Chapter 16 #2
He’d looked for her the night before. The folk filling the Great Hall had been loud and boisterous as Lachlan was carried in a chair to the room to join the festivities.
All were happy about the return of the travelers, and the added announcement by Searc and Cinaed that Aidan would have their support in standing for election to Parliament only added to the noise and celebration.
Many approached to congratulate him. Countless words of encouragement were directed toward him, along with a few teasing remarks from Sebastian.
He’d wanted to see Morrigan, to speak to her, to find out her opinion of this new change of plans.
But she never approached, and the only time he saw her was as she left the hall.
Aidan noticed her gaze was drawn to the door of the room he’d just left. Perhaps it was the dim light of the hallway, but she looked pale.
“Would you care to go in?”
She frowned and shook her head. “I’m on the way up to the top of the tower.” She stepped around him.
Aidan began to follow her. “May I join you?”
“I don’t know why you ask, Mr. Grant. You always do what you want.”
She nearly ran up the stone stairs, but Aidan kept pace with her.
“Dealing with you, Miss Drummond, I know it’s better to ask first.”
“I’m finished intentionally injuring you.”
“So you admit that this last blow you delivered to my eye was intentional?”
“I admit to no such thing.”
“You said ‘intentionally,’ proof that there was premeditated malice involved. You clearly had control over your actions.”
She turned around to face him. She was standing on the step above him, and they were face-to-face. They had another flight of stairs to go to reach the top, but light poured down on her, bathing her in a beatific glow. She might have been an angel appearing from the heavens.
“I’ve apologized too many times already.”
She peered closely at his eye. He stared at her lips. They were only inches away from his. He inhaled the scent of mountain pine in her hair. Thoughts raced through his mind of tasting her lips, gathering her in his arms, running his hands over the curve of her breasts.
Suddenly, he felt as awkward as a schoolboy.
She touched his bruised cheekbone with feathery softness, and Aidan felt his breeches tighten. Schoolboy or not, he wanted her.
“The swelling is almost gone. The black and purple are giving way to a greenish tinge. The colors improve your looks.”
“Improve, did you say?”
“Of course. You look tougher. More battle-tested. A face like that says you’re not afraid to go after what you want.” She turned on her heel and ran up the rest of the steps to the tower.
Aidan remained where he was for a moment to give his body a chance to recover. How was it that this woman was so constantly in his thoughts? Wherever he was, he found himself looking for her. Wondering where she was, what she was doing, and when he’d see her again.
Over this past fortnight, beauty had been redefined for Aidan: she was tall with dark brown eyes and auburn hair, and she kept a sgian dubh in her boot.
He shook his head to clear it and continued up the stairs after her.
Stepping into the open air, he saw her immediately. Morrigan was standing in a gap in the crenellated parapet. She leaned over the edge to get a better view of the men in the training yard.
“Were you down there today?”
“Not this morning. Niall started everyone early.”
Aidan knew Niall Campbell from their time in the military.
Sebastian was a longtime friend of his. Campbell had been a career soldier and a good one.
A lieutenant in the 42nd Royal Highlander Regiment, he had been recognized many times for his bravery and service.
To have him now siding with Cinaed was a major coup for the son of Scotland.
“Does he mind you training with the men?”
“Of course not. Neither does Cinaed. Nor any of the Mackintoshes, for that matter,” she told him. “Here in the Highlands, the men like their women tough and ready to do battle beside them.”
“I know. I’m a Highlander too.”
“My apologies.” She gave him a side look. “It’s easy to forget.”
“And why is that?”
“Well . . . a barrister? A politician?” She paused, searching for the appropriate words.
“Your chosen professions evoke certain qualities. A refined disposition. A certain genteelness of behavior, speech, attitude, dress, and bearing. I believe all of those things are necessary for one to be successful as a member of Parliament. You, sir, possess all of them. I’m certain you’ll be the toast of society in London.
I can’t imagine you driving a herd to market or sweating behind a plow. ”
“Genteelness of dress?” he scoffed. “Why do I feel like I’ve just been insulted?”
“You shouldn’t. I meant it as a compliment.” She turned her attention back to the men training in the yard.
Her comments and her conspicuously detached manner hinted at her true feelings.
She now saw him as a politician, and she didn’t care for it.
He didn’t know why. Someone needed to represent the people of the Highlands.
Someone who knew the law and didn’t have an agenda of personal advancement.
This was the life he’d been preparing for.
“Well, before I schedule the requisite hours with my tailor, I have a few responsibilities as barrister that I need to see to.”
“Good idea. Your clients will be grateful.”
On their way back from Inverness two days ago, Aidan told her about the list of names he’d gotten from the Chattan brothers. He also explained briefly why Wemys’s cooperation was critical in finding out which name belonged to the agent-provocateur in the government’s entrapment scheme.
“Right now, my clients have nothing to pin their hopes on, unless your . . . unless Wemys agrees to cooperate and tell me who was helping the authorities.”
Somehow, he needed to get through to her.
“Andrew Hardie and John Baird were sentenced to death and executed in Stirling on September 8. Hanged and beheaded.” He spoke plainly, knowing she was not skittish about such bluntness.
Perhaps that was what was needed to convince her to go downstairs and listen to what her uncle wanted to say.
“Edmund and George Chattan are facing the same fate. They’ll surely lose their lives if I can’t secure Wemys’s help. ”
Morrigan walked along the ramparts, and Aidan followed.
“He has the answers but refuses to help me unless you see him. If he lives to see next month, he’ll renege on his promise to testify in court.”
“He is of no use to you, then. I can help you, however, if you choose to throw him off this parapet.”
She continued to walk along the perimeter of the tower. There was no hint of joking in her tone. Aidan had a strong suspicion she was dead earnest.
“I’d take you up on your offer, if the lives of two men weren’t at stake.”
She leaned to a dangerous degree out over the edge to stare at some people in the gardens below.
“Don’t jump. I have no wish to lose you or your friendship. I promise, after this, never to ask you again.” He touched her elbow, hoping she’d face him. “But for this one time, will you consider hearing what Wemys has to say? He promises they are the last words you’ll hear from a dying man.”
Morrigan turned and Aidan was stunned to see tears pooling in her dark eyes. “I can’t, Mr. Grant. I’m sorry about your clients. Dreadfully sorry. But nothing you say, nothing he says, will ever convince me to go to that man.”
Without uttering another word, she went around him and disappeared down the stairs.