Page 75 of Highland Sword
Morrigan had heard that Wemys was declining rapidly by the day. But he couldn’t die soon enough to suit her.
“Morrigan?”
She didn’t realize where she’d been going until she came face-to-face with Isabella coming out of her medical room.
“What’s wrong?”
She was too upset to speak, and the words died on her tongue.
Isabella immediately took her hand and pulled her inside, closing the door behind them. She glanced at the letter in her hand. “Did you hear from Aidan?”
“It’s not from him. He has no cause to write to me.” She waved the paper. “But why would a total stranger think there’s something between us?”
Without asking, Isabella took the letter out of her hand and read it. As her fury grew, her face turned a deep shade of crimson.
“Who gave you this?”
“It arrived with the mail this morning.”
“Who would do such a thing?”
“Wemys has to be behind this. He lied to some other scoundrel about what he’d done. The vile dog.”
“You must get him to talk about this.”
She was right. If Baker knew, then how many others had Wemys bragged to. He’d pretended he was remorseful and wanted forgiveness. But this proved there was no end to his evil. He’d trumpeted his sins about like a town crier. He was lower than scum.
“It occurs to me that the timing of this is very suspicious. Why now? If he’s known about what happened for all these years, why wasn’t he blackmailing Archibald? Your father would have paid any amount to protect you from public attention.”
“Maybe he thought my father would murder him. There is nothing in here that says this didn’t happen last month or last year.”
“The same thing may happen to the cur now. I’m quite sure Cinaed and Niall and Blair—and Searc as well—would fight one another to be the one putting a bullet between the eyes of this man. You know how highly they all value you.”
Blair would kill without asking why, but the others would need to know the reason. Hurrying toward the tower rooms with Isabella beside her, Morrigan’s mind was onAidan. His future was being shaped in this moment. The hopes of so many rested on his shoulders. She didn’t want to compromise him.
But how could this Baker know about her connection with Aidan? She supposed that anyone who’d seen them together at the Samhain celebration would suspect they had an attachment.
The letter burned her fingers. Nothing was simple. There’d be no quick end to this. If Baker’s account was made public, there would be no mention of how young she’d been at the time. They’d print the lies and say she was an incestuous siren and seducer. She thought of the caricatures of Madam Laborde. They drew attention, regardless of the fact that they were lies and fabrications. Would there be caricatures of this? How low would they stoop in depicting such a vile event? Tears blurred her vision, and she brushed them away discreetly.
“Whatever it is, however this needs to be resolved, I’m beside you,” Isabella said as they reached Wemys’s room. “I’ll help you, however you see fit.”
Her heart ached. Morrigan thought she’d closed the door on what had been done to her. She wanted to let him die, put the mess behind her, and look to the future. But the door had been once again kicked open. She was exposed, vulnerable. There was no escape. His viciousness would outlive him.
They passed over the threshold, but she wouldn’t venture in too far. Isabella spoke to the servant who’d been watching Wemys, and the woman quietly slipped out.
The emaciated skeleton of a body was all that remained under the blanket. He was far weaker than the last time she’d seen him. His breathing was labored and erratic, and his mouth moved as if to gulp at the air.
Morrigan watched Isabella go to the bedside. She closed her eyes as she tried to clear her thoughts and decide what she had to do.
Paying Baker wasn’t the answer. Killing him was at best a temporary solution. Someone like him would no doubt have put in place the threat of others to step in with accusations of murder if he didn’t return from the arranged meeting.
She didn’t want to hurt the people she loved. Morrigan didn’t want what little peace they had to be taken from them. She didn’t want to put their lives at risk on her behalf. What if she went away? With her gone, there would be no connection that could harm Aidan at least. He had the most to lose. When Isabella and Maisie and Morrigan left Edinburgh, they’d been going to Halifax in Canada in order to disappear and start a new life. What if she did that on her own?
She hesitated. This was exactly what her father had done. He’d taken her and run away.
She watched Isabella check on Wemys.
“He’s due to have more laudanum,” she said as she came back to Morrigan. “But I’ll not give him any until he awakens and you speak to him.”
