Page 47 of Sutherland's Secret
Where were they going, and what were they doing in the dark of the night?
“The ship is waiting just off the coast,” Brice was saying. “The people are scattered in various safe houses, but all are close enough that if you get them right after the sun goes down, they can be on that ship before the sun rises and the ship well away from Scotland when daylight comes.”
Eleanor’s eyebrows came together. They were collecting people from safe houses and putting them on a ship that was leaving Scotland. Good Lord, was Brice smugglingpeople? Her mind worked furiously, trying to put everything together. Colin had accused him of treason and Brice had not denied the claim. He had people hidden in houses and a ship ready to take them away. He was smuggling his own people out of Scotland, and the only people who needed smuggling were the Jacobites.
Eleanor slowly backed away from the door so as not to be heard. Her skin tingled with the information she’d just learned. She had to be right in her assumptions. That was the only answer. What else could be treasonous, and why else hide people along the coastline and then take them to a ship in the dead of night?
Brice had said something about astaran. Eleanor’s grasp of Gaelic was very rudimentary, but she knew thatstaranmeant “trail.” So these people seeking help walked a trail, found the safe houses, and Brice put them on his ships, which took them somewhere.
She sat down on her bed with a thump, stunned.
No wonder he was always absent at night and spent days away. He was hiding people the English were looking for.
People the English were looking for.
She was a person the English were looking for.
If she were discovered here, it could very well reveal Brice’sstaran. And he would be accused of treason. She’d seen what happened to people who were accused of treason, and she was damned if she would let that happen to Brice.
She left her chambers and headed toward the kitchen, her head stuffed full of ideas and plans. She didn’t want to react rashly. She needed a plan. A good plan. Running out into the woods was not a good plan. It had saved her once, but she’d had no other option.
She served, but her mind wasn’t really on her duties. It was while she was cleaning up that it came to her what she needed to do.
She needed to be on that ship that was leaving tonight. It was the only way to protect Brice and his people.
Chapter 19
As soon as Eleanor entered his bedchamber, Brice knew something was wrong. Her face was pale, her lips pinched.
“What happened?” he asked.
She smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Nothing happened. How are you feeling?”
He grunted because he was feeling like hell. His shoulder pained him like the devil, and he was incredibly frustrated that he could barely move it and that Colin had to lead the men tonight.
But seeing Eleanor lifted his spirits. He’d thought about tumbling her to the bed—one-armed, of course—and making love to her again. But one look at her and those thoughts reluctantly fled.
“Sit up,” she said. “Let me unwrap the bandage and see if that wound needs stitching again.”
“The wound is fine, lass, but something is wrong with ye. Tell me.”
She sat on the edge of the bed and looked at him. “There’s nothing wrong, Brice, other than what happened last night can’t happen again.”
“Why?”
“Because I have to leave.”
His heart plummeted and an icy anger suffused him. She was leaving. “And where do ye plan on going?”
“I’m a danger to you and your people. You have to know that.”
“Ye don’t think I can protect ye?” Good God, were all women alike? Was he not good enough for any of them? This was Alisa all over again. He’d never been good enough for her, hadn’t given her what she’d needed, and she’d ended up leaving, too.
Eleanor covered his hand and squeezed his fingers. “It’s not that at all.”
He pulled his hand away, knowing he was being churlish, but his heart was breaking, and he’d sworn that he would never allow another woman to break his heart the way Alisa had. “Where do ye think ye’re going?”
She sat back and put her hand in her lap, looking at him with hurt and sadness. “A place where Blackwood can’t find me.”
