Page 53 of The Highlander's Temporary Bride
Beyond lay a cold, stone room, with a hole in the wall, high, high up, barely letting in the moonlight.
“Sir, are ye sure?” one of the guards asked.
“We could just keep her confined to her rooms—” added another.
“This is more than she deserves,” Reuben grunted as he unlocked the door. Reaching out, he yanked Emma’s arm and pushed her inside. She fell hard onto the stone and scrambled up on her knees as he closed the barred door. “She poisoned our Laird.”
Emma pushed herself to her feet and rushed to the bars. “Is he…?” Her entire body began to shake. “Is he all right? Please tell me that, at least.”
“Dinnae play the innocent, lass,” Reuben sneered. “Ye ken that he is barely clingin’ to life after ye fed him toadstools.”
“No!” Emma cried and grabbed the bars. “I would never. He is?—”
“Ye are the only one who was with him. The only one around whom me braither seems to let his guard down. And here ye stand, breathin’ just fine, while he hovers on the edge of death.” Reuben’s eyes gleamed with a cold fire. “I never trusted ye.”
“That’s not… No, I simply do not care much for mushrooms, and I was too nervous to eat. I would never—he saved my life.”
“And how convenient that was. I read yer letter, Emma,” Reuben spat, and she reeled back. “I ken what ye did, and how ye never wanted to marry a Scottish laird. Ye ran away. Ye gave up yer twin to the Beast of Briorn.”
The guards stirred at that and glanced at each other, then back at Emma, as though seeing her for the first time.
“I did not know Agnes existed,” she sobbed. “I never meant for any of this to happen. And I-I was wrong about Scotland.”
“Wicked creature, when will yer lies stop?” Reuben shook his head. “Ye meant to poison our Laird and slip out among the chaos, ensurin’ neither ye nor Lady Helena Lovell will have to marry a Scot. Well…” He bowed. “I do hope ye enjoyed our hospitality, for now ye shall see how truly terrible and savage we can be,Outlander wench.”
He hurled those two words at her with such venom that she stepped back, suspecting that he’d wanted to call her something far stronger than a wench. Tears streamed down her face as she shook her head, even though she knew it was futile. Worse yet, she could see how Reuben came to such a conclusion, especially if he’d read her letters.
“And to think I posted a murderess’s letters.”
Relief swept through her, then terror as she realized Helena was the only one who would know where she was. She’d decided to tell her mother that she was with her aunt, thinking that was safer. And Helena wouldn’t come anywhere near Banrose.
“You’re mistaken,” Emma said through her tears. “I-I have no stomach for violence. I faint at the sight of blood—ask Kyla. She will tell you that I am not able to kill someone. Moreso, I am a respectable lady.”
“The healers have been’ gossipin’ all day about yer canny knowledge of plants, Lady Emma,” one of the guards suddenly said. “I’m afraid?—”
“Exactly,” Reuben cut in. “And ye only implicate yerself more, for ye didnae stab me braither in the heart, did ye? Ye chose a cleaner method to murder him.”
“No,” Emma whispered as he turned around and started to walk away.
The two guards hesitated, looking at her and then at each other.
“Come,” Reuben ordered in such a harsh tone that their faces went blank, and they turned around, walking away.
“Grant would never speak to you like that,” Emma whispered, and one of them glanced back, surprise in his eyes. “And Reuben, you know you are wrong. You simply hate the English. You want me to be a murderer…”
She fell to the ground as realization dawned on her. Her head spun. No, he’d said Grant hovered on the edge of life and death, didn’t he?
“Is Grant dead?” she cried and reached for the bars again. “Please, tell me.”
Reuben’s harsh, bitter laugh echoed back to her. “Dinnae call him that ever again, wench.” He paused, and she heard a footstep on the stairs, causing her heart to lurch with panic.
He truly meant to leave her down here. Yet, that panic was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.
“And what d’ye think? Even a man as strong as Laird Ronson cannae escape the deadliest of plants.”
A sob escaped Emma’s throat, and she shuddered all over.
“Enjoy yer stay,” Reuben called as a door somewhere slammed shut.
