Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Mrs. Goddard’s news that Morrigan had accompanied Madame Laborde to Huntly Street went through Aidan’s chest like a hussar’s blade.
As the hooves of his steed pounded along the lane and through the deserted cattle market toward Castle Hill and the bridge, he kept trying to convince himself that nothing was wrong.
She wasn’t alone. The women had two Mackintosh men with them.
Nothing said that Burney would return to a house that was assuredly locked up by the authorities.
But all along the way, a feeling of doom clouded his brain.
Aidan only started to breathe when he espied the driver and carriage waiting outside the house as he reached Huntly Street. Reining his horse sharply in front of the house, he jumped down and rushed through the door. Male voices came from an upper floor.
“Morrigan!” he shouted.
One of the Mackintosh men appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Where is my wife?”
“In the study there.”
He started to come down the stairs, but Aidan didn’t wait. He didn’t know the layout of the house. He called her name, looking in at the first door.
“The next one, Mr. Grant. In there. She was here but a minute ago.”
They both went into the study. The window was shut, the curtains were drawn. No one was inside. There was nowhere for her to go.
“I know she didn’t leave the house.” The Mackintosh went out into the hall to look around.
The second man came down and joined the search. Immediately, Aidan was told the door going out to the back from the kitchen was still latched on the inside. The same was true of the windows and the other servants’ entrance. The only way in or out was the way he’d come.
“Check the floors for a trap door.” Aidan rushed back into the study and pointed at the bookcases. “Pull them down. Every one of them. There’s got to be a door somewhere that leads out.”
Leaving them, he raced out of the house.
Of course, there had to be a hidden passageway, Morrigan thought. And a tunnel. The house was on the river. She should have thought of it before stepping into the space behind the bookcase.
But how could she have known that Burney was free?
He’d ordered her to carry the heavy satchel.
With his dagger prodding her in the back, they descended a steep set of stone stairs and started along a dank tunnel that smelled like a crypt.
He replaced his knife with a small pistol that he carried with the muzzle pointed directly at her back.
The passageway was narrow and slippery, and they passed under two small openings from which dim light and cold air filtered down.
At a sharp turn, she looked ahead and saw the tunnel was brighter in the distance.
Morrigan could tell from the sound of his steps that he was close enough to shoot her, but far enough to be clear of any attempt she might make to try to kick at him or somehow defend herself.
She guessed from the weight of the satchel that he’d filled it with bags of coin along with whatever papers he thought would be most valuable to him. He was making his escape from Inverness, but he wasn’t going empty-handed.
Morrigan thought back over their route. The passage led under the house toward the river. Since the turn, the tunnel must have been running parallel with the Ness. A smuggler’s route, for sure.
“Where are we going?” she asked, slowing down a little.
“It’s of no concern to you. Keep moving.”
Screaming and hoping that someone would come to her rescue was no longer a possibility. Perhaps she should have done it when she’d first felt the edge of the knife.
“What are you going to do to me?”
“You’ll soon find out.”
The tunnel made a slight bend. In the distance, she could see a set of wooden stairs leading up through a trap door.
She remembered seeing a dilapidated warehouse and dock not far downriver from the house.
Someone had helped Burney escape. No doubt, he had henchmen waiting for him and a boat ready to take him beyond the reach of the law and the Mackintosh clan.
Whatever she had to do to put an end to this, Morrigan knew she needed to do it now.
“I cooperated with you. I helped you so you’d give me back my father’s letter.”
“You father’s letter,” he scoffed. “That scrap of paper didn’t matter a whit to him. Trust me, I tried to use it with him. Drummond wouldn’t play my game. And don’t try to play me for a fool. I know it means nothing to you either. If it did, you would have squirmed more.”
“I thought we had a deal. I was doing my part.”
“Your part? Liar. You manipulated me. You poisoned the mind of Roisin Laborde. You played her against me.”
“I didn’t do anything that you haven’t done yourself.”
“Don’t give yourself so much credit. I know the two of you had a hand in this. You deserve each other. You and your lawyer. Too bad your marriage won’t last.”
The steps were just ahead. A freezing wind howled through the trap door.
“The joy I’ll get from informing him of your pathetic end.” His voice paused a moment before he continued. “Perhaps I’ll keep you alive for a while. There might be some benefit in letting him think he can get you back.”
She would never be a victim again. Never.
“Do not do anything foolish. Go up the steps slowly and stop at the top. I’ll have my pistol trained on your back every moment.”
Morrigan climbed as she was told, her mind racing. She’d run for it. Let him shoot. She’d jump in that river and drown in the freezing water if she must. Death was definitely preferable.
She climbed up and found herself in a small warehouse. The doors facing the water were open. She could see the dock. A boat bobbed in the icy river.
“Walk straight to the boat,” he ordered.
As she moved ahead of him, she realized someone lay on the dock. Morrigan shifted the bag so she was holding it with both hands in front of her.
She stepped out of the warehouse. Not one, but two people lay unmoving on the dock. She jumped to the side, planted her feet, and swung the weighted satchel with all her strength back toward the doorway.
She connected with Burney’s shoulder as he rushed out, but his attention was not on her. Someone else was waiting on the other side of the opening.
Aidan.
The impact of the satchel’s weight drove Burney into him. Aidan grabbed for the pistol, and she watched in shock as they tumbled over the edge of the dock together.
She rushed to the side and watched in horror as they fought in the icy river. Aidan went under first, but then Burney was pulled down.
She heard footsteps on the dock behind her. The carriage driver was here. The two Mackintosh men raced out of the warehouse onto the dock.
The driver drew a pistol from his coat but quickly realized who they were.
“Aidan went in the river. I can’t see him.” Morrigan leaned over the edge, ready to go in after him.
He’d come to her rescue. He knew she was in trouble. Aidan knew where to go and how to find her. He was the love of her life. Her future. He couldn’t die. She wouldn’t let him go.
“I’m going after him.”
Morrigan was about to jump in when a pair of hands grabbed her from behind. She struggled to get free. Once again, she was back in the surgery in Edinburgh. Her father was dead, and she was being dragged out of the room. She was too late to do anything.
“Let me go,” she screamed. “I won’t let him die.”
“There he is, Mrs. Grant. By the bank. He is coming out.”
A few paces downriver she saw him. Aidan. There was no sign of Burney.
The men rushed down to help him out.
Suddenly, her knees wobbled. Everything had happened so fast. For a few insane moments, she’d nearly lost hope.
“Get blankets,” she told the driver, gathering her strength.
Morrigan ran along the bank and threw her arms around him. A dry coat was thrown over him, and she pressed her face against his wet clothes.
“You’re alive. Thank God. You’re alive.”
He held her and kissed her, then pulled away and ran his eyes over her face. “Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head. “I found a secret panel behind the bookcases and surprised him. He’d come to collect whatever valuables he’d left behind.”
“When I couldn’t find you inside the house, I knew.”
“How did you know to come here?”
“Remember when Searc told us it was a smuggler’s house?”
She nodded. Knowing but not paying enough attention.
“I’ve heard since I was a lad that many of the old houses along the river have tunnels that lead to the river. When I saw the boat tied up to the old shack and those two bruisers, I knew that was where you’d be coming out.”
Morrigan motioned to the men still lying inert on the dock. “You did this?”
“The moves I saw you using on the pell in the training yard, I put them into action here.”
He was soaked to the bone. His teeth were chattering and he was still in good humor. As they walked back toward the carriage, she spotted the bag she’d been carrying for Burney. She asked one of the Mackintosh men to bring it for them.
“What do you think is in there?” Aidan asked, holding her tight.
“A trail of frailty and fear.” Morrigan looked up into the eyes of the man she loved. The man she would stand with and fight beside till the end of their days. “There is nothing that can touch us in there, but those papers might mean hope and freedom for scores of others.”