“What has this to do?—”
“It still smelled of chloroform.”
Shawna gasped. “Chloroform? But whose?—”
She broke off, wide-eyed, because he was walking back toward her, and he leaned over her, his arms like a pair of bars on either side of her.
“Yours,” he said, before she could voice the question.
“What?” she gasped. “You’re trying to tell me that you found one of my handkerchiefs in the chapel—and it still carried a scent of chloroform.”
“Indeed. I did, however, search the chapel from top to bottom. And I found nothing more.”
“So, you’re implying that I drugged myself to keep from saving your brother—then managed to run back here, drop myhandkerchief in the chapel, and go running back to the mine to fall flat on my face?”
“I’m implying no such thing.”
“Then—”
“I’m saying that it’s quite curious that you are drugged by a mystery creature in the mine—and a handkerchief with your initials upon it is found in the cemetery bearing the scent of chloroform.”
She pushed his arm aside, trying to rise. She wasn’t nearly as dizzy as she had been, but she wavered for a minute before gaining strength by leaning on him. “I have had it! I won’t keep secret the fact that you live anymore—I will not betray my own family. How could my kin possibly be guilty when I am master of so much mischief? And you, Laird Douglas, you may have many rights, but you’ve got no right to me?—”
She was suddenly no longer leaning on him, he was holding her, his hands cupping her elbows as he kept her firmly close, his head somewhat lowered to hers.
“You are sure it is a drug that made you ill?”
“Aye, of course!”
“You’re quite certain that you’re not with child?”
“Oh, sweet Jesus!” she murmured. “It was a drug. I am not with child!”
“How do you know?”
“I know, believe me, I know.”
“You can’t?—”
“Oh god, stop!” she hissed. She was feeling weak again. She couldn’t tell him that she knew full well that this was not a pregnancy sickness! “I was ill from the sickly-sweet scent of the drug, and that is all! Damn you, go! If you cannot believe in me, I insist that you leave me be. Your brother is here—darken his door by night! If you must guard someone by night, find your way to Sabrina’s door?—”
“That would not be likely.”
“She’s an exceptionally beautiful young woman.”
“Exceptionally so.”
She tried to wrench free from him. “Go?—”
“My Lady MacGinnis, I think not.”
“If—”
“I rather imagine that Sabrina Connor is involved with the father of her child.”
Shawna gasped, horrified, trying to remember if she had given Sabrina away with any word or action. Surely, she had not done so!
“So, you know?—”