Page 79 of Devil Black

“Oh, Thomas!” Isobel exclaimed with some disparagement. She found herself unimpressed with Catherine’s husband, who now seemed almost staid and lacking in fire. “Why should the King listen to him?”

“He can give the truth of it, how Bertram MacNab’s betrothed was actually the woman who became his wife, not mine, and how the switch came about.”

“And I can tell the King the truth about MacNab—how he abducted me from my own garden—”

“As I abducted you on the road?”

“—and what he meant to do to me, had I not escaped.”

“Wife, I ken fine you are afraid—”

“You know nothing of it. Can you imagine how it will be for me waiting, not knowing how you fare? Surely I will be safer, even traveling, in your company.”

Some emotion moved in the stormy grey eyes: caution, perhaps. “Nay, but I would not have you possibly return from Stirling alone—”

“Alone?”

“Should I be taken into custody.”

Isobel’s heart dropped sickeningly. “You say that will not happen.”

His lips tightened in an ironic smile. “It should not. Still, if happen it did, you would be vulnerable.”

“I would be with the erstwhile Thomas, would I not?”

That made Dougal grimace. “Stay here under guard, please, with your sister and Meg. Do this for me.”

Since he asked it so, Isobel could not refuse—she would deny him nothing. But her head came up and she met his eyes in challenge. “I will, Husband, but only if you will do something for me in return, before you go.” At the question in his eyes, she began to unfasten his tunic, and tug free the shirt beneath. “Lie with me now. If I am to be left without you, I would at least have your child.”

The mist in his eyes ignited and transformed into fire. He would not deny her this, Isobel thought, and she would savor every kiss, every touch. For this memory might have to last her a lifetime.

****

“For the love of all that is holy, will you not sit down?” Meg begged impatiently. “You have been pacing for hours; you will drive me round the twist.”

The three women shared the solar, on a day turned vicious and cold. Outside, the wind once more tore at the stones of the keep, shrieking like a woman in mourning.

The fire in the hearth barely succeeded in fighting back the pervasive chill, which seemed to have penetrated clear to Isobel’s heart.

“I cannot help it,” she said. “I am unable to settle. They will be in Stirling by now, yes? Do you think he has seen the King?”

Meg shrugged. “The King is capricious and lives by his own rules. He may not have arrived as expected. The weather may have kept him.”

“I will go mad with not knowing!”

“And you will drag us with you.” Meg sounded truly exasperated. She shot a look at Catherine. “Can you not reason with your sister?”

Somewhat to Isobel’s surprise, her sister and sister-in-law got on amazingly well. At the moment, they definitely stood united.

“Sit down, pray, Isobel,” Catherine bade. “Give us all some rest.” In an aside to Meg, she went on, “Isobel has always been headstrong which, indeed, began all this trouble.”

“Me? And I suppose you have naught to do with it? No matter,” Isobel exclaimed bitterly, “recount my past sins if you will. I care for but one thing.”

“You should care for your own well-being,” Meg said. “Lachlan tells me MacNab has sent out raiding parties these two nights past—when Lachy and our warriors rode out, they saw the tracks in the snow.”

“I am concerned with my own safety.” Isobel knew full well MacNab wished to get his hands on her again, his sole purpose, now, revenge. MacNab could have no way of knowing Catherine—Bertram’s true intended—was now here at MacRae’s keep, nor that she had also become another man’s wife. He wanted to cause pain, distress, and fear.

“Then behave accordingly,” Catherine said. “Sit down and sew.”