Chapter 4
“Where have I been?” he repeated with a raw fury that caused her to tremble so violently inside, she nearly betrayed the fear she was attempting to hide.
“Aye! Where have you been? I said that it was your place to beg my pardon—”
“Beg your pardon!” he all but roared, then lowered his voice, his green eyes afire. “My lady, were you to crawl buck naked through layers of ground glass to kiss my feet, you’d not manage to beg my pardon with enough humility!”
“It shall never happen, I do so swear—”
“Indeed? We shall see. And you know this—where I have been is not your concern. Suffice it to say that though I was not dead, I did most seriously dwell in hell here on earth! And by God—”
“We are living in the nineteenth century,” she cried. “If you’ve some accusation to make,” she warned, “you had best do it through the courts! We’ll wake everyone in Castle Rock and let it be known that you have returned, and then you may make your case against me or my clan if you will.”
He shook his head. “Nay, Lady MacGinnis. I’ve no intention of letting it be known that I have returned as of yet. My brother will shortly arrive from America. As Laird Douglas.”
“As Laird Douglas. Aye! You are so quick to cast blame upon me and mine.”
“Where else would I cast blame?”
“Perhaps it was your heathen brother who wanted you dead!”
She spoke the words, then fought hard not to allow herself to cringe into the bedding, for she regretted them the moment they were out of her mouth and with good cause.
His hand was raised, as if he would strike and strike a stunning blow.
But he gained control, and his knuckles fell tauntingly upon her cheek.
“So now you would blame my brother?”
“Who gained here by your death?”
“Milady, you are sleeping in my bed.”
“I am a caretaker for the surviving Douglas—”
“You—and your kin—hold the power here in my brother’s absence.
Any man—or woman—who was patient and well aware my father’s and brother’s hearts lay in America, would benefit well from my demise.
My father’s death was naturally coming soon enough.
Age would see to that. Here you are, living with your kin within the castle.
I imagine that more and more Douglas cattle find their way into MacGinnis hands.
Then there is the matter of the disputed land, which I daresay might be at the very heart of the matter, for unless I miss my guess, there are even more tremendous coal deposits on that property than any of us had imagined, and in our nineteenth century industrialized world, coal is worth a king’s ransom and certainly a lesser man’s death.
Then, I imagine, the laird’s share of tenant produce here most probably finds its way into MacGinnis coffers.
But then, what argument do I need to bring up with you?
You wished to see me the night of my ‘death.’ Alone.
My assignation that evening was with you, was it not? ”
Aye, God yes, it had been. Yet he was here now, quite menacingly so. Aye, she had lured him on Gawain’s urging, only because she had been desperate to help Alistair.
She’d not known what would happen next. Truly, she had not.
Words suddenly sprang desperately and unbidden to her lips. “Sweet Jesus, David. It was long ago. You must realize, I don’t know what happened. There was the fire. There is so much I don’t remember—”
“Ah, lass, but I have remembered, and I have remembered you! Through what agonies you cannot begin to imagine!”
She remained still, biting into her lower lip to maintain what dignity she could. Through what agonies…where had he been? What had happened to him in all that time she had thought him dead? Why hadn’t he come back before? Why hadn’t he let her know that he was alive?
“David, truly, I meant you no ill—”
“Ah, but you are a sorry liar, milady!”
“I tell you—”
“Nay, lady, I tell you!” He leaned close, his green eyes glittering in the moonlight. “I am alive—demon, man, or beast—and I will discover exactly what happened that night, how I came to be buried while suffering all the tortures of hell at one time.”
Shawna swallowed hard, willing herself not to tremble. She was afraid. She was fascinated. She couldn’t forget the feel of him when he had touched her with passion, searing into her with fierce fire and raw determination.
And desire.
She had to speak, had to escape his touch. The memories.
She moistened her lips. She had to make him move away.
“I meant you no harm.”
“Ah, but you did!” No good. Now the soft stroke of his fingers smoothed back a lock of her hair. His voice remained husky and soft, causing the burning within her to heighten. “You lured me to the stables.”
“I’ve admitted as much. I needed to talk to you.”
“We didn’t do much talking. You lured me to seduce me. To my death.”
“I never intended to seduce you—”
“Umm, perhaps not as far as you did. You intended that I drop from the drug in the wine before matters could go quite so far as they did.”
‘The wine—”
“Was very definitely drugged. Are you denying that?”
Her lashes fell. She had difficulty breathing.
“Shawna?”
His whisper touched her face. The feel of his thighs around her hips distracted her.
“I—I—meant to talk. I’ve told you that. We were trying to help Alistair. But I tell you, sir, in truth, I don’t know—”
“You knew enough, and you brought about my damnation, Lady Shawna MacGinnis. And by God, you will be part and party to all that I require—nay, demand—now!”
“You are mad if you think that you can demand anything of me, Laird Douglas! I will not—”
“You will not what?” he queried softly, leaning even closer, the flash of his teeth caught in the moonlight now, his smile like a satyr’s grin.
“Just what is it that you would demand?” she asked.
“Everything, Lady MacGinnis. Everything. Flesh and blood and bone and more.”
He was closer. So close that his lips hovered just above hers.
His fingers again brushed her cheek. They ran down the length of her like tendrils of a flame.
“I demand…you, milady,” he said flatly. “Indeed, I have come back and would begin again where I left off. I demand you. And how very damned convenient. Just what I want—so easily delivered to me. You are, after all, sleeping in my bed.”
“I offer my heartiest apologies. By some miracle, you have returned. The bed is yours. I can most certainly leave it.”
“I think not, Shawna. I think not. Most certainly, milady, I think not tonight.”
“This is absurd. You don’t understand—”
“You don’t understand, my lady. I was set up. Attacked. Left for dead, yet somehow alive. Alive to reside in absolute hell. The guilty parties must be made to pay.”
“But—”
“Tonight, my lady, paying begins. And it is your turn. You first. Oh, aye, you first. For others may be involved. Others must be discovered and proved. While you, my love—you are guilty as all hell.”
“Damn you, I didn’t—”
“Damn you, you did.”
“I tell you—”
“I lay in this very room, Shawna, while you came to me in the moonlight and beckoned me to hell. How quickly, how easily, you forget!”
“I did not forget!”
“Neither did I.”
“David, I’m telling you, I don’t know what happened. I don’t know how you can be alive. I—”
“Well, we’ll have to all discover the complete truth of the past then, won’t we? But in the meantime, tonight, lady, you begin to pay.”
She knew him. He was so familiar.
Yet he was a different man, and she feared she didn’t know him at all.
He could very well mean that he was about to wind his fingers around her neck and slowly, surely, squeeze her life from her.
Her breath caught as she met his eyes in the nighttime play of light and shadow.
No deep dark warmth of forest green met her stare, but a glitter as sharp as emerald gems, as cold as stones from within an icy depth of the earth.
And still, she despaired to feel a searing of heat within her veins, her limbs.
He was a stranger, but even after five years, he was a familiar stranger.
Flesh, bone, and muscle, she knew him well, knew the man with her.
The power in his eyes she knew, yet it was clear that whatever gentler emotions he might once have felt toward her had indeed died that night.
The sharp light in his eyes as they met hers came from the demon death had made of the man.
His touch upon her was equally as cold. Yet that did not douse the fever that had possessed her, born of fear, and dread, and fury, and… anticipation.
She was the daughter of a people who had fought forever, she reminded herself. A people who had died for their rights, for their pride, for their beliefs. Whatever he sought, vengeance or murder, she would fight until she could fight no more…
“I’ll not pay for what I haven’t done!” she whispered heatedly. “You’ll demand nothing from me. You’ll—”
His finger fell against her lips, and he spoke coldly and harshly, as if he hadn’t heard a word of what she had said. “I shall tell you, my lady, what will and will not happen. You cry to me of your innocence while admitting your guilt.”
“I was guilty only of—”
“You were the pawn, Shawna. The bait. Perhaps you didn’t strike the blow, someone did.”
“I swear to you, I don’t know—”
“Someone tried to kill me.”
“But you didn’t die. Where—”
“That’s not important right now.”
“Perhaps no one did try to kill you. There was an ungodly fire.”
“I was struck with what was intended to be a deathblow to the head, Shawna.”
“A rafter must have fallen—”
He let out an expletive with such explosive fury that she fell silent.
“I swear to you, I know nothing about any attempt to murder you—”
“Prove it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Keep your silence. Help me find the truth.”
“How?”
“For the time being, just watch and listen.”
“And if I don’t help you?”