Page 107 of Taming the Highland Misfits
“Really? Why not?” Freya was really enraged. She felt Bearnard squeeze her waist a little in an unspoken “calm down” gesture, but she was too enraged to take any notice.
“Because they have disappeared,” Aidan answered. “Along with Alex. He is nowhere to be found, and although we have searched the castle and half the estate, no one has seen him or the letters.”
Freya gave a cynical bark of a laugh. “Disappeared?” she said, her words dripping with sarcasm. “How very convenient. If those letters were evidence of a crime, should you not have put them in a safe, secure place where no one would find them?”
“Everyone is wise after the event, Freya,” the Laird said wearily, passing a hand over his forehead. “I blame myself for this situation. I should never have trusted Alex MacNeill, but I suppose it is too late now for regrets. What’s done is done.”
19
Amoment later, Freya sat down again, suddenly deflated. The whole affair was becoming more and more depressing and bewildering. She would not–could not–believe that Alex was a traitor. There was too much good in him, and he had never treated her with anything but respect and love; Freya had always prided herself on being a good judge of character. She would havefeltbadness–she knew it.
The conversation went on around her for some minutes, and she gradually lost track of it. Her thoughts drifted back to the night she had spent in Alex’s arms, and the way his skin had felt pressed against hers. It had been paradise, but now it was over, and the way ahead was unclear, if not impossible to see.
As the buzz of hostile conversation went on around her, Freya stopped hearing it altogether. She was beginning to sink into a pit of misery and wondered if she would ever see her love again when suddenly another thought came to her. Was Alex still her love? Was she his? Had he ever been? What if there was even a grain of truth in what her father and brother were saying?
She heard the tone of the conversation change as Bearnard began to raise his voice in Alex’s defence. A wave of sisterly love swept over her as she looked at his brave, impassioned face. He had heard exactly the same news as she had, and yet he was still standing up for Alex. He still believed in him, and Freya felt ashamed, yet she could not shake off the nagging doubts that were beginning to plague her; was Alex guilty?
She thought back to the day he had asked her to marry him–how long ago it seemed now! She remembered how her heart had been overflowing with happiness that day, but as she looked back and thought of his face, she wondered if his words and the expression on his face were real.
Freya revisited other happy memories; their first kiss, the first time he had told her how he really felt about her, and even the time she had fallen off her horse. He had picked her up, dusted her off, and let her sit on his lap, wrapped in his strong embrace while tears of fright and pain flowed down her face.
It had been five years since that day, but she still remembered every detail—how Lance had whinnied in fright and lurched sideways as his foot hit the stone. Then she recalled how the world had turned into a jumbled blur as she flew through the air and the jarring bump as first her hip, then her knee hit the ground. The pain had been almost unbearable, but Alex’s embrace had been so gentle, and he had whispered soothing words of comfort in her ear.
They had already been involved as a couple for a while before that, but she thought that was the moment when she had truly and wholeheartedly seen his worth. That was the moment when she realised that she could not live without him.
Now she was questioning everything. Every time he smiled at her, had it been part of some sinister plan? Had there been an ulterior motive behind each one of his kisses? Had anything he had ever said or done been real? Everything that had once seemed wholesome and good now seemed tainted with suspicion.
Surely, Alex could not have pulled the wool over her eyes for so long, though? Their relationship had been going on for years. She passed her hands over her face, wishing she was somewhere else. She was torn in two, wanting to believe in Alex, but beginning to entertain doubts. What if her father was right and she had been a fool for all these years?
Suddenly she was startled out of her nightmarish reverie by the touch of a hand on her shoulder. She looked up into Bearnard’s blue eyes. “Stay strong, Freya,” he said gently. “We will prove them wrong. Alex is a good man and we both know it.”
Freya smiled at him. It was good to know that, even if she was outnumbered, there was one person on her side.
“Thank you, Bearnard,” she replied. Then she sighed. A few hours ago, she had been floating on a cloud of happiness, but now it seemed as though her world was collapsing around her.
Just then, a knock sounded at the door and one of the guards was admitted. He bowed to the Laird and said gruffly, “M’Laird, we have had a sightin’ o’ Alex MacNeill.”
Aidan jumped to his feet, glaring at the man. “Are you telling me that our previous search was not thorough enough?”
The guard shook his head vehemently. He detested Aidan Murdaugh, and his opinion was shared by most of the other men. “No, Sir,” he answered, and Freya could tell by his face that he was trying not to lose his temper. “I am sayin’ that he is a very clever man, an’ he knows the lie o’ the land around here very well. It might take us a while tae capture him, but I think we have an idea of where he is now. We have sent a search party tae find him, but I warn ye, he is a slippery customer.”
“I know that!” Aidan growled. “Nobody knows him better than I do. But he is not half as clever as he thinks he is. I am going to see that this time he gets his comeuppance.” He looked around at the men in the room, then jumped to his feet and rushed to the door. His face was red with fury. “What are we waiting for?” he demanded.
“Aidan, wait!” his father called, but Aidan was already gone, followed by Gerald Patterson. The Laird stood up wearily and Freya, seeing that he was going to follow them, went to him and put her arms around him.
“Father, you cannot believe this!” she said desperately. “Alex has worked for you for years. If he was going to betray you, he would have done so a long time ago. God knows, he has had plenty of chances!”
“I agree with Freya,” Bearnard said firmly. “Alex has never betrayed us in any way, and I do not think he is doing so now.”
Freya said nothing more. She simply could not stand to listen to everyone slandering her beloved anymore–and yet–could there be a grain of truth in it? She shook her head and turned towards the door, then left, slamming it behind her. She was in such a state of confusion now that she did not know whom to believe.
Almost without her realizing, her footsteps led her up to the turrets, the place where she could look out over the surrounding hills, meadows and farmhouses. She could think here. She saw green grass, dotted with balls of fluffy white sheep and the lines of dark pines, fading and becoming shades of blue and grey till they blended into the distant hills that touched the lowering sky.
As her gaze traveled farther and farther into the distance, Freya saw scores of gulls and crows gliding in the sky, and her heart yearned to be with them, soaring free in the sky, never having to worry about tomorrow.
Abruptly, something occurred to her.Alex is not stupid enough to try to flee during the day,she thought suddenly.He could not run across open fields in broad daylight. He is too clever to do that.
She thought about the isolated part of the castle where they had gone to be together the night Alex had first asked her to marry him. Had they searched there? Freya hesitated for another few moments, then went over the route to it in her mind. She felt sure she would still be able to find it.
