Chapter 1
Nicholas stared down at the woman and then at the tiny form now nestled in Fenella’s arms in complete disbelief, then he frowned and said gruffly: “I think I must have misheard you, lass. I am not married and I have no children.”
Laura looked up into eyes that were the same dark green as the pine trees she had seen on the hillsides, set in a classically handsome and quintessentially masculine face.
She was mesmerised for a moment, but she recovered quickly.
She could not afford to allow herself to be distracted by a pretty countenance—too much was at stake.
“You do not have to be married to father a child,” she pointed out, her voice slow and steady, as if she were talking to an idiot. “This is your child, and you must acknowledge him.”
Nicholas let out a bark of cynical laughter. “Prove it!” he cried. “I think I would remember you if I had bedded the mother. I might not be the cleverest of men, but I think I would remember that much. I have never seen you before in my life! And I would know if I was a father!”
“How would you know?” Laura demanded angrily. “Did you carry him inside you? This child is yours and I demand that you take responsibility for him. He needs care and love and he needs a father. You can’t just abandon your child!”
They stood for a long moment glowering at each other, neither wanting to be the first to break the hostile impasse. It might have gone on for much longer if Eleanor had not decided to intervene.
She moved over to stand between the two of them and put a hand on Nicholas’s chest to silence him as he stood trembling with rage, still glaring down at Laura.
The expression of utter ferocity on his face made him not only almost impossibly handsome, but absolutely terrifying.
He was big, strapping and looked every inch the warrior, particularly with the sword strapped to his side.
As well as that, he had just been fighting a hated enemy and his blood was still full of the fury of battle.
Eleanor and Fenella knew that Nicholas would never harm a defenceless woman, but Laura was not to know that, and they were aware that his aura of aggression could be very intimidating to those who did not know him well.
“Calm down, Nick,” she said soothingly, then she lowered her voice so that her words would be inaudible to Laura.
“You and I both know that you have bedded scores of women. Can you honestly say you remember every one of them?” She was frowning fiercely, and Nicholas could see real anger in her eyes.
He had known Eleanor for only a few months, and she had always been light-hearted and playful.
He had never seen her lose her temper, but now she seemed to be on the verge of doing just that as she glared at him out of eyes that were filled with fury.
He was completely flummoxed. What Eleanor was saying was completely true, and it would be impossible for him to deny it. He was promiscuous—it was one of his worst faults, but he found attractive women almost impossible to resist, and it seemed that they felt the same about him.
He could think of no reply to Eleanor’s question, so he shook his head, defeated. Eleanor moved over to Fenella again, and just at that moment the baby’s eyes fluttered open.
Nicholas saw the two women whispering for a moment before both of them looked up at him, then down at the baby, then up at him again before once more putting their heads together.
‘What the hell are they saying?’ he wondered, beginning to feel genuinely frightened.
Presently, Eleanor moved over to Fenella again and after a few moments of whispered discussion she observed, “There is a definite resemblance, Nella. That nose and these eyes look as though they are beginning to turn green.”
“Indeed there is.” Fenella nodded. She let out a cynical laugh. “Men rarely know as much as they think they do, Ellie.” Her gaze shifted to Laura. “And are you this child’s mother?” she asked.
Laura had been standing twisting her hands nervously in front of her, wondering how she had managed to get herself into such a situation. She could not have lived with herself had she abandoned the helpless little infant, but now she was in an untenable situation.
She had no wish to keep the baby, but could she leave him in the hands of people she hardly knew?
They looked like good people, but then she had met plenty of others who looked wholesome on the surface but were foul underneath.
Her mind jerked back to her former fiancé, who had been outwardly respectable but inwardly a coward and a reprobate.
A surge of anger washed over her and she shoved the thought away.
Now Laura was trapped. She should have known this question was coming, but she had been so angry and so determined to get the better of her argument with the infuriating man that she had not given it any consideration.
However, Crowley and his men were still around, and since she had accepted responsibility for the child, that meant keeping him out of danger.
If she had to lie to do it, then so be it—she could worry about the consequences later: she could not abandon him now.
His mother had been at death’s door, most likely deceased by now.
Laura needed help, but not only that. She needed protection from the many evils that threatened both of them.
Laura realised that she had no choice but to pursue this course of action.
She had been entrusted with a life, and although it was a huge responsibility to bear, she could not just discard it.
She could have refused, turned and walked away, but she had not done so.
Now she was committed, for better or worse.
Laura took a deep breath. “I am,” she replied.
She felt Nicholas Munro’s eyes on her as she said the words, and it was all she could do not to look at him directly and begin to berate him again.
He was so damnably attractive, but beauty, as the saying went, was only skin deep, and he was living proof of that.
Yet she had never been comfortable with dishonesty, and even white lies bothered her.
Nicholas was torn between fury, bafflement and fear. He was angry at being humiliated in this way and being accused of something he had never done, and puzzled as to why this woman would say such things about him in the first place. What did she want from him?
As well as that, he was terrified of the consequences.
He had no wish to be a father. He was a single man who was enjoying the kind of life every man of his age dreamed about.
He knew he was handsome and although he never deliberately drew attention to his good looks, he knew the effect they had on the women around him.
He would have been an eejit if he had not!
Looking at Laura, he acknowledged that she was arrestingly beautiful, with the sunlight glinting on hair that was the warm rusty colour of ripe chestnuts, eyes as blue as the ocean on a sunny day, yet he had no memory of her at all. She was lying. She had to be.
“I am no innocent,” he said firmly. “I will admit to being with a few women—” He broke off and looked around at the sound of Fenella’s and Eleanor’s cynical laughter.
“A few?” Fenella said scornfully. “A hundred, more like!”
Nicholas treated her to a smouldering glare then turned back to Laura. “I think I would have remembered a Sassenach, though,” he went on. “We do not see many of your tribe up here, and I have never met an Englishwoman who took my fancy.”
His tone was sneering, and made the anger inside Laura white-hot. She felt her cheeks heating up and she took a step towards him and poked a finger into his chest. “You had no problem fancying me last year!” She almost spat the words at him.
“I have never met you before!” he yelled. “Why are you saying these stupid things?”
“You ruined my life!” Laura retorted. “You swine! You abandoned me!” She had almost forgotten that she was lying, because in her mind she was shouting at the despicable fiancé who had walked away from her.
He had humiliated her and forced her into the vulnerable and desperate situation she was in now, but she had never had the chance to tell him exactly what she thought of him.
Now it seemed that he was in front of her again, albeit in the shape of a different man, but at last Laura could pour out her rage and hatred, and she did so with every ounce of passion she possessed.
But it was too much: suddenly it overcame her and she was submerged under a surge of fury so strong that she burst into a storm of tears.
Laura fell to her knees and put her head in her hands as she poured out all the pent-up emotion she had kept behind a dam of determination and stubbornness for the last few months. Now the dam had burst, and Laura was being swept away by the strength of its powerful torrent.
Fenella and Eleanor immediately rushed to her defence. Eleanor cried out, then knelt down beside Laura on the grass and wrapped her arms around her in a soothing embrace, murmuring words of comfort. Fenella, still holding the baby, turned on Nicholas, her attractive face a mask of rage.
“You swine!” she spat furiously. “How could you do something like this?”
Nicholas stared back down at her. “I have done nothing wrong!” he yelled. “You take the word of a stranger over someone you have known for years?” His face was crimson with sheer rage.
However, Fenella was not listening as she turned to where Eleanor was gently drawing a still-weeping Laura to her feet.
“Come,” she was saying. “No man is worth your tears, my sweet. Dry your eyes and let us take care of you.”
Laura stood up and accepted the handkerchief Eleanor had offered her, then scrubbed at her eyes to dry her tears.
Gradually her sobs subsided, although the anger inside her did not.
Why were all men so hateful, she thought?
Why did they harbour so much aggression towards women?
At this moment she almost wished she was one of them so that she could land a punch on Nicholas Munro’s handsome face and ruin his good looks forever.
However, she was dragged away from her vengeful thoughts by the ever-practical Fenella, who suddenly became brisk.
“We cannot stand here all day,” she said firmly, looking down at the baby in her arms. “Let’s get this wee thing back to the castle, bathe him and make him warm and comfortable, if that suits you, Laura?” She looked at Laura enquiringly.
Laura could have wept with thankfulness, but instead she gave the other woman a grateful smile. “That would be wonderful!” she breathed. “How can I ever thank you?”
Eleanor put her arm around Laura’s shoulder and gave her a little squeeze. “Just let us get you to a place of safety,” she said kindly. “That will be thanks enough. We will look after you, if no one else will.” She flicked a venomous glance at Nicholas.
He stood, watching impotently as the women readied themselves for the short journey back to the castle.
He was still full of anger, but doubts had begun to creep in.
On occasional nights out with his friends he had been known to overindulge quite heavily and wake up with a raging hangover and no memory of the night before.
What if he had impregnated this woman and completely forgotten about it?
Was it possible? Nicholas looked at Laura again; she was a beauty, and there was no denying it, but such a woman could have had her pick of men.
What made her so sure the child was his?
Surely he was not the only man who had enjoyed sharing her bed?
Nevertheless, he realised at that moment that he had been backed into a corner, and there was no escape.
There was no way of proving that he was not the baby’s father, so for the moment he decided to shoulder the responsibility until the truth of the matter could be ascertained.
He had no choice: to walk away now would make him look as if he was utterly lacking in honour, unwilling to take responsibility for his mistakes.
Nicholas turned to mount his horse, glaring at the villagers who had gathered to watch the little drama with eager curiosity. He knew that this debacle would become prime fodder for gossip that would last for months!