Chapter 31
“You said what?” The dandy’s jaw flopped like a fish.
“You heard me.” Struan’s attention was locked on Ellie, who’d obviously not forgotten what the word meant to him.
To them. He’d said it because it was something only she’d understand.
Because he needed her to know that he wasn’t going to just mope in the Highlands while she was down here.
And he definitely wasn’t going anywhere until he found out if she was involved in the attempt on his life.
Malloch was upset because his little set piece wasn’t going as planned. Struan was supposed to have embarrassed himself, or just run away in shame or something. Instead, he’d done the unexpected. Malloch said, “I heard you, but I don’t understand.”
“That fine, because I’m not married to you.
” Struan pushed past the dandy. “If you’ll excuse me, I ought to rejoin my beautiful wife right now.
I’d hate to think anyone would entertain rumors about us based on the sole fact that she has been observed living an independent existence. As if she were her own person.”
Mairi, who was standing close to her sister, actually smiled at that. Ellie was still regarding him with flushed embarrassment.
He moved through the room, instinctively glancing at all the corners.
He saw McGregor watching him. He looked annoyed, but not guilty.
Or particularly scared. But then again, he had plenty of reinforcements here, on his chosen ground.
Christ, he hated thinking that every place could be a battlefield.
Of course, it was. Even after slaying that stupid dandy, he was still in enemy territory. He had to get to Ellie and get her alone to talk.
He reached the two sisters. “Miss McGregor, I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you alone here while I go have a chat with my wife.”
Mairi looked to Elspeth. “I’m not going anywhere, not if you don’t want that.”
Ellie reached for her sister’s hand. “Perhaps we’d better make ourselves scarce for a little while. Until the guests find some new entertainment. Struan and I will talk in the backyard. Meet us there in a quarter hour.”
“Half hour,” Struan said firmly.
“Twenty minutes,” Ellie told Mairi.
“Or sooner if I hear a scream,” Mairi said.
Ellie sighed and told Struan to come with her.
The backyard wasn’t open to guests. It was the same area where Struan had first seen Ellie doing laundry with the servants, a lifetime ago. At night, the area was lit only by the illumination from the windows overlooking the space, and a half-moon trying to escape a cloud.
“What’s happened?” she asked. “You look serious.”
“I always look serious.”
“No. You often look grumpy. And frequently forbidding. But now you look serious. So tell me what’s caused it.”
“This may be awkward.”
“Oh, goodness, we’ve never had an awkward conversation before.”
He hadn’t often experienced Elspeth being sardonic—but he had to admit he liked it. Still, this was no time to get distracted.
So he said, “I believe someone tried to have me killed. Possibly your father.”
Elspeth rocked back on her feet. “What?”
He repeated himself.
“Oh, my Lord, Struan. When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me?
Were you hurt?” she gasped. “What did he do? Did anyone else get hurt? How do you know it was him? Oh, my God, he’s no longer sane.
That must be it. He couldn’t have tried to kill you if he was in his right mind.
Because if that were so, he’d be…evil. He’d be…
” The color drained out of her face as she ran through the litany of questions.
“He’d be…just as he always was. Oh, God—”
As he listened to the flood of words, several things became clear.
First: Ellie was stunned by the news. She wasn’t behind the attempt, nor had anyone told her of it.
Second: she asked if he was hurt. Which meant she cared a little bit. He clung to that.
Third: she had no trouble at all in accepting her father as the culprit.
“I didn’t get hurt,” he told her, breaking her string of questions. “No one did.”
“Oh, thank God,” she whispered, her eyes closing.
He explained in detail what happened, including receiving the note with the instruction to meet at the cathedral. He showed her the paper.
Ellie was already shaking her head. “I didn’t write that. I did write, but not that.”
“What did your note say?”
She winced, then whispered, “Go to hell.”
“Ouch. But the paper looks familiar?”
“I got it from Father’s desk… Oh, God.”
“I don’t know it was him,” he admitted. “Not with perfect certainty, but…”
“But the paper matches. And you’d threatened him the night before, after you left me, didn’t you? He was scared and desperate, and desperate men do not have scruples. Not that he had scruples before.”
“I’m sorry, Ellie. I know he’s your father.”
“And he has never forgiven me for being his daughter.” Ellie sounded older, colder than she had before. “Well. What do you intend to do about it? Will your friends handle the matter?”
“My friends?”
“Yes. Calan, and Duncan and Thane and Kai. Any one of them could intimidate my father into compliance. All together, they’d cause his heart to stop.”
“I don’t want him dead,” Struan said. And truly he did not. Struan was sick of death. “But I can’t let him roam about trying to kill me again. Or trying to hurt you.”
Elspeth gave him a sad smile. “He’s done his worst to me already.”
The marriage. Struan felt the words like a slap in the face.
She must have read his reaction, because she gasped and added hastily, “Oh, I didn’t mean when he gave me to you. Or even when he struck me.”
“No?”
“I meant my whole life. All I wanted was for him to recognize me. To like me a little. He didn’t even have to love me. I would have settled for some fondness.”
“Don’t you dare.” Struan had her in his arms before he knew what he was doing. Elspeth had been fed scraps all her life. Scraps of affection, little leavings of love. Her sister Mairi adored her fiercely, true, and that was perhaps the only thing that had made Elspeth’s life tolerable.
Struan might be a miserable bastard now, but he remembered endless amounts of love from his own parents, and the people around him. He’d found friends in the army, whose love was real even if they never called it such.
She cried silently for a few moments, her chest heaving. But then she recovered herself and stepped away. “Thank you for informing me of the murder attempt. I know you were under no obligation to do so. Tell me what will happen next. Then I can prepare the rest of the family.”
Even now, even faced with the appalling news that her father meant to be a murderer, Ellie still thought of serving others.
“I plan to talk to him. That’s all,” Struan said quietly. “Alone at first, but with the men if he needs to hear…multiple voices. To make it real to him.”
“What will you make him do? Confess?”
“There’s little point to that, especially since the attempt failed. All I want is to convince him that it was a foolish idea that should not be repeated.”
She looked skeptical. “How will you do that?”
“I’ll make him understand that he’ll not benefit from my death. Nor will he benefit from your death. Or your life as a widow, for that matter. He needs to understand that you will never again be a source of income for him.”
“I’d never give him anything.”
“Yes, you would,” Struan said. “You’re softhearted and generous, so you would give it. Eventually. And it would never stop.”
She looked down, and he heard the telltale sniffle that heralded more tears. She mumbled, “Everyone knows that about me, don’t they? They call it kindness, but it’s really weakness, isn’t it?”
“It’s not weak to have a good heart, Ellie. Oh, and one more thing. I want you to come live at my townhouse. If your father is…not rational, then it’s not safe for you here.”
But Elspeth was slowly shaking her head. “If it was Father behind what happened, we shouldn’t let him know we know. And me suddenly going to live with you after I went through all the trouble of running away from you…it’s too sudden a change. And if Mairi goes…he’ll know we know.”