Chapter 23 #2
“He told me that my husband’s ‘treason’ should not taint me and that since I was now unprotected, he would be happy to step in as my protector.
He was so sincere, so worried about me, and I was so grief-stricken, that at first it seemed like the natural thing to do.
After all, he was a colonel in the English Footguard.
He was honorable because all English soldiers are honorable.
Or at least that was what I thought.” She laughed, but it was a bitter laugh filled with irony and despair. “I was such a fool.”
“Ye were naive, I’ll give ye that,” Brice said. “Ye were protected by yer family and then by yer husband. I’ll warrant that before yer Charles’s death, ye’d never been left alone before to make a decision on yer own.”
“You would be correct. It seems so stupid now. How was it that I let everyone control my life?”
“ ’Tis not yer fault, lass. It’s the way of the world for the men to protect the women. We do it in Scotland as well.”
“I can’t see Hannah falling victim to the likes of Blackwood.”
He smiled. “Nay. But Hannah is a special woman. She’d have to be, to put up with the likes of Lachlan.”
“I still should have known better.”
“Blackwood knew from the first that ye were easy pickings. No offense.”
She laughed again, this time a little more lightheartedly. “No offense taken. You’re right. I’d never thought of it that way. He’d had this planned since he met me at the ball.”
“Maybe not exactly, but he’d known he wanted ye. Seems to me he’s a spoiled bastard, taking what he wants. I’m certain he’s done the like before. Maybe not had someone killed for his needs, but he’s ruined other lives. I would bet all of Castle Dornach that he did no’ come by his status honorably.”
She was silent for a bit. “I’ve never thought of it that way.”
“Because ye’ve never met a man like Blackwood before. I’ve met my fair share to know them when I see them. My guess is that his promise of protection came with some provisions.”
“Yes. He invited me to his quarters to discuss the best way to tell Charles’s family about his death. I was happy for help, because I had no idea what I was going to say to them. But when I got there, he…”
Brice’s body went tight with fury, for he could guess what had happened next.
Eleanor took in a deep shuddering breath. “Well, I told him in no uncertain terms that his…proposition was unacceptable, and I left.”
“Good for ye, lass, for sticking up for yerself.”
“A lot of good it did me. The next morning I was arrested for treason as well.”
Brice pulled in an outraged breath. When Eleanor held up her fists, his eyes were riveted to the scars that circled them.
“He clapped manacles on me and threw me in the dungeon. He didn’t have to say anything, but I knew that I would be released if I accepted his terms. I refused.”
“Gu sealladh orm,” he said under his breath.
He despised Blackwood with every bit of his being.
If he had known just half of Eleanor’s story when Blackwood had visited, Brice would have stabbed him in his sleep.
No, he would have brought Eleanor down and told the bastard that he was avenging Eleanor’s honor and then killed him. Slowly and without mercy.
“When the army moved to Fort Augustus, I moved with them…” she said.
Her voice trailed off, and Brice imagined that she was reliving the horrors she had seen there. He’d heard stories. Stories that had made grown men tremble. He couldn’t imagine a lady such as Eleanor witnessing the things that he had heard. The scars and bruises made sense now.
“Tell me, lass, did he starve ye for yer insolence?”
“I’m not sure it was so much that he deliberately starved me. All of the prisoners were starved. Food went to the soldiers first. Prisoners were the last to be fed. More often than not, we were forgotten.”
“And the beatings?”
“There were few. He was busy with the battle and, afterward, with rounding up the enemy. Things were chaotic. Prisoners filtered in and out. But we all knew that those who didn’t return were dead.
The English just don’t release their prisoners.
I heard them talking. They were instructed to kill the Jacobites. ”
Brice grunted. He’d heard similar stories. A communication had been intercepted by a Jacobite in which Cumberland had instructed his men to kill any enemy by dagger, dirk, or broadsword.
“Ye said they didn’t release prisoners, and yet ye were released.”
“I escaped. One night a guard simply didn’t lock my cell door after delivering my dinner. I walked out, hid until nightfall, and crawled out of a window. I walked for days, until I couldn’t walk anymore, and that’s when you found me.”
Brice hugged her more tightly to him and thanked God that he had found her. What if it had been those soldiers who had been behind them? What if Brice had decided to leave her on the side of the road and they’d found her? She would be back in Blackwood’s hands, probably dead.
“I’m sorry for what they did to ye,” he said. Good God, but she’d lost her husband and her freedom within days of each other.
“Sometimes…” Her voice trailed off again; it was a while before she spoke, and when she did, her voice was soft. “Sometimes I thought about giving in to him. About sending a message to Blackwood that I would accept his terms.”
Something wet plopped onto his hand and he realized it was a tear. She was silently crying and it broke his heart.
“I was so hungry,” she whispered. “And so scared.”
“No’ a person would blame ye if ye had,” he said. “Even grown men have their breaking point. Ye held out a long time. Far longer than most.” The thought of her in Blackwood’s arms, of Blackwood using her in that way, infuriated Brice. There were no words to describe a person such as Blackwood.
“But then I thought of Charles, and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t give myself to my husband’s killer.” She swiped at her tears as if frustrated with them.
Brice halted Galad and, with a touch on her chin, lifted her head so she was looking up and back at him. “Ye are one of the bravest people I know, Eleanor Hirst. I have seasoned warriors who would no’ have been able to endure what ye did.”
Her eyes shimmered with her tears, making her eyes appear a brilliant blue. “I guess that naive girl from London grew up,” she said.
“Aye. That she did.” He kissed her softly, stunned that she was even here with him after all she’d endured. What fate had put her on the same road as he at the same time for him to find her? Was it sorcery? Or God’s will?
And how, after all of that, could he put her on that ship and send her away from him?