Читать книгу Highland Savage - Hannah Howell - Страница 8

Lucas scowled at the man who sat across the fire from him. The only thing the man had said since Katerina had walked out was I am William and I think ye may be too witless to live. Although the insult stung, Lucas could only admire loyalty. This unrelenting silence, however, was becoming unendurable. Lucas had questions that needed answering and it was becoming obvious that Katerina was not soon to return to answer them.

“Where did she go?” Lucas finally asked.

“Away from ye,” William answered, not even glancing up from his carving.

“I ken that weel enough, but where did that take her? Are there more rooms like this one?”

“There are a lot of rooms down here. Some are a goodly size, some nay more than a niche in the rock. There are passages and hollows running throughout this hill, right up to the back of Dunlochan keep itself.”

“’Tis one great bolt-hole.”

“Aye, for the holy men who used to abide here and for those within the keep. I am thinking ’tis a mixture of what has always been here, what was natural, and hundreds of years of hard work. This land certainly gives a mon many a reason to want a secure place to hide for a wee while.”

“True. So, why are ye hiding here now?”

“Weel,” William briefly looked at him and the look in his dark eyes was not particularly friendly, “it certainly isnae because of ye or what ye think she did.”

“Ye didnae see her that day, didnae see how still and calm she was as Ranald and his dogs beat, kicked, and cut me. They told me she had ordered it done. Ranald himself whispered it in my ear as he cut my face. Said it was Katerina’s plan to make sure I wasnae so bonnie any more and wouldnae find it so easy to play with a lassie’s heart.”

“And ye would believe a mon like Ranald o’er Lady Katerina? Wheesht, I think the bastards kicked ye in the head one too many times for ’tis certain that your wits are sadly scattered.”

“If Katerina was so innocent why didnae she send word to my clan about what had happened to me?”

“And bring their wrath down upon the people of Dunlochan, most of whom had naught to do with it? She thought ye were dead and kenned that the Murray clan might seek blood to pay for the killing of ye. M’lady was fair surprised when nary a one of them came looking for ye.” William paused in his carving to look at Lucas more closely. “Just how did ye survive and get away?”

“I can swim.”

“Ah, the lass was that sure your leg had been broken.”

“It was, but a mon can abide almost any pain if it means he doesnae drown. I crawled out of the water and kept right on crawling. Stopped only long enough to tend my wounds as best as I could and then headed home. There were good people along the way to give me aid.” Lucas shrugged, loath to think much about pain-filled days and nights, the terror of feeling so helpless, and all the travails of traveling unarmed and unable to even hunt for food. He also did not want to explain how his twin had found him because of a dream because too many people found that bond between twins a little hard to believe or tolerate. “I didnae notice Katerina looking for me either, and I would have been easy enough to track down and catch.”

William shook his head. “She is right to say that ye ne’er truly kenned her. Did ye nay hear her say that they threw her in the loch as weel? Ah, I can see ye doubt the truth of it, but I will tell ye the tale anyway. They threw her in right after ye. Being that she is such a wee lass they were able to throw her farther than they did ye and she landed in the water, hitting only a few rocks when she went under. She nearly drowned. Kenning that she couldnae let the bastards see that she could swim and mayhap save herself, she swam beneath the water as much as she could and made her way to a sheltered cove. Poor lass was fair battered to death upon the rocks there ere she could get to shore. We found her two days later, weak and feverish. Calling for ye, she was, but, of course, that must have been her just wanting to make certain ye were dead.”

Lucas just cocked one eyebrow, ignoring the man’s sarcasm and silently urging him to continue with his tale.

“She sent us all out to look for ye,” William continued, “but we couldnae find ye. It was nigh on two months ere she was healed of her wounds and the fever that nearly killed her. S’truth, for three weeks nearly the only sensible things she uttered were orders to find ye and let everyone believe she was dead.”

“Why play that game?”

“Mayhap because someone obviously wants her dead?”

The man’s continuing sarcasm truly grated on Lucas’s temper, but he fought to endure it. He was finally getting some answers. They might not be the right ones or even the truth, but he could decide on all that later. Right now he needed to know just what he had stumbled into.

“Who does she think wants her dead?” Lucas asked William.

“That bitch of a half-sister she was cursed with, Agnes. She wants it all, ye ken.”

“All what?”

“Did Lady Katerina nay tell ye about her father’s will, his dying wishes and commands?”

“Nay, she didnae.”

William sighed and shook his head. “Mayhap if she had ye wouldnae be so quick to think her guilty. The old laird, Katerina’s father, chose five men to act as a council after he died, to hold final approval of any mon chosen by her or her half-sister. If the men dinnae approve of the mon and the lass chooses to wed him anyway, she loses. All she gets is a wee bothy and a bit of land on the far western edges of Dunlochan lands, and a verra wee dowry. The other lass gets all the rest. There is nary a doubt that the council would have approved of ye as a husband for our lady so Agnes had to be rid of ye. Can ye nay see now that our lady had no cause to do ye harm, that ’twas only to her benefit to keep ye alive so that ye might choose her as your wife?”

“Aye, but I can also see that, if Katerina thought I was turning to Agnes, it would be to her benefit to see me dead and gone.”

A sharp curse escaped William, but then he shrugged and turned all of his attention back to his carving. “As I said, I begin to think ye too daft to live. After all, if the lass truly wished ye dead, all she had to do today was leave ye to Ranald and his dogs and just let the bastard finish what he had started a year ago. Mayhap ye ought to think on that for a wee while.”

Lucas was thinking on it, but he would never admit it to William. It was the one thing that kept his doubts about Katerina’s guilt alive and pestering him. What she had done for him today did not change what had happened that long ago night, he told himself firmly. Perhaps she had been tormented by guilt and regret while they had been apart and could no longer condone his murder. Lucas knew he would be staying with Katerina and her men for now and intended to use the time to find the answers he needed to uncover all the truth.

Wearied from weeping, Katerina slowly dragged herself off her bed and bathed her face in cold water. The very last thing she wanted was for Lucas to see that she had been weeping. She still felt stunned by his accusations, but she refused to let him know how deeply they had hurt her.

Her stomach rumbled, demanding food, and she knew she would have to return to the hall to get something to eat. That meant facing Lucas again and she dreaded it. The pain was still too fresh. So, too, she realized, was the anger his accusations had stirred within her. It was clear that all his sweet kisses, his passion, had been false or he never would have condemned her so. A little doubt she could understand and forgive, but not this cold condemnation. He did not even give her denials a moment of consideration. Katerina doubted that even showing him the many scars she had gathered that day would sway him. She would have trusted him with her very life, but it was now clear that he had never trusted her at all.

The problem was what to do now, she mused as she poured herself some wine. Sipping the wine, Katerina paced her small bedchamber and thought about the best way to handle Lucas. Her first inclination was to just ignore the man, to cut him from her heart and treat him as a complete stranger. It was a good plan, if only because she knew it would annoy him to be completely ignored, but Katerina decided she would not be able to hold to that plan for very long. She had never even been able to ignore Agnes for long and no one angered her as her half-sister did.

That left her with the choices of spitting his anger and mistrust right back at him or trying to convince him that he was utterly wrong in his suspicions. The former might relieve her of any bile stirred up by being thought so poorly of by the man she had given her heart and innocence to, but it would make life very difficult for her men. The latter sharply stung her pride. Why should she have to convince him of the truth just because he was too witless to see it? Of course, when he did finally see the truth, she would have the pleasure of gloating. Men did so hate to be wrong, she thought, and suspected Lucas would suffer even more because of what they had once meant to each other.

“And that is something it would be wise to forget,” she muttered.

Especially since she may well have been utterly deceived in what she believed they had shared, she thought, and felt like weeping all over again. She ruthlessly buried the pain and tried to face the truth. The love she had thought she and Lucas shared may well have been a lie. Katerina knew she had loved him, and still did, fool that she was. However, what she had thought she had seen in Lucas may well have been no more than passion and they had certainly given in to that, short and glorious as it had been. Yet, even if she had discovered that Lucas did not love her and would soon leave her, she still would never have had him murdered and Lucas should know that. The fact that he could know her so little after what they had shared hurt, if only because it put all of his soft words and heated kisses into doubt, the memories of which she had treasured in the vain hope of easing her grief.

“Curse it, I but go round and round and make no decision,” she snapped and abruptly finished off her wine.

Before she faced Lucas again she definitely needed a plan, however. Proving him wrong and having him have to apologize was a good plan but it was really not enough. After all, that left her with no plan for what to do after he had groveled in abject remorse. The battle against Agnes, Ranald, and their minions might not be over and she and Lucas might still have to deal with each other as well as the lust they had shared.

She still loved the fool, still wanted him, and she could not ignore that or try to lie to herself about it. Although she could no longer trust in her judgment about what Lucas felt for her, Katerina was certain that the hurt he had dealt her had not killed her love or desire for him. She had the chilling feeling that she was incurable. Even now a part of her hoped it was all some horrible mistake and when she met with Lucas again he would apologize and take her into his arms to kiss away the pain.

“Fool,” she muttered and glared in the direction of the hall.

Then again, in his arms was where she truly wanted to be, she admitted to herself. If he finally saw the truth and gave her a pretty apology, there was no reason why she could not enjoy the passion they had shared so briefly once again. After all, she was no longer a maiden.

Katerina nodded and started out of her room. If Lucas came to see the truth and displayed an appropriate remorse, she would allow him to become her lover. She hesitated in her walk to the hall long enough to silence that fearful voice in her head that whispered that Lucas might no longer desire her. There was a year’s worth of unsatisfied hunger in her and she wanted it fed. Katerina also knew that she still wanted Lucas to be so much more than her lover. It would just take time to see if she could trust in him again, in his passion, and in all his soft words of desire. It would also take time to trust in her own judgment again and to forgive him, she decided as she entered the hall and met his narrowed gaze.

The man was too handsome for any woman’s peace of mind, she decided crossly as she approached the hearth and sat down next to William. A faintly ragged scar ran over his right cheek but it only added a touch of danger to his looks. He was still tall, lean, and strong despite the stiffness in his left leg that she had fleetingly noticed during the escape from Ranald and his men. The only real difference she could see at the moment was that there was no warmth in his silvery-blue eyes as he looked at her and no beguiling smile curved his sensuous mouth. When she realized she was staring at his slightly full bottom lip, thinking of how she would like to nibble on it, she gave herself a mental slap and scowled at him.

“Why are ye still here?” she demanded, accepting the bowl of rabbit stew William served her and refusing to acknowledge, even to herself, that she would have been devastated if Lucas had left while she had been indulging in self-pity and grief.

Lucas scowled right back at her and helped himself to a bowl of stew. It annoyed him that upon seeing the faint evidence that Katerina had been crying, he had immediately wanted to take her into his arms and comfort her. If her guilt and shame troubled her it was none of his concern.

“It appears that ye and I have the same goal this time,” he replied. “We both want Ranald dead.”

Katerina inwardly winced at that blunt truth. She loathed the fact that she wanted a man dead, but could not deny that, in many ways, she did. The only way to be safe from Ranald was to bury the man. Ranald was not the sort of man to meekly accept any loss and, when she won the battle against Agnes, Ranald lost. The man liked the power he now wielded far too much to give it up without at least seeking revenge upon the ones who took that power away from him.

“True. If there is to be peace in Dunlochan again then Ranald must be slain.”

“Because he betrayed you? Who does he obey now?”

“The same one he has always obeyed—Agnes. ’Tis because of her and all of her plots that Dunlochan is now under siege and we must hide inside this hill.”

“Ye expect me to believe that Agnes has kept ye and your men running and hiding for a year? That lass hasnae the wit to do that. The only thing that lass can think about is men and gowns.”

“Agnes rules Ranald and the two of them are cunning and cruel.” Katerina shook her head. “I suspect my father thought as ye do, that Agnes was naught more than a witless girl whose only thoughts were for teasing and luring men and spending too much of his coin on gowns. To be certain, Agnes does spend far too much of her time pondering such useless things, but she is also cold and cruel. There is a hard, cold viciousness in Agnes that she hides weel from the men she seeks to enthrall. Her husband was bewitched for a while but he finally saw her for what she truly is. Sadly, it took the death of a maid he had flirted with to open his eyes.”

“He saw Agnes kill a maid?”

“Nay, but he had nay doubt it was her doing. He hadnae e’en been unfaithful, had just exchanged a few smiles with the maid and a jest or two, but it cost the poor lass her life. I think Agnes had Ranald do it, that she and Ranald were already lovers. So did her husband Robbie. Robbie left soon after and hasnae been back since. Agnes has been hunting him, but I dinnae think it is for a loving reunion. Nay, she wants Robbie dead.”

“Because the men your father chose as advisors dinnae approve of him?”

“Ye and William had a nice wee talk whilst I was gone, didnae ye.”

Lucas found himself almost smiling at the look Katerina gave William, a look that cried the man a traitor. He quickly pushed aside that feeling. Katerina had always been able to make him smile, but Lucas now felt that was one reason he had never seen a hint of warning concerning her betrayal of him.

“He told me what he believes, aye,” Lucas drawled.

That hurt, but Katerina just turned her scowl back on him. “Nay, they dinnae approve of Robbie. My father didnae, either. Robbie isnae a bad mon, but he isnae exactly what a father would want for his daughter. He is poor, a wee bit feckless, and a mon who would much rather talk or buy himself out of trouble than pick up a sword. I think their judgment harsh. There is good in Robbie and I believe he would have made Agnes a verra good husband if she had actually been interested in having one.”

“Aye,” agreed William, “but, mayhap, nay such a good laird for Dunlochan. Robbie didnae really want to be one, either. Far too much work for the lad.”

“True.” Katerina smiled briefly. “Far too much work. Unfortunately Robbie’s lack of ambition is one reason Agnes now wants to be a widow. I e’en think she might be considering making Ranald her next husband.”

“And the council would approve of such a mon?” Lucas asked in surprise.

“They might,” replied Katerina, “but I am nay sure why. Fear, mayhap. They have to ken that Ranald would nay hesitate to kill them or their families if they tried to stop him from grasping the laird’s seat. ’Tis easy to say aye or nay to a lass’s choice of husband when the mon is no true threat to ye, isnae it.”

“True. So why doesnae Agnes just claim that her husband is dead?”

“Because the council would require proof of it, if only the word of someone they dinnae recognize as one of Agnes’s minions. The fact that Ranald hasnae been able to rid the area of those treacherous masked reivers,” Katerina exchanged a fleeting grin with William, “has also made Agnes hesitate, I think. Ranald hasnae really proved his worth to her yet.”

“Except in her bedchamber,” William muttered.

“From what little I ken of it all, Robbie also proved his worth there but it didnae keep Agnes faithful to him nor has it made her hesitate in wanting him dead now.” Katerina frowned as she thought over the whole situation with Agnes and Ranald for a moment. “I think Agnes is hoping she can wed with Ranald and grab hold of Dunlochan ere the council can make its objections heard.”

“Then silence them so that their objections can ne’er be heard?” Lucas asked.

“Something like that. Although it wouldnae be easy, for they are weel born men and have important friends and kinsmen.”

It was almost impossible for Lucas to believe the fair-haired, giggling Agnes could be capable of such cold cunning. He had not spent much time with the woman, had actually done his best to avoid her, but he had seen no hint of such a cold, vicious nature. Then again, he had never suspected such a nature in Katerina and that blindness had nearly cost him his life. Or, he was utterly wrong in what he thought had happened that long ago day by the loch, a soft, coaxing voice whispered in his mind. Lucas ruthlessly silenced that voice. No one had yet shown him any reason to believe Katerina was innocent, that she was, perhaps, as much a victim as he had been.

“Are the others coming here tonight, William?” Katerina asked her cousin.

“Nay, not until much later,” William replied. “Ranald is taking longer and longer to give up the hunt when he pursues us and we dinnae want him finding our bolt-hole.”

Katerina nodded, grateful for such caution, yet deeply disturbed by the need for it. Ranald was becoming far more tenacious than he had ever been in the beginning of this battle. The man’s determination to put an end to their forays against him had grown with each defeat he had suffered at their hands. Katerina did not need to hear the man’s threats and curses to know that Ranald wanted them all dead. Agnes undoubtedly had the same desire. The danger for her and her men, even their allies, grew each time they rode out yet Katerina knew there was no choice. The battle for Dunlochan had not been won yet. Katerina was growing fearful that it could never be won.

As she took the men’s now empty bowls to clean them, Katerina thought about the last year. It had been one long, hard, continuous battle, first to survive Ranald’s attempt to murder her, and then to try and regain all that had been stolen from her by the endlessly greedy Agnes. An anger born of the grief she had felt over Lucas had sustained her, but now she knew Lucas had not died and she felt weary of it all.

“If everyone thinks ye are dead, why hasnae Agnes just grabbed hold of Dunlochan?” asked Lucas when Katerina returned to the hearth bringing a full wineskin with her.

“She has,” Katerina replied. “She and Ranald. Only the council my father chose ere he died stops Agnes from openly declaring herself laird of it all and doing everything a laird can. The council uses the fact that our father didnae approve of Robbie as the reason they cannae declare her the laird. A woman cannae truly be a laird, can she, not in the eyes of most men, and they rule the world. Agnes needs the mon, a husband, to help her hold fast to her inheritance and wield the power she hungers for. E’en the king wouldnae take her side in this. So, a lot of power still rests in the council’s hands, although they dinnae really seem to use it to rid us of Ranald.”

“Mayhap they ken that, if they push too hard, they will sign their own death warrants.”

“I suspicion that is just what they think.”

“Then I think ye must needs do more than just irritate the mon as ye have been doing.”

“Ye dinnae ken anything about what we have been doing here.”

“Ye ride out to stop the mon from killing someone and to harass him and Agnes with thieving, aye?”

Katerina had the strong urge to hit Lucas with something very heavy. He had just reduced all their efforts to what sounded like a child’s game. She knew they were simply holding steady, simply staying alive and saving a few people here and there, but there was little else they could do until she got proof of Agnes and Ranald’s crimes.

“I need to prove that Agnes and Ranald are guilty of more than simply making life miserable for everyone. I need to prove they have blood on their hands. ’Tis no easy thing to do. At best I may yet catch them at something that will bestir the council to act.”

“Ye need to push harder. Ye strike and run and he chases. Ye need to make the mon bleed.”

Out of the corner of her eye she could see William nodding in agreement. “He could easily make us bleed,” she said. “’Tis something I must consider every step of the way.”

“There is that risk. Howbeit, unless ye push him hard and unrelentingly, he willnae make that mistake ye are waiting for. Ye need to lessen the number of men he has at his command and in a way that makes fewer and fewer men want to stand with him. Ye need to set him and Agnes against each other, e’en if it is only by making her openly question his competency. Ye need to corner the beast. Ye need to push his back hard against a wall and keep a blade at his throat.”

“Until he impales himself on it?”

“Aye.”

“How clever of ye. Weel, while ye make your fine plans, I believe I will make up a list of the supplies we need and go fetch them.”

“From where?”

“Why, straight from the lair of the beast. Where else?”

Lucas heard the word fool as clearly as if Katerina shouted it.