Regency Proposal: The Laird's Forbidden Lady / Haunted by the Earl's Touch

Ian had the feeling she had her fingers crossed when she said the last. ‘Did someone see her?’

‘I’m no privy to that information. I do know that young Dunstan is beside himself with anger. No doubt he expected a bit of glory out of tonight’s affair. Instead …’

She winced. ‘Father knows I knew what was planned for tonight and he thinks I betrayed him.’

‘Well, you did, didn’t you?’ Angus muttered, his deep voice turning into a low growl of frustration. ‘Lady Albright is in tears, speaking of ruin and disgrace. Your father …’ He shook his head.

Ian stiffened, but for all the anger he felt, he had to acknowledge that if word of her escapade got out Lady Selina would be ruined. Helping a Gilvry escape the gaugers would not be seen as heroic by her people. They also might ponder why she had helped him, and not to her credit.

‘I’ll just have to face the music,’ Lady Selina said in a small breathless voice. ‘It is no one’s business what I was doing tonight and so I will tell him. Father will forgive me, eventually.’

‘I advise against such a step,’ Angus said, his voice as dry as dust. ‘That young man won’t be satisfied until you admit where you were tonight and give evidence against the Laird. If he persuades your father he is right, you’ll have a hard task standing up to them.’

Ian’s fists clenched at the thought of her being bullied.

‘And once they have what they want,’ McIver continued, ‘the Laird will be convicted.’

‘But what else can I do?’ she said.

He gave her a sharp look. ‘According to that maid of yours, it wouldn’t be the first time you’d gone off on a whim in the middle of the night. All you have to do is disappear for a while and turn up somewhere else safe and sound.’

‘So Mary has been gossiping, has she?’ she said icily.

‘Mary is worried out of her wits that she will get the blame.’

Lady Selina’s shoulders sagged. She shook her head. ‘Surely, Father would not blame a servant for my actions? Besides, he knows I don’t do that sort of thing any more.’

‘Who’s to say what maggot gets into a woman’s head?’ Angus said. ‘There has to be somewhere you could go, some friend you could visit who could vouch for your whereabouts?’

She turned to Ian, her face full of worry. ‘There is Alice. Lady Hawkhurst as she is now. Hawkhurst is a formidable man. He might be able to convince them I left before all this occurred. Father would listen to him.’

‘You’ll have to be careful,’ McIver warned. ‘They’ll be searching the glens for you both by morning.’

Ian stared at McIver. ‘Are you proposing I escort her there?’

‘Aye. Unless you have a better idea.’

A curse sprang to his lips; he swallowed it. ‘Perhaps if you bat your beautiful eyes at them, Lady Selina, and tell them you were out for a walk, they’ll believe you.’

‘I’m willing to give it a try,’ she said with a defiant little toss of her head.

‘Laird, if I might have a word with you in private?’ Angus said. He looked up at Lady Selina. ‘Clan business, you ken, my lady.’

‘I suppose you are afraid I will tell them your secrets,’ she said. ‘Well, I’m not so poor spirited. However, speak privately if you must.’ She walked a few steps away.

Ian drew closer to Angus. ‘What is it, man? More bad news?’

‘It depends on your point of view.’ Angus gripped his arm hard. ‘I ought to beat you to within an inch of your life for involving her in your doings.’

Anger rising in his craw, Ian stepped toe to toe with the man. McIver was big, but Ian was taller and fitter. He clenched his fists and pitched his voice low. ‘Speak your piece, man.’

‘Marry the lass.’

The words hit him like a punch to the jaw. Words would not form for a moment or two. More shocking yet was the deep sense of longing filling his chest, as if some hitherto-unrecognised hope had been forced to the surface. No doubt the wrong part of his anatomy doing the thinking. ‘Are you mad? She’s Albright’s daughter.’

The child of his family’s enemy. That was why he’d driven her off all those years ago, when he realised he was in danger of losing himself in her velvet-brown eyes. When he’d felt the stirrings in his blood and in his heart—and seen his brothers’ horror.

Albright would never have countenanced their friendship, let alone anything closer.

And Andrew. Andrew would haunt his every moment if he did such a thing. If not for Selina’s request, and his lingering guilt at the way he had treated her, Drew would still be alive. Instead, he’d forced his brother to leave London and his pursuit of the heiress, his answer to the clan’s financial troubles, who just happened to be Selina’s good friend. Not only that, Ian had shipped the furious Andrew off to America, where he’d been killed. How could he marry a woman who had twisted him around her little finger to the detriment of his brother? He certainly didn’t deserve the surge of happiness the thought of it brought him. ‘You are out of your mind.’

‘I’m being practical, laddie. Marry her and even if they badger her until kingdom come, her word is no good in a court of law.’

‘I don’t believe Lady Selina would give evidence against me.’

‘She might do her best to hold out, but she’s made a complete fool of that young Sassenach. Let her go in there now and you might as well go in, too, with a noose draped around your neck. It’ll be the end for the folks around here. With you gone there will be nothing to stop them from clearing the land. As I said, Dunstan is threatening retribution against her and against her father. Who do you think she will choose, once you are hiding out in the hills?’ His grey brows drew together. ‘Think about it, Gilvry. No matter what happens, she is ruined. I just can’t see her letting her father be implicated, too.’

Damn it to hell. It was too hard a choice for any daughter to make. She owed Ian nothing and her father everything. But marriage? ‘There must be another way.’

Angus looked grim. ‘Your brother Andrew cut a swathe through the lasses in every glen from here to Edinburgh, but you are the Laird and she is a lady. Have you no honour?’

Resentment at the distaste in the other man’s tone fired his temper. ‘I haven’t touched the lass.’ He flushed red as he recalled their kiss and was glad of the poor light. But it was only a kiss. ‘I didn’t ask her to follow me tonight.’

McIver sighed. ‘But she did. Will you let her suffer for trying to help? You are not the man I thought, if you do not do the right thing.’

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to focus, to see his way clear. He needed time to think. Time to plan. ‘I will take her to her friend, but that is all I will do.’

McIver shook his head as if disappointed. ‘Think on what I have said, lad. In the meantime, travel as far as you can from here before it is light. You’ll find a welcome in the glens until you get far enough south. Do not dally. There will be a price on your head by morning.’

Reeling with the conflicting thoughts in his head, Ian returned to Selina with McIver on his heels.

‘Well?’ she said.

Ian gave her a rueful grin. ‘I will take you to your friend.’

She turned to McIver. ‘Are you sure this is the only way?’

Angus nodded. ‘Go with Gilvry or your help will have been for nothing.’ He plucked a saddlebag off the rocks where they’d first seen him. ‘There’s water in here, oats and supplies, some coin. Enough to see you on your way. Get a message to your brother, Laird, when you have things in hand.’ He emphasised the last word with a hard look.

Ian didn’t like McIver’s glibness. He seemed to have thought everything out, as if he had some purpose of his own. But he couldn’t see any alternative.

Certainly not marriage.

He looked up. Dawn was reaching into the sky and he could see Selina’s features more clearly and the anxiety in her eyes.

‘We need to go. Now,’ he said.

Wearily, she nodded her agreement and let him throw her up on Beau. She clung there looking down at him with worry and trust.