Chapter Twenty-Seven
Iseabail had neverseen a couple happier to travel hundreds of miles together in a closed carriage. Mairi and Connall left as soon as the doctor declared her wound did not bear an infection. No doubt there were women throughout thetonwho grieved the loss of an eligible duke, but no one at the countess’s home was surprised by the bliss on the two newlywed’s faces.
The couple pulled away in their carriage at dawn and though there were hugs and kisses from all around, the two still managed to leave while bickering about a one-hundred pound dowry Mairi thought she was owed. Connall and Mairi would always bicker, it seemed, even in the midst of blissful union.
A minute after their carriage pulled away, the countess declared it too early for decent people to be awake. She went straight back to her bed. Sadie laughed as she too disappeared upstairs to claim Mairi’s abandoned room as her own. That left Iseabail to make the slow climb to the bedroom that was now hers alone.
She didn’t rush. With Connall gone, too much fear gripped her to make her move quickly anywhere. She knew it was ridiculous. Her uncle was still in Scotland, hopefully none the wiser as to her whereabouts. But he was a canny old man and her disappearance had no doubt infuriated him. No soul, and especially not a girl’s, could escape his iron grip. Or so she’d been told—and shown—from the moment her parents had died, and he’d had care of her.
Even weeks after her escape to London, she’d seen his men in every shadow. She jumped at the sound of rough male voices. She cringed at every quick movement. And the idea that Connall and Mairi had been attacked in Vauxhall left her in a cold sweat of panic.
Thankfully, almost no one knew her true identity. The necklace that proclaimed her heritage was gone, stolen by a highwayman. And though she’d grieved it at the time, now she found it to be a blessing. If she found a husband and changed her name, there was no one to connect her to her uncle’s clan.
That was good. The land of her birth held nothing but pain for her. And yet, she feared that somewhere, somehow, her past would seize her in a very literal sense. Until the day she wed, her uncle could grab her and force her to marry his kin. She would be trapped forever in that horrible place with no hope left to her.
That thought kept her awake every night. It was the shadow that haunted her days.
So it was that when she entered her bedroom and a man stepped out from behind the curtain, she was quick to dash to the dresser and the dirk she kept there. She whipped around, knife raised while she filled her lungs with a scream that would wake the entire neighborhood.
“I wouldn’t do that, lass,” said a voice she remembered, “else how can we negotiate?”
Her scream froze in her throat, not held out of terror, but suspended as her mind caught up with her senses.
A huge man leaned against the corner post of her bed, a cheeky grin on his rugged face. He wasn’t handsome, per se, but he had a brutal kind of charm built of strength and hard living. He looked like a Scotsman to her, if such a man could have good cheer and a wicked smile that didn’t frighten her. Her breath eased out of her chest, the scream gone.
“I remember you,” she said as she looked at his dark clothing. It was not the attire of an aristocrat, but it was all exquisitely made of the finest materials. A rich rogue, then, dressed as a highwayman might. “Reuben Bates. The man who saved us from the highwaymen.”
“The very same,” he said as he swept off his hat and executed a courtly bow. “And you are the honorable Miss Iseabail Spalding, ward of Baron Bain. You’re the granddaughter of the Earl of Spalding, and the only child of his daughter, Lady Alice.” His grin widened. “You’re also dowered with five-hundred gold pieces in a chest brought from the farthest corner of the earth.”
She shook her head. “The dowry is long gone. The contents merely rumor.”
“Oh no,” he said with a cheeky grin. “It’s real and a great deal more than a meager five-hundred pounds.”
She blinked. “That’s not possible.”
“But it is.” Then he fished into his pocket and pulled out her necklace. It flashed in the light, a dragon with a fat belly all done in the vague shape of a shield. “A pretty bauble this,” he said as he turned it over in his hand. “Especially if one knows to do this.” With the tip of his thumb, he twisted the hidden latch. The gold popped open and exposed a polished dark red stone, the dragon’s heart.
Oh damn. Oh hell. Bad enough that he had the necklace of the honorable Miss Spalding. But that stone, one that when held up to the light revealed the six points of a star ruby, that told some people a great deal more about her parentage.
Panic rolled dark and cold down her spine, but she stuffed it down under a false air of casual surprise. “Oh, you found the catch,” she said lightly. “It’s not a very pretty stone underneath. I think that’s why it was covered.”
“That’s not why,” he said, humor lacing his tone. “Tell me about your mother, Miss Spalding. Tell me about what this stone meant to her.”
He knew. Damnation, he knew the stories about her mother. Whispers that could be true or could be ridiculous tales told to frighten children. Even she didn’t know.
“I don’t know what you think you’ve heard,” she began.
“But none of it’s true?” he finished for her. “I think a little bit of it is true. And maybe a great deal more.” His eyes seemed to twinkle. Was it greed? Lust? Humor? She didn’t know and she couldn’t look away.
“It’s all exaggeration, rumor, and guesses.”
He pushed off the bedpost to saunter forward. He was a big man, and he moved with the athletic ease of a warrior. Every movement was controlled, every step done lightly such that he could jump in any direction, counter every attack, and catch any prey.
She shied backwards, nervous even as he mesmerized her. “What do you want?”
He grinned as if she had just asked the question he’d been waiting for. “What I want is more than you can imagine. What I want from you is something we must discuss.”
She held up her hands as if to push him back. “We have nothing to discuss.” Indeed, she wasn’t even sure she wanted her necklace back. It came with a host of problems. And yet it was all she had of her mother.