Page 78 of The Highlander's Alluring Spy
Magnolia waited while her father read, watching while his expression went from confused to incredulous, finally settling on something close to anger.
“You fell in love with this Scotsman?” he asked her at last. “And you claim his people seek naught but peace?”
“Yes,” she said, unashamed. She could not feel shame for something that filled her heart with such joy, even though that joy was bittersweet now. “Yes, and we must not attack them. They are good, kind people, and it would be folly to bring war. We would wipe them out entirely.”
Daniel looked between the actual letter and the false one, speechless, and Magnolia followed his eyes.
Who could have done this? Who could have plotted and lied? What would they possibly gain?
Magnolia and her father reached the same conclusion at the same time. They met each other’s eyes, and speaking out loud as once, they said, “The Viscount!”
Of course. Ofcourse.Peter Kole wanted nothing more than to rise in estimation in the eyes of the Crown and the Order, and he hated the Scottish with a burning passion. All the concern he had shown before she left…had it purely been jealousy? Had he intended to lead the expedition himself?
“Where is Lord Kole now?” she demanded. “I should very much like to give him a piece of my mind.”
But that was when she noticed the gray pallor to her father’s cheeks, and how his eyes went wide, and how he looked like he had been struck on the head. “Magnolia, my darling daughter,” he said. “We did not know. We had no reason to suspect any of this.”
Magnolia’s heart raced once again. She began to wonder if the poor thing might not soon be quite tired out. “What is it? What has happened?”
“We sought arms the moment we saw your letter,” her father told her. “The regiment…Magnolia, they deployed yesterday. We’re too late.”
Magnolia felt her stomach drop to her feet.
Nathair!
Elaine!
And not just them. Old man Ewan, Greta and Bernie, Betty and her mother Eliza…all of them were facing this threat. William and his children, his wife, and their unborn baby. If the regiment reached them, if they attacked, all of them would die.
Magnolia set her jaw. “No,” she declared. “No. Father, I shall fetch my riding gear. With a fast enough horse and a lot of luck, I might yet be able to warn them.”
“This is folly, Daughter,” her father warned.
“Folly it may be,” Magnolia told him. Her eyes were entirely dry now, and she stood tall and proud. “But, I shall not rest ever again if I do not try.”
Her father hesitated, then nodded. “Jeremy!” he called.
The boy appeared again, this time somehow magically in the doorway as he gave a quick bow. “My Lord?”
“Tell the stable master to prepare our two fastest horses,” he instructed.
“And a carriage, sir?” the boy asked.
“No,” the Earl told him. “There’s no time for carriages. My daughter and I must ride out at once.”
Magnolia started. “Father! This is—you needn’t—”
“I am still Lord yet,” her father told her firmly. “And a proud, blessed Father beside that. My daughter and the Lady of my estate has told me of an injustice. I shall not sit here and allow it to be carried out in my name.”
“But it is such a long ride. We will have to switch horses on the way, and I do not want you to become exhausted, and—”
He touched her hand reassuringly. “Peter Kole is a Viscount. I am an Earl. If it comes to a matter of one man’s word over another, you shall have me at your side. No more arguments, my dear.”
She kissed his cheek. “Thank you, Father,” she said. Then, with a serious expression, and more than a little determination, she added, “Let’s go.”
* * *
They rode hard, taking only the minimum essentials with them and barely stopping for more than four or five hours of rest at most each night. Every town or city where they stopped saw a trade of horses so that their mounts were fresh as they took every possible path to try to beat the army north.
