by Alisa Adams
His biggest fear was that the Devines would find out; that would be disastrous, since most of his plans depended on their cooperation, and without the marriage of young Hugh to Vanora, all his hard work and devious scheming would come to nothing. Laird and Lady Devine must surely have found out now that Rory had escaped, but if not, they would very soon, so he had to act immediately. He would have to wait until morning, but it would give him time to organize a few of his best men to go with him. He was not going to be beaten by a girl in her teenage years and a man who had more bulk than brains.
At the first crack of daybreak the next morning, even before the sun had risen properly, he took two of his most loyal men and Calum Patterson with him. He had not picked Calum out of choice, but he did not trust the man to stay behind and get him into more trouble.
He needed to get to Vanora as quickly as possible, but the road was good and their horses were fast. As he rode along he thought about what to do when he got to Weir Brae Castle. He expected Vanora to be hostile but he thought he could overcome that and talk her around to his point of view. The trouble was that she held all the power in her hands.
She held the keys to the castle and he desperately wanted those keys for himself, but she was not under any obligation to give them to him. She could deny him entry and he did not have the means to besiege her into submission. He needed to talk his way in and make her believe that going along with his plans was in her best interest. He smiled with evil glee because if there was one thing Daniel McKay could do well, it was talk!
19
Rory and Vanora spent their first night together in Vanora’s bedroom, and although the bed was rather small, Rory would not allow Vanora to bring in a bigger one.
“It is cozier this way,” he whispered, then he kissed her and made her forget about all the terror and mayhem of the last few days. He showed her the mysteries of love so tenderly that there was no pain or fear, and they slept together afterward until the morning sun woke them. It was a bright, crisp day, and when Rory put his arms around her, it seemed that all was right with the world.
Rory could hardly believe that he was holding the love of his life in his arms. Today was to have been his execution day, but instead, it was the beginning of his new life as a married man, and his happiness knew no bounds. However, he knew that soon Daniel would arrive and the languid peace of their first day together would be rudely shattered.
“We had best prepare ourselves, Rory,” Vanora sighed. “I have no doubt that Daniel will be here in a short while.”
“Indeed,” Rory said sadly. “I wish we could just have this first day tae ourselves, Vanora.” His light brown eyes were soft with love, but sad.
“We have the rest of our lives,” she consoled him, smiling.
They went down to breakfast and were set upon by Marion and Ella, who were in high spirits. Their sister’s wedding was the best thing that had happened to them in years. Soon a spirited discussion was going on about what kind of dress to wear for their own weddings and what each of their bridegrooms would look like. They were just warming to their theme when a maidservant came to the door. She curtsied and addressed Rory. “M’laird, there is a man at the gate to see you.”
Rory stared at her blankly for a moment before he realized that “M’laird” was now his title. Then he stood up and strode out of the room.
“I am sorry, Eileen,” Vanora said to the maid as she rushed out behind her husband. “He does not realize he’s a laird yet!” The maid giggled.
When Vanora took his hand, Rory felt hers trembling. “Did I not tell ye I would always protect ye, Vanora?” he asked tenderly. “I love ye and I always keep my word.”
She nodded, but she was still desperately afraid. Daniel McKay had a black, rotten heart, and he could not be trusted. She knew his power with words and his ability to bend people to his will, and she hoped that Rory would be able to see through the mesh of lies he would try to weave around him.
They emerged into the cold winter sunlight and saw Daniel, and Calum, on the other side of the bridge over the moat sitting astride his coal-black stallion. With his black cloak and hood, Daniel looked like the devil incarnate, and it was all Vanora could do not to turn tail and run away from him, but Rory’s reassuring grip on her hand gave her the courage to stand firm. Two guards accompanied the men.
“May I come in?” Daniel called, “or are we going to shout across the moat at each other?”
Vanora nodded to the men guarding the gate at the end of the moat, and Daniel and Calum rode through into the courtyard, followed by the guards. Daniel looked straight at Rory as he dismounted with a look of such hateful contempt that it would have cowed a lesser man.
“Get away from him, Vanora,” Daniel said grimly. “He poisoned Hugh and now your life is in danger. I do not know what he has told you about me but it is a tissue of lies, and if you stay here he will destroy you. Come back with me and marry Hugh. He is a good man and you will grow to love him, I know.” His voice was smooth and cajoling, but it did not sway Vanora one bit. He held out his arms. “Come.” He smiled and crooked his fingers, beckoning.
Vanora’s lip curled in disgust, and she turned into Rory’s body to block out the sight of him. Daniel growled in exasperation. “Look at you...he has twisted your mind against me. He has overwhelmed you with a pretense of love. He does not love you—he only wants what you possess and you are being persuaded to believe his falsehoods. Leave him before he poisons you the way he did your betrothed. Mark my words, milady, he will stand trial for that. And I will make sure that he hangs because he is not fit to walk the earth with decent human beings.”
“Shut your filthy mouth, you loathsome slug!” Vanora roared at him. “Rory is innocent. You poisoned Hugh and that”—she jabbed a finger at Calum—“creature there was stupid enough to give your secret away. You hypocrite! Go back under the stone you crawled from under and leave us in peace. Rory is the best man I know and I love him, and in case you have any thoughts of taking me back to marry me to Hugh, it is impossible because I am married to Rory and he is now laird of this castle!”
Daniel froze in disbelief for a moment.
She cannot be married to a dead man, Daniel thought, coming to his senses.
He signaled to Calum with an almost imperceptible movement of his finger and he and Daniel’s two other guards attacked him, thrusting at him with their sword points. However, Rory had come prepared. He produced a huge battle ax from behind his back and began to swing it in wider and wider circles, forcing the men back. Just as his own guards were rushing in to assist, however, Daniel seized Vanora, whose attention had been diverted by the fight.
He produced a dagger and held it to her throat. “Now, milady,” he hissed in her ear, “we will see how brave your husband really is!”
Vanora was rigid with terror as she watched Rory battle the three soldiers, but when she felt the razor-sharp edge of the dagger graze her throat she screamed and began to tremble uncontrollably and weep with fear.
“Rory Murdoch!” Daniel roared above the deafening sounds of battle. “Put down your weapon or I will slit her throat!”
Rory turned to face them. He stood and glared at them in horrified disbelief for a moment, then dropped the ax to the stone flags of the courtyard with a ringing clatter, and for the first time ever Vanora saw an expression she had never expected to see on his face—fear. She knew it was not fear for himself but for her, and her heart broke for him; he looked so helpless.
“Not so brave now, are you, big man?” Daniel taunted him. “Look at him, Vanora, as helpless as a kitten.”
Vanora gazed at her beloved husband and her heart filled with hatred for Daniel McKay, this monster that had befriended her father for his own ends and then killed him. She knew that if she had a sword in her hand at that moment she would have driven it through him and smiled while she was doing it.
“I love ye!” Rory called out to her as his hands were tied with thick, coarse rope. The m
en seemed to be taking a great deal of pleasure in pulling the cords as tight as they could, and Vanora saw that Rory’s face was twisted in pain, but still his eyes never left hers.
“I love you too!” she cried, knowing that she would die happy if those were the last words she ever said to Rory.
“Monster!” Daniel spat at Rory. “You have taken this innocent girl and twisted her to your own will, not only because you want what she has, but you want her too. You want her beauty and her freshness so that you can take it away from her and make her a little puppet for you to play with. I have met men like you before who will suck a woman dry and throw her away when she is used up. You make me sick, but you will hang tomorrow, and Vanora will be a widow and free to marry again, and she will marry the right man this time!”
Suddenly, having said his piece and thinking that Rory had been subdued, Daniel threw the dagger down and pushed Vanora away, hardly realizing what he was doing. She stumbled away from him for a few yards until she was out of his reach.
Rory looked like a bull who was about to charge. Ηe had lost the first woman he had ever loved, and he was not going to let it happen again. This time Vanora’s fate was in his hands. This time he could save her.
Rory’s hands were bound in front of him, and they were so big that when he clenched them together they were as hard and powerful as a club. He whipped around and raised his tied hands as high as he could, then brought them crashing down on the head of Calum Patterson, who had been tying the knots. He had not quite finished them, and Rory felt the rope slacken a little. Calum crashed down on the floor, and Rory immediately went after the next man and swiped sideways with his joined fists at his head. He spun around and also toppled to the ground, hitting the side of his face before he lost consciousness, and that was when the rope gave way and Rory was able to free his hands. The third man was accosted by two of Vanora’s guards, who were beating him all over with wooden clubs and eventually he too fell, stunned, to the floor.
Daniel panicked and tried to run as Rory advanced towards him, but one of the Weir guards caught him from behind and held him. Rory advanced to within a foot of the smaller man, then he slapped him several times before punching him in the stomach.
“Take him doonstairs,” Rory instructed the guard who had been holding Daniel, “before I kill him.”
Just then, Vanora ran into his arms and clung to him, savoring the solidity and warmth that she had thought would be taken away from her forever. Rory held her and said softly, “It is all over now, Vanora. Ye are safe.”
“I love you,” she breathed, looking up into his gentle brown eyes. “I thought I was going to lose you.”
“An’ I will love ye ’til all the stars fall doon,” he said. They watched the limp forms of Daniel and the other men being dragged off to the dungeon, and then they went to the dining room to have a restorative glass of whiskey.
There they encountered Ella and Marion, who were chomping their way through a pile of oatcakes and honey, totally unaware of the events of the last few moments.
“Have you two newlyweds been away somewhere romantic?” Marion asked archly.
Vanora and Rory looked at each other, recalling the events of the last half hour.
“No, Marion,” Rory replied. “We had other things tae do.”
The two younger sisters smirked at each other. “Of course you did,” Marion said airily. “Like kissing and cuddling.”
“Something like that,” Vanora answered hastily.
All three of Daniel’s guards were still groggy, and none of them could rise from the floor. They were each holding on to their aching heads, except Daniel, who was sitting hunched over, clutching his stomach. He looked up when they came in, his eyes bleak.
“Daniel, how are ye feeling?” Rory asked pleasantly.
“I have been better,” Daniel replied grimly, wincing with pain. His whole demeanor suggested defeat. “I suppose you want me to confess to poisoning Hugh?”
“Only if ye did it,” Rory replied.
Daniel thought for a moment, then nodded. “I did put poison in his food,” he admitted. “But not enough to kill him.”
“But why?” Vanora asked, baffled. “What had he ever done to you?”
Daniel gave a cynical laugh. “Nothing. He was useful as part of my scheme to get rid of you.” He pointed to Rory. “Because he was a weakling, I could eventually wrest the power of both estates from him when he married Vanora. But you were standing in the way. I hated you. I still hate you.” His voice was like ground glass.
“I will lose a lot o’ sleep over that,” Rory said sarcastically. “And what of Vanora’s father?”
“I had him killed too,” he sighed, as though the whole matter of a man losing his life was no more than an irritation to him. He looked up at Vanora with hate-filled eyes. “And you should have gone with him!”
“My father never showed you anything but kindness and love!” Vanora shook her head with incredulity. “You have known each other since you were boys—you were like brothers. Why would you do this?”
“Because he had a father and I had none!” David spat out bitterly. “Ever since my mother gave birth to me out of wedlock, I had been the throwaway child that no one wanted. He was rich, he was tall, and he was handsome. He had everything and I had nothing!”
“But he gave you employment and helped you become a successful estate manager!” Vanora was outraged. “You are a wealthy man today because of him!”
“I have money, but I have no wife, and no children!” he said angrily. “No decent woman will marry a bastard. I have no one. I hate all of you!”
“That was not my father’s fault,” Vanora replied grimly. “Perhaps no decent woman would marry you because you are you.” She raked him with a scathing glance then turned away.
“I hope ye like the accommodation, Daniel,” Rory remarked, looking around at the poor confines of the jail. “Because ye will be seeing it for a very long time.” Then he gave Daniel an ironic bow and walked away.
Rory’s prophecy never came true, however. The following day, one of Daniel’s friends outside the castle smuggled in some of the same poison he had used on Hugh, and Daniel drank it down with a glass of ale. He died with a curse against Rory Murdoch on his lips.
20
Rory had killed men in battle and sustained a few serious wounds, and he had the scars to prove it. Since he had left the service he had not felt fear—until now. He told himself that Vanora was already his wife, and that they had been through dangerous adventures together, and that he had done this before, but somehow standing up and repeating his vows this time was different. When he and Elisaid married there had been only her close family in attendance, and the whole ceremony had taken only a few minutes. However, now he would be in a gathering of almost a hundred people.
Marion and Ella came in, and Marion pecked his cheek then gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “You will be fine, Brother,” she whispered, and smiled at him. “I am told that every bridegroom feels the same way.”
“Thank ye,” he replied, smiling warmly at her. “Truly, Marion, I was less scared in battle than I am now!”
Marion stood on tiptoe and embraced him. “You are a very big man,” she giggled. “I am sure you can handle my sister, who is much smaller than you. Good luck!”
“Thank ye again,” he said dryly. “I will need it.” The only thing that was stopping him from downing three glasses of whiskey was the fast before Holy Communion. He sighed. He could only hope Vanora was feeling better than he was.
Ella, who could barely reach his chest, looked up at Rory with adoring gray eyes. “She will not bite you, Rory,” she said softly. “You are already married. Why are you so afraid?”
“In case I mess up my vows an’ embarrass both o’ us,” he replied, then hugged her quickly, being careful not to hold her too tightly. They blew kisses at him and then went to meet Vanora.
“You are a warrior,” Marion whispered. “Do not forget
it!”
Rory gave himself a stern lecture. You are not going into the Coliseum to fight a lion, Rory. Chin up, my boy. You fought the English. You can do anything! Then he strode down to the chapel.
Vanora was also suffering an attack of anxiety, and she had no idea why. They had been married for two weeks already, but no one else knew apart from her two sisters and Father Grant, so everyone thought that this was the real ceremony, and she felt a little uneasy about the deception, but she reminded herself that very few women were allowed to be married twice to the same man. She did not realize that she was smiling dreamily.
Her maid, Millie, who was taking her wedding dress out of the cupboard, looked around and saw her expression.
“I have never seen ye look so joyful, mistress,” she remarked, smiling as she put the dress on over her head. She began to plait Vanora’s hair then she wound it into a crown over her head and stuck some tiny pink flowers in it.
The dress was made from the palest of pink satins and had been designed and made by the local seamstress, Mistress McDade. That formidable lady had been out gathering more mountain avens from the hillside to stick into Vanora’s bouquet of bluebells, which she had decided needed a little more color.
Although Vanora had seen it many times during the fittings, she never got tired of looking at it. It was the loveliest thing she had ever seen.