The Highlander's Stolen Bride

by Melanie George

  As the knife descended Rosalyn opened her mouth to scream, but Calder clamped his hand down, silencing her.

  “You intend to make this difficult, I see.” Using his free hand, he stuffed a handkerchief in her mouth. “Now, where was I?”

  The blade touched her throat, and Rosalyn struggled wildly, her cries muted. Calder’s grip suddenly slackened, his head turning.

  “Shut up,” he hissed, his gaze snapping toward the vestibule.

  Rosalyn stilled, her heart pumping in her ears. She prayed someone was there. No matter what, she would fight. He would not take her like this.

  The casket slammed shut, enveloping her in darkness again. She didn’t know if Calder was still there or if he had run off. She listened, desperate for something to tell her she was not alone.

  Muffled noises reached her ears, but she couldn’t tell what was happening.

  Then light suddenly filled her eyes as the coffin lid swung open.

  Derek knocked at his uncle’s bedchamber, barely waiting for Darius to bid him entry before he threw open the door.

  Darius sat at his writing desk, a bottle of port open beside him and an empty glass in his hand. He didn’t seem surprised to see Derek.

  “Come in, m’boy. Have a drink with me.”

  “What are you still doing up?” Derek asked, closing the door behind him.

  “It’s been a rough few days. Gives a man strained nerves.”

  “And what might be straining your nerves now, uncle? Perhaps your conversation with Caroline?”

  “You know?”

  “Yes, I know. I also know that she’s disappeared. Why wasn’t I told?”

  His uncle tipped the bottle of port to his glass and filled it nearly to the top. “Ye didn’t need any more worries.”

  “That’s not for you to decide. I’m laird here, or have you forgotten? What has happened to Caroline?”

  “She’s gone.”

  “Where has she gone?”

  Darius shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  “And you didn’t think to send someone out to search for her? She could be hurt, or worse.”

  “Nay, lad. She’s not hurt. She left because she wanted to. She won’t be comin’ back.”

  “She wouldn’t just leave Nathaniel here.”

  “She couldn’t take him.”

  Derek clenched his jaw. “What the hell is going on?”

  Darius gestured to the chair across from him. “Sit down. We need to talk.”

  Derek sat. “All right—now speak. Where is Caroline, and why did she leave?”

  “I canna say where she is for certain. Perhaps London, by now, or maybe even on a ship bound for America. She always talked about going abroad.”

  “I never heard her say that.”

  “Perhaps ye weren’t really listenin’. I heard more than you—it was my job to do so. As your father’s right hand, and now yours, I had to know what was goin’ on in Castle Gray. I suspect there are many things ye don’t know. But none of it was really worth tellin’.” He paused, then added, “And there were some things I couldn’t say.”

  “Like what?”

  “I had been sworn to secrecy, and I took my oath seriously.”

  “Who swore you to secrecy? Caroline? Nathaniel heard you tell her that I was his father.”

  Darius sighed and stared down at the drink in his hand. “I didn’t know the lad was there.”

  “What would make him think I was his father? There’s not a soul alive who would believe that.”

  “I never thought anyone would. But I had not been talkin’ about you at the time.”

  “Then who?”

  Darius’s fingers tightened around his glass as he looked Derek in the eye. “Your father.”

  Understanding hit Derek like a fist to the stomach. “Jesus.”

  “Aye.” His uncle gave a weary sigh. “I couldn’t believe it, either. First he sires one bastard that he refuses to acknowledge, then he dares bring another snot-nosed brat into this house.”

  Derek’s anger rode to the fore. “Nate better not have heard those words from your lips.”

  “He never has, that I swear. Caroline was too protective of the boy. But now ye see why she couldn’t take him. He’s your brother, lad. Your flesh and blood. She knew it was only a matter of time before ye found out.

  “I’m surprised ye didn’t notice the resemblance sooner. I suspect Ethan did; he always smirked when he saw the tot. I figure he was waitin’ to discharge that particular bullet when he knew it would do the most damage.”

  Derek got up and paced the room. Nate, his brother. Apparently everyone had known the truth but him.

  “So why am I the last to know? And what made Caroline think she had to leave? I would never have thrown her out; she had to have known that.”

  “She did. But your finding out was not the reason she left.”

  Derek glanced over his shoulder. “What is?”

  “I confronted her about what happened to ye the other day, with the Trelawnys. Ye had to be wonderin’ how anyone could have gotten in here. It was someone on the inside.”

  “And you’re going to tell me now that person was Caroline? Why would she do it?”

  “That should be obvious: because you’d tossed her aside. Just as your father did when he found out she was pregnant. I think the silly gel had some grandiose visions that your father would divorce your mother and marry her, that he would make her son legitimate even though he hadn’t done so with Ethan.”

  A thought Derek had often pushed to the back of his mind crowded in on him. Ethan had once been a small boy very much like Nate, wondering where his father was and why the man didn’t love him enough to claim him as his own.

  It made Derek ashamed to have William McDougal as a father, and he hurt for his mother, who’d had to live with her husband’s open infidelity.

  For years, Derek had secretly harbored resentment toward her, thinking that she had been too harsh and unforgiving to his father. Never once had she tried to make Derek see her side, but he wouldn’t have listened anyway. He had been too pigheaded.

  Perhaps that was why she had always shared more of a bond with the son that was not hers. Ethan had never judged her. They had both been recipients of harsh punishment, while Derek had lived in his glass house, as Ethan had once accused.

  “So,” Darius said, finishing his story, “I went to Caroline when Ethan and Lady Rosalyn left to fetch ye from Trelawny Castle, and I told her I knew what she’d done. She broke down in tears and told me that she had to do it—she wouldn’t allow another man to use her and discard her. So she’d plotted with the Trelawnys to get back at ye. She was terrified what you’d do to her when ye found out, and she knew that when ye discovered her deception, you’d learn of the lad’s parentage. Ye would have come after her to retrieve your brother, so, she left him here to be with ye.”

  “We have to find her. Nathaniel will be devastated without her.”

  “I suspect finding her will prove difficult, if she doesn’t want to be found.”

  “Did she have any friends that you know of? Anyone who might know where she might go?”

  Her parents, from what he could recall, were both dead, and she had never mentioned any other relatives.

  “I’ll inquire,” Darius said. “I did see her speaking with that timid maid. What’s her name?”

  Derek scoured his mind. “Margery?”

  Darius nodded. “Aye. I’ll speak to her and see if there is anything else I can find out.”

  Derek was at a loss for what else to do. He knew he’d be getting no sleep tonight. It was now after one in the morning, and Rosalyn was surely asleep. He shouldn’t wake her, but he wanted to see her.

  He headed to the door. “I want to know anything you find out,” he informed his uncle, “no matter how minor it may seem. I want Nathaniel moved into the room opposite mine. He’s to be watched at all times, I don’t want him left alone. And there’s to be no mention of this. I wil
l decide what to tell the clan. Do you understand?”

  “Aye,” Darius replied gruffly.

  Derek left. The fact that Darius had kept all this to himself, long after his brother’s death, did not sit well with him. There were to be no secrets under his roof. But he would deal with his uncle at the appropriate time.

  Nathaniel was his brother! He still couldn’t believe it, yet he wondered why he hadn’t figured it out sooner.

  Nate would have been conceived during one of the rockiest periods in his parents’ marriage, shortly after his mother had left and gone back to England.

  His father had become enraged and even more bitter. It didn’t seem to matter who he hurt. Caroline had been barely more than a child herself, and knowing her as he did, Derek doubted she would have denied his father.

  The old laird didn’t tolerate being told no, and Caroline hadn’t had anywhere else to go. It was either submit or be thrown out. And Derek had little doubt that was exactly what his father would have done.

  Damn the man to hell. He had denied Derek his brother. In a way, he had denied him both of his brothers by fostering Derek’s animosity with Ethan.

  “There you are, my lord! Thank goodness I’ve found you.”

  Derek glanced up to see his valet hurrying down the hallway. “What is it, Jamison?”

  “Peters sent me in search of you. There are visitors, my lord.”

  “Visitors? At this hour?”

  “They said it was imperative they speak to you. Since the sentry recognized them as your friends, he let them by. I hope he didn’t do wrong?”

  “Who is it?”

  “Mr. Kendall, sir. He’s come with his wife, Lady Francine, as well as Lord Anthony Tremayne. They said they need speak to you immediately. They await you in the library.”

  Derek was already turning the corner toward the main hallway before his valet had finished his sentence.

  Twenty-two

  R osalyn stared up at the figure looming behind the casket, panic making her heart thrum wildly. She geared herself for a fight, but then the person moved out of the shadows and tugged the rag from her mouth.

  “Ethan?”

  “In the flesh, my girl.” He smiled down at her in that devilish fashion he was so well known for. “I see you’re in a bit of a spot, but I’m here to save the day.” He began undoing the rope that bound her legs and wrists together.

  “How did you get here? And where’s Calder?”

  “I presume that was the person hovering over you a few minutes ago?”

  “Yes, but—”

  Ethan helped her to sit up. “The man is dead. He came at me with a knife and I felt compelled to return the gesture, but with my fists, as is the gentleman’s way. Unfortunately, when he fell back, he cracked his head on the corner of the altar.”

  He slid his hands beneath her legs and lifted her into his arms. “Did he hurt you? I’d be happy to rouse him from death and kill him again, if so.”

  “I’m fine,” Rosalyn told him, still trying to grasp the fact that her stepbrother was dead. “Are you sure he’s…?”

  “Quite. I’ll show you if you’d like, but it may be best not to have such a gruesome memory for the rest of your life.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “Completely unnecessary. I live to be of service.” He shot her a roguish wink.

  “So what are you doing here? I thought you had run off with Megan Trelawny.”

  “Pray, do not remind me,” he muttered. “I came upon your abduction quite by accident. I was on a mission to raid food from the pantry when I heard voices in the courtyard and spotted you being carted off over someone’s shoulder. Thinking my sibling had developed barbaric tendencies, and thereby intrigued beyond measure, I followed…and here we are.”

  “What were you doing in the courtyard? And where have you been for the last two days? I had assumed you and Megan were miles away from here by now.”

  “That was the assumption I was going for—I knew this was the last place the Trelawnys would look. I figured we’d be safe here for a few days until the uproar had died down, then we could sneak away in the middle of the night. Once things had sufficiently settled, I would then send the chit back to the loving bosom of her crazed family and be done with it.”

  Rosalyn quirked a brow. “Really?”

  “Please don’t give me that look. My intervention at the Trelawnys’ was purely for your benefit.”

  “I don’t believe that any more than you do.”

  Ethan frowned at her, clearly not appreciating the fact that she had seen through his facade.

  “Come inside with me; I’m sure Derek will allow you back.”

  “A noble gesture, but I’m not sure I want to be back. Other things await me.” Megan, he meant. He did care for her.

  “Then I guess this is good-bye for now. Take care of yourself.”

  “And you, sweet girl. Give his bloody lordship a run for his money.”

  Rosalyn laughed as she headed toward the front doors of the church.

  “I don’t suppose you’ll refrain from telling my half-brother of my gallantry?” Ethan called after her.

  “Of course not,” Rosalyn replied, giving him a dose of his own medicine as she stepped out into the sweet night air. “Your heroic deeds will be lauded far and wide. Prepare to be a hero, my good sir.”

  Her gaze set upon Castle Gray, and a sudden yearning struck her. She needed to see Derek, to feel his arms around her.

  Lifting her skirt, she ran down the hill.

  Derek heard voices as he crossed the foyer and headed toward the library. At least ten different scenarios went through his head as to why his two closest friends were at his house in the middle of the night—none of them good.

  Had they found Westcott? Was the man incarcerated—or better yet, dead? Derek fervently hoped it was one or the other, for only then would Rosalyn know peace.

  She would also leave him.

  Derek shook off the thought. He wasn’t letting her go that easily. Once she no longer had the burden of her stepbrother hunting her down, perhaps whatever was bothering her would be alleviated as well.

  He stood for a moment on the threshold of the library, regarding his friends. Anthony and Lucien were at opposite ends of the couch, with Lady Francine in the middle. They faced the fireplace, talking in animated voices, unaware that he had arrived.

  Lucien, of all people, was now a married man. The last thing Derek recalled hearing was that he had taken Fancy somewhere, and no one had seen or heard from them for over a week. That was shortly before Derek had become entangled in Rosalyn’s life.

  Then there was Anthony—the youngest son of the duke of Glenmore and utterly content to be a rakehell.

  “Good evening, Lord Manchester,” a soft voice murmured. Lady Francine was facing him from across the room.

  Lucien surged to his feet and smiled, a look of contentment on his face that Derek had not seen in a very long time. “Good God, old man, you still move like a bloody wraith. Hope you weren’t there long enough to hear Tremayne maligning your character.”

  “Bluster,” Anthony retorted, sporting a half-grin as he rose from the couch. “Thank goodness Lady Francine has taken the boor in hand. Perhaps she will succeed where others have failed.” To Fancy he said, “You have my most profound sympathies, my lady.”

  “Bugger off, sod,” Lucien growled good-naturedly as he tugged his wife to his side. “The lady adores me.” Turning her toward him, he murmured tenderly, “Don’t you, love?”

  “Without question.” She leaned in to kiss him gently on the cheek.

  Derek cleared his throat, shaking the couple from their dream world.

  A light blush dusted Fancy’s cheeks as she looked at Derek. “Is Rosalyn in bed? I don’t wish to wake her, but I have missed her so.”

  “She’s missed you as well,” Derek replied. “Seems you two have had several adventures.”

  Fancy’s eyes lit with amusement. “I supp
ose we have.”

  “Yes, like shooting me in the leg,” Lucien grumbled.

  His wife smiled patiently at him. “Be glad my aim was off.”

  “I am supremely glad, love. Otherwise, you would not now be enjoying the bedchamber as you do.”

  Mortification blossomed on Fancy’s face, and she swatted at her husband, who laughed.

  “Perhaps we could get to the matter at hand?” Anthony intoned drolly.

  “Tell me this is about Rosalyn’s stepbrother,” Derek said.

  “Yes, it is. Two days ago, I got wind of his whereabouts. It appears he’s on his way here,” Lucien replied.

  “He wouldn’t make it past the gate.”

  “That’s what we hope,” Lucien said. “But we had to be certain.”

  “Are you sure Rosalyn is all right?” Fancy asked, her worry evident.

  Derek’s first thought was to say yes, but he had never made it to her room for their rendezvous.

  “I imagine she’s asleep by now,” he answered.

  “When did you see her last?” Fancy persisted. “I’ve had an uneasy feeling all day, and I just need to know that she’s all right. Then I will be able to breathe a sigh of relief.”

  “Come with me,” Derek told her and headed out the door.

  They went up the stairs side by side. Just before they reached the top, the front door opened. They looked down to see Rosalyn enter, barefoot and rumpled, her hair a wild mass down her back.

  Derek took the steps down two at a time and grasped her arms in his hands. “My God, what happened?”

  “I’m fine. Goodness, I cannot count how many times I have said those two words since leaving London. But I’m grateful to be able to keep saying them.” Her gaze suddenly drifted around Derek’s shoulder, and her brow furrowed. “Fancy?” She blinked. “Fancy!”

  Rosalyn tore herself from Derek’s grip and catapulted around him to reunite with her friend. The women hugged and cried.

  When the two finally separated, Rosalyn asked Fancy, “What are you doing here? The last thing I heard was that you had gone off with Mr. Kendall. I couldn’t find out a single thing. I was so worried.”