Questions for a Highlander

by Angeline Fortin

  Jack merely shook his head with a cluck of his tongue. “You know, last night my initial solution to your presence was merely to kill you and have done with it. In my mind, it is quite the quickest and easiest solution and, truly, what is another weighted body in the river? I do so hate wasting my time with such triviality as you represent.” His voice was uncaring, nonchalant, and William’s eyes widened slightly.

  “Heathens such as he are your friends now, Evelyn?” William sneered, though Eve could see some trepidation in his eyes. While Francis’ threat the previous evening had been one of angry aggression with a palpable potential for physical harm, Eve realized William had been prepared for what it entailed. Jack’s offhand threats, it seemed, presented an incalculable risk that left her husband with some apprehension, if not outright fear. It was a pleasure to see.

  Eve looked up at Jack with an amused half-smile twitching the corner of her mouth. “It would seem so.”

  Jack waved a bored hand. “Why don’t you leave now, before I decide to proceed with my first instincts? I do have a bit of spare time this morning. Then we can be done with this.”

  “Fine,” William’s voice grew low and cool. “I will go for now. Evelyn, I want you ready in two days to return to London. I am quite done with this backwoods place and have other business to take care of. Did you hear me?”

  Eve tilted her head to the side at his frosty tone and stared at him for a minute. “I did hear you, William.”

  “Then see that you obey as you vowed to do!” William turned on his heel and stomped out of the room, leaving Eve and Jack staring at each other.

  “Did that bastard hurt you?” Jack asked, his previous worry once again showing in his eyes.

  Holding her hands out before her, Eve could see that they had started to shake and a tiny sob escaped her, but it was enough for Jack to squat before her and take her hands in his. “Tell me you’re fine.”

  “I’m fine,” she parroted, but when his arms came around her, Eve accepted the comfort and leaned her cheek against his shoulder while tears of relief flowed from her eyes. “I was so scared when he grabbed me. I thought he was going to try and drag me out of here. He is so angry, Jack.”

  “He didn’t look too mad.”

  “The quieter and calmer William gets, the angrier he is,” she said into his shoulder. “He was quite livid.”

  “Good thing he left then.”

  Eve accepted his embrace for a couple more minutes before she drew back and met his eye as he remained on his haunches level with her. “Thank you, Jack,” she said simply. “That was most decent of you.”

  “I would rather have ripped his head from his shoulders,” he shrugged carelessly.

  “You know, you might, maybe, be just a little likeable.” She squeezed his big hand between her own small ones affectionately.

  Jack threw back his head and laughed, before raising her hands and pressing a kiss to them. “Does that mean you are ready to forsake Francis for me then?” he asked with a warm twinkle in his eye.

  “No,” she laughed, “but I might be more willing to tolerate your company from time to time.”

  They laughed, comfortable with each other for the first time. “I’m sorry I called you a swine,” Eve offered.

  Jack frowned in confusion. “When did you do that?”

  “The first time we met.”

  “Oh, I was so drunk after accepting my fate to wed!” he chuckled. “I hardly remember our first meeting at all.”

  “Well, if you don’t remember, I take it back,” she responded pertly and joined him in laughter again.

  “Am I interrupting something?” Francis asked from the doorway and as the misery of the last hour flooded Eve, she pushed Jack away and raced to Francis throwing herself into his arms.

  “I say!” Jack sputtered as he sprawled on his backside. “Some thanks this is!”

  “Thanks for what?” Francis asked as he held Eve against him. “I got a message from Hobbes while I was with my solicitor, but he merely said I was needed. What happened?”

  “That bastard Shaftesbury nearly assaulted Eve!” Jack exaggerated and Francis started pulling back from Eve to stare down at her in concern.

  “Are you alright? What happened?” He ran his hands up and down her arms as if to ensure that Eve was healthy and whole.

  “Jack exaggerates, as usual,” Eve rolled her eyes. “William came as we expected.” They had agreed the previous evening that Francis would not be present for this morning’s visit lest he and William come to blows and they lose the opportunity to discover the man’s motivations. Eve had insisted that he instead see his solicitor to inquire after the marriage legalities. “He made some subtle threats, and not so subtle demands, and grabbed my arms.”

  “He was shaking her like a ragdoll when I came in,” Jack corrected, brushing himself off as he stood. “Her head might have snapped right off.”

  “Jack really,” was her scold, but she admitted, “I was scared, it’s true, but thankful Jack was here to scare him off.”

  “Why weren’t you there earlier?” Francis growled at his friend. “I asked you to be here first thing this morning.”

  “Overslept,” Jack shrugged. “At least I was present when it mattered.”

  “He’s right, Francis, leave him be,” cautioned Eve when Francis looked ready to show his friend his fist. “He was here when it mattered and it is over with.”

  “For now.”

  “For now,” she allowed.

  “So what does he want?” Francis asked at length.

  “Just what he said last night. He wants Laurie and I back in London. I’m certain he wants his identity and wealth back as well and might need me there to accomplish that. He seems insistent that we leave very soon.” Eve crossed her arms. “He wants to punish me.”

  “He will not have that opportunity, I promise you,” Francis assured her softly, cupping her cheeks in his hands. His thumbs caressed in slow circles as he lowered his forehead to touch hers.

  “I know.” Eve sighed when he lowered his lips to hers, brushing them lightly.

  Clearing his throat uncomfortably, Jack interrupted the private moment. “Please! I haven’t eaten as yet. Come Francis! So what says the solicitor, married or not?”

  “He believes not, in the most basic generalities,” the earl told them, giving Eve one last kiss before stepping aside. “In normal situations, anyway. The formality of the investigation of his death by the crown and the legal transfer of his title should mean that William Ashley-Cooper does not exist and Eve is a widow, but he is uncertain whether the ruling might be overridden when he presents himself at court and all his properties are reinstated to him.” He cast a sidelong glance at Eve, who read the implications easily.

  “And I am one of those properties,” she said hollowly.

  “It would depend how the courts rule. He may just get the properties and the marriage would remain dissolved, especially if you had already remarried,” he hinted. “It behooves us to have it done quickly.”

  “If he is reinstated as earl, he will have legal right to Laurie,” was her dull reply. “He will take my son from me.”

  “We won’t allow that, Eve.”

  Eve stared up at him with pained eyes. “You won’t be able to stop him, Francis. It would be his right. And before you say it, a divorce won’t fix it either. He would still get custody of Laurie and where in the past he might have let me raise him just because he didn’t like or need him, he would keep him now simply to spite me. To cause me pain.”

  “Eve…”

  “No! You don’t understand! How can you understand? I won’t lose my son, Francis!” Eve cried and fled the room in tears. “I’ve been through too much!”

  “Let her go, MacKintosh,” Jack said as Francis made to follow her. “She’s just upset right now. Give her time to regain her head.”

  “And you know her so well now?” Francis raised a brow. “Just what was that when I came in anyway?”
<
br />   Raising both hands, Haddington backed away with a mocking smile. “Just comforting the damsel in distress, old man, nothing more. You needn’t worry.”

  “I’m not worried.”

  “Good, then, tell me what else happened this morning.”

  “What do you mean?” Francis hedged.

  “I’ve known you since we were in short pants, MacKintosh,” Jack raised a brow. “Give over, something’s eating at you and it isn’t the husband.”

  With a sigh, Francis gave in, running a frustrated hand through his hair. “It’s Vanessa.”

  “What’s the bitch up to now?” Jack went to the sideboard and poured drinks for them both, handing one to Francis.

  “The problem is, I’m not entirely certain.” Francis took a long swallow of the strong Scots whisky and winced as it burned its way down. Satisfied, he took another. “She came at me this morning as I was leaving the solicitor. She was hanging on me and begging me not to be so cruel to her and such. She was wailing like a banshee, bringing all kinds of attention down upon us.”

  “Odd, that.” Jack drank as well. “But we knew that she’d been trying to gain the sympathies of the Society ladies. Perhaps she is just trying to broaden the scope of her supposedly tragic life.”

  “But to what end?” Neither had an answer. Francis himself was becoming more bemused by the entire situation. Their marriage had never involved the fiction Vanessa was now spewing. There had been anger, for sure, over the whole situation and her infidelities, but he had never raised a hand to her, no matter how richly she had deserved it. With a mind not far from adolescence, his worst revenge had been to match her in the number of lovers he took. Violence had never occurred to him. His father had been a man who honored his wife and Francis had patterned his attitude toward women after that example. At worst, he had been reduced to verbal expression.

  So, Vanessa was creating lies, making a spectacle of herself. That act might have garnered some sympathy for her and a little speculation about him, but it wasn’t going to make her innocent in anyone’s eyes or grant her respectability. No one liked a woman who made an exhibition of herself. Surely she knew, despite her pleas, that he would never take her back! What was her purpose then? And what was Shaftesbury’s role in this whole mess? It was a perplexing situation.

  “Perhaps we should find some of her former lovers to rebuke the gossip with the truth of her infidelity,” Jack suggested, while they both rolled the problem around in their heads.

  “I’d rather that scandal not raise its ugly head again.”

  “And being seen as a wife-beater and abuser is better than being a cuckold?” Jack snorted.

  “Thank you, my friend,” came the sarcastic retort. “I just wish I could figure out what they are planning.”

  “Don’t we all?”

  Chapter 40

  Eve was just climbing into bed that night when the door opened and Francis slipped quietly into her room. “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here, Francis, especially right now.”

  “I should always be here,” he answered softly. “Especially right now.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace. After a moment, she returned his hug. “How are you, paradise?” he whispered into her hair. “You haven’t come back downstairs all day. Did you eat at all?”

  “Some,” she lied. “Mostly I spent the day in the nursery. I am so flooded with feeling. I’m shocked, stunned… scared,” Eve admitted with a sigh. “Terrified. Exhausted. I can’t believe this is happening, Francis. It was hard enough to deal with getting married again, no offense intended of course.”

  “None taken.”

  “But now I have to deal with a divorce as well.”

  “Then you haven’t changed your mind?” The relief in his voice was evident. He had feared with Shaftesbury’s veiled threat to Laurie that Eve would give in without argument. While a part of him wouldn’t have blamed her, he had come ready to argue the issue.

  “No, not at all,” she told him with a negative shake of her head. “I will not remain married to him. I just need to find a way to keep Laurie out of it.”

  “I am proud of you, my love.” Francis turned with her in his arms and sat in one of the armchairs in front of the fire, pulling Eve into his lap where she snuggled in and rested her head on his shoulder. It felt so very good to have his strength and comfort. She had not realized until just that moment how much she needed him, his presence, to see her through this. What a fool she had been, wish-washing back and forth about whether she should marry him. He had fought for her, she should have known all along that she should fight for him as well.

  “I’m so sorry, Francis,” she whispered. “I have kept you on pins and needles all week, vacillating about our relationship, when I should have told you I’d marry you from the beginning. I showed no faith in you. I doubted whether it might work out and now look at us, with an even bigger fight ahead. No, I haven’t changed my mind. I knew over a year ago I could never live with William again and I do not intend to.”

  Francis squeezed her close and clapped a hand hard to her bottom. “Ooo, what was that for?” she squealed.

  “For keeping me guessing.”

  “Not nice!”

  “I could kiss it and make it better…” He waggled his eyebrows.

  Eve’s eyes widened at the idea before she shook her head. “Just stay with me tonight and hold me. I might have made some broad leaps lately but I’m not sure I’m ready to explore what might possibly be adultery yet. I just want to feel the strength of you while I sleep.”

  “Well, there’s something we haven’t tried yet,” he teased with a sexual undertone. But acquiescing without argument, he stood, lifting her in his arms and carried her to the bed. Leaving her to scoot under the covers, he shed his clothes quickly and climbed in beside her, pulling her close to his side. The heat of his body warmed her instantly as she rested her head on his chest listening to the steady beat of his heart, his arms strong in their embrace but not uncomfortably tight.

  She listened for a moment to his heart, his steady breathing and the crackle of the fire. Never had she felt as safe and secure as she did at that moment. It would be all right, she thought. It would work out. It might take time; Francis’ divorce had taken years to be finalized. It would definitely take effort. But it would be alright in the end, as long as they had each other.

  “I will need to go home to Da as soon as possible, I think,” she murmured as she ran her fingers through the rough hair that covered Francis’ chest. “We were married in New York and Da has several friends who are judges in high positions. He should be able to pay off enough people to get the thing done quickly.”

  “Very practical way of going about it,” Francis chuckled, thinking of Shaftesbury’s surprise were they to leave the country without his knowledge. Would serve the bastard right to wonder where they had disappeared to.

  “If we can get it into the records as abandonment before William thinks to go to the Queen and Parliament to regain the title, it might hold up without having to have Parliament approve it as they needed to do for you.”

  “Maybe.” Again he wasn’t sure of the legalities of it all. Could a lord gain a divorce without parliamentary procedure? Did the American laws supersede? All he knew was that he wanted her freed from her marriage as quickly as possible. He wanted her for his own wife! He had already started planning for their wedding and didn’t want to be put off for long. “We really need to go as soon as possible then.”

  “You will come with me?”

  “To the ends of the earth, paradise.”

  “I love you so much.” Eve yawned against his chest.

  “As I love you. Sleep, paradise, we will figure it out in the morning.”

  Chapter 41

  Vanessa returned to her hotel suite that evening in high spirits, following a midnight rendezvous with a young lawyer she had met at the hotel’s restaurant, and whispered into the shadowy rooms. “Shaftesbury, are
you there?”

  “You needn’t whisper, my dear,” the past Earl of Shaftesbury’s voice replied from the darkness. “There is no one nearby to overhear you.”

  Vanessa turned a knob on the wall, raising the gas lights up enough to locate Shaftesbury in the room. She discovered him ensconced comfortably in an armchair near the empty fireplace, sipping from a glass of her best brandy. “Well, I merely thought to be careful since you wanted no one to know you are here.”

  “You know as well as I that it is best for our plan’s success that you are seen with no male company at this point. However I realize that might be nigh impossible for you,” he drawled. He had managed to keep his identity veiled despite his confrontation with Glenrothes at the Roxburghe ball. In the best circumstances, he would have taken Evelyn without anyone being the wiser, but unfortunately that portion of his plan had failed. The second part would not.

  “You’ve kept me waiting, my dear.”

  “Sorry, my lord.”

  “But at least your day went well, I hear, better than I had even hoped. The town is abuzz with tales of Glenrothes’ temper and vile deeds. However did you get him to throw you down on the cobbles this morning, my dear? It was quite brilliant.” Ashley-Cooper tossed out the compliment knowing that she would seize upon it. Like a dog offered a juicy bone.

  “He was so angry, I’m not even sure he realized he had done it.” Vanessa dropped into his lap and kissed his bruised jaw and swollen nose before hugging his head to her bosom. “I told you he had developed a vile temper, didn’t I?”

  “You did indeed.” Shaftesbury withdrew from her embrace and pushed her off his lap, with a firm squeeze of her breasts to soften the rejection. He had shared her bed several times over the past week. A year without female companionship was enough for any man to bear and she was ever so enthusiastic a bed partner, nearly insatiable in fact. She had served her role in that capacity as well as being the catalyst to ruining Glenrothes’ image, but neither role compared to the part she was to play in the next phase of his revenge. Now she would take center stage as the play reached its climax. “Everything has progressed brilliantly. You have done such a neat job of it, in fact, I believe we may proceed with the next part of my plan.”