The Libertine (20 page)

Lennox grasped her by the shoulder. “Did he hurt her?”

Glenna shook her head. “No, but he threatened her with the
gallows if she didn’t give him your letter.”

Lennox froze. If he had taken the letter, Keavey would know
that he and Chloris had been secretly meeting. Cursing silently, he gripped
Glenna’s shoulder tighter.

“Ailsa was afraid, Lennox. She had no choice.”

Glancing beyond her while she spoke, Lennox noticed that Ailsa
continued to work with the others loading the cart. When she looked his way she
hung her head in shame.

“It is not Ailsa I am angry with. It is myself for giving the
letter to her and sending her into harm’s way. I am a fool, and I am unworthy of
your loyalty. She should not have been put in that situation.”

Glenna hushed him. “Don’t fret. We are ready to leave. It is
time. And your woman is safe. Keavey has sent her back to Edinburgh.”

Back to Edinburgh.

To her vile, brutal husband.

Lennox cursed and stared up at the sky, wondering if the
tangled web of his life could get any worse. Why was it that he was doomed to
fail when it came to keeping his women safe? He had vowed that no man would ever
hurt Chloris the way she had already been hurt, and yet he had not been given
the chance to see that through.

Life had dealt him another cruel blow.

“Edinburgh is no salvation for Chloris, believe me.” He looked
into Glenna’s eyes and shook his head.

Glenna was watchful and canny and she quickly saw that he was
even more afraid for his lover. Lennox paced from side to side, tormented by the
notion that Chloris had been forced back to that bastard who had treated her so
cruelly. If only Keavey had not found out. It was a particularly bitter twist of
fate because when he first set about seducing Chloris he had anticipated Tamhas
Keavey’s reaction, and had wished to see his face. Because of what had passed
between them it was now the worst thing in the world for Chloris, who he cared
about immensely.

And it was bad for the rest of them, by the looks of
things.

“You are making ready to leave?”

“Aye. Keavey told Ailsa that he would find evidence against us
if it was the last thing he did, and he would see us all burned. We gathered
together to discuss it. Then Maura Dunbar came down from Torquil to warn us.
She’d overheard Keavey shouting at his cousin. Poor Maura felt bad because she
was the one who’d sent Mistress Chloris up here. Maura said that Mistress
Chloris cried in her room. She told Maura she’d begged him to leave Somerled’s
people alone. Keavey said he would, but only if she returned to her
husband.”

Chloris
. Pain knifed through him at
the thought of her so distressed. Lennox could scarcely contain his anger at
Tamhas Keavey.

“Then, when Maura left, Lachie and I talked. We knew Keavey
would not let it rest, despite his supposed promise to his cousin. He was bound
to use this against us. Lachie went into Saint Andrews and asked about. Keavey
had already been in to the town and has requested the bailiff attend the town
council first thing in the morning. He put the word about that there is evil in
the forest and with the bailiff at his side he would be seeking the witches out
and bringing them to justice. Keavey is readying his men for a morning
raid.”

Lennox felt his anger turn inward as he realized he had lost
control, and people who relied on him were being let down. All of them. How
could this have happened? With his sister’s ousting so fresh in his mind, the
news of Chloris and Keavey meant that pure, undiluted rage pumped through him.
It was only his concern for Glenna and the others that stopped him bellowing
aloud in his fury.

“When Lachlan returned,” Glenna added, “we made the decision to
be ready to leave by dawn. There was so little time, we had to make the decision
without you.”

“You made the right decision. If you are gone by dawn you will
have a good start on them. Keavey will not be able to act alone. He’ll need the
agreement of the town council and the power of the bailiff’s men. It’ll be
midmorn before they get here.”

“What news of your sister?” Glenna was cautious in her
question.

Lennox took a deep breath. “Gone. Escaped before her trial,
thankfully.”

Glenna grasped his forearm. “You see, there’s no holding any of
us.”

Her eyes glistened.

He sensed her relief, and he knew that she was taking strength
from his news. News of running, hiding. That should not be something to gain
hope from, but for them it was. The history of torture and death for those who
practiced the craft was too long and too sordid in the Lowlands. He looked over
at Somerled, where his people loaded the cart with their most prized
possessions.

“You are ready for this,” he whispered, commenting more to
himself than to her.

It would not be easy on them. The people he had gathered
beneath his wing were a mix of witches born in and around Saint Andrews, and
those from farther away, like himself. For a while it seemed as if they could be
safe here. With an outward life of respectability and commerce, nurturing their
practices until they became more widely accepted. Now they had to gather their
chattels and leave, head north to the Highlands where the terrain was tough and
unknown to them.

Glenna nodded. “You prepared us. We’ve been ready for this for
a long while.”

Lennox was grateful for that much. Now he had to choose between
seeking the trail of his sister, protecting Chloris and urging his people on
their way.

The situation rent him asunder, for it tore his loyalties in
three different directions. He looked at the members of his coven and saw what
they were. Kin. Not family, but people brought together to support each other
and protect each other. They would make their journey north and they would be
strong. He would find them again.

That meant he had to choose between Jessie and Chloris.

Pain drummed at the back of his eyes. He closed them.

When he did he saw the scars on Chloris and his gut turned
over, bile rising in his throat as he thought about the fact that that bastard
Tamhas Keavey had sent her back to the cruel man who treated her so badly.

Jessie was not alone, and she had magic on her side. He was
determined to find them both but he had to go to Chloris first. It was a hard
decision, one of the most difficult he’d ever made in his life, but logic
determined it would be so. He lifted his face to the sky, watched the passage of
the moonlight and knew that he had to follow Chloris. Time would allow him to
pull all the other pieces together, to find his sisters and to reunite with his
coven. “You have closed the gate to Keavey?”

“We have. Lachlan sent three of the women out and they made
magic between here, Keavey’s place and the roads into Saint Andrews. It will not
hold them off for long, but they will find their path treacherous when they
come.”

Lennox was proud of them. They had come together and taken
action, everything he would have done and perhaps more, given his present rash
of ill luck and lack of good sense. “Make haste, take only what you can, your
tools and anything that ties you to your craft.”

“What are you going to do?” Glenna’s eyes were filled with
concern.

“I know what I should do, go up there and give Keavey what he
deserves.”

“No, Lennox, reel in your anger for you put yourself at risk.
You will only give him what he is after, a reason to hunt us all down.”

Lennox stared down at her and realized that she spoke wise
words. The fact that Chloris had been returned to the man who beat her was
making it hard for him to act with caution.

Glenna covered his hand with hers and fed her calm and
nurturing spirit to him. “We will not leave until we are certain you are not
going to put yourself in danger.” Still she waited to be reassured. “What will
you do?”

He grasped her hand, squeezing it. She was the closest thing to
a mother he had ever known, since his own was so cruelly put to death. “I must
try once again to find Jessie before I head north but first I’ll go to Edinburgh
to fetch Chloris.”

“You truly love this woman, Chloris.” Glenna’s mouth lifted at
the corners and her eyes glistened.

“Aye, that I do.”

“Then you must find her and tell her.”

Lennox nodded. He had not told her enough. He had spoken most
of all about desire and destiny, of forging a new path for them both, but he had
not told her exactly how much she had come to mean to him. “You’re right, and I
will be on my way to Edinburgh. Come now, I’ll help you clear the house. We need
to be gone from here by dawn.”

As he covered the ground into the house in easy strides, Ailsa
set down the goods she was carrying and came to his side. She rested her hand on
his arm, drawing him to a halt. “I am so sorry, Lennox, I tried to hold tight to
the letter when he descended, but he was strong. He taunted me and he threatened
to bring us all to justice if I gave him the evidence he needed. It was as if he
wanted me to show my true nature.”

“That does not surprise me. He’s long since wanted his proof.”
Lennox remembered the conversation they’d had, the day he’d presented to
council. For Keavey it was a step too far, and he could not abide it.

Ailsa peered up at him. “Even if I had used my craft to hold or
destroy the letter, there was no telling what he would have done to us, and to
her.”

She was afraid he would think badly of her.

“I could never hurt anyone that you loved,” she added, “believe
me.”

Last time they had spoken, they had argued over Chloris. Ailsa
had been jealous then. Lennox stared into her eyes, so mysterious, so capable of
witchcraft, and yet deep down he knew she spoke the truth. “I do believe
you.”

Her lower lip trembled and a plump tear rolled down her
cheek.

Lennox embraced her. “No tears, please. Soon you’ll be safe in
the Highlands.”

Looking down at her upturned face, her misty eyes made him
think of the mountains, of the glens. “I do believe that you most of all will be
at home there.”

Ailsa mustered a smile.

“Come, we must hurry. I’ll help you clear the house and then I
must be gone. We must not leave a shred of evidence that will give Keavey and
the bailiff’s men cause to come after us.”

They worked through the midnight hours and by the time the sky
began to lighten the carts were loaded and ready to go. Lennox peered at the
horizon, watching the sky. It was time. The house was stripped of all evidence
of their craft, and Lennox’s precious papers that he had repeatedly presented to
council in Saint Andrews were burning in the grate.

The mood amongst the coven members was stoic.

“It’s time to go,” Lennox called out. He gathered up Shadow’s
reins and the horse lifted his head. “Head inland to Perth and from there turn
north to Inverness. Be sure that you carry plenty of supplies at all times. If I
do not find you along the route, wait for me at Inverness.”

He mounted his horse, then took one last glance at Somerled.
“Protect one another, stay strong. I will find you again, never fear.”

“We will be with you in spirit,” Lachie answered, “until you
come back to us.”

“Inverness,” he repeated.

Glenna nodded. “Take care, my dear boy.”

Lennox forced his gaze away from the house and the people who
had come together under his wing. They would be long gone from here before
Keavey came. Thankfully.

Then he turned his mount and urged it to a gallop, as he had so
many times before when he set out looking for his two sisters, and now Chloris.
His mate, his lover, the ruler of his heart. It was with no small sense of irony
that he realized Mother Nature had deemed him this role. Nature had seen fit to
make him an eternal hunter for those he loved. Knowing that was how his fate was
cast only steeled his resolve.

He would find them all. He had to.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Chloris sat at the dining table and observed her
husband with cautious detachment. It occurred to her that she did not know him
very well. That had worried her about Lennox, but now she felt as if she knew
Lennox better than she did her own husband. It was the closeness, the intimacy
they had shared. There had never been any intimacy with Gavin Meldrum.

Gavin was an austere-looking man who rarely smiled. He had a
neatly trimmed beard and he wore a wig, as befitted his landlord status, but it
was not too fanciful. As a habit he dressed in somber clothing, which he felt
appropriate for the business of collecting rent from tenants. The properties he
owned were now many, and although Gavin had workers who could take on the matter
of collecting, he preferred to collect the rents himself. Chloris had often
suspected he enjoyed seeing the poorest tenants beg for leniency if they had not
enough coin, but she always dismissed the notion as cruel and unfounded. She did
not know how he went about it. She only knew that many people would be homeless
in the burgh were it not for his property.

“Tamhas sends you his regards,” Chloris stated, trying to raise
a conversation.

Gavin nodded and continued with his meal.

Chloris ate some of the roast pheasant and sipped her wine.
They had to talk, and her intention was to launch on amiable matters then
venture into the real subject that weighed upon her. “Jean fares well. She and I
became good friends during my stay in Saint Andrews.”

Gavin met her stare briefly but did not comment.

It was the first she’d seen of him since the night before. He
seemed intent on ignoring her presence, and now she knew why. When she quizzed
Mary that morning, her maid revealed that he had gone out early. Although
uncomfortable about it, Mary also answered Chloris’s other questions. Gavin’s
visitor of the night before had left at midnight but had stayed in the house
overnight on previous occasions during Chloris’s absence.

Now he had returned for his evening meal and it was quite
obvious that Gavin had no intention of mentioning either her unexpected arrival
home or the scene she had witnessed in his study. Chloris felt quite sure that
the woman had been about to say something, and would have done so afterward. If
Gavin had quizzed Mary, he would know that it was his wife who had entered the
room.

He barely acknowledged her presence there when he entered the
dining room. It was as if she had not been away. Chloris also noticed that he
had not asked after the state of her health, which was supposed to be the reason
for her trip to Saint Andrews. She smiled wryly at the idea of it. It was now
blatantly obvious that he wanted her out of there in order to indulge himself
further with his mistress. Traveling across Edinburgh to the district where her
chambers were located was obviously a tedious task and he would rather have her
here with him. Fair enough, she thought to herself, let it be that way.

The servants came and went with the dishes, and when they
finally took their leave she steeled herself. “And you, have you fared well in
my absence?”

Gavin stared across at her coldly, eyeing her body as if she
were merely a vessel. Which of course she was. A vessel that would not hold his
seed. Had he always looked at her that way?

He nodded. “Well enough.”

“Your mistress’s company made it easier, I’m sure.”

The tension heightened in the room.

Gavin set down his cutlery with a clatter and dabbed his mouth
with his serviette, peering across at her with a warning glance. “What of
it?”

“I will make this easy for both of us. I will leave, in order
to make room for her to replace me.” She stated it simply enough, then clutched
the stem of her wineglass to keep her hand steady.

Gavin’s eyes flashed angrily. He threw his serviette down on
the table. “You will not.”

Chloris braced herself. “It is quite clear that you would do
better to replace me with your mistress. I do not intend to question your
motives or argue on the subject. I will move aside.”

He shook his head. “Don’t be absurd. I have a reputation to
keep.”

“You were not concerned about your reputation when bringing a
mistress into our home?”

The cold, dismissive look he gave her was tempered only by a
wry, almost smug smile. No, such infidelities only added to a man’s reputation.
A woman was damned if she dared to do the same. Even if the marital bed had
turned cold, it was not the woman’s place to find passion and comfort in the
arms of another, but it was a man’s
right
to do so.
The tension she felt built. She had hoped he would find her suggestion agreeable
at this point. She had no idea where she would go and what she would do, but she
could no longer continue to live this sham of a marriage. “Under the
circumstances, I cannot stay.”

Gavin shifted in his carved wooden chair. Pushing it out from
the table, he crossed one leg over the other. “I forbid you to leave.”

That smug smile was back, and the way he had moved his position
meant he was ready to pounce.

Her heart thundered in her chest. This was so wrong.

She stood up, pushing her chair back so quickly it crashed to
the floor behind her. Even as she turned away he was on his feet and in pursuit.
She almost reached the door and he snatched her from behind, grabbing her by the
arms and hauling her away from the door.

“You will stay and you will bear me an heir,” he barked into
her ear. His hands tightened on her arms, straining her shoulders and forcing
her to arch her back.

“I would prefer that your mistress took on the task.”

It flashed through her mind in that moment, what Lennox had
suggested to her. What if it were not her that was infertile, but her husband?
There was no guarantee the child his first wife had carried was his. Could it be
true, that his mistress had not borne him a child, either? If she had given
birth he would already have announced it. Chloris felt the rage at her back
intensify, and realized that she had stumbled upon the truth—that his mistress
had not fallen pregnant by him, either. Was that his purpose on having the woman
installed in their home, to fulfill his dream of an heir? If he had been
successful, would she have been banished to Saint Andrews forever?

His grip on her arms was viselike, and then he shook her,
violently, bending her arms back as he did so. Chloris bit back a scream, for
the pain in her shoulders was immense. For a moment she thought he intended to
break her arms, and then he pushed her harshly against the wall, where she
slumped.

She turned to look up at him.

“If she falls pregnant before you, you are out on the streets
for all I care. But I forbid you to bring humiliation upon me by leaving before
there is good cause.”

She gripped a nearby chair and her feet scrabbled beneath her.
Pushing herself up against the wall she stood up straight, facing him. “I
already have good cause to leave you.”

The hard, brittle character she saw in his eyes intensified. “I
have warned you before. I will have you weighted and drowned before dawn if you
deny me my rights as your husband.”

He had threatened her with it before, but Gavin had men that
would take on the unsavory task, the brutal types who protected him when he went
amongst his tenants demanding rents.

“Do so. I care not to live under these circumstances.” It was
the truth. In fact she’d rather drown herself than carry on in this manner.

“Ungrateful bitch. I have given you a home and comforts any
woman would be happy with.”

“Aye, and most of it bought with my dowry.”

He ignored that. “If you fail to fall pregnant before this
summer is over, you will be out in the gutter, worthless and abandoned. You
would do better to open your legs and pray that you are not barren.”

“I would rather be in the gutter than receive you in my bed
again.”

“You will receive me, even if I have to bind and gag you.”

The threat did not surprise her. He was at best coldhearted and
selfish, and now he was threatening to force her. However, in the old days it
would have made her tremble in fear, now it only made her angry. “I take it your
mistress has not provided you with a bairn as yet.”

That enraged him. He slapped her across the face.

It was such a harshly delivered blow that her neck twisted, her
head knocking up against the wall. The pain was extreme only for a moment, then
it turned to a slow burn. Her eyes smarted but Chloris held her head high, using
the pain to reinforce her determination. She saw it all clearly now, saw the way
he had channeled his disturbed emotions into her, making her feel guilty and
ashamed because she had not produced an heir. He was the desperate one here, not
her.

His eyes turned blacker than she had ever seen.

He lifted his arm again.

Once she would have cowered and begged him for mercy. But
Chloris suspected that only incited him. She straightened her spine and shook
her head. “You will not hit me again, Gavin.”

He looked at her with outrage, with hatred.

None of it moved her. She had become whole, a woman fulfilled,
a person in her own right. She’d grown stronger, flourished in ways far more
immense than she ever imagined when she went to Somerled that fateful night.

Continuing to fix him with her steady gaze, she leveled with
him. “Only a coward beats a woman.”

His raised hand trembled, but it trembled with rage. He spoke
through gritted teeth. “Get to your chamber and prepare to receive me.”

“I have already stated my feelings on that matter. Go to your
mistress instead.” Before he had a chance to reply Chloris turned and left the
room.

She darted up the stairs and dismissed the upstairs maid
quickly, eager to be alone. Once the girl was gone, she bolted the door to her
chamber. Under normal circumstances it remained open at all times, except for
when Gavin came to her bed.

It would only hold him back for so long, but it was all she
could do.

The dark furnishings in the room made the place feel bleak,
bleaker than it had been before. As she undressed and pulled on her nightgown
she looked into the fire and wished herself far away. She blew out the candles
in the wall sconces and took a lone candlestick to the bedside table. Then she
sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the door. She knew he would come, and
he did.

Within the hour he rattled the door handle.

It was only a matter of time before she would have to receive
him. But not tonight, not with the fury he had on him.

When she did not answer he pounded the door with his fist.

Chloris wrapped her arms around herself, rocking slightly to
and fro, afraid that he would batter down the door. Mercifully, he did not.

She heard him cursing and then his footsteps thundered down the
stairs.

“To your mistress’s bed,” she whispered.

And please, please let her fall
pregnant.

Despite her silent prayer, the cold hard truth of the matter
reared in her mind. If Gavin could not father a child, and his mistress was his
alone, this purgatory could go on indefinitely. She crawled into the bed and
pulled the covers over herself. It was not cold. The fire in the grate was well
stoked and burned low and steady. Nevertheless, she shivered because the images
Gavin had forced into her mind brought no comfort.

In the morning she would begin her quest to find employment.
She would query her friends. She was well educated and could perhaps find work
as a governess. An acquaintance had recently taken on a teacher for her
children. The teacher was a widow woman fallen on hard times. Could she find a
similar position? There had to be a way to escape this marriage and build a
humble, honest life for herself.

An honest life
. That’s what Lennox
had called it. She had been living a lie, thinking wrongly that appearances,
vows and loyalty mattered.

Watching the candle flicker and grow faint, she let her mind
drift away from the hell that promised to lie ahead and instead let her memories
dance into the flame, back to that first night in Torquil House, when Lennox’s
touch had brought fire into her body.

He’d encouraged her body to blossom, like the flowers opening
to the sun. And he was her sun, the passion he had unleashed in her was nothing
compared to what followed. As her eyes grew damp, she closed them. She said his
name, over and over in her mind, led by instinct. For some reason, it calmed
her. She pictured him taking off her glove that first night and wished that she
not been married. Then, if he had asked to run away with him as he had, she
could have done so without moral doubt or recourse.

One thing she knew with full certainty, there would never be
any man in her heart, for she gravitated to him and him alone now.

Even if she never saw him again, her heart would always be
his.