“Indeed, I am afraid that I have. I apologize for leaving you all in a position where he was called upon and considered needed,” Douglas said. Despite his own dread, guilt plagued him for not being at his primary post.
“There is no need for apology, General. From what I have been told, and who is to say whether it is true, the major has been sent with a special task. Something they believed he was the right man to enact. I do not know if anyone is aware exactly of his orders, but he has been acting rather peculiar,” Richard informed in hushed tones.
“Peculiar how?” Douglas prodded. If the major was doing anything he should not have done, he wanted to know about it. It would give him leverage in ensuring the fort was run his way.
“He brought back a young woman. He said she is of great value and we are not to touch her. I think that brings her a bit of relief. But still, if you had seen her expressions during dinner, you would have been sad for her,” Richard said naively.
“How so?” Douglas inquired, wondering who the woman might be.
“It was very clear that she was trying to appear strong, but felt a deep sadness and a deep fear. I cannot say much beyond that. I barely even saw the woman, and only from a distance. But it was long enough for me to sense her unease,” Richard explained.
“And when was she brought?” he asked.
“Just this morning. Looked like she had been our riding all night, the poor dear. I don’t know, General Warwick, I can’t say exactly, but there is something about her that melts a man’s heart. What a pity that the major has none!” Richard said with a balance of a joke and a serious dismay.
“This morning? So she was brought quite recently?” Douglas continued.
“Yes. General? What is it? Why are you so curious about this young woman?” he asked. Richard clearly was not aware that this was the very young woman who had sent Douglas on his intense quest for his identity.
“Do you know anything at all about her?” he asked.
“Only that she is from Dunmore. I know you have grown rather fond of that region, and that is why I was hesitant to tell you. I do not wish to disturb you, but she is from Dunmore,” Richard said.
Douglas felt all the air surrounding him being sucked out of his lungs.
She was here. Grace was here. That was the only explanation. It had to be Grace. Who else could it be?
The question would have to go unanswered for another half hour.
“And she is being treated well?” Douglas asked.
“Of course! My goodness, you have seen prisoners before. I have never seen you quite this worked up and distressed about one. General, is everything alright? Why are you so passionate about this?” Richard asked.
Douglas sighed in horror. With Richard, could he share, in detail, what was on his heart? “Listen, Lieutenant. I have to see her. I must speak with her at once,” he insisted. His urgency seemed to cause Richard hesitancy and a bit of fear.
“But, General…She is being held captive in the house that Major Dashfield has chosen to occupy,” he said.
“Well then. We had best find a good excuse,” Douglas said.
“Again, I have to ask. Why are you so intent on speaking with the lady?” Richard inquired once more.
“Recall the reason I went in search of my mother?” Douglas asked.
“Of course, you were in love with a woman. But you never told me any great details. Merely that you loved her and things did not quite seem to work out,” Richard replied.
“Because she is a Jacobite. Because she is a Scottish woman,” Douglas said.
Richard allowed himself to remain silent for a moment as he took it all in and recognized how some of his advice might not have been so advisable after all. “Wow. That is actually very intense. However, I still believe with my whole being that you will be able to overcome the challenges. And are you sure it is her?” he asked, simultaneously trying to calm his friend’s nerves.
“I cannot imagine it being anyone else. My lady vanished from her home in the night and I am determined to find her at all costs. It just so happens that she is most likely the young woman from Dunmore who was brought here for rather suspicious purposes,” Douglas explained.
“Well, we do not know for certain,” Richard said.
“We never do, Lieutenant.”
Douglas proceeded forward and made his way to the home Major Dashfield had been using. It was easy to convince the two guards outside that he was sent to check on the prisoner. After all, it had formerly been his job to oversee such a thing.
Nevertheless, here he was, a mere door away from Grace. A mere door away from the woman he would give anything for.
Beyond The Doorway And Into Arms
“Come in…” Grace said hesitantly. This was the first time anyone had bothered to knock. Who might be so kind and gentle as to knock rather than forcing their way in? She was a mere prisoner.
However, the knob slowly turned and when the door opened, she saw him standing before her. The same blonde hair, the same green eyes, the same light beard with flicks of red throughout it.
He gazed at her and Grace wondered what the next move was, and who would make it.
“You’re all right.” It was a statement, not a question or a command. If was purely a statement of relief, of unanticipated satisfaction. Douglas inhaled and released the breath in the knowledge that she was okay.
Grace stared at him cautiously. She still didn’t know his intentions, still didn’t know whether he had had a hand in all of this. “Aye, I’m all right. Yer men havnae harmed me,” she said in order to express what she really felt deep down.
“Please, I had no idea, Grace,” Douglas said, suddenly desperate due to her unspoken accusation. “I was not even aware that they had sent Major Dashfield, the brute. I knew nothing about it. Please believe me.”
Grace remained aloof. She could not allow herself to be too close to him. It was far too great a struggle to be this close already. What if he should prove untrustworthy after all? What if he was only here to gain her confidence and ask questions?
“Listen, Grace. You may believe what you wish, and truly, I can understand your suspicion. But allow me to say what I must. Will you allow me to speak?” he asked.
“How can I say no? I am locked in here with ye. There are guards outside preventing me from any other options,” she replied dryly.
“I do not wish for you to listen merely because you cannot escape. I wish for you to listen because you want to. Because you feel the same as I do. That is what I want from you, Grace. I want your honest heart, your true feelings. Will you please honor me with those?” he requested.
Grace felt her resolve melting. How could she refuse him? She loved him and her heart betrayed her strength of mind. Of course, she would allow him to speak. She would try to remain cold and aloof, but she could not bear for him to leave her now that he had arrived. To answer Douglas, she merely nodded.
“You know I went in search of something, and it was my mother. Did Meredith speak to you afterward?” he asked.
“No. When I asked how it went, she was rather vague and told me that it wasnae me family business to ken,” Grace replied bitterly.
Douglas nodded in acknowledgement of her plight. “But it is mine. And I would share it with you.”
Douglas took Grace’s hand and she felt her heart betray her once again. It longed for him to take both her hands, to pull her into him, not to let go.
“Careful,” she warned. “The guard might come. They might believe that ye are actually here for me.”
“I am here for you, Grace. I spent the whole day scouring the woods for you. I went to Dunmore to find you after I met with her and Joanna told me you had vanished. Learning that you were a prisoner here was a shock and it broke my heart. You do not deserve this,” he said in grief.
Finally, Grace’s resolve weakened. The honesty in Douglas’s eyes was more than enough to reassure her. She could no longer resist her need to be close to him.
She no longer cared whether it was all a lie, for she utterly believed it to be the truth.
“Douglas…” she began, but could not continue. She cleared her throat. “Please, tell me what else happened.”
A small tug of a smile played at his lips in the knowledge that she was giving him her trust. “I will tell you all in greater detail as I can. But I learned that my mother and I were rather cruelly separated. I learned that it was not her will to abandon me, but I was taken from her and sent away. That my father was also deeply in love with her and she with him, but they were forced apart,” he said passionately.
Grace listened intently, agonized by the pain she saw in his eyes.
“She died about a year later. She lost her will to live in this world and gave up trying. My mother loved me enough that she died without me. Grace, I was utterly wrong for all my life. I believed something foolish. Can you please forgive me?” he begged.
Grace responded by opening her arms and giving him great comfort as she simply held him. They moved from Grace sitting on the chair and Douglas standing beside her to the comfort of the bed, where she might be able to let him rest against her.
“I am so sorry for not trusting ye,” Grace said and Douglas rested his face into the hollow of her neck.
“I cannot blame you for it, Grace. I understand why you would have thought such a thing. It is not an easy life, this. It is scary. And you were held prisoner. What more could be expected than for you to be suspicious that it was I who led them to you?” he said.
His understanding left Grace even more deeply content with him.
“So how are ye feeling with all this knowledge?” she asked, referring to his new view of his mother.
Douglas looked up at her and they shifted their heads apart just enough to gaze in one another’s eyes.
“I am finally at peace with who I am, Grace. I finally trust that I am exactly who I am meant to be and that my mother loved me. It is a perfect place to be,” he replied with a true smile.
Grace smiled in return. “I have something that I ought to tell ye as well,” she began.
“What is it?” he asked with a mixture of concern and wonder.
“I am happy for ye. But I am also not quite yet content, Douglas. Because there is something else I havnae told ye. I havnae told ye that yer mum wasnae the only Scottish woman who loved ye,” she said with a playful smile.
“Oh really?” he inquired knowingly. “And who might the other be?”
“Just a lass,” she said coyly.
“Just a lass?”
“A lass who has seen ye injured, seen ye discouraged. A lass who has seen ye strong and brave. A lass who has noticed yer kindness and humility, but also yer determination and courage,” she teased.
“Where is this lass that I might find her?” Douglas asked with a wide smile.
Grace’s eyes suddenly became serious and honest. Her smile faded into need. She just had to say the words openly. “Douglas, I love ye. I love ye more than anything. Ye have done something amazing to me life. And I could never change that. Me life is in yer hands. For better or for worse. It’s yers,” she declared.
The glint in Douglas’s eyes alerted Grace to his being overcome. It was a look she had not yet seen from him, although she knew that she had given it many times. Such a love as this was undeniable and too beautiful to ignore any longer. They needed one another. Grace desired him.
“I love you as well, beauty. Lass, ye are amazing and I would love for you to be mine. Will you be mine? My wife?” he asked desperately.
Grace stared at him. He had just asked her to be his wife. To marry him. It was the greatest joy she could possibly imagine. “I would consider no greater joy than that gift,” she replied.
The two looked into one another’s eyes for a long second before bending their necks toward each other’s faces so that their lips could meet. As the kiss began, Grace felt a fever come over her.
The kiss was not like the others they had briefly shared before. Rather it was a new and exciting thrill, the likes of which they had never shared with any other. It was an overwhelming sensation and neither could begin to let it go.
“You’re amazing,” Douglas breathed, unable to let go of her. His hands desired to touch every inch of her and he felt one move instinctively to her hip while Grace’s both found his face, holding it in place that his lips might not escape her.
Grace gasped as his mouth traveled to cover her neck. She desired him more than she had ever desired anything.
It was a whirlwind of change, of everything becoming clear. Propriety was a thing of a stiff-backed world. Union was the only thing that mattered. Clothing was an irrelevant cage. The only thing either of them needed was the other.
Grace found herself transformed in a moment of sweetness. For the first time in her life, she felt as though she truly belonged to something, to someone. Here she was--his. She had given it freely.
However, the thing that truly astounded her was the fact that he had done so in return. He had given himself to her in such a way that she had never imagined the ways of men and women could be.
It was not the obligation of a union formed by fathers. It was not the seedy desire of an untamed man. It was not the recklessness of youthful passion.
It was love. Nothing but pure, affectionate, generous love.
Their bodies spoke in a way that words had failed. Everything Grace wanted to tell him she said only through sighs and the response of her hips. Douglas was freely responding in kind and their give-and-take conversation consisted primarily of giving.
After they had both settled into the satisfaction of holding one another, aware that everything had changed for them, Grace allowed her thoughts to bloom. She wondered if this was a moment that should remain quiet. Douglas was not speaking, so perhaps she ought not.
However, she had so much to say. Her body had already spoken beyond words, but she had utterly changed. She was unable to escape the racing of her mind.
“Do ye still wish to marry me?” she asked. The moment the words were out of her mouth, she wished she could reel them back. What an insecure question to have asked! She should have said something sweet and soothing.
Douglas gave a light chuckle and glanced at her before closing his eyes again and settling his head against her chest.
“Nothing in this entire world would give me a greater delight than to be your husband. To spend every night of our lives as this one. Well…aside from the detail of you being imprisoned by my comrades. That is a less fortunate detail,” he said with a huff.
Grace saw that he was suppressing his fears as best he could.
“Indeed it is…” Grace replied. She still wondered how they might overcome this terrible plight and how she could ever be free. It was a possibility that she couldn’t fathom in that moment. No matter the joy and freedom she had just experienced with Douglas, the idea of ever being released from this prison seemed impossible.
“But it will not be forever. Trust me, I am working on a plan,” he promised.
“Truly? What sort of plan?” she asked.
“Well, to be honest, I haven’t begun it yet. But I know a plan has to be made. I cannot leave you stranded here in this place forever. I cannot marry you and leave you a prisoner in the Fort Amswold,” he said. “To be used as a pawn for the station of your father.” He added the last part bitterly.
“Aye, I must say that I have been less than thrilled about that fact. And that horrible man. I want to get away from him as quickly as possible,” she said, referring to Major Dashfield.
“You and everyone else around here. He is a terrible brute,” Douglas agreed.
A Plan And A Foolish Escape
“We cannot leave her in there, Richard,” Douglas said desperately to his lieutenant.
“I know, General.”
“Douglas. We are no longer on formal terms, you and I. Once I begin asking you to assist me in a prison break of a woman considered an enemy, I do beli
eve all formality has gone for us,” Douglas interjected.
Richard gave an amused grunt of agreement. “Well then, Douglas, what do you propose we do to rescue your maiden?” he asked with a glimmer in his green eyes.
“I think we ought to consider the risk, Richard. It is mine to take and I would not ask you to carry such a burden on your own back,” Douglas said, aware that once they took such a step there was no turning away from the consequences.
“And I would consider it an honor to help you, my friend. You have fought by my side, helped me to rise in the ranks, given me respect. I would not dishonor you by leaving you to do this alone,” Richard promised.
Douglas was moved by such loyalty. He had never experienced such an incredible thing as this from a friend. Richard was willing to make a great sacrifice on his behalf.
They sat together and began to formulate the plan that would allow them to rescue Grace and bring her back to Douglas.
“The first question to be in answered is this— do we trick her guards or do we fight them?” Richard began. “If we trick them, they might see that something is amiss and alert Major Dashfield to our plan before we have an opportunity to complete the mission. However, if we fight them, if we attack our very own men, and if we get caught, our punishment will be far more severe.”
“Richard, I do believe it is safe to say that if we get caught, our methods will not matter. Our punishment will be harsh. And it will not be swift,” Douglas warned.
Richard nodded. “Then what do you suggest? A trick or an assault?”
“Both. We will start with trickery and be prepared for combat,” Douglas answered.
“Yes, I suppose that could work,” Richard agreed lightheartedly, to mask his fear.
It was apparent to Douglas that both men were able to sense that this was a fool’s errand. It seemed unlikely to succeed, and yet they had little other choice in the matter. If they were to rescue Grace, it had to be done. More than that, Douglas believed that it was the only way for them ever to be together. “Richard,” he said.
Loving A Highland Enemy: Ladies of Dunmore Series (A Medieval Scottish Romance Story) Page 16