Chapter 5
When Laura entered the dining room for the evening meal she found Charlotte, Kenneth, Fenella and Eleanor already seated and waiting for her. Kenneth stood up politely when she entered and a manservant pulled out a chair for her.
Laura sat down and smiled at all of them.
“I cannot tell you how thankful I am for the kindness you are showing me,” she said gratefully.
“I truly don’t know what would have happened to me if you had not appeared and rescued me.
” Then she looked at the empty seat opposite her and frowned.
“Does Nicholas not usually dine with you?”
Charlotte saw her puzzled glance and caught Laura’s eye, then raised her eyebrows in a meaningful look.
‘He is avoiding you,’ it said. Aloud, she said: “Nick comes and goes as he pleases depending on his mood and work commitments. He sent a message to say he was too busy to join us tonight because there was some kind of dispute between some of the men.”
‘How convenient,’ Laura thought bitterly.
The food arrived then, and she realised that once more she was famished.
Fenella and Eleanor dominated the conversation during the first course, telling them about their day visiting friends in one of the neighbouring villages.
As usual, there was a lot of mischief involved: they had almost, but not quite succeeded in introducing a Laird’s nephew to their friend’s daughter.
The young man had been called away to attend to some business, but Charlotte and Kenneth both knew that that would not deter the two scheming biddies.
They had decided that matchmaking was their calling in life, and they both enjoyed it immensely, and had been greatly encouraged by their success with Charlotte and Kenneth.
“He is a marked man,” Kenneth said, with a resigned smile. “He will never escape. You may as well call the banns now, ladies!”
There was a gale of laughter, then Kenneth turned his attention to Laura as the dishes were cleared. “Did you see Crowley at the inn, Mistress Laura?” he asked suddenly.
The mood in the room changed at once as if a candle had been snuffed out, chasing away the light-hearted mood and replacing it with a leaden atmosphere of thick tension.
Laura was taken aback for a moment, then she took a deep breath and answered.
“I did, yes,” she said, keeping her gaze fixed firmly on the table top and away from the probing stare of the Laird’s dark grey eyes.
“He is one of the nastiest people it has ever been my misfortune to meet. I met him and his men at the inn. I had been travelling alone in Scotland, and two of his men approached me. They were very polite and seemed concerned for my welfare. They heard my voice, so they knew I was English, and they took me to meet their commanding officer, Lieutenant Percival Crowley. He was very charming and said that we English folk should stay together for our own safety in this savage country. However I soon realised that they only wanted to keep me there so that they could tease and taunt me for their own amusement. None of them ever tried to force himself on me but I knew it was only a matter of time.” She sighed wearily, then briefly described what had happened that morning, omitting the fact that the woman who had helped her was the baby’s real mother.
The last word was hardly out of her mouth when Kenneth slammed his fist down so hard on the table that all the dishes rattled, and Eleanor had to grab the open bottle of wine to stop it from falling over.
“Damn him!” he yelled. “When is he going to leave us in peace? I thought we had seen the last of him, but still he threatens us!” He ran a hand over his thick sandy hair in a gesture of great agitation, and Charlotte leaned over to kiss him, murmuring tender words of comfort that Laura could not hear.
The love between them was so apparent and so beautiful to behold that she felt a sudden stab of jealousy as well as a deep sadness. She was quite sure that true happiness with a worthy man was not her destiny, but oh, how she wished it were!
When Kenneth had calmed down, Charlotte turned to Laura, her expression one of deep distress.
“I had no idea things were so bad,” she said fearfully.
“I know Crowley well, and he is evil through and through, but the worst thing about him is that he is so good at hiding it. He deceived me for a long time. Indeed, I was even considering marrying him at one point! Then he showed his true colours and nearly killed me, and if it were not for Kenny and Nick I would not be here to tell you this. You must not leave the castle, Laura. I cannot begin to tell you how dangerous he is.”
Laura was shocked to see Charlotte’s sudden pallor and the terrible fear in her eyes, and was utterly horrified to realise how much danger she had been in for the last few weeks. “N-nearly killed you?” she asked, her voice shrill with terror.
“Yes,” Charlotte answered, but her fear had been replaced by anger. “He stabbed me in my side, then managed to get away. I don’t know how he has the nerve to come back here!”
“He has no heart,” Fenella said bitterly. Then she turned to Charlotte with a reassuring look, and patted her hand gently. “But Ellie and I will accompany you if you wish to go outside, Laura, and Kenny will send guards with us. Never fear, you will be kept safe.”
“That is very good of you,” Laura replied, trying with all her might to keep herself calm.
“I-I cannot thank you all enough.” She pasted on a smile, but inside she could feel panic rising.
Now she was truly terrified, because she knew that she could not bear to be a prisoner in the castle.
It would not be as bad as being in the tavern, granted, but she would still be trapped with no hope of escape.
Even in the most benign of settings, a jail was still a jail.
Laura’s anxiety had mounted after supper and she could no longer sit still and let others decide her fate.
She had to leave and she had to do it now, for if she waited longer she wasn’t sure she would be able to abandon the baby or the idea of safety she felt.
But she could not be a prisoner and if Crowley was looking for her then she had to get as far away as possible.
She was preparing to make her way out of her chamber at midnight, going barefoot to avoid making any noise.
She knew that there were guards on duty outside, but thought she could find a way to avoid them.
Eleanor and Fenella had shown her a tiny gate in the outer wall that was invisible from outside, and Laura almost laughed out loud when she thought of the mischief in their faces as they did so.
They really were just overgrown schoolgirls!
Then she wrenched her thoughts back to the matter at hand.
She had taken an apple and a few pieces of cheese and bread from the kitchen earlier, and now she picked up her warm woollen cloak, then paused to make sure there was nothing she had forgotten.
She took a deep breath: it was time to go, and she opened the door—then stopped dead, her eyes wide with shock.
Nicholas Munro stood there, his bulk blocking her path, making it impossible for Laura to pass.
He was dishevelled, flushed and sweating, and looked as if he had just emerged from battle, but his bedraggled state only enhanced his sheer masculinity.
He was almost irresistibly attractive, and she felt every nerve ending on her body begin to prickle with arousal.
“Where are you going?” he demanded, stepping through the door and closing it behind him. Laura caught her breath and took a hasty step backwards, suddenly fearful; his expression was thunderous.
“Answer me!” he said, his voice low and threatening.
Laura almost panicked. She tried to remain calm while a dozen different answers ran through her mind, but Nicholas’ looming presence had unsettled her so much that for a moment she could think of nothing to say.
Yet he was waiting, his deep green eyes staring at her so fixedly that it seemed as though he was trying to bore a hole in her head.
“I’m-I’m just going to see the baby,” she replied at last, tilting her chin up defiantly.
Nicholas threw back his head and laughed heartily at that, then he pointed to the cloak and the satchel full of food.
“Is it such a long way to the nursery that you need food for the journey? I can smell the cheese from here,” he asked, his eyes glinting with anger.
“Please do not insult my intelligence, Mistress. You may think me stupid, but I assure you I am not. I will ask you again—where are you going?”
“I told you,” Laura answered. “That is the truth.”
He barked out another cynical laugh, his eyes glinting. “You really expect me to believe you?”
“I expect nothing from a debauched reprobate like yourself,” Laura replied, forcing herself to remain calm while all she wanted to do was plant her fist in his too-handsome face.
“I see. So what does that make you?” he asked. “If you lay with me, are we not equally debauched?” Nicholas narrowed his eyes to make himself even more intimidating as he continued to glare at her, but Laura would not back down. She made no answer, but held his gaze and eventually he looked away.
He paced across to the side of her bed and looked down at it for a moment then said: “Tell me about the night we lay with each other. Perhaps if you give me some details it will refresh my memory.” Then another possibility occurred to him.
“Or perhaps you were a little the worse for wear and imagined it all?”
At that moment Laura felt her heart sink; he had completely trapped her, and she had nowhere to run. She could not possibly give him an account of something that had never happened, and she had absolutely nothing to say. “I don’t remember much,” she said as nonchalantly as she could.
Nicholas watched her carefully, seeing the helpless confusion on Laura’s face. She had been lying all along, just as he had known she was, and now he had her exactly where he wanted her. He was the first to admit he was no saint, but he was sure he would have remembered bedding this beauty.
He had thought of her all day, and had exhausted himself with practising his martial skills and working to forget her, but even after patrolling with his men for three whole hours he could not get Laura out of his mind.
After having tried everything else, he had decided to have it out with her once and for all, but she was stubbornness personified, and would not back down—until now. Now, Nicholas realised with a surge of sheer triumph, he had her cornered.
He covered the distance between them in three steps then faced her with his hands on his hips, so close that he could feel the heat of her body. Despite himself, his weak man’s body responded to her nearness in the most primal way, and he shifted uncomfortably as he felt his shaft stiffening.
But he smiled. Nicholas gave Laura a smile that was full of dark, triumphant glee, and was gratified to see her blue eyes fill with anger and… fear?
“Look at me,” he said. “I assure you, if I had bedded you—even just once, you would remember every detail vividly. In fact, I can tell you that I have never had any complaints about my… performance, quite the contrary. So I find it hard to believe that you cannot remember a single thing about our encounter, but you are absolutely sure this child is mine?”
Laura fisted her hands and glared at Nicholas Munro balefully. “Modesty is not one of your flaws, I see,” she growled scornfully. “I do remember you, but I can hardly be expected to recall every single move we both made that night. It was almost a year ago, after all.”
Laura fumed as he gave her another infuriating smile, then shouted, “Oh, for heaven’s sake leave me alone now!
I am going to see the baby—our baby, and you are standing in my way!
” She pushed past Nicholas and opened the door, expecting at any moment that he would grab her and pull her back, but he made no move to do so.
Laura fled along the corridor towards the nursery, her bare feet silent on the cold stone flags.
She was seething with anger and frustration, but her determination was still as strong as ever.
However, now she knew that Nicholas would be watching her, and he would probably not be the only one.
After all, he was in charge of scores of guards.
‘But he will not stop me,’ she thought grimly. ‘He may be big, strong and tough, but there is more than one kind of strength, and he has met his match in me.’
Laura made her way to the nursery, only to find the door locked, and realised that she should have known that it would be. Maisie and her own child would be inside as well as Nicholas’s son, and like any good mother she would take every precaution to keep her son safe from harm.
Laura was extremely disappointed, but at the same time she was glad.
The baby was in good hands, the hands of a real mother.
She tiptoed back to her chamber, prepared to flee if Nicholas was still there, but thankfully he had left.
Laura locked her door as well and shoved a chair against it, but despite taking every precaution against him coming back, she hardly slept a wink that night.