Highland Bachelor 02 - This Laird of Mine Read online

  When she had completed her drawing, she set it aside and stood. Turning once again to gaze out the open window, she saw Jules, fully dressed this time, heading up from the loch with a large fish suspended from a line in his hand. On his journey across the weed-tangled courtyard, he stopped and turned toward the road. It was then that Claire heard what he no doubt responded to, the clatter of hoofbeats.

  A single rider approached the manor at a breakneck pace. The sun had yet to reach its zenith, yet the others had been gone for several hours. Had something happened to them in the village? Claire tensed at the thought, and her heart raced as she climbed through the slats that partially blocked the doorway and hurried down the main stairs.

  She met Jules outside the front door just as the horse and rider came to a stop. “Lord Kildare,” the rider said. He offered Jules a bow, then hastened forward.

  “Joseph,” Jules acknowledged.

  A sense of foreboding threaded through Claire as she recognized the young messenger as the one Jules had hired only two days ago to bring Grayson back from Edinburgh.

  “Have you a message from my solicitor?” Jules asked.

  “Milord.” The young man was covered in dust, as though he had ridden hard and fast for some time. “I have been to see your solicitor.”

  “Is he following in a carriage?”

  Joseph shook his head. “He cannot, milord. Not now nor ever.”

  “Why?” Jules asked with a scowl.

  The young man paled. “He is dead.”

  Blood roared in Claire’s ears. How could Grayson be dead? The man who had stood beside her at the wedding ceremony had been no older than herself.

  She stole a glance at Jules. His face was hard, his posture rigid. “What happened?”

  “Early yesterday morning, only a few moments before I arrived, a runaway carriage crushed him in the street while he was on his way to work,” Joseph said gently, as if a softened voice could make a difference when the words were so cold and ugly.

  A heavy silence hung over them until Jules finally asked, “Who was the driver?”

  “No one knows. They did not stop after the accident.” Joseph’s gaze dropped to the ground. “The only witness said the conveyance was unexceptional except for the bright red fringe that hung over the doorway. The driver was dressed in dark clothing, and the only occupant was cloaked in black.”

  The same carriage that had reportedly taken her wards from her home. A terrifying picture of Penelope, Anna, and Eloise lying dead in the street shot through Claire’s mind. She felt a scream start deep inside her, building, gathering force until it threatened to choke her. Her sweet wards could meet the same end.

  She must have let a sound slip past her control because Jules turned to her. “Claire, what is it?” A deep frown furrowed his brows. “Do you know who did this?”

  Tears scalded her eyes. She wanted to give in to them, to allow herself the relief of crying, but she knew she could not. If she told Jules the truth, the abductors would know and they would kill the girls regardless.

  “To die in such a way . . .” She swallowed past the tightness in her throat. “No, I don’t know who would do such an evil thing as to kill an innocent man.”

  “And the only witness to the marriage you say took place,” he replied with a softer tone.

  Claire’s arms felt limp, and her legs went suddenly weak. She stumbled.

  Jules was there beside her. His arm slid around her waist, bolstering her. They stood there for a long while, staring at each other, saying nothing until he finally broke the silence once more, saying, “Come inside.”

  His words snapped her back to her senses. She steadied herself and stepped away from his arm, supporting her own weight. “I am better now. I want to stay out in the sunshine. The warmth helps.” Pale afternoon sunlight streamed through the tree branches overhead, creating a tangle of greenish-brown on the grass at her feet.

  “I understand,” he said, walking her to a large rock nearby. “Wait here for me. I won’t be long.”

  She heard the crunch of grass beneath his feet as he moved back to the messenger. “Take your horse to the stable for a rubdown and a pail of oats. When you are done, help yourself to whatever you can find in the kitchen.”

  “Thank you, milord,” Joseph said as he guided his horse away.

  Claire closed her eyes and tipped her head back, letting the sun caress her skin and ease the chill that had settled deep inside her since the girls had been taken. She drew a steadying breath.

  She knew to use another human being in such a way was wrong, yet she would do whatever she had to do to free three innocent girls. She was the only one who could rectify the situation. And if Jules got hurt along the way, then she would have to find a way to forgive herself, eventually. Because hurt him she would.

  She tried not to feel sad at the thought.

  The summer heat from the open door cut through the stifling, sweaty press of The Thistle and Sword at the southern edge of the village of Kildare. Across the room, a dark-cloaked figure watched as two new patrons entered the smoky tavern. At the sight of the two women, she sat up. Four men entered behind the women. Frowning, the cloaked figure stepped deeper into the shadows as she recognized the pesky servant from Kildare Manor, John Finnie. The others must be Jules’s friends.

  The younger of the two women made her way across the crowded room, heading toward the only open table. The regal way she held her slender, delicate body marked her as Lady Jane Kincaid. The memory of what Jane had done to save Lord Kildare from the hangman’s noose made the cloaked figure clench her hands. The young laird was supposed to die, but Jane had altered that plan. Now was the time for a different plan—one of revenge, slow torture, and pain. The thought blew across her mind like an elusive breeze in the stuffy room.

  The end would be worth the wait. For the end promised to be every bit as tragic as the beginning.

  Jules MacIntyre deserved nothing less.

  Jules returned to Claire less than a quarter hour later bearing a basket.

  He had taken the time to wash and change into a clean lawn shirt and fawn breeches that didn’t smell of fish or sweat. “Since the others have yet to return, I thought we might have some bread and cheese outside.”

  “What time is it?” she asked, coming to sit beside him on the blanket he had spread out on the one corner of the lawn that wasn’t waist-high. He had trampled the weeds into submission as he’d cut several sections of logs into kindling earlier this morn.

  He looked at the sun. “Most likely around midday,” Jules replied, then frowned at the rest of the lawn. Perhaps it was time to tame the estate. Working outside had helped to clear his head, at least until Joseph had arrived with the news of Grayson’s demise.

  “When will the others return? Did they say?” Claire asked, sitting down on the blanket beside him, gazing off toward the village.

  “Around four, I imagine. Do you miss them so much?”

  Claire gave him a winsome smile. “No, but I am eager to move forward with the cleaning. And unless we are going to eat fish and cheese for days on end, we have no more supplies.”

  He looked at her with amusement. “I am very fond of fish.”

  “And I am very fond of cheese,” she said with a chuckle.

  “Then we shall be fine.” Jules set a plate down, positioned the bread and cheese upon it, then turned the plate so the cheese was closer to her. “I suspect they are having a difficult time finding women who are eager to come up here to clean, no matter what Nicholas offers to pay.”

  Claire sliced off a corner of the cheese and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. “Why is that?”

  “They fear my reputation.” He tore off a piece of bread. “The rogue of Kildare is what they call me in the village.”

  “Do they really?” She paused in ripping off a piece of bread. There was no fear in her eyes, but she remained so still.

  He narrowed his gaze on her. “Does that give you pause
about the man you have attached yourself to?”

  “No.”

  There was no hesitation in her answer, and that surprised him. He searched her face, contemplating her response. “The only person who can verify your claim of a proxy wedding is now dead,” he said.

  An indescribable look of pain flashed across her face. “I hope that as Grayson met with such an unfortunate end, he did not suffer.”

  Jules ripped another section off the bread, stifling his sudden urge to reach for her hand and comfort her.

  She set down the reminder of the cheese. “As for proof of our marriage, it would have been recorded in the parish records if the documents Grayson had me sign are no longer accessible.”

  The words brought his gaze back to hers. “I will need to go to Edinburgh to confirm that myself.”

  She said nothing, simply nodded in response, but that odd sadness lingered in her gaze.

  This time, he could not hold back his need to comfort her. He touched her hand.

  She did not pull away. A soft smile came to her lips. “I do not blame you for being angry with me. I went into this marriage fully knowing what to expect. You were not prepared for me, I realize that now.”

  His eyes locked onto hers, glittering yet warm and so filled with hope and vitality that he could not look away, even though he wanted to—Lord, how he wanted to. But her gaze wouldn’t release him, and he had no choice but to stare. “No, I was not prepared for you.”

  “Why did you fabricate a wife?” she asked.

  “Who told you that?”

  “Grayson.”

  He made a small sound, a rush of breath, an aborted laugh at her bluntness. And yet it also felt good to talk openly about what he had done without the others around. Neither of them had to pretend. “I wanted to be left alone.”

  A frown pulled down the corners of her mouth, but did nothing to mar her features. Instead, it once again made him want to lift his hand to her cheek and stroke away the concern he saw there. “I would think after your situation, you would want exactly the opposite.”

  “Are you referring to my time in gaol?” he asked, thinly.

  She nodded. “It could not have been easy.”

  He pulled his gaze away from the pity in her golden eyes. “It was hell on earth, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.” He didn’t want anyone to look at him that way, not anymore. It made him feel helpless, and he had worked hard to be anything but the victim he had once been forced to play.

  “I’m sorry for that.”

  In her voice he heard not pity, but softness, a gentle acceptance that left him just as on edge as her pity had done. “Life is seldom what we want it to be,” Jules said.

  She leaned closer, and brought her hand up to cradle his cheek with an intimacy that was both gentle and sensuous. “It can be,” Claire whispered.

  His body stirred at the confidence in the way she held him, at the heat of her touch. This was not the meek woman he had met that first day or the prideful woman he had dined with last night. This was a different woman altogether. Since he had left her this morning, she had found a strength he hadn’t anticipated. It was evident in the way she touched him, the way she looked at him—she looked not through him as others often did, but straight into his tattered soul.

  He got to his feet suddenly. “I’m going fishing.”

  She startled, her hand remaining in the empty air. “You caught a fish for tonight’s dinner already.”

  “We will need a second one, and maybe a third.” He felt like an idiot for pulling away, yet he’d had to. It was either pull away or kiss her. And kissing her seemed like a very bad idea.

  Without another word, he headed back toward the loch. Halfway there, he realized he had forgotten his fishing line. He kept on going. Perhaps he would go for a cold swim instead.

  Claire stared unseeingly at the ceiling above her, the charcoal in her hand arrested midstroke. She did not understand Jules MacIntyre at all. She had just started to break through the wall he had built between them since she’d arrived, and in the next moment he was gone. How could she stop him from running away?

  She dropped her charcoal into the basket of supplies she had gathered and placed it atop the scaffolding she had built. She’d created the structure from two broken ladders and a panel from an old wagon she had found in the barn. Kildare Manor might not have furnishings, servants, or stores of food, but it contained a wealth of dilapidated wood, weaponry, aging whiskey barrels, an old boat, and paint.

  She had been a little shocked by the discovery of a wooden chest filled with vials of pigment and brushes, as well as various types of oil and varnish. Someone in the MacIntyre family had been a painter once, although all the evidence except for the chest was gone from the manor.

  Claire’s heart had soared, and her fingers had itched to create something beautiful in this big, empty house. And she’d acted on the urge, dragging the chest into the house, up the stairs, and directly into the deserted ballroom. Yet now that her initial excitement had vanished, she also realized the discovery had allowed her to forget, ever so briefly, her own important role. And it wasn’t as painter to the Kildare household.

  Slowly, she climbed down the scaffolding until she stood once more on the floor. A quick glance up brought a smile to her face. The design was progressing. Another few hours and she would be ready to paint. But those hours would have to come when everyone else was asleep from now on. She could not afford to lose herself to her painting during the precious daylight hours. Too much was at stake to fail.

  Claire glanced down at her blackened fingers, and swallowed hard, forcing back the thick ache of memories—the shreds of fabric from the girls’ dresses, the dark-hooded figures . . .

  No, she would not go home a failure, regardless of how Jules responded to her. He would not drive her away, not until she knew the girls were safe.

  The resolve gave her the strength she needed to leave the chamber and hurry toward her own room. It was time to toss caution to the wind. If she wanted to gain Lord Kildare’s favor, she had to be willing to risk more, dare more. She had to breach that wall he had erected between them and knock it down completely. And she knew just how to accomplish that task.

  If he wanted more fish for supper, than she would be the one to provide them this time. If he could fish, then so could she.

  Thinking she could be Jules’s equal, Claire headed outside toward the boathouse. It took much effort to drag the heavy wooden boat she had found there across the grassy field that seemed to go on forever until she reached the shore of the loch.

  She glanced around, searching for Jules. Only an hour had passed since they’d been together earlier. When she did not see him, she took off her shoes and left them on the shore. Then, with the hem of her dress clenched tight in her fist, Claire pushed the ancient boat away from the edge of the loch. She took the last three steps on the narrow beach, two in the water, then hopped into the vessel.

  Her father had taken her out in a boat several times in her youth. While he studied the fish and animal life, she had drawn the scenery. It had been one of their favorite things to do on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

  The wood creaked and moaned beneath her as the boat glided over the steel-gray surface of the loch. She settled herself on the small wooden bench in the center and gripped the oars. It took several strokes to find a rhythm that sent the boat out into the loch, instead of in a circle back toward the shore.

  The air around her grew a little cooler. A breeze tugged at the ends of the hair that had fallen from her chignon in her efforts to drag the boat from the boathouse to the water. The air was heavy with the scent of heather and pine. The oars gave forth a rhythmic cadence that seemed so in harmony with this setting.

  Claire tipped her head back and let the sunshine warm her face. She drew a breath of clean, fresh air and relished the sensation of freedom that came to her as she glided toward the deeper waters.

  She pulled the oars back inside the b
oat and picked up the net she had tossed in the back of the boat. Cool liquid met her fingertips and dragged down the hem of her gown as water lined the bottom of the boat. Obviously the vessel had a leak, despite the fact that she had inspected it before launching it into the loch.

  A quick glance back at the shore in the distance brought a sense of unease, but she pushed the sensation away. She had come here to fish, and to prove to Jules that she was capable. And prove that point she would . . . unless she drowned herself first.

  Determined to succeed, Claire turned the boat back toward the shore, then tossed the net over the edge. Several large holes were visible as the net dipped below the surface.

  A leaky boat, a hole-filled net—this adventure was not turning out exactly as she had hoped. Dragging the net against the side of the boat with one hand, she reached for the oars and tried to row back to safety, but the netting hampered her movements.

  The water level in the boat had risen to her ankles. She felt a pinprick of fear as the frigid water crawled up her skin, but kept rowing. The water was coming in faster now. Realizing she could row faster without the net, she dropped it, watching it for a moment as it sank down into the steel-gray depths of the loch.

  Her heart constricted in her chest as the water came up to her midcalf. She had learned to swim as a child. Her father had taught her how, but it had been years since she had been in the water. She gripped the oars, rowed hard. Despite her efforts, the water flowed in, dragging the boat down, making the vessel heavy and impossible to maneuver.

  Water slipped over the side. For an instant she floated as the boat slipped out from beneath her, pulling the oars from her hands. She let them go, unable to counter the deadweight. Fear threaded through her as she thrashed at the water. Regardless of her efforts, she slipped below the surface.

  She felt herself falling, weightless, her arms spread and her hair escaping the tight chignon to float into her eyes. Cold water sucked at her; the boat was a colossal shadow below her as they both sank deeper into the void. Silver fish swam around her—trout. Her intention to catch a fish would have been realized had the boat not sprung a leak.