Page 59 of When the Laird Claims
“My father’s welfare—it was not your concern, either.”
He frowned and looked to the healer as if she might be able to help him, but Ingrid was too busy pounding some sort of herb with a pestle. “I assure ye, I care very much that he was harmed. Me only intention was to kill the Earl.”
He was about to say more about the situation and how it had managed to get somewhat out of hand, but she interrupted before he could.
“I am aware of that now in a way I was not aware earlier,” she replied with the same flat tone. “Your only intention was to have your revenge, regardless of what the cost might be. I should have known when you refused to even consider an alternative, and while I am not sorry that Charles is gone, Iamsorry that I allowed myself to be a pawn in your game of vengeance.”
Had she hit her head during the brief fray at the cèilidh? Had she knocked her head when she fainted, and he had not been able to catch her in time? He did not remember an injury and could not see one on her now, but perhaps it was hidden beneath her sleep-messy hair. It had to be something that was temporarily making her take leave of her senses because none of this behavior made sense to him.
“With respect, lass, ye were the one who suggested making yerself a pawn,” he said carefully. “Ye wanted to be the bait.”
She smiled a cold, unnerving smile. “Have you so quickly forgotten how all of this began? From the very beginning, I was the bait; I was your pawn. You would not have taken me from Charles’ manor if I had been of no importance; you said it yourself.”
Arran could not deny the truth of it and would not attempt to, but the fake engagement and the spreading of rumors and the cèilidh had all beenherplan, not his. He had been content to just wait until the Earl figured out where his unwilling betrothed was; it was Victoria who had been impatient. But he thought better of pointing that out when there was obviously some burden she needed to get off her chest.
A slight tremor cracked her voice. “But I thought that we were… together in this, co-conspirators in punishing Charles. I never thought I wasjusta pawn in your plan until the moment you charged for the Earl while he was holding my father as his hostage.”
“Ah…”
“Ah?” she snapped. “That is all you have to say when my father could have been killed? The healer says that he will probably recover, and I pray that he does, but that will not absolve you of what you have done.”
“What I have done is keep ye, me sister, and me niece safe.”
He knew he should not allow his temper to flare when Victoria clearly wasn’t thinking straight, but it rankled him that she could be so cold and accusatory. How things had played out was unfortunate, yes, but the only one who had acted with deliberate malice was the Earl.
“You did not take a single moment to consider that Charles would truly hurt my father if you tried anything,” she continued. “I had my hand on your arm. I was gripping you to stop you from doing something rash, but you ran off anyway, and my father got a blade in his back for your rash actions! I did not understand why you did it at first, why you left my side when you intimated that you would not. Then, I realized that thiswasjust about revenge. You did not care who got hurt as long as you won in the end.”
Arran could not sit with the frustration that beetled through his nerves, so he rose sharply… and tried to suppress the flicker of guilt when he saw Victoria flinch. After all they had been through, all they had done together, surely she did not think that he would ever hurt her? It was absurd when every move he hadmade since he first encountered her in the manor hallway was to keep her safe from harm. Charles’ harm.
Yes, he had seen an opportunity when he had learned who she was, but she had never beenjusta pawn. If this were a game of chess, she would be the king piece that he was desperately trying to protect.
“Ye’re nae familiar with the ways of war, lass, and I’m grateful ye’re nae,” he said as evenly as he could, walking to the end of her bed. “I’m glad ye’ve never had to see bloodshed or had to think quickly about what will be yer best chance of survival, nae just for ye but for those who are yer responsibility. But daenae think to instruct me on what the best course of action was last night.”
She blinked at his cooler tone, then narrowed her eyes in a glare that he had not seen since the first day of her stay at his keep.
“I kenned there were three things that the Earl would do if I charged at him,” Arran continued. “He’d panic, he’d come forward to face me one-on-one, or he’d shove yer faither toward me to stop me from gettin’ to him. From the way the earl tried to draw his sword, I thought it unlikely he’d fight me. And when he didnae push yer faither forward, and I saw the panic on his face, I kenned yer faither was in trouble. It’s why I threw my blade when I did, tosaveyer faither, nae because I didnae care what befell him.”
“And if you had missed and struck my father instead?” Victoria challenged, with a bite in her voice. “Are you such a great warriorthat you know exactly where to aim and hit your mark every time? I doubt that!”
“Aye, actually,” he replied with a little less patience. “When ye spend every day from when ye were a bairn to when ye fought yer first battle, throwin’ knives, shootin’ arrows and pistols, swingin’ a sword, ye happen to learn where yer strengths are. I havenae missed my mark with a dirk since I was knee high to my faither.”
He had wrongly assumed that might appease her, or at least calm her down a bit, but she seemed to want an argument. A reason to stay angry with him, even though he had apologized for the mishap with her father.
“If anythin’,” he added, “I didnae act quickly enough. I should have thrown the blade sooner.”
Victoria gripped her cup of medicinal tea as though she planned to crush it between her palms. “And what if the Earl had stabbed my father in the heart or the back of the neck or… some place that would have killed him instantly? What would you have done then? Would that arrogant reasoning soften my grief, do you think?”
“I would be as sorry about that as I am about yer faither’s current situation,” Arran replied honestly. “Yet, I still wouldnae have hesitated. When an enemy invades, ye daenae let them leave again.”
She gave a small nod and made a strange harrumph, as if he had just said exactly what she had expected to hear. “Well, thank you for ridding the world of the Earl of Ashbrook.” Her eyes were cold as they met his. “Now, I will ask you to leave me alone. My father and I will leave, God willing, as soon as he is well enough.Ifhe gets better, that is.”
Arran shook his head wearily. “Would ye truly have preferred it if I had done nothin’?”
He got the feeling that she needed someone to blame for her father’s fragile condition, and as the man responsible was dead, he guessed that he was supposed to bear the brunt. But he would not go without urging her to think about the impossible situation he had been placed in, for hewouldhave a fair trial in his own home.
“I would have preferred it if you had used your brain instead of your blade,” she retorted. “But what is done is done. Please leave me be. I am tired.”
With that, she set down her cup and shuffled down beneath the coverlets, turning over onto her side so that she had her back to him. The last time he had seen her do that, she had already been asleep, and they had been in bed together… and he hated it as much now as he had then. Only, this time, he could not scoop her back into his arms and hold her tightly; she would only shove him away.
