The fortunate part of not having any belongings was that it did not take much to move from one place to another. Gwen simply put on the clothes that she had arrived in, replaced her boots, and left. First, she had one task to complete before she disappeared. Roderick might no longer be the man she thought she could have a future with, but still, she had to prove herself, had to let him know that she was not the woman he currently thought she was.
Her task complete, Gwen was tempted to take a few things with her — perhaps a knife, some food stores from the kitchen, even enough to pay someone to take her to Inverness — but she had stolen enough. The only thing she took with her was the length of Roderick’s plaid. He hadn’t expressly given it to her, but she would need something to sleep on, though she wasn’t sure if the scent of him woven into the fabric would bring her more joy or pain.
Gwen crept down the stairs before letting herself out the keep’s massive front door. It was summer, but a cool wind had arisen this night, and she became grateful for the plaid. She only had to make the main road, and by the morning, she was sure there would be travelers who would pick her up. She would start walking in the meantime to put some distance between her and the McDougalls.
She had a fair idea of where she was now, she thought as she looked around her. She knew the road that had brought them here led to the station at Inverness. There was a full moon, and she could follow the stars to make sure she was keeping in the right direction.
Gwen figured she would find some type of work — honorable work — in Inverness in order to make enough to take a train to Perth. She could stay in Inverness, true, but it was too close to Roderick, too much of a reminder of what she’d had for such a brief moment in time.
That blasted jewel had brought nothing but bad luck, she decided as she kicked at a rock on the road, letting out an obscenity when it proved heavy and simply bruised her toe.
“That bloody, stupid, emerald,” she muttered. “What was Doc thinking — ahh!”
Her cry came forth when a strong arm encircled her waist, and her eyes widened in shock as she looked at other men who emerged from the brush and circled her.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Gwen Malone,” said the man who sauntered over from behind the tree, walking straight toward her. Braxton Grim. He had once been one of her father's most trusted men, but Doc had severed ties when Grim had attempted to force himself on Gwen. By convincing most of the others that Doc had softened due to his emotions toward his daughter, Grim had taken most of the men with him.
This group consisted of the replacements for many of Doc’s original gang members. These men were in it only for the haul, were ruthless, dangerous, and Gwen had never felt comfortable with them — not like she had with Doc’s older men, the ones who had known what true loyalty meant, who had taken her in as much as Doc had. She missed them. Some had died, some left the life, others were still in the game in their own way. She could use them now, she thought wryly, as three of the men advanced on her, though they held back in deference to their apparent leader. There were four of them here. Had the rest of the gang been captured, or were they still fleeing from the police and their wanted posters?
The man behind her let her go, although he stayed close beside her in case she should need to be subdued again.
“How did you find me?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest, knowing it would be futile to try to run.
“Ah, it’s not difficult to keep track of a woman like you, Gwendolyn,” Grim said, stretching out her name. “People remember a tall amazon of a woman with flowing red hair. And it’s not as if your journey was much of a secret. You took a train across the country, boarded a ship which then sat in the harbor for hours before leaving, and then set off across the sea for Scotland. I will say I was hoping you would unload the Scot when you made land. Though he didn’t try too particularly hard to cover his tracks through the woods. I take it you didn’t tell him you may have been followed?”
She shrugged, realizing she didn’t want to speak of Roderick with him.
“Now, would you like to do this the easy way or the hard way, Gwendolyn?” he asked, and she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin as he addressed her.
“Do not call me that,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Why not?” he responded. “Are your pet names reserved now for the man you are whoring yourself out to?”
She narrowed her eyes at him, ready to unleash the fury that had been building within her since she had argued with Roderick. “I am nobody’s whore,” she ground out. “You should know that better than anyone, Grim. Or do you not recall what happened when you tried to force yourself upon me?”
He closed the distance between them, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. “If it weren’t for Doc, you would have been mine then and mine now,” he said, the darkness in his eyes scaring her. “I know what you were doing, shaking your arse at me, throwing that hair behind you all the time as you looked at me the way you did. Why, you were nothing but a tease. We could have had some fun, you and I. I hear Doc’s gone, now, though, so there’s nothing to stop me now.”
“You’re right,” she said, feeling the smile curve on her lips as surprise covered his face. “Doc did teach me how to flirt, how to tease. But none of that was ever directed at you. You only saw what you wanted to, Grim. The thing is, Doc taught me a lot more than just that. He also taught me how to defend myself from unwanted attention.”
With that, she raised her hands to cover his on her shoulders, and as quickly as she could before he noticed anything, she lifted her knee hard between his legs. He let out a scream so high and so loud she might have laughed were she not so focused on putting distance between them.
She heard the echo of a dog bark and, for a moment, she thought she was fast enough, that she had caused enough of a shock to put some distance between them. But she was without weapons, and there proved to be too many of them. For while Grim was incapacitated, one of the other three — Welby, she knew him as — caught up to her and brought her down. She twisted underneath him, bringing her arm up to fight him off, but the other two quickly caught up, Foolish James and another man she recognized —Thurber she thought his name was — and had her pinned before she was able to do anything more.
They held her until Grim managed to make his way over to them.
“You little bitch,” he growled at her, and she grinned up at him, knowing it would make him even angrier.
“Something wrong, Grim?” she asked, and he motioned to his men to bring her to her feet.
“Enough of this,” he said, his dark eyes boring into her. “Where is it?”
“Where is what?” she asked, feigning innocence, and he gave her a little shake.
“You know exactly what,” he said with a bit of a snarl. “The emerald. The one we stole together and then Doc took for himself.”
“Had you not decided to put your hands on me, he would have shared everything with you,” she replied. “But instead, you wanted what you couldn’t have, and you paid for that. I will never, ever give you what you want. Not the emerald — and never me.”
He raked his eyes over her face, and she thought to herself, as she always had, that he could have been rather handsome had he not always worn a perpetual sneer. Besides that, she knew his true nature and how he treated others, from those he worked with to the innocent people he came across. She hated him — she always had — and he knew it.
“Ah, my lovely Gwendolyn,” he said, reaching out a hand to stroke her face, and she flinched back away from him. She would have hit him but her arms were still being held by Welby and Thurber. “Shall we search you for it, then?”
She recoiled in disgust. “You can, but you won’t find it, for the emerald is no longer with me.”
He drew back from her at that. “What have you done with it?” he demanded.
“I shall never tell you.”
“No?” he cocked an eyebrow at her. “Well, then. Perhaps we’ll have
to go back up to the house of your protector and see if we can find it. We’ll have to search the place, and I’ve seen the beautiful women who live there. Once we kill the Scots, we will have our fun with them, will we not, men?”
He laughed, a loud, grating cackle that made her shiver. She wanted nothing more to do with him, and yet, she thought desperately, she had to keep him from the McDougalls. She didn’t want to bring any more danger upon the family. While she was sure the brothers could take on these men, she didn’t want to put any of them at risk or make them fight on her behalf. Duncan was angry enough that Roderick had brought her into their midst, and he was right to be. She had brought this upon them, and she wouldn’t cause any harm to the family or prove Duncan right, that Roderick had been a poor judge of character.
She swallowed hard, knowing she was likely sealing her fate, yet determined that it still gave her a chance.
“It’s not in the castle,” she said, her eyes upon Grim. “It’s in Doc’s old house.”
Chapter 19
Roderick came awake with a start. He looked out the window, expecting daylight, but the only light that shone through was the moon. Odd, he thought, turning over to try to go back to sleep. After another few moments, he realized that sleep was going to prove to be elusive. What had awakened him? He was usually quite a heavy sleeper.
He rose, making his way to the window to look out at the grounds below. A sudden noise attracted his attention, and he came alert, listening intently. He heard nothing, however, but the whisper of the wind and the call of a bird or two beyond the window.
He sighed, lighting a candle and deciding to head downstairs for a book to distract his mind from the woman who wouldn’t leave it. He couldn’t quite determine what emotions ran through him. He was angry, yes, but he was also… bereft, despite the fact he knew she still slept down the hallway, that she wouldn’t leave until the morning. But what he missed most was the woman he had thought her to be, and the future he had glimpsed with the two of them, together. For he realized now that he’d begun to imagine a life with her. How stupid he was.
Roderick threw a plaid around his shoulders. While it was summer, at night there was still a chill to the air in the drafty castle, as much as his mother made it comfortable. He made his way into his father’s office — well, it was Finlay’s now, he supposed, though that still seemed rather strange to him. To Roderick, this would always be his father’s domain. He had been in this office so many times as a child, usually while his father admonished him for something or other he had done that Duncan disapproved of.
Interesting, he thought as he entered. It smelled rather… fresh in here. Like the forest, with a hint of lemon. Like… Gwen, he realized, shaking his head. Why wouldn’t she leave him? He was beginning to see her, hear her, smell her everywhere now. Get a hold of yourself, man.
The McDougalls didn’t exactly have a library, but there was a bookshelf with some old classics — and a few new ones, he noted. Adam’s new wife must be a reader. He looked at a cover — The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Interesting title. He shrugged, thinking it should do, and took it with him to the great hall, sitting down in his place in the corner of the sofa. He heard rather than felt something crinkle as he sat down, and he swiped a hand underneath him to see what it was.
An envelope. His name was scrawled over the front in long, bold yet untidy handwriting as if it had been written in a hurry. But why would someone leave something for him here? Didn’t they all know they could simply come speak to him? It was only family here.
He ripped open the envelope, pulling out a piece of paper that looked as though it had come from his father’s desk. As he shook open the note, something fell from it onto the floor, and he groped around until his fingers came across something rather small, yet hard and a bit pointed, and, when he brought it to the light of his candle, he realized very — green.
Good Lord, it’s the emerald!
He held it up in front of his face, turning it within the light to get a better look at it. It was magnificent. He could almost see why someone would do whatever he — or she — could to possess it, and why it held much value.
But why would she leave it here?
He looked to the note in his lap, and as he wrapped his hand around the stone, gripping it tight in his palm, he began to read.
Roderick,
I am sorry for causing trouble within your family, though I believe I told you this is what would happen.
He couldn’t help but smile a bit at her half-apology. She was right, though. She had told him that she would never be accepted, and he had convinced her otherwise.
What I am truly sorry for, however, is not telling you about the emerald. I couldn’t see any other way forward but to sell it and then leave this life forever. But after being with you, I have come to realize that a life based upon something taken from another is no true life at all. I would spend the rest of my days cloaked in the guilt of what I had done.
This is what I was contemplating when you found me with the emerald. I had decided to send it back to Sergeant McLaren and your brother, hopeful that they could find its true owner. Please send it to them on my behalf, and tell them to watch out for a man named Linus Stark, who wants it for himself and will continue to send people to find it. In particular, Braxton Grim, the leader of the Grim Gang, formerly of Doc’s, will be looking for it should it return to the prairies. He sent some of his men overseas to search for it, though I believe — I hope — we lost them on our journey.
I must admit how much I enjoyed our time together. You showed me what living a good, true life, surrounded by those who love you and who you love in return, can be like. You made me a better person. I wish you could have seen that, could have trusted me, but I understand why you didn’t. If only I had told you of this sooner.
While I realize it was rather foolish to leave in the middle of the night, I will be fine. It was much preferred to spending another night knowing you were under the same roof and yet I could not be with you, as you now hold me in such disrepute. I have been traveling the outdoors my entire life so I’m not worried. I did have to take with me a compass and a plaid. They are the last items I shall ever steal.
I hope you have a wonderful life, Roderick.
Always yours,
Gwen
If Roderick hadn’t still been breathing, he would have thought his heart had stopped as he came to the end of Gwen’s letter.
She was gone.
The emerald bit into his hand as he squeezed his fist tighter around it. She was right. He should have trusted her; he should have given her a chance to explain. But instead, he had hurled accusations at her, his father’s words resonating in his ears louder than her own words of protest. What he should have listened to, more than anything, was his heart, for it would have told him that the Gwen he had come to know would never have betrayed him, nor his family as he had accused her of doing.
Perhaps she hadn’t gotten far. For what time was it now? He looked around at the longcase clock his mother had begged his father for that was now standing in the corner of the room. It was just past one. Even if Gwen had left an hour or so ago, he was sure she was on foot — if she had mentioned stealing a compass, she would have noted a horse, would she not have? — while he would be riding. He could catch her. He threw off the plaid, taking the stairs two at a time as he returned to his room for a shirt. He was soon out the door and making his way across the yard to the stables. He didn’t really know why he was chasing after her, nor what he would say when he caught up to her. He only knew that everything within him was telling him he needed to get to her and he needed to get to her now.
He led his horse out of the stable, mounting him and urging him into a trot down the road. He hadn’t gone far when he began to make out a bundle on the path in front of him. It looked familiar somehow. It was his plaid, he realized, the one he had given Gwen to keep her warm during the night. She had said in her lett
er she was taking it with her — the last thing she would ever steal, she had said, though in his mind it was always hers, as was everything he owned, he supposed.
Roderick slowed his horse and picked it up, folding it as he stood there, and just as his heart had told him to go after her, his gut now told him something was wrong — very wrong. He looked around him in the light of the full moon and began picking out indentations in the grass next to the road that were fresh boot marks, much larger than Gwen’s. She hadn’t been the only one here, he realized, his heart hammering against his ribs. Something was wrong. Making a quick decision, he re-mounted his horse in order to chase her down and find her. He now allowed his mind to take the lead, however, and he returned to the house instead, not caring of the noise he made as he raced down the corridors and woke his brothers.
They came groggily out of their rooms, and soon the entire family was gathered downstairs, annoyed despite the fact that Roderick was trying to emphasize the urgency of his request.
“Gwen was taken,” he said, and his father and Finlay eyed him doubtfully.
“Why would you think that, Roderick?” Duncan asked, crossing his arms over his chest and staring him down.
“I don’t think it,” he insisted. “I know it.”
As quickly as possible, he described the emerald, pulling it out of the envelope, and showing it to their wide-eyed stares. Then he told them of the contents of the note, and of what he had found just beyond the yard. They seemed a bit incredulous, but Adam, ever the logical one, led them outside to look for themselves. As they shone a lantern on the ground beneath them, suddenly the experienced hunter of old came out of Duncan.
“You’re right, lad,” he said, looking up at Roderick with shock in his features. “There have been men here. Outsiders. What do you need?”
Relief flooded over him at the support his family provided, though it still irked him slightly that they hadn’t believed him from the start.
Roderick’s Purpose: The Victorian Highlanders Book 4 Page 13