Page 105 of Wicked Rivals
Rosalind,
I know you wish to burn this letter without reading past these first few words, but I beseech you not to do so. In years past, I was unkind because I knew I was among the damned, yet forced to walk among the living. And the hatred I had for myself I turned upon others, including you.
I am too proud to ask for your forgiveness before I am gone. But I beg you now to grant a dead man one last request. Before my death, I sent you a device which I was afraid to leave with these letters lest they fall into the wrong hands. It resembles a pocket watch when closed, but it can be used to decode the cipher in which these letters are written. I have trusted your brothers to guard these letters until you returned to Scotland with the decoder.
These letters, between myself and a man named Sir Hugo Waverly, detail how I aided him in crushing a Scottish rebellion against the Crown long ago, shortly after your mother died. He had the leaders secretly murdered, and I said nothing. I betrayed my people and my beliefs to fill the family coffers with gold.
So long as Hugo lives you are not safe. You must use these letters to destroy him, even at the cost of our family honor. A man like Waverly cannot be trusted. He must be destroyed. Your brothers would fear the repercussions, but you were always the bravest among my children. Be brave now.
Montgomery
Rosalind’s knuckles were white as she gripped the letter. The odd little watch she’d received before she left for Lennox House hadn’t been a watch at all. Her father’s words burned through her, striking fear in her after years of feeling safe. But now it was not him she feared.
Hugo. The man she’d thought she could trust, the man who’d sent her brothers to rescue her…had helped to kill Scotsmen who’d wanted to leave the Crown. And her father had been one of them. And then he had helped Waverly murder them.
My father was a traitor. The realization of that hit her hard, and she had to struggle to breathe. She had always felt that the anger he’d shown towards her had been meant for himself, and this answered many questions as to how the man had changed so quickly after her mother’s passing.
Ashton was right. Hugo was a threat, and these letters were the key to his destruction. Her anger at Ashton wishing to use her to flush Hugo out into the open faded against the proof she held in her hands. The evidence that would destroy him.
With shaking hands, she folded her father’s letter and tucked it beneath the other letters before she tied the bundle securely again with the twine. Then she slipped the letters into the folds of her skirt.
Tomorrow…tomorrow I can better decide how to use these to expose Waverly.
She would. There was no question what she had to do. She only wished Ashton were here to help her, though she hated herself for thinking that. He didn’t love her,wouldnever love her, but he would know how best to use those letters to ruin Hugo.
Then it occurred to her that Ashton would do anything for those letters. Anything. She considered writing to tell him what she’d found. What was it worth to him? Her property back, of course, and perhaps a company or two of his in exchange for the letters and the decoder? Some small measure of payback for using her as he had.
But she couldn’t. It didn’t feel right. As much as she wanted to strike out at Ashton for the pain he’d caused, she couldn’t do it.
Rosalind was nothing but a mere pawn in a vast game between Waverly and Ashton. A game which she refused to play.
*****
“A castle. It would have to be a bloody castle,” Ashton muttered as he knelt behind a large boulder bordering the lake facing Castle Kincade. Godric, Cedric and Lucien were with him on either side as they studied the massive edifice in the distance.
“So much for our plans of overtaking them on the road,” Lucien grumbled.
Godric stared intently at the castle before glaring at Lucien. “Those Scots were devils when they fought us over bar wenches. I’d hate to see what they would do to protect their kin.”
Ashton squinted at the castle. “It’s not the brothers that worry me. It’s her father. He’s the real brute. Her brothers love her, but from what I gathered he’s bad enough to scare them into obedience.”
Godric and Lucien exchanged worried glances.
“We’ve never laid siege to a castle before.” Lucien smiled grimly. “I suppose there’s a first time for everything. But I’m afraid I left the family battering ram back at my estate.”
Godric couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
Ashton licked his lips, still feeling a little parched. They had ridden almost without stopping for two days, pausing only long enough to change horses at coaching inns. In that time Ashton had fought off the last bit of influenza, but it had left him weak and thirsty.
“Here.” Lucien offered him a flask of water, which Ashton drank greedily.
Godric shifted in his crouched position and scanned the trees around them. “Charles and Jonathan should be back soon.”
Ashton nodded at two figures who crept toward them, running in a crouch to avoid being seen by anyone watching from the distant castle. “There they are.”
Once Charles and Jonathan reached them behind the rock, they all huddled close together.
“What did you see?” Ashton demanded.
