” he said, still not looking at her. “I’m giving it to ye.”
“But…but…” she sputtered, “what if I don’t wish to live apart?”
“I can’t be the man ye want,” he said.
Before she could find any words that might change his mind, he mounted his horse.
“I wish ye happy,” he said, and dipped his head.
She could have been content with her freedom if she had never met him, never become his wife. But not now. Why did David steal her heart only to leave her?
“Why did you ever come here?” she said, clenching her hands. “Could ye not have let me be?”
Alison stood, soaked to the skin, and stared after him long after he rode out the gate.
CHAPTER 43
“I’m your mother, Beatrix,” Alison said, folding her arms as she stood over her daughter. “You’ll have to speak to me sometime.”
She was not sure which was worse, Beatrix furious and glaring at her, or Margaret looking pitiful as she sat on the floor rubbing her wooden pig against her cheek.
“Why did ye make David leave?” Beatrix said, stamping her foot.
At least Beatrix had finally spoken to her, but Alison felt too weary to deal with her daughter’s anger. She could barely crawl through the days since David left.
“If ye think I have the power to make the Laird of Wedderburn do my bidding,” Alison said, “you’re mistaken.”
“Ye haven’t even tried to bring him home,” Beatrix said, her voice thickening with the tears she was holding back. “You’ve done nothing! Nothing!”
He doesn’t want me.
Beatrix held out her hand to Margaret and led her sister out of the room. Alison watched them leave, then dropped onto a stool facing the narrow window. She stared out at the dark clouds that were gathering on the horizon, like a reflection of her dismal future.
The next morning, the hall was nearly empty by the time she dragged herself downstairs. She sank into a chair beside Isabella near the hearth and picked up the needlework she’d left there.
“Ye missed breakfast again,” Isabella said.
She had lain in bed missing the warmth of David’s body next to hers and risen too late.
“Ye should go down to the kitchens and get something to eat,” Isabella said. “While you’re there, ye can give your new cook instructions.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Alison should become acquainted with the new members of her household Brian had brought from Hume Castle to replace the servants David had sent away. Not long ago, she would have relished training new servants, but she let Isabella do it for her because she simply did not care.
“Blood for blood is a sacred duty here in the Borders,” Isabella said. “David could not hold his head up as a man, and certainly not as a laird, until retribution was exacted.”
“I understand that now.” Alison stifled a sigh. Isabella had said that so often in the last days as to be a trifle tedious.
They stitched in blessed silence for a time.
“Ye do know he has a mistress at Hume Castle?” Isabella asked.
Alison felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her in a hard fall and could not draw breath.
“At least, Gelis was his mistress,” Isabella said, continuing with her stitching as if this was nothing. “I imagine she’s still there. Waiting.”
“You’re speaking of David’s mistress?” Alison said, her mind slow to accept what she was hearing.
“David’s not the sort of man to go from bed to bed,” Isabella said.
Never once had Alison heard of him disappearing with one of the serving women, though more than one had given him the eye. She had taken his fidelity for granted.
“So naturally, he
kept a mistress,” Isabella continued. “Same one these past two years.”
“He wasn’t married at that time,” Alison said.
“Aye. Did I say her name is Gelis?” Isabella tied a knot and bit her thread. “Can’t say I like her much, but she has the sort of curves that leaves men with their tongues dragging on the floor, if ye know what I mean.”
Alison felt as if a blade had been stuck in her heart.
Isabella gave a small sigh. “I assume he’ll take up with her again now.”
“He wouldn’t,” Alison said.
“A man has needs,” Isabella said, giving Alison a sideways glance, “particularly a vigorous young man such as David.”
The thought of David touching another woman, vigorously or otherwise, made her feel sick to her stomach.
“What are ye going to do about this?” Isabella’s voice broke into her thoughts.
“What can I do?” Abandoning the pretense that she was stitching, Alison tossed her needlepoint across the floor.
“Well, the first thing ye can do is not leave him alone with that Gelis,” Isabella said.
“David ordered me not to leave the castle,” she said, blinking back tears. “The last time I did, it ended verra badly.”
“A wife must have the good sense to know when to ignore her husband’s orders.”
“David doesn’t want me. He wouldn’t have left if he did,” Alison said. “And he’ll never trust me.”
“He told me he cares for ye,” Isabella said. “And God knows that’s not something David would admit to lightly.”
“He did?” Alison asked, sitting up straight.
“As for not trusting ye, well, running off certainly didn’t help, dear,” Isabella said and patted her arm. “But I suspect that the true reason David mistrusts your loyalty is because, in his heart, he doesn’t believe he’s worthy of love.”
Alison’s hand went to her heart. What Isabella said struck a chord of truth. Despite David’s devotion to his family and clan, he stood apart. There was a core of loneliness deep inside him. She felt sure that she had breached the walls around his heart to reach it before she had gone to the abbey.
Surely she could do it again. She had to.
“I’ll ask Brian to arrange an escort for me and leave at once.” Alison stood and leaned over to Isabella to kiss her cheek. “Thank you.”
Isabella gave her a knowing smile.
Before Alison had taken two steps, Flora entered the hall, waving her hands in the air.
“I can’t find them! They’re gone! They’re gone!”
***
David refilled his cup with whisky, tossed it back, and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.
He did not miss her. And he most definitely did not need her.
But when he closed his eyes at night, all he saw was Alison. He had to drink himself into a stupor to sleep at all. Even blind drunk, he heard her voice, her laugh, her sighs. He remembered exactly how her fingertips felt on his cheek.
The woman’s hand on his shoulder was familiar, but it was not Alison’s. Her scent was not Alison’s either.
He felt warm breath in his ear.
“Come to bed,” the woman said. “I’ll make ye forget her.”
“’Tis not possible.” Even if it were, he did not want to forget Alison. Memories were all he had, and he clung to them like a man lost at sea grasping a broken plank from his sunken ship.
“I’m willing to try,” the woman said in a throaty voice.
David shook his head, which made the room spin and blur. “Just pour me another.”
Soon after, his forehead hit the table and his vision went blissfully black. He had no idea if hours or days had passed when next he woke, but his neck was stiff from the awkward angle his head lay on the table.
“How long has he been like this?”
David heard Alison’s voice as though through a thick fog. But he’d heard her voice in his head so often that he knew better than to believe it was truly her. She was miles away in Blackadder Castle, out of his reach, enjoying her freedom and hating him. Which was what he deserved.
“Someone should have sent for me.”
He smiled at the irritation in Alison’s tone. Usually he thought of her in her softer moments, but he liked to see her riled, too, with her violet eyes flashing.
“David!”
Her voice in his ear and the touch of her hand on his shoulder were so real this time he wanted to weep. Ach, what a ruin of a man he was.
“Get up,” she said, and shook his shoulder hard. “I need ye, David Hume.”
She needed him? Not likely.
All the same, he risked spoiling the illusion by cracking one eye open. Her lovely face was just inches in front of his. Her violet eyes were startlingly beautiful this close.
“Is it really you?” he asked, his tongue thick in his mouth.
“Aye,” she said, and brushed his hair back from his face with her fingers in a soothing gesture he never thought he’d feel again.
He should lift his head off the table, but it was heavy, and he still suspected he was dreaming. But when he focused his eyes and saw fine lines of distress pinching her brows, he sat up. The abrupt movement gave him a blinding headache and roiling stomach, but he ignored them.
“What’s happened?” he asked. “Are my brothers safe?”
“They are. But David,” she said, her bottom lip quivering, “our girls are gone.”
David had been drinking for days, but he was suddenly stone cold sober. The image of Beatrix’s and Margaret’s sweet faces was as clear in his mind as if they stood before him.
“Sit down,” he said, taking Alison’s hand, “and tell me all ye know.”
“Flora woke to find them gone from their bed. She thought nothing of it at first, but when they missed breakfast, she went to look for them.”
“They must be somewhere in the castle,” he said.
“I had the entire household looking for them,” she said. “Will knows all their hiding places, but they were nowhere to be found.”
What mishap could have befallen them inside the castle? David’s heart lurched as he thought of the castle’s deep well.
“Then one of the guards found their pup barking outside the gate,” she said.
“Outside?” Good God, the lassies must have left the castle. The guards who let them pass would feel his wrath. “They couldn’t have gotten far on their own.”
“We called and looked for them,” she said, wringing her hands. “Others are still looking, but I came for you. I fear someone has kidnapped them from the castle.”
It was possible. The guards checked carts coming in, but not those going out. The pup must have followed the cart or horse with the lassies out, but he was too young to keep up for long.
“I am so sorry, love.” He enfolded Alison in his arms and kissed her hair. “I will get them back. No matter what it takes. If I have to move heaven and hell, I will get them back.”
“I know ye will,” she said. “But I’m so frightened.”
This time, she had sought his help, not her brothers’. He hoped he was worthy of her faith. She leaned back, and the warmth in her violet eyes made the ice around his heart melt.
“I intended to come for ye even before I knew the girls were missing,” she said, brushing her fingertips over his cheek. “I love ye, David Hume, and I want ye to come home.”
David pulled Alison against him and buried his face in her hair. With her in his arms, he was already home.
***
Patrick could not believe his luck.
“’Tis a pleasure to see you two lasses again,” he said, smiling down at them.
A couple of the Blackadder women Wedderburn had thrown out of the castle were in the village, probably asking for handouts, when they saw this pair. They caught them and brought them straight to Patrick, expecting a reward.
“I can’t help but be curious. How did ye happen to be walking on the road from Blackadder Castl
e to the village all on your own?”
The two exchanged a look, and the older one shook her head.
“I asked ye a question.” The smaller one was already weeping, so he picked her up and gave her a shake. “Tell me.”
“Put my sister down and I’ll tell,” the older one said.
“See, I can be verra agreeable if ye do as I say.” He set the sniveling bairn on her feet, then sat down in the ornate chair that had belonged to his father and propped his feet up. “So, lassie, tell me the tale.”
“We sneaked out when the gates were opened for carts bringing supplies for the kitchens,” the older girl said. “It was early and still half dark, so no one saw us.”
Patrick threw back his head and laughed. After all the trouble Wedderburn had gone to, the pair of wee lassies had walked out the front gate on their own.
“Ach, I’d love to see Wedderburn’s face when he realizes he’s lost his heiresses.” Patrick had not been this amused since he watched his father thrashing on the floor. “Where in God’s name did ye think ye were going?”
The girls exchanged another look instead of answering. But when he started to reach for the younger one, the older girl spoke up quickly.
“To Hume Castle,” she said. “To bring our laird home.”
Patrick leaned forward. “Wedderburn is not at Blackadder Castle?”
Both girls shook their heads.
“But your mother’s still there?”
They nodded. More good news.
“I answered your questions,” the older girl said. “Can we go home now?”
“Home?” He laughed again. They were such idiots.
But what should he do with them? He drummed his fingers. Killing them was the simplest solution to eliminating their inheritance claim. He could dump their bodies by the village, and the blame would never fall on him.
That, however, would not satisfy his need for vengeance against Wedderburn. He smiled at his puny captives as a plan formed in his head. For now, at least, they more valuable to him alive than dead.
CAPTURED BY A LAIRD (THE DOUGLAS LEGACY) Page 25
