Captured by a Laird (13 page)

Alison’s face went scarlet, and she would not meet his eyes.
Damn.

“What do ye want?” he asked Robbie.

“Brian returned with news, but he didn’t want to be the one to wake ye,” Robbie said, and glanced again at the plaid on the floor, “it being your wedding night and all…”

David rubbed his forehead. At least it was his brother who found him here. If it was anyone else, he’d be a laughingstock among his men for not lasting the night with his bride.

“Brian says that the Bl—”

“Wait,” David told his brother, then turned to Alison. “Upstairs with ye, lass.”

He saw the flash of hurt in her eyes before she spun around and hurried out of the room. Ach, could he not tell his wife to leave a room without bruising her feelings?

“Why did ye do that?” Robbie asked.

“Because she can’t be privy to what you’re about to tell me.”

“But she’s your wife now, isn’t she?” Robbie asked.

“That doesn’t mean we can trust her,” David said. “She’s been a Hume less than a day, but she’ll be a Douglas all her life.”

Perhaps he could trust her after she bore him an heir. Her loyalty might shift then, not to him but to their child, which would have much the same result.

“Now tell me what news Brian brought.”

“He was in Edinburgh watching for the Blackadder kin, as ye told him to,” Robbie said. “Tulliallan and his sons came to the Holyrood Palace to whine, claiming one of them is the rightful heir to Blackadder Castle. They’re asking for the Crown’s help to toss us out.”

He had expected as much.

“They are begging for their deaths,” David said.

Blackadder’s distant male kin should not inherit over the daughters, but in Scotland disputes over inheritance rights were sometimes determined by the political winds. If they persisted in their challenge, David would take no chances. Dead men could not be heirs.

He did not yet know how deep the Tulliallan Blackadders had been involved in the conspiracy against his father and uncle, but they likely deserved to die for that too.

“Will ye go to the Council?” Robbie asked.

“I don’t make arguments or threaten with petitions,” David said. “These Blackadders are still in Edinburgh?”

“Aye. Brian rode through the night to bring word,” Robbie said.

He could not attack them there, so they would live a little longer. Still, he could not let this threat go unanswered.

“Tulliallan believes his own lands are far enough away that he’s safe from me,” David said. “I want him to feel my breath on his neck.”

***

The wind was howling, and the maids had let the fire go out again, knowing that the laird would not return tonight in this storm. Alison rubbed her arms for warmth as she looked out into the black night and wondered where her new husband was. She had not seen him since his abrupt dismissal two days ago, in the early hours after their wedding night.

She blushed every time she thought of how he had touched her that night. Despite the intimacy, what he’d done did not constitute the joining that was required to complete a marriage. If she escaped before he returned, could the marriage be undone? Not that she could escape with his men watching the gate, and it would be her word against his. David Hume was a brawny man in his prime. One look at his muscled body and fierce expression, and no one would believe he had been unable to perform the task—or that he had been willing to wait.

Why did he wait?
And what had she done to so displease him that he’d left her to spend the rest of the night sleeping on a hard floor? Regardless, she doubted he would wait a second time. The way he touched her was so different from Blackadder, she could not help wondering what it would be like…

A crash above her sent her racing out the door and up the stairs to the Tower Room, where her daughters were. Angry shouts came through the open door. She flew inside, not knowing what she would find.

Robbie had his younger brother pinned against the wall while her daughters, who were half Robbie’s size, were clutching at his arms and legs in an effort to pull him off Will.

“Stop this at once!” Alison said, and the room went quiet.

Robbie released his brother and stepped back. Defiance shone in his eyes, but she suspected the flush in his cheeks was embarrassment.

“Will, are you all right?” she asked, resting her hand on the lad’s shoulder.

He nodded without looking at her.

She lifted his chin and looked into his dark brown eyes. “What happened here?”

“Nothing.”

“I saw it all,” Beatrix said. “Robbie—”

“I don’t want to hear it from you, Beatrix,” Alison said. “Robbie, let us discuss this alone.”

“But what if he lies?” Beatrix asked, looking as if she was bursting to tell the tale.

“I’m sure Robbie is too big a man to do that,” Alison said, shifting her gaze back to him. “Follow me.”

She turned and started down the stairs and was relieved when she heard footsteps behind her. Why was this falling to her? She had not expected her marriage to Wedderburn to bring her responsibilities toward these two lads. No matter how she handled this tiff between his brothers, he was bound to disapprove.

She returned to the bedchamber she’d shared, however briefly, with Wedderburn, and sat in one of the two chairs by the hearth. Robbie halted just inside the door and folded his arms across his chest.

“Please sit with me.” She smiled and motioned toward the other chair.

After a pause, he stalked across the room and dropped into the chair. She sighed inwardly and prayed for wisdom.

“I don’t know ye well, of course, but I’ve noticed that ye seem to have anger eating at your heart.” She regretted being too preoccupied with her own distress to speak to him sooner.

“Will is such a…such a…”

She was certain he had been about to use a foul word but thought better of it.

“I don’t mean only this incident with Will.” She leaned forward and touched his arm. “I know something is troubling ye. Will ye tell me what it is?”

He pressed his lips together and blinked furiously, fighting tears. Her heart went out to him. Fourteen was a difficult age, when a lad was neither man nor child, and Robbie had lost his father not long ago.

“He treats me like a child,” he spat out.

“Who does?” she asked. “The laird?”

“David was raiding and fighting when he was my age,” he said. “But he leaves me here with the bairns and old men.”

Alison was relieved to learn David was attempting to protect his brother from the violence.

“He says ’tis my job to watch over you, your wee lasses, and Will,” he said. “As if I’m a nursemaid, not a warrior!”

Tears of rage were threatening again, and she feared Robbie’s pride would not survive it if he succumbed to them.

“I practice hard,” he said. “I’m as good with a sword as most of the men.”

“I understand ye feel mistreated,” she said. “But ye mustn’t take it out on Will. ’Tis not his fault.”

His shoulders drooped, and he looked at the floor. “I know. Ach, but he is so irritating.”

“Irritating? He’s a sweet lad.”

“Exactly!”

“You’re bigger than him, and he’s your brother,” she said. “The laird is right in saying that it’s your duty to protect him.”

Robbie sank lower in his chair, and she felt she had made her point, but then he sat up straight again.

“Are ye going to tell David?” he asked with a frantic look in his eyes.

She was tempted to ask just what David would do, but she suspected Robbie had too much pride—and loyalty to his brother—to tell her.

“This won’t happen again?” she asked. When he shook his head, she said, “Then I see no need to trouble the laird with it.”

He nodded his thanks and stood, ready to leave.

“Your time will come,” she said, and smiled at him. “I’m certain you’ll be a great warrior like your brother.”

“I’m ready now, and I’m tired of waiting.”

Fourteen and he was tired of waiting. What could she say to that?

“Will ye speak to David for me?” he asked.

“And tell him what?”

“That I can’t play nursemaid forever,” he said with a fierceness in his eyes that reminded her of his older brother. “I want to fight for my clan.”

What made him think she could influence David? And even if she could, she certainly would not encourage him to take his brother on his violent excursions.

“Will ye be upset with me if I tell ye that I’m glad he left ye here to watch over us?” she said, taking his arm as she walked him to the door. “I don’t know your brother’s other men, and ’tis a comfort to me to have a man here I can trust.”

Robbie gave her a sideways glance and his mouth curved up on one side in a slight smile that told her he knew exactly what she was doing, the clever lad. She was glad to discover he had bit of humor in him, though it was buried as deep as his brother’s.

“Please,” he said, earnest again, “speak to David for me.”

***

Patrick Blackadder stormed into his father’s chamber to confront him.

“Writing more petitions?” Patrick bit out when he found his father at his table with his clerk.

His father dismissed the clerk and put his hand up for Patrick to be silent until the man closed the door behind him.

“Did ye hear?” Patrick asked him, containing his rage with an effort. “While we were in Edinburgh, the Humes stole two hundred of our cattle.”

“Of course I know,” his father said, giving him an icy stare.

“The Beast stole them from the fields within shouting distance of the castle,” Patrick snapped. “He’s made a laughingstock of us.”

“If he hopes to taunt me into doing something foolish, he’ll not succeed,” his father said in an irritatingly calm tone. “We’ll get the better of him in the end, you’ll see.”

“How long must we wait?” Patrick said leaning across the table. “Surely, you’ll agree that we must exact retribution.”

“Oh, aye, we’ll crush this young Wedderburn,” his father said. “But we cannot do it alone. He’s gained too much strength. We must have either the Douglases or the Crown’s forces on our side.”

“I want him dead now.”

His father came around the table and put his arm around Patrick, making him want to vomit.

“You’re to do nothing, ye hear me?” his father said. “I’m laird, and we’ll do this my way.”

His father’s way led to one humiliation after another. David was so frustrated he wanted to throw his father bodily across the room. Instead, he gritted his teeth and reminded himself that the old man would not live forever.

When his father dismissed him, he stomped up the stairs to his own chamber, where he had a woman waiting for him.

“Come here,” he told the woman.

She had dark hair and blue eyes, as they all did. He shoved her to her knees.

How many times had Alison been forced to submit to Wedderburn already? The thought tormented him. Patrick could forgive her if Wedderburn did force her, but the idea that she might give herself willingly had taken hold of his imagination.

Perhaps the Beast had been her secret lover even before he took the castle. Patrick shook his head. Nay, the Blackadder warriors who had been there all said that Alison refused to surrender even when the food ran out. Wedderburn had to break down the gates to get in.

She was loyal to Patrick.

He fisted his hands in the woman’s dark hair to hold her as she sucked his cock and tried to imagine she was Alison. It made him furious when he could not.

“Not like that, ye fool,” he said and hit her when she released him.

She was a poor substitute. They all were. Alison would know just what he wanted.

“Get out before I slice your throat.”

The woman was weeping and slow to gather her clothes. He could not stand the sight of her another moment and shoved her out his bedchamber naked with his boot at her back. The only lass who could truly satisfy him was Alison.

Patrick would have his vengeance on Wedderburn for stealing what belonged to him—Alison, the castle, and the Blackadder lands. He would be watching for Wedderburn to make a mistake. One day soon, he would make the Beast suffer for what he’d done.

CHAPTER 16

When Alison returned to the Tower Room, she found Will and the girls attempting to teach the puppy Jasper to roll over with comic results. The children’s fits of giggles made her worries recede.

“Time for Beatrix and Margaret to go to sleep,” she told Will.

He sniffed loudly as she kissed his cheek, then reported, “Ye have a good smell.”

“Goodnight, Will,” she said, stifling a laugh. She was quickly growing very fond of both of David’s brothers.

“I’ll send Flora up,” Will said as he left.

“Ask one of the maids to come as well,” Alison called after him. “My fire is nearly out.”

Flora came upstairs as quickly as her old legs could carry her. After they tucked in the girls, Alison returned to her freezing chamber. She changed quickly into her night shift and wrapped a blanket around herself.

She had been pacing the room to keep warm for some time before two maids finally sauntered in with a basket of peat.

“Restart the fire, please,” Alison said.

“Feels warm as a fresh dung heap to me,” one of them said. “Must be that weak Douglas blood.”

“Why isn’t that new husband of yours here keeping ye warm?” the other said. “Does he not like ye any better than our last laird?”

Though Alison should be immune to their insolence by now, she was tired and cold. And the remark stung. Why had Wedderburn left their wedding bed and stayed away two more nights? She wondered what price she would pay for offending him.

“Please just do as I ask,” she said, and was annoyed at the pleading tone in her voice.

“Certainly, m’lady,” the first one said, holding her skirts out in a mocking curtsy.

“Right away, m’lady,” the other said, and the two exchanged amused glances.

When Alison turned and saw Wedderburn looming in the doorway behind the two serving women, her heart went to her throat. His towering frame and dark expression reminded her that she had far more serious concerns than surly servants.