Page 50 of When the Laird Claims
Victoria drew a sharp intake of breath. “I see… So, that is that? My opinion does not matter.” She nodded slowly. “Yes… I see.”
Her gaze lingered on him, and while there was a wealth of things that he wanted to say, and it seemed she did too, neither spoke for a long time. Perhaps, those things would never be spoken.
As the minutes passed, his fingers itched to touch her, to make all of this better, to make it all go away, to show her what he could not say. He had to ball his hands into fists to keep from reaching out to her as her gaze finally slid from his, and she slowly pulled away from the desk.
“Either way, I suppose that everything is coming to an end?” Victoria’s voice cracked as she spoke.
Arran nodded once, and with a fresh whisper of “I see,” Victoria left.
23
“Ido not think I will attend at all,” Victoria said with a shrug, as she pulled funny faces and dangled a ribbon to make Ruby laugh.
The baby lay on her back on a comfortable square of straw-stuffed mattress, her big eyes taking in every sight. Everything must have been so new to her that even the dullest thing could fill her with such delight. It was an enviable condition.
“We three can just stay up here and be out of everyone’s way,” she added.
Had she not done her part by being the lure to bring Charles here? She did not have to stand at the very center of the trap for it to be a success. As long as the Earl thought she was in the keep and made the mistake of entering to retrieve her, then her part had been played, and she could take her bow in the safety of the upper floors.
Then, when it was all over, she could take her leave of the keep… and of Arran.
“What’s that look for?” Kristin asked.
Victoria glanced back at the woman who had become such a wonderful friend. “Are you talking to me or Ruby?”
“What do ye think?”
“I think… you have the most beautiful little girl that I have ever seen.”
Which was strange when Victoria thought about where the child had come from.Whothe child had come from. The ugliest man she had ever met… although she had to concede that he was not ugly on the outside. He had only become ugly on the outside to her once he had revealed the wickedness within him.
Kristin snorted. “And I think ye’re tryin’ to distract me. I saw that look, Victoria. Ye’re sad.”
“Sad? Not at all.” Victoria cleared her dry throat. “Nervous is a more appropriate description. It is a peculiar situation. I do not want to see that man again. I do not want him to come here at all. Yet, I know that he must, or all of this is for nothing. For you, for this little one, for Melody, for your brother, for me, for all the ladies that beast might hurt—I know he has to come here. I just… do not like it. Any of it.”
A faraway look fell across Kristin’s face. “I ken the feelin’. I feel it too.” She shuddered as if she had just been brushed by an icy draft. “That wee lassie there is my entire world. I ken the Earl isnae interested in her, but I have this… dread that he might try to take her. Out of spite.”
“That is why all three of us should stay up here when the cèilidh is underway,” Victoria urged.
It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that she was trying to avoid Arran. No, it had nothing to do with that at all. And it certainly had nothing to do with the fact that she did not want to bear witness to the man she had begun to care for killing someone. She knew he would not reconsider.
“Ithink ye should be there at the cèilidh,” Kristin said. “It’ll ease yer nerves. Otherwise, ye’ll be up here wearin’ a hole in the floor with all yer pacin’. Every little sound will drive ye insane. And, nay offence to ye, but I daenae want yer nerves feedin’ mine. We’ll be two madwomen by the time the Earl arrives.Ifhe arrives.”
Victoria tilted her head to one side. “If? You do not think he will come?”
“I daenae trust that man to do anythin’,” Kristin replied gravely. “Do ye?”
The question rocked Victoria. She had, perhaps naively, assumed that the plan would run smoothly. Her certainty that Charles would come for her had overruled everything else,preventing doubts from creeping in. But if the cèilidh and the engagement looked like a snare and felt like a snare to the Earl, then would he still step right into it? How blinded by his need to possess her could he be?
He was slippery, after all.
“I trust in his obsession,” she answered after a moment. “That devil would beat a maid for daring to remove my shackles… and worse.”
Things she did not care to mention.
Her mind wandered back to the footman who had all but saved her life on her wedding day. What would Charles do to him when he discovered that was the reason she had escaped that day? What had healreadydone? She hoped that the young man had had the common sense to flee in the chaos, perhaps with Melody in tow.
“How did he end up here?” Victoria asked suddenly.
