Page 45 of Highland Sword
“From Lachlan’s mount. I’m fine.”
She wouldn’t go another step until she’d inspected his chest and back, assuring herself he was unhurt. She caressed his face. “I’ve missed you.”
He kissed her lips and held her tightly in his arms fora moment. There was so much he needed to tell her, but it would have to wait.
The fracture in Lachlan’s leg was below the knee, and Isabella set it with Cinaed’s help.
Afterward, shifts were organized. The patient needed to be watched night and day. The laird was old and weak, and there was the worry of how easily his body would be able to recover after such an injury.
It was hours later when Cinaed and Isabella were finally able to get back to their rooms.
They held onto each other for the longest time. He told her about the journey through the Highlands. Isabella shared the news that Aidan Grant and his brother had arrived at Dalmigavie.
“I think you’ll like him,” she said. “He will be a good candidate to represent Inverness-shire in Parliament.
“Henry Brougham and my mother seem to think so.”
“It’s a relief for me, knowing you’re pursuing a political solution instead of marching off to battle.”
“It may not matter what I want.” Cinaed explained to her everything he’d heard regarding Whitehall’s desire for war. “Regardless of what I do, the Highlands are a powder keg ready to explode. And I don’t want you in the middle of it.”
She pulled out of his arms. “Where else would I go?”
“I’ve been speaking to Niall about it. He feels the same way. You and Maisie and Morrigan and Fiona and her family could go to continent. Perhaps Wurzburg. It’d be far safer for you there until some sort of—”
“Stop right there,” she demanded hotly. “I’m your wife. I love you. And I’m staying beside you, wherever you are, whatever you do.”
“You’re not listening to me.”
“And I am also a doctor. Do you really think I would leave you, leave the Mackintosh people, just to besafer?”
Cinaed shook his head. She could ignore it all she liked, but Isabella was still considered an enemy of the Crown. Like him, she had a bounty on her head. No one dared to come after her here, but their family continued to be a way for Sir Rupert Burney and the authorities to get at the two of them. If something were to happen to Maisie and Morrigan, Isabella would do anything to get them back, including handing herself in.
“If Niall can convince Maisie to go, will you consider joining her? To look after them?”
“Of course not,” she snorted. “And Niall knows better than trying to suggest such a thing to her.”
Cinaed didn’t want to be apart from his wife, but he was worried and determined that she see the seriousness of the danger around them.
“And what about Morrigan?” he argued. “The lass is planning on leading troops into battle. She trains like she’s in the king’s guard. She’s in Inverness only because Searc and Blair are watching her every minute. But she has a spirit that is hard to rein in. If the situation here becomes more perilous, she’ll be impossible to protect. Do you trust her to keep herself safe?”
Isabella turned her face to the window as a breeze banged the shutter open.
“Morrigan is smart and resourceful,” she said. “Of course, I trust her.”
CHAPTER15
MORRIGAN
To wait for Sir Rupert Burney would mean the end of two lives. His and hers.
The ruffians in suits he had with him trailed a few steps behind. They sensed no threat. Just two women in a garden. As he approached, she could see he was curious. His gaze was fixed on her. But she had no doubt the mention of her name would be catastrophic.
Morrigan thought of all the blood that had been shed because of this man. The arrests. The abuse of prisoners. All the people who’d suffered. The pain that Fiona and her children had endured.
At the Infirmary Street house in Edinburgh, she’d seen the carts bringing those who were injured after protests. She’d helped her father try to bring some relief to the people broken by torture at this man’s command. The attack on the clinic last April had been ordered by the Home Office. Archibald Drummond was cut down in his own surgery. Dead at the hand of a hussar as he tried to save the lives of his wounded patients. An assassin most assuredly directed to their home by this man. Morrigan wasthere. She witnessed the tragedy, watched the blood pour from her father’s body while Isabella tried desperately to save him.
Later, as Isabella forced her from the chaos, Morrigan was already planning her revenge. She would find and kill the person responsible for the horrors of that day.
