by Candace Camp
“He was most odd about Mother’s room, wasn’t he?” Elizabeth added, frowning.
“Yes, he offered to help me clean it. He was very keen.”
“I remember. He claimed he was fond of Mother. I knew that was a lie, but I thought he was pretending to feel the proper thing.”
“What if he was the one who searched Cordelia’s room?”
“What? When? What are you talking about?” Elizabeth looked uncertain. “I don’t remember that.”
“No, I did not tell you. I’m sorry. But it hardly seemed worth mentioning. It didn’t appear that anything was missing. But after the wedding, when I went into Grandmother’s room, I was certain someone had gone through it. That was why Jack and I searched her room and found that note from Malcolm.”
“So while Robert was here for the wedding, he sneaked in and looked through the room?”
“I don’t know, but it is certainly possible. He would have had ample time and everyone was down at the barn. It would have been easy to have gone undetected. And before that . . .” Isobel straightened, her voice speeding up a bit. “One night Jack was sure someone had tried to get into the house. He chased them, but they were gone by the time he got down there. He thought it was Coll, which I knew was ridiculous, but I was afraid he would start investigating the men—you know, the ones fighting the Clearances.”
“Oh!” Elizabeth brightened. “You’re talking about the night the spirits were on the island. I remember that.”
“Yes. Exactly.” Isobel jumped to her feet, thrusting the confession into her aunt’s hands. “I must tell Jack about this.”
“That is a good idea,” Millicent agreed, nodding happily. “Jack always knows just what to do.”
Relieved, Isobel sped down the stairs and out the front door, not even bothering to grab her bonnet or gloves. She ran the whole way to the castle, and she could not help but remember the day last week when she had run this same path, filled with fear for Jack. The thought gave her a cold feeling deep in the pit of her stomach. Just as she reached the ruins, Coll climbed out of the ruins.
“Isobel!” he said, startled. “Where is Jack?”
“I thought he was here. What do you mean?”
“No, he went to fetch you. We finished the shoring up, and we were thinking of searching for the entrance to the tunnel.” Coll grinned. “Interested?”
“Yes, but, no, not now. You said he ‘went to fetch’ me?”
“He left to get you, but then I heard him talking to someone out here. I was curious; I thought I heard him mention Andrew. So I thought—well, I knew you wouldn’t like it if Jack took off after Andrew. So I stuck my head up to see what was going on. And he was walking off with your cousin—the colonel, not Gregory.”
“Cousin Robert?” Isobel stared at him.
“Yes. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“They were talking about Andrew?”
“I think so. What is it, Izzy? They won’t get into a brawl if Mr. Rose is with them, surely.”
“I don’t know.” Isobel took a step back. Everything inside her was humming with warning. “Where did they go? Did you see?”
“They headed over there.” Coll pointed. “They were headed for the caves, I assume. Isobel, what is going on? What are you afraid of?”
“I don’t know! It makes no sense. But it seems like such a coincidence—we found out that Robert’s father killed Malcolm.”
“Fergus? His brother?” Coll stared at her, slack-jawed.
“Yes— Oh, I haven’t time to get into it now. But I feel—something is wrong, Coll. I can’t think why Cousin Robert would have tried to hurt Jack, but—”
“We shouldn’t be standing about here talking, then. Come on. I know the caves like the back of my hand. I can take you in the back way and get you out to the shore in half the time it’d take them.” He whirled and started running toward the cliff, with Isobel right behind.
“It was you?” Jack regarded Robert Rose in astonishment. “You were the one trying to kill me? You wrote the note? You shot at me?”
“Well, no, that fool Andrew wrote that for me. He was happy to play a trick on you—he likes to pretend that he did not know what the result of his prank would be, but we all know he’d be glad enough to see you dead. And he is bird-witted enough not to realize he would be found out immediately. But the rest of it—the planning, the preparation, the rockslide—that was all me. I was always something of a marksman.”
“Good God.”
“You did not suspect that, did you?” Robert smiled smugly. “You southerners. London dandies. Think you know everything. Some old Scotsman could never get the best of you, could he?”
“You think I should be impressed that you are a killer?”
“I am a soldier!” Rose retorted. “And a soldier does whatever is necessary to protect his home.”
“How the devil are you protecting your home?” Jack had little interest in conversing with this madman, but he knew his best hope was to keep the braggart telling his story. Perhaps if Robert talked enough, Jack could manage to distract him—or think of something, anything, that would give him an advantage. “It isn’t as if I invaded.”
“That is exactly what you did! You invaded Baillannan. You changed everything. You stole the Rose land. And you had the audacity to marry my cousin!”
“You want to kill me because I married into your family?”
“No, you fool.” Robert shook the gun at Jack for emphasis, and for a moment Jack thought that he was done, but Robert did not fire. “I killed you so that Isobel would be free.”
“Did you ask Isobel if she wanted to be free?”
“Her. She doesn’t know what she wants. Like all females, she’s distracted by a handsome face. At first I was furious, but then I realized—she had done what she had to do, what a true Rose should do, to keep Baillannan. She’s a silly lass, but she knows her duty, unlike her brother. I saw that my plans were not ruined. I could still bring it about. If you were dead, she would inherit the land. And she would be free to marry my son.”
“Gregory is in favor of this scheme?”
“Gregory?” Robert chuckled. “You think he knows anything of this? He would be of less use than Andrew. At least Andrew resents you. Gregory cannot even see that you spoiled his chances.”
“Does he want to marry Isobel? I never had the impression that he thought of her that way.”
Robert said dismissively, “He is my son, and he will do as I tell him.”
“Has it not occurred to you that you could rid Isobel of me and she might not agree to marry Gregory?”
“That won’t happen.”
“Mr. Rose, I don’t think you’ve thought this matter through,” Jack said in an amiable tone, moving a step closer and leaning in toward him, his hands spread out, palms up.
“Do you think to mock me?” The older man’s face reddened.
“No, indeed not. But I must point out that Andrew knows you persuaded him to write that note. At some time he will realize that it is in his best interest to tell everyone that. Also, it will be a trifle difficult for you to explain how I left with you and wound up dead in this cave.”
“Who is to know that you were with me?”
“Coll Munro, for one. He was working with me at the ruins, you know. He would have heard us.” In fact, Jack had little faith that Munro had been close enough to hear them, let alone identify whom Jack had been talking to, but Jack had mastered lying long ago.
His words obviously rocked Robert for a moment, but the old man recovered quickly. “It doesn’t matter. No one would take Munro’s word over mine. Even he would never think I killed you. He’ll believe it was Andrew, too. They all will. I shall just say Andrew surprised us, and before I could do anything, he shot you.”
“You think Andrew will go along with this? He may have fled town, but they will find him. He isn’t one to cover his tracks.”
“He won’t need to.” Robert smiled. “You see
, sadly, I will be duty-bound to try to stop his attempt to murder you, and he and this gun will be found on the shore, among the rocks.”
“You plan to kill your own cousin? For this scheme of yours?”
“I did not set out to, but you have the very luck of the devil. I had to enlist Andrew’s help, and I know full well he is a weak reed. He could never keep his mouth closed about it. Thank God he ran, practically admitting his guilt. Even better, he ran to me for help. I didn’t lie about Andrew being here, you know. He is in the cave behind us, though he’s in no position to move at the moment.”
“He’s here?” Jack looked beyond Robert, and what he saw there almost stopped his heart.
Isobel was creeping down one of the tunnels toward them, Coll Munro beside her.
“What do you mean Andrew’s here?” Jack raised his voice, taking a long step forward.
“Stop!” Robert shouted, and shook the pistol at Jack again. “Stop right there or I will shoot you.”
“What difference does it make? You are going to shoot me anyway. Besides”—Jack smiled derisively, casting a pointed look at the older man’s hand—“you are trembling like a leaf. You haven’t the nerve to kill me.”
“Of course I will,” Robert blustered, putting his other hand under his arm with the gun to steady it. “I’ve already shot you once.”
“From a distance,” Jack retorted scornfully. “Easy enough to take aim from a hundred feet away or to send a pile of rocks tumbling down upon me.” He walked steadily toward Robert as he spat the words out, and Robert backed up uneasily. “But up close? Looking right into my face? You haven’t got the nerve to kill a man that way.” Jack stepped past the lantern. “Go on, do it. Shoot me.”
Robert lifted the gun, sighting down it.
“Jack, no!” Isobel darted forward.
Startled, Robert jerked and turned toward her. Jack threw himself forward, knocking Rose to the ground and sending his pistol tumbling harmlessly across the floor.
“Och, Sassenach,” Coll said as Isobel ran to Jack. “I’m getting a wee bit tired of saving your British hide.”
Jack began to laugh as he stood up and wrapped his arms around Isobel, hugging her to him as tightly as he could. “It wasn’t you, Munro. It was Isobel who saved me. Always.”
You mean he was going to kill that nice young Andrew?” Jack’s mother asked in shocked tones. Jack and Isobel had returned from the cave a few minutes earlier and related their story to Millicent and Elizabeth, leaving both of the women astonished. “I can’t believe it.”
“Yet you are not surprised he wanted to murder me,” Jack commented drily.
“Oh, Jack! You know what I mean.”
“Stop teasing your mother,” Isobel said. She sat beside Jack on the sofa and had yet to let go of his hand since they had walked out of the caves. “I know exactly what you mean, Mrs. Kensington. And, yes, Cousin Robert had Andrew there, tied up and gagged. He had heard everything, and as you can imagine, he was quite terrified.”
“Poor Robby,” Aunt Elizabeth murmured. “He must have gone entirely mad. And he told me I was losing my mind. What will happen to him now?”
“I don’t know,” Isobel admitted. “Coll took him and Andrew back to Kinclannoch to tell Gregory. It is all such a tangle.”
“I think Baillannan has seen enough scandal for a while,” Jack said. “Gregory apparently knew nothing of it; it seems unfair that he should have to suffer for his father’s misdeeds. The best thing is to make sure Robert is far away from here. I think what Robert said about Andrew would work well enough for himself—relocating somewhere in the colonies.”
“Will he go?” Millicent asked.
“I think he’ll have no choice,” Jack replied grimly.
“And he was also the one who tried to break in here?” Millicent frowned. “I don’t understand. What did searching your grandmother’s room have to do with harming Jack?”
“I think they were only connected through being set off by Jack’s arrival at Baillannan,” Isobel said. “Cousin Robert tried to explain it to me afterward. He seemed to think I would see the sense of it. When Jack came here and I started cleaning out the attic, I gave Cousin Robert some things of his father’s. Among them was Cordelia’s confession, just as we guessed, along with a letter from his father to Robert in which Fergus ordered him to destroy both confessions. That is why Cousin Robert was so eager to look through the attic, and when he did not find what he wanted, he tried to break into the house, but Jack thwarted him. Later, during the wedding feast, he had ample time to search Grandmother’s room, but, of course, he still could not find the confession. That is when his obsession with Jack and the inheritance apparently started.”
“He always had the nonsensical notion that you would marry Gregory,” Elizabeth said.
“Yes, and when he made up his mind that Gregory would come into the family land if he killed Jack, he became absolutely driven to do it. He convinced himself that Jack would reveal the scandal and only his death would keep it quiet.”
The room fell into silence for a moment, as everyone digested this thought. Then Elizabeth said, “Does anyone know what happened to the treasure? Was there one? Did my mother and Uncle Fergus take it?”
“Mr. Rose was adamant that it was never there,” Jack told her. “The letter his father left said that he opened the chest after Malcolm was killed and found it empty. He was apparently quite bitter about it, as that was to have been his reward when he and Malcolm’s wife formed their pact. Fergus would take the treasure. Her little boy would get the land, of course, as he was Malcolm’s heir, and she would have the satisfaction of punishing her husband’s faithlessness.”
“Did he say who the other woman was?”
“Not a word. Or so Cousin Robert claims. If Fergus said anything different, we will never know; Cousin Robert told us he burned the letter and the confession after reading them.”
They continued to rehash the events of the afternoon as they consumed their afternoon tea, and afterward, still not quite able to settle down, Isobel and Jack strolled outside. Their steps turned inevitably toward the castle.
“You have been very good to my mother,” Jack told her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her to his side.
“She is your mother. She deserves my respect. And I can scarcely claim that my family is without flaws.”
Jack smiled faintly. “I cannot deny that, I suppose.”
“Your mother has been good for Aunt Elizabeth. She has seemed much improved lately, don’t you think?”
“She is happier, more at ease. That helps, but—”
“I know. I don’t expect her to be as she once was. But I am grateful that she is more settled.”
They had reached the castle, and they stopped, gazing at the ruins in the slanting light of the late-afternoon sun.
“I wonder what we will find down there now,” Isobel mused. “Another door? The other end of the tunnel?”
Jack looked at her. “We could find out now, you know.”
“What about Coll? He will be incensed if we do not wait for him.”
Jack’s eyes danced. “There is no need for him to know.”
Isobel laughed. “You are a corrupting influence.”
“I know.”
They climbed down the rope ladder, and lighting the lanterns Jack and Coll had left there, they made their way to the room they had discovered. Knowing now exactly what they were looking for, it did not take them long to find the small keyhole on the wall opposite the entrance to the room. With a twist of Jack’s key, a section of the wall separated, and Jack pulled the door open, the rusty hinges groaning.
The tunnel beyond was narrow and low ceilinged, but its resemblance to the tunnel they had found at Baillannan was unmistakable. They made their way along it, hand in hand, the light of their lanterns bobbing before them, revealing the tunnel bit by bit, until finally it ended, just as the other one had, in a pile of rubble.
“It w
as connected,” Jack said, raising the lantern to survey the damage.
“They did it to hide the evidence of their crime, didn’t they?” Isobel said in a hushed voice. “Cordelia and Fergus. Left the body lying there—her husband, his brother—still warm.”
“And destroyed the tunnel to make sure it was never found. I expect so.” Jack curled his arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her hair. “You Roses seem to be a bloodthirsty lot. And jealous. I shall have to remember that.”
“Jack!”
He chuckled, turning around and leading her back down the tunnel. “I think I’ll take my chances.”
“You always do,” Isobel scolded. “I could not believe that you dared Robert to shoot you today. My heart nearly stopped.”
“I could tell he did not have the courage to pull the trigger.” Jack shrugged. “I saw you, and I was afraid you’d startle him and he would fire in a panic. He could have hit you.”
“He was much more likely to hit you! His pistol was aimed straight at your heart.”
“His hand was wobbling so that he was likely to miss even if he did summon the nerve to fire. He might have wounded me, but that is all.”
“All!”
“His pistol would have been empty, and I had little doubt that Coll would have been able to subdue him.” Jack grinned down at her as they stepped back through the door. “Then you would have nursed me back to health again. I trust my luck; I always have.” He reached out and caressed her hair. “My luck brought me to you, didn’t it?”
“Jack, promise me.” Isobel dug her hands into his lapels, looking up at him entreatingly. “Promise me that you will not do anything so foolhardy again. I could not bear it if—” She broke off, her eyes suddenly swimming with tears.
“Here now,” he said softly, brushing his knuckle along her cheek. “Don’t cry, love.”
“I cannot,” she said brokenly, “I cannot keep our bargain.” She closed her eyes, the tears spilling onto her cheeks, and she leaned her forehead against his chest.