Chapter Twenty-Three #3
She was one of many. Another lass had probably left Butcher’s bed moments before she had turned up. She didn’t want this man. And no matter what Cullen had done, she could not betray him for a chance to go home, so she would have to find another way.
Butcher’s mouth reached the cleft of her breasts, and Lowri pushed him away.
‘What is it?’ he gasped.
‘I cannot. I must go.’
‘No, stay. I’ll go slow and gentle. You’ll quicken, I promise, many times over, by the time I’ve finished, lass.’ He stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers, as if he was calming a skittish horse.
She was a fool to come and throw her bitterness and anger at the feet of this vile lecher. ‘I am going back to Kildara. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want you.’
Butcher grabbed her arm, and now he was not gentle.
‘Oh no, you don’t. You are not going anywhere until I have tupped the insolence out of you.
’ His handsome face became a gargoyle’s snarl as he threw her back onto the bed.
She smelled sweat and sex on the sheets.
He stood over her, unbuttoning his braies.
‘Take off your clothes and open your legs. You’ll go back to Cullen well used or not at all, bitch. ’
‘No,’ she snarled, turning to leap off the bed.
But he was too quick. He leapt on Lowri and straddled her. ‘Think you can tease me, you little witch. Get a man all worked up and leave him swollen with lust.’ He threw back his arm, ready to lash her across the face. Lowri’s hand went to her pocket.
She swept her pistol up to his neck. ‘Get off me, or I’ll blow your brains all over these walls.’ She jammed the pistol against his jugular. ‘I am in earnest. Move!’
Butcher eased off her, and she rushed to the door, keeping the pistol aimed at his face.
‘I wouldn’t have hit you hard,’ he said, then he laughed. ‘A bit of a beating seasons the pleasure. You don’t know what you are missing.’
‘Oh, I do.’
‘You made a grave mistake this day, crossing me.’
‘No, I almost made a grave mistake.’
‘Cullen Macaulay does not deserve your loyalty. He will spit on it.’
‘Maybe, but he has it all the same.’
Lowri rushed away, glancing back in fear, but Butcher did not follow.
She reached her horse, all the time dreading a shot ripping into her back, or a knife piercing her ribs.
But nothing came, and she rode out of Larne as if all the imps in hell were after her.
When she was well clear of the village and sure there was no pursuit, she stopped and stared out at the grey churning sea.
Home was across the water, her brother Peyton, safety, and most of all, vengeance on Griffin Macaulay for all he’d put her through. But did that include his son?
***
When she reached Kildara, the sun was low in the sky, and she entered to find Briony Fallstaff wrapped in a blanket, staring into a roaring fire.
The lass leapt up. ‘Oh, you are back.’
‘Where is Cullen?’
‘He went out. He looked for you a good while and went off in a bit of a temper.’ Briony blinked rapidly as if in great distress. ‘Where did you go?’
‘Wherever I pleased,’ said Lowri, then, feeling she had been harsh because of her jealousy for the lass, she said, ‘I had an errand.’
‘Well, I am glad it is just the two of us, for I wanted to thank you for rescuing me last night.’
‘Twas not me. It was Cullen who brought you back from the beach.’
‘Yet I have a recollection of you holding me at night to comfort me,’ she said with a shy smile, her eyes cast down.
‘That was kind. And Cullen was so brave. How strong he was when he carried me up the beach. I was near drowning when I felt his hands on me in those icy depths, which were about to claim my life. And those villains on the beach, doing murder, so awful.’ She shuddered delicately and put trembling fingers to her lips.
Lowri held her hands out to the fire with a forced smile in Briony’s direction. ‘I thought you were insensible, out in a cold faint, Cullen said.’
‘I recall some flashes of the events, but they fill me with such fear. Never in my life have I felt such terror. And ‘tis a fine man you have to protect you. I am sure many women envy you such a husband.’
Lowri didn’t know what to make of that. ‘Well, you are safe now,’ she said.
Briony reached out a slender hand and clutched onto Lowri. ‘Forgive me for being forward, but I shall get no husband as fine as yours. That is why I sing your man’s praises.’
The young woman hardly knew Cullen to speak so highly of him. But then, he did have a way of pulling you in and lowering your guard to suit his purposes.
‘You said last night you were to be married?’ said Lowri.
Briony looked away, and tears welled in her eyes.
‘I was en route to Cork, to wed my betrothed. It was all arranged by my father before his death just recently. He made the match to keep me safe and see that I was provided for. I am to marry a wealthy man - Donald Drummond is his name. But I may as well have gone to my doom in those waves, for I’ll have no kind of life with Donald. ’
‘Is this Donald not a decent man?’
‘I do not know him. I’ve not even met him.
Donald is the son of a partner of my father’s, a good deal older than me.
’ Her lip curled in disgust. ‘I fear I will not be able to stand him, sharing his bed, having his children, and all of it just a cold, loveless arrangement. It’s not what a girl dreams of, and I have no mother to instruct me on such matters.
If I was going to a young, handsome man, like your Cullen, I could come to love him. Marriage would not be so awful then.’
‘Don’t be too sure,’ said Lowri, before she could hold her tongue.
Briony frowned, and yet a slight smile played around her lips, almost of mockery. Lowri chided herself. The lass may be weak and helpless, but there was no need to despise or doubt her. And she may also be stunning to look at, all golden softness, but that was no reason to burn with jealousy.
She had met other women who had beauty. Her brother’s wife, Cecily, for one.
She had an inner glow and that effortless grace and delicacy that turned men to fools, and Lowri had once despised her for it.
But from the first moment he had set eyes on Cecily, Peyton had fallen to his knees and worshipped her, and Cecily worshipped him back.
For Lowri, their love was a punch in the gut.
She had always loved her brother more than anyone, but Peyton’s love had been split in half since meeting his wife.
With humiliating clarity, Lowri realised that she had gone reiving to gain his good opinion, to turn the light of his attention back on her, like a spoilt child.
She had wanted to stop his gaze from always straying to Cecily as if she had mesmerised him.
Well, she would not succumb to such foolish jealousy again.
She had to be a better woman than she had been.
And she must decide what to do about Cullen.
She could never succumb to Butcher to get back home, because she could never forgive herself for it.
Perhaps Cullen could be worked upon to take her back to Scotland.
Her life had held few choices thus far – succumb to the confines of marriage and a man’s rule, or be free and live in peril.
She had always been unmoored, and then Cullen had crashed into her life.
He was wild and a little villainous, but she had come to believe that he had chosen her, not taken her because she had been forced upon him.
All that had come crashing down in a matter of days, and now she was terrifyingly lost and alone. Had she been a fool all her life, too quick to anger, impulsive and selfish, blind to the feelings of others? Was that why Donnan had betrayed her so terribly?
She glanced at Briony, nervously watching her, twirling her blonde hair between her fingers. Could Cullen replace her that quickly?
It was at that moment that he burst in.