But her family was innocent. Perhaps not absolutely, completely innocent, but innocent of murder, at the very least.
Mary Jane arrived in her room, clucking over her state, yet complimenting her on her rush into the tunnel in hopes of helping to save the men.
“They’ll all think of you as an angel now, you know. You do know how to manage men.”
“Do I?” Shawna inquired of her wryly.
“Aye, that you do!”
Mary Jane put a few drops of rose oil into the bathwater, then supplied Shawna with a warmed linen towel and washcloth and sweetly scented soap before leaving her. Shawna sank deeply into the heated water, dousing her hair and scrubbing it, then working strenuously at her blackened flesh. She didn’t linger in the tub. It quickly filled with the blackness that had covered her. She stood over it, rinsing her hair and body with fresh water from the pitcher, then drying herself briskly. Wrapped in her towel, she moved toward the window, filled with an eerie sensation that someone was watching her.
But there was no one there. The room was empty.
She walked to her freshly made fire, sitting before it to untangle the black skeins of her hair before its warmth. She wondered if she should have changed tactics with Fergus Anderson so quickly. David might want vengeance against her, but he would surely back her decisions regarding the mines. As would his brother. Unless men felt differently about children.
They could not. She could accuse the Douglases of ready tempers or a certain arrogance, of having implacable wills and being incredibly stubborn and even pigheaded at times.
But they were not avaricious men, and surely, both David and Andrew would have stood beside her against Fergus, just as her family would have done.
She had simply been determined that she was going to have things her way, she realized.
Without having to ask for help.
She wound her fingers around the arm of her chair tightly. She hadn’t done anything wrong. It was going to be good to have the little boy growing up around the castle. She’d see to it that he received better schooling. She’d have more opportunities to help him.
That was true.
But she hadn’t wanted Fergus going to a Douglas for anything.
She didn’t want to owe a Douglas, and she didn’t want to ask a Douglas for anything. At all.
She sighed, suddenly very, very tired. It had been a long week.
The longest week of her life since…
Since the Fire.
Suddenly there was a loud knocking at her door, and she heard Mary Jane calling to her anxiously. “Shawna!”
“Aye, come in.”
The door burst open. Mary Jane entered, cheeks flushed, eyes bright.
“He’s here.”
“He—who?”
“Andrew, Laird Douglas. Fresh arrived from America with his new bride and her sister. The Sioux is back in the castle, Shawna, do come, do hurry!”
She didn’t hurry. She couldn’t move for a moment.
Oh god, Hawk was here already. Between Hawk and David, she would surely lose her mind completely. Did he know, was he aware that David was alive?
Had he seen David?
Should she tell him?
“Shawna!” Mary Jane cried.