Questions for a Highlander

by Angeline Fortin

  He had to. He would never be able to move on with his life if he didn’t have that knowledge that he had truly done all he could. Even if his mission failed, at least he would know that he had done all in his power to save the others.

  As if he somehow sensed her eyes on him, Richard awoke. He smiled softly at her, running his fingers through her hair before a frown formed between his eyes. “What is it?”

  “You must go, Richard,” she whispered softly.

  “What?”

  “Go find Vin. Find Jace and the others,” she added, feeling as if she were tearing at her own soul out even as she said the words. She would lose him, perhaps forever. It broke her heart to even think it, but she couldn’t tie him here. “You’ve done all you can here to get those responsible to do the right thing. The time for hoping is over. You need to take the problem into your own hands. You need to do it. Not only for them. I understand that.”

  “But this…”

  “Will always be here,” Abby interrupted, hoping it was the truth. “My father knows the Duke of Cambridge very well. I have asked him to intervene on your behalf. Cambridge is your last hope, is he not?”

  “Aye,” Richard said softly, though his body had tensed with something… anticipation, perhaps? “We hadn’t yet been able to track him down. We need the duke to drive our petition. Without him, no one else is willing to act.”

  “Father has agreed to beg the favor of the duke,” Abby went on. “I pray that he will say ‘yes’ and your problems will be solved, but if he does not, I think you should return to Egypt straight away and search on your own.”

  “Francis and I had already spoken of going,” Richard confessed. “There is a Navy battleship leaving from Portsmouth for the Suez Canal just three days hence that we could gain passage on. It is all the Prince of Wales was willing to do to assist us.”

  “Three days?” Abby repeated numbly. Even in encouraging him to go, she had never considered that it might happen so quickly. Still, as much as it might break her heart, it needed to be done. She couldn’t bear seeing his pain any longer. She couldn’t draw out her own needs to hold him back. Swallowing painfully, Abby gathered up a reassuring smile. “Don’t you think you should be on it then?”

  “It might take longer than that for your father to meet with Cambridge,” Richard said. “Perhaps we should wait a bit longer. Just in case.”

  Tears burned behind her eyes but Abby shook her head. She knew what he was offering… for her, but Abby couldn’t be so selfish. Returning to Egypt was something Richard had to do if he had any hope of being freed from his guilt. He had to go, it was as simple as that and she told him so.

  “We’ll see,” was all he said before encouraging her back into his arms. They lay there in silence for a moment, each with their own thoughts before Richard added, “I suppose we should get you home before your absence is noted.”

  Abby sighed reluctantly. She was where she wanted to be. “I suppose.”

  Chapter 30

  I can get on with wild beasts first-rate;

  But men rile me awfully…

  - Louisa May Alcott, Jo’s Boys

  “Put up the hood of your cloak as we ride, angel,” Richard whispered as they left his chamber. “It’s not yet light out, perhaps we can get you home without anyone noticing.”

  “Not much chance of that, I’d say,” a deep voice barked out and Richard and Abby both stopped guiltily in their tracks to find Jack about half way up the stairs before them.

  Jack was still in his evening clothes, though he was disheveled enough that it was clear he hadn’t been in them all night. Abby thought she should feel as much guilt for being caught with Richard, as Jack should feel at being caught in such a state. Since it appeared that he felt none, Abby refused to give into her mortification and crossed her arms stubbornly across her chest. Glaring at him even as Jack scowled back.

  “Just getting in, old chap?” Richard offered tauntingly as if he were of the same opinion as Abby. Abby admired his calm. To be sure, Jack looked fit to be tied.

  “You lied,” Jack said in a low menacing voice as he climbed the remaining stairs to the landing.

  Richard held up a hand, shaking his head. “No, I did not lie, Jack. I had no intention of seducing your sister. I swear to you.”

  “Jack, it’s my fault! I came here of my own free will. Richard did nothing that I didn’t beg him to do!” Abby said calmly, reaching out to her brother, then cringing back when her brother’s angry glower turned to her briefly. His eyes dropped then and Abby looked down to see that her cloak had parted, revealing the tattered remains of her blouse.

  Jack’s black gaze targeted Richard. “You’re a dead man, MacKintosh.”

  “Jack, you’re being ridiculous!” Abby responded, stepping between them.

  “No, angel,” Richard said softly, taking her hand. “It’s his right to do this. I knew I was doing the wrong thing and I will pay the price for it.”

  “It wasn’t the wrong thing, Richard!” she cried, wrapping her arms around him. “Was it? I love you, Richard. I always have. I went to Ascot all those years ago to find you, to see you. I’ve wanted this always, loved you always. It isn’t wrong. Tell me you don’t think it was wrong!”

  Richard looked down at Abby standing there in her voluminous cloak. She was nearly drowning in it, if truth be told. She didn’t look like a child playing dress up at all, but rather like a tousled woman who had been well loved through a long night. Her vivid turquoise eyes were wide with uncertainty but that love she spoke of was there, too. Reaching out, he cupped her cheek tenderly. “No, in itself, this night was not wrong, my angel, but I did tell Jack that I wouldn’t seduce you.”

  “You didn’t,” Abby reminded him. “I seduced you, remember?”

  A reluctant smile lifted the corner of Richard’s lips. “Aye, you have since the moment I saw you again.” Richard bent his head and brushed a soft kiss on her lips, whispering, “Don’t worry, angel, I don’t think he’ll literally kill me.”

  “Enough of this!” Jack growled.

  Ignoring her brother, Abby placed a tender hand over Richard’s heart. Her fingers curling against him and her eyes pleaded with him. But, Richard just took her hand, kissed her fingers and turned purposefully away.

  “Ready then, Jack?”

  The words had barely passed Richard’s lips before Jack whirled about catching Richard under the jaw with a sharp right hook. A hard left to Richard’s midsection promptly followed the unexpected blow.

  The punch, so close to his recent wound, left Richard more stunned than the uppercut. He bent over, panting in pain.

  “I say, Jack!” Abby cried out, rushing to Richard’s side. “That’s not at all fair, hitting him just there! He’s been injured, you know!”

  “That is not my problem!” Jack snarled. “Come on then, MacKintosh! Or are you going to hide behind a woman’s skirts?”

  A split second later, Jack’s head snapped back from the powerful jab that Richard delivered to his chin and he staggered a step to the side.

  Richard grinned at his lifelong friend. “Let’s at it then, eh, old chap?”

  Abby watched, cringing and flinching, as the blows were exchanged one after another. Her stomach roiled, with misery and dread. Richard was barely recovered, but Jack had little mercy.

  There was nothing pulled, no quarter given for a lifetime as mates. But Richard gave as good as he got, going so far as to tackle her brother around the waist and drive him into a tall étagère that occupied a small niche along the hallway. It tipped sideways with crash after crash as the glass on each level shattered, the porcelain knick-knacks inside spilling out. A table with a vase of flowers was next. Then a large landscape fell with a solid thud.

  “What the bloody hell’s going on here?” Francis yelled from down the hall. He was in his dressing gown, obviously awakened by the noise. Servants, too, were beginning to filter into the hall.

  Glenrothes took in Abby and the figh
ting men in a swift, keen glance before he turned on his heel with a yawn. “Somebody fetch me when it’s over, won’t you?”

  Abby looked between Francis and the fight with a look of wide-eyed disbelief before crossing her arms with a scowl, calling above the fray, “You are all quite mad! Mad! Do you hear me?”

  “You lads all finished then? Back to being friends now?” Abby drawled sarcastically about half an hour later as Jack and Richard both lounged back in hard wooden chairs in the dining room. Jack was holding a beefsteak over one eye while Abby dabbed at Richard’s bloody knuckles with witch-hazel.

  “You think something like this would come between lifelong friends?” Francis asked with a chuckle. With neither beefsteak nor injury to distract him, he was instead working his way steadily through a large plate of eggs and a rasher of bacon.

  Abby rolled her eyes in disgust. What was it about men that they might be able to beat one another with their bare fists and not have it affect their friendship? Surely such an altercation between two women would forever alter their relationship but Francis seemed to think that Jack and Richard would simply shake hands and forget the rest. “You are all quite ridiculous.”

  With a deep sigh to express her disgust in the male species, Abby dropped her rag and Richard’s hand, and turned away to pour herself a cup of tea. The housekeeper had seen to the loan of a blouse and undergarments for Abby from one of the upstairs maids, so she was at least able to sit among the men without being a constant reminder of what had started the fight to begin with.

  Jack, however, seemed to need no help remembering. Dropping the steak, he leveled a hard look upon Richard through his one good eye. “Are you going to do the right thing here, MacKintosh? Or do I need to take this to my father? I think it might be the one thing in life that we can agree on.”

  “I will,” Richard said without hesitation but it was too much for Abby.

  “No, he won’t,” she said firmly. All three men turned to look at her in surprise. “Richard and Francis, too, will be leaving shortly to return to Egypt to find Vin and Jace. I’m sure you’ve heard them speaking of it. I know you worry for me, Jack, and I love you but I must insist that Richard do this. When he returns and if he cares to ask anything of me, he can do it in his own time and for reasons more acceptable to me than this.”

  “I can wed you before I go, angel.”

  He held out his hand to her and Abby took it, squeezing it affectionately. “And I can wait until you get back, Richard. You have said it yourself, you are out of options and out of time. Go! Please!”

  Richard’s eyes probed hers, looking for answers but Abby just shook her head. She wouldn’t give in on this, not when it was so important to him.

  “Gentlemen, may I have a private word with Abby, please?”

  “A word had better be all you’re having,” Jack grunted, waving them away.

  “Make it quick, Richard,” Francis reminded. “The morning is half gone already. We’ll need to get her home soon.”

  Chapter 31

  It is never too late to be what you might have been.

  - George Eliot

  Still holding Abby’s hand, Richard rose and led her out of the dining room and across the hall to the parlor. Closing the door behind them, Richard drew Abby into his arms and looked down at her, wondering where to begin. She already had a look on her face that he remembered from years past. She was determined to have her way and wouldn’t hear a word to the contrary.

  She had always been a tough nut to crack, Richard thought with amusement. She liked things to go her way and had always been ready with a sharp glance and sharper words to whip away any opposition. Strange, but instead of it prompting irritation, he felt only tenderness for that attribute. In fact, it was one of many things he loved about her.

  Abby also liked to get in the first word… and the last word of any argument, he recalled and sought to cut of her off before she even had a chance to get warmed up.

  “Don’t think for one…” she started.

  Cradling the back of her head in one hand, Richard tugged her to him cutting off her words with a swift kiss before raising his head.

  “But I…”

  He kissed her again. She was stiff in his arms. So ready for a fight that she couldn’t even relent for a moment.

  “Richard, I…”

  Richard slanted his mouth over hers again, teasing her lips with his tongue until her body wilted against him and she parted her lips with a sigh. He drew her bottom lip between his and sucked gently rousing a moan from Abby. Her arms snaked around his neck until she was pressed flush against his body.

  “Richard,” she began only to pause and bite her bottom lip when he raised a brow.

  “May I?” he asked.

  “May you what?” she asked.

  “Launch the first volley?” he explained, and was rewarded with Abby’s soft blush and self-depreciating chuckle. Aye, Abby knew herself as well as he did. She inclined her head regally.

  “I am going to go to Egypt,” he said, biting back a smile at her look of astonishment. Of course, she thought that she knew what he was going to say. It was actually quite rewarding to have surprised her. “It needs to be done and I have to be the one to do it. But beyond that, I don’t want to put you in a position that would hold you up to censure from the ton. I don’t want you to face the gossip of a hasty wedding. I believe you’d had enough of being dangled up for their enjoyment.”

  “I have,” she agreed softly, her hand reaching up to stroke his cheek as if thanking him for his understanding and consideration.

  Encouraged by her feminine compliance, Richard hugged her to him and went on, “That being said, we must marry. Jack would have it no other way and I wouldn’t either,” he added, sensing that an argument was building inside of her. “I knew before I even took you to my bed last night that it was the inevitable outcome. We will marry before I leave.”

  “But I don’t…” Abby stuttered. “You just said…”

  “We will do it quietly and make a formal announcement when I return,” Richard assured her. Cradling her face in his hands, Richard looked down at Abby’s angelic face, reading there a willfulness that he knew would challenge him in the years to come. To his surprise, he was looking forward to it. “I don’t know what it is between us, angel, but I think it’s something worth exploring. Once I have Vin back, I promise I will court you as you deserve.”

  Abby stilled in Richard’s embrace. It wasn’t a protestation of his love but she had not expected that from him yet. She suspected that she had shocked him with her own confession but hadn’t necessarily unnerved him with it. Abby also understood that there could be no future for Richard, not a truly free future at any rate, until he was able to finish the task at hand, and she didn’t want him until he was able to give himself to her with a free heart. She wouldn’t have him any other way.

  But could she have him at all? Abby bit her lip. She had made a bargain with her father, after all. Richard deserved the best chance possible to save his friends. Given her father’s current attitude regarding the whole situation, he was unlikely to assist them at all if he knew there was no reward waiting for him in the end. It all boiled down to her father and what his choice would be. She could have no answer for Richard until then. So instead of giving him a direct answer, Abby said only, “I’ve been waiting for you my entire life, Richard, I can wait a little longer.”

  “That sounds suspiciously like a ‘no’,” Richard said with a frown.

  “I think there’s no reason to rush into this,” Abby told him.

  “I believe there is.”

  A knock sounded at the door and Francis’ voice filled the silence that had fallen following Richard’s response. “The carriage is here.”

  “Shall we?” Abby asked brightly, turning away.

  Chapter 32

  I can’t go back to yesterday

  Because I was a different person then.

  - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Won
derland

  114 Mount Street, London

  Later that morning

  Glenrothes’ carriage pulled up on Mount Street to find the front stoop of the townhouse entirely blocked by the elegant carriage parked before it. Though the large coach was unmarked, it was evident given the quality of the horses and quantity of footmen attached to the coach that its owner was a wealthy one. As the earl’s driver maneuvered behind the larger conveyance, Abby’s heart seized with bewilderment. Could her father have actually done as she asked and was even now begging Cambridge’s assistance for Richard? She had never imagined he would be so proactive to her challenge.

  But if the duke was inside! Conflicting emotions raced through Abby. Gladness that Richard might finally gain the assistance he so desperately sought and simple dread of the same knotted her stomach.

  “What’s going on here, do you think?” Jack asked, peering through the window of Glenrothes’ closed carriage. Bother Richard and Francis, who had insisted on accompanying them, looked curious as well. The entourage did create quite a display.

  “It could be anyone,” Abby told them, though she couldn’t banish the tension from her voice. “Help me down, won’t you, Jack? I better be getting in before anyone notices I’m gone.”

  “That wouldn’t be a problem if you hadn’t…”

  “Oh, stuff it, Jack. I don’t need a lecture,” Abby responded just as Richard opened the door and leapt down.

  “I’ll escort you in, angel.”

  With raised brows, Abby shook her head. True, she wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her days on his arm, but this wasn’t the moment to begin. Not with so many uncertainties lying just beyond her front door. “I doubt that’s the best idea, Richard.”