Elise

by Jackie Ivie

“Explain, please.” She choked over the words.

  “I just did. You’re a Sassenach.”

  “Yes, I already know that part.”

  “He was the chosen husband to my sister.”

  “I know that part, too.”

  “You knew he had a betrothed? Yet you still wed up with him?”

  I wasn’t given the choice! Elise almost said it aloud.

  “You’re Sassenach all right. All pompous arrogance and crazed with power, with heads full of their own importance and such, and sporting a lust for bloodletting. As long as it is na’ theirs, that is.”

  “This is ridiculous. I’m in a castle, surrounded by gentlemen and ladies. I am not listening to this. I’m not.”

  “You like killing?”

  “I’ve never harmed a thing in my life,” Elise replied.

  “Then why did you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “Wed up with him! Stir the clans! Have you nae concept of it?”

  “I believe I’ve had enough of your company. You may leave. Bother that, I will.”

  Elise moved as quickly as she could. She felt the dress sway a hairsbreadth of time behind her. His hand slammed against the wooden door at her temple, stopping her. She swiveled.

  “You can’t continue this, you know. I’ll be missed. He’ll miss me.”

  “You think I doona’ know that?”

  “Then let me go. You don’t have to face his wrath.”

  “Not until you understand.”

  Elise took a deep breath to calm herself. It almost worked. “The last I heard, Scotland and England weren’t at war. Of course, I’m not one for politics, but there you have it. Colin and I met, fell in love, and then we wed. I don’t think my being English bothers him. I try to pretend the same about him being a Scotsman.”

  “We may na’ be at war, but a man would na’ be a true Scot if he forgot Culloden.”

  “Culloden? I’ve heard that name. Who was that?”

  His breath whooshed out with his disgust. “Not who. What. And where. It all started with the Stewarts. The throne belonged to Bonny Prince Charlie, it did. With all the clans rallied behind him, he was sure to gain it. Dinna’ happen, though. Near everyone was wiped out. The Sassenach saw to it. Killed and maimed even the women and children. They nearly wiped out the clans at Culloden. The MacKennahs have never recovered. The MacGowans did it the easy way.”

  “When was this?” Elise asked, her eyes wide.

  “1746.”

  “What? More than a century ago? Oh, please. That’s it, I’m leaving.” She turned and pulled on the door handle. His hand was still holding it in place. Elise had no choice but to spin back around.

  “Are you enjoying this?” she asked.

  “We Scots never forget.”

  “Or forgive, obviously. All right, have your say. That’s what you want. Very well, talk. But you’d better start making sense. What has any of this to do with me? I can understand anger over a broken betrothal, but now you’re tossing in a battle that’s decades old. I wasn’t born. You weren’t born. We can’t change it. Why bring it up?”

  “So you’ll see the festering of it.”

  “Of what?”

  “Hate.”

  Elise looked up at him. “Can the MacKennahs really hate me so much because I’m English?”

  “It’s na’ just the MacKennahs you need worry about. The moment news of Colin’s betrayal reached the clan, the feuding started up again. I can nae more stop my clan, than The MacGowan will be able to stop his.”

  “Feud? Am I hearing this right?”

  He stepped back and looked a bit sheepish. “Well, it’s mainly been an ewe, or two, gone a-missing, so far. Just enough to keep the borders busy. It’s not as bad as before.”

  “Before what?”

  “The jilting of Mary, of course. My clan’s na’ about to forget it. There’s been bad blood since it first happened.”

  “First happened? Oh, of course, Ira. I keep forgetting that he was the original bridegroom.”

  “Ira? Nae, he was a wastrel. He wasn’t fit for any woman’s husband, least of all my Mary. She wanted Evan. Even when he petitioned the Clan MacGowan to wed that Sass—I mean, that English lass. Even then, Mary still wanted him.”

  “Evan MacGowan petitioned his clan ... to marry an English girl? Excuse me, Torquil. I think I need to sit down now.”

  Elise ducked under his arm and forced her legs to continue supporting her until she reached a chair. Now that she knew what fainting felt like, she had to put her head down on her lap and breathe rapidly to stave it off. Evan had petitioned his clan to wed Evangeline? Did that mean he would have if he hadn’t died? Every part of her seemed to hurt at the thought; then it decided to center in her head.

  “You’re looking a mite peaked there. Worse than before. Here, drink this up.”

  Torquil opened the round bag at his belt and twisted off the top of his flask. Elise tipped her head back and gulped. Then Torquil came to her rescue as the liquor burned her throat, but it had worked. She no longer had the fuzzy feeling about her nose and cheeks.

  “Why dinna’ you tell me you had na’ the constitution for good Scot’s whiskey?”

  He asked it between blows to her back. Elise couldn’t decide which was smarting more. Her head was pinging with needles of ache, her throat and chest were burned, and her back was suffering the bruising force of his blows.

  “Stop! My thanks, I think. You can stop now. I’m fine, truly. I’m rather grateful I didn’t have any brothers. Are all their ministrations so brutish?”

  “You’ve got your color back, have na’ you? It was just some good Scot’s whiskey. I always carry a nip, or two, in my sporran.”

  “I’m grateful, truly. Finish your story, so I can get this little meeting over with. Ira MacGowan wasn’t a fit husband, and then Evan MacGowan jilted Mary. Was that what started it?”

  He walked over to look into the unlit fireplace.

  “It actually goes back to Culloden.”

  “Surely there’s been peace made since then?”

  “There was a chance for the MacKennahs to recoup the losses from Culloden. The battle bankrupted my clan, as well as many others. Only the MacGowans came out ahead.”

  “Why did the MacGowans fare so well?”

  “The MacGowan Laird was betrothed to a MacKennah. He violated it by wedding with a Douglas heiress, for her dowry. The feud hadn’t even a good start when the duchess died of chilblains. Then, not a year later, he up and wed with a bloody Sassenach. Again, for her dowry. The MacKennah lass killed herself.”

  “She loved him that much?”

  “Love? Are you daft? She could na’ bear the humiliation.”

  “Well, that certainly educates me on where affairs of the heart stand with you Scots. Be still, my quivering heart.”

  “What?”

  “I’m talking to myself, obviously. Go on. Finish your story. Let’s get this over with.”

  “The MacKennah Clan swore revenge. Many’s the clansman who has been rewarded by bringing a MacGowan to justice!”

  “I’m not certain I want to know how. Do you have to tell me?”

  “We ransom each other all the time. Only trouble is, the MacKennahs can na’ pay much. That’s why we offered Mary’s hand in the first place. It was a ransom payment from twenty years ago.”

  “You ... ransom each other?”

  Elise stumbled over the word. She was afraid her expression mirrored the shock she was feeling. She knew now why Colin had treated her as he had. They were all barbaric and uncouth and uncivilized. They’d only follow a leader who was the same.

  “Aye, only sometimes it gets a bit out of hand, and well...” He stopped for a moment and took a draught from his flask. He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Whenever a clansman disappears, and there’s nae ransom demand, we suspect the worst. The land’s dotted with lochs, and they rarely tell a tale on a man.”

  “I’m not certain I wish to hear an
y more. You honestly expect me to believe the lochs hide—? I’m not listening to another moment of this conversation, Lord MacKennah. I’m going to wish you from my existence, forget I ever met you, and find my husband; then I’m going to dine elegantly on the Duke of Dunvargas’s gold-bordered plate. I will not allow you to stop me. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “Spoken like a true Sassenach.”

  “You’ll allow me to leave?”

  “Nae.”

  The pounding of her head was taking over her existence. It should be obliterating everything, but it wasn’t. “Why not?” she asked, tartly.

  “Well, aside from wanting to warn you, I was thinking a bit of an abduction might go a long way toward gaining my clan’s respect.”

  “Abduction? Me? Now?” She was reeling in place, yet nothing about the room looked it.

  “I’ve since changed my mind. You’re more trouble than you’d be worth. You probably can na’ even sit a horse, and you choke on good Scot’s whiskey.”

  He winked at her. Elise closed her hands into fists and longed to beat the table with them. It was almost laughable. She’d been trying to escape, and the MacKennahs would have helped her do it. They were all set to kidnap her! If only she’d stayed in her room this morning and not listened to Mick, she’d be assisting them at it. Right at this very moment. Now. She put her hands to her temples to soothe the ache.

  “Oh, where were you yesterday, Torquil?” she asked.

  “Perth. Why?”

  “My own purgatory,” she whispered. Elise didn’t feel the slightest bit like answering loudly enough for him to hear. The knot in her throat started to uncoil. She took small gasps of breath as she felt it. She knew why. Her decision was being made for her.

  “How would you have done it?” she asked.

  “It would na’ have been hard. This is my country, too.”

  “You’ve a way around the MacGowan Honor Guard?”

  “You’re in here visiting with me, are na’ you?”

  “The man who brought me here wasn’t one of them?”

  “MacGowan plaid comes in handy at times.”

  “Dunvargas doesn’t even know you’re here, does he?”

  “He’s got a good cellar, full of stock. It has a nice, well-built tunnel directly to it, too.”

  She looked across at him. “You’re incorrigible.”

  “Aye.” He grinned.

  “You’ll need to plan it better than this.”

  “Verra well, I will.”

  “If I disappear before we arrive at Castle Gowan, it would go well with you and your clan. Perhaps even with the MacGowans. That’s what you’re telling me, isn’t it?”

  “I’d claim innocence, of course.”

  “Oh, of course,” Elise repeated. “And, if Colin were granted an annulment it would go well with the clans, too?”

  “Annulment? On what grounds?”

  “That’s for a judge to decide, isn’t it?”

  “English courts doona’ cotton to Scottish troubles.”

  “Let’s just say an annulment is granted. Would she have him? This isn’t 1746 anymore, you know.”

  “Mary’s had her eye on Colin MacGowan, too. She’d wed with him.”

  “I can’t believe I’m thinking like this. It’s silly.”

  “You’ll save a lot of grief, and mayhap some lives, too. That’s why you’re thinking this way.”

  “Do all Scottish men treat their women like stuffed dolls? They tell us this is what you’re wearing, this is what you’re thinking, this is what you’ll say, and this is how you’ll act.”

  “There’s another way?”

  He looked like he was serious. “Believe it or not, Torquil, if I agree to help you kidnap me, it will be because I have my own reasons.”

  “I respect that.”

  “I’d have to write two letters: one to my bank and one to Colin. Can you get them posted?”

  “Your maid’s name is Lydia. She’s a MacKennah. Give them to her. She’ll see to it.”

  “That certainly explains her attitude,” Elise replied, without a tone.

  “She’s a good woman. She can get a message to you, too. Can you be ready by Inverness?”

  “I didn’t say I would do this, Torquil.”

  “You dinna’ say you would na’, either.”

  She lowered her hands to look across and up at him.

  “And you dinna’ scream, cry, or sound the alarm on me. All of which I would have expected.”

  The door opened, and the man who had brought her there stuck his head in. “They’ve noticed her missing, my lord.”

  “Verra good, I’ll be out directly.”

  “One minute, maybe less.” Torquil’s man shut the door.

  “I have to go now. I’m flirting with capture as we speak. You’ll think on it?”

  “More than I want to. And, Torquil?” He stopped at the door and waited. “I can sit a horse.”

  Chapter 22

  “Here she is! We’ve found her, Your Grace.”

  Elise looked up and caught the looks Colin’s men were giving her. They should have passed Torquil MacKennah in the hall. She composed her face to look innocent as several members of the Honor Guard assembled about the doorway.

  “Elise? Thank the Lord.”

  Colin shoved through his men, and it was hard to believe the thankful words had come from his mouth, with the angry expression that was on it when he spoke again. “How the devil did you get here?”

  He had to say it twice before she heard it. She was blaming it on her headache but knew the real cause the moment she saw him. Colin was in Highland evening wear, and the tight-fitting, black-velvet doublet, cascading lace jabot and cuffs, atop a kilt of red, green, and black plaid was making everything hum out of rhythm to the pulse in her head.

  “What?” she asked.

  “How the devil did you get here?”

  “Oh.” Elise stood but held on to the table for support. “I walked, of course.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m waiting for you. I don’t understand the dramatics, Your Grace. I did nothing other than what I was instructed to do.”

  “How did you get past my Honor Guard?”

  “I didn’t. I followed one of them here. He told me to wait for you.”

  Elise watched them mumbling amongst themselves. That much of her story was true. She heard snippets of their discourse. It was hard to keep the amusement at bay. She concentrated on her headache. It wasn’t as severe as before. That was odd.

  “The MacKennahs? Here? In the open?”

  “They’re a craven bunch of game-playing fools.”

  “That Torquil is the worst of them.”

  “Double the guards. I will na’ have her abducted. I doona’ care how many went on with the bastard. Call on more.” Colin turned back to her, and Elise pretended complete ignorance. She was having a difficult time meeting his eyes. She didn’t wish to decide the reason.

  “You’re na’ to be out alone. It’s na’ safe.”

  “I didn’t harm anyone,” she replied.

  “I will na’ have anything happen to you.”

  “But I tell you it was a MacGowan who came for me!” This scene wasn’t calming her head, but she would never admit it.

  “It was a shyster in MacGowan clothing.”

  “How am I supposed to know who to follow, then?” she asked.

  He pulled himself to his full height and put his hands on his hips as he considered her. The cut of his coat was responsible for the deep funnel shape of his torso, she decided, eyeing it. Then he spoke again.

  “You doona’ recognize the Honor Guard yet?”

  “I’ve tried not to take note of any MacGowan about me, Your Grace. Any. It’s enough that I recognize the sett, isn’t it? Or do you wish me on more familiar terms with them?”

  “Nae and nae. Dinna’ this experience teach you anything?”

  “What experience? I followed your
man to this room, and then I got to patiently await your presence. I fail to see the harm.”

  “That was nae MacGowan, and I doona’ have time for this. We’re late for the banquet as it is. I’ve enemies in Scotland, Elise. Why do you think the Honor Guard is necessary?”

  “Protection from me, perhaps? How am I supposed to know? I’m just a Sassenach.” She bit her bottom lip on the last word, but it wasn’t soon enough. She could tell by the quick intake of breath.

  “I’m na’ arguing this a moment further. Come.”

  “I’m not arguing. You asked questions and I answered them. Would you rather I was silent?”

  “I doona’ believe so. In fact, nae. I’ve been treated to it enough.”

  “You actually wish to converse with me now? Will you need your guard about, then, in the event I need to be silenced?”

  “I already said I was na’ arguing this. Come along.”

  “If I must have them about me, I guess I’ll do my best to learn names and faces, then. Will you do the introductions on my shadows?”

  “It will na’ be necessary. You will na’ need the Honor Guard. I’ve made another choice: I’ll be your shadow.”

  “I... refuse.” Her voice was as tight as the constricting band looping over her entire innards.

  “Must everything be a fight with you? You can na’ refuse. I’m your husband. You’re my wife. You have to obey. Obey. Dinna’ you remember that part of the ceremony, either?”

  Elise tried another tack. She smiled seductively before using a throaty tone. “Oh, please, this is all so unnecessary, Your Grace. I promise I won’t leave my cell unless you or a member of your guard that I recognize comes for me. Won’t that suffice?”

  His face could have been made of granite for all the expression it had. Elise waited a moment longer before he answered her. “I’ve been lax. Tonight has educated me.”

  Her exasperation was showing in her next words. She couldn’t prevent it before she was midway through. “To what, pray tell? I did exactly as I was bade, and now I’m threatened with your presence every waking moment. The punishment hardly fits, I would say.”

  He sighed and reached for her elbow to move her to his side. “I have enemies, Elise. I’m fairly certain I’ve already said that. I will na’ repeat it again.”