Page 89 of Sutherland's Secret
“You’re making the wrong move,” Campbell finally said. “Going to London isn’t the answer. You need to go to Fort Augustus.”
The thought turned Eleanor’s blood to ice. She wanted to stand up and run from the room. She would never, ever go back to Fort Augustus. Never.
“Confront the devil in his own lair?” Brice asked.
Campbell nodded thoughtfully. “Put him on the defensive right away. Take him off guard.”
“It’s brilliant,” Brice said.
“No, it’s not,” Eleanor said. “I’m not going back to Fort Augustus.”
Campbell regarded her as if he’d forgotten she was there. As if he’d forgotten this was about her and her murdered husband.
“I agree,” Thomas said, finally stirring. “She needs to go back to London to be with our family. I’ll not be dragging her across Scotland to confront that devil. She’s been through enough.”
Campbell shrugged. “Obviously it’s your choice.”
“Running to London isn’t going to solve anything,” Brice said. “Blackwood will know ye have gone. He’ll get his story together before ye even get there.”
“She’s not going to Fort Augustus,” Thomas said. “We are returning to London.”
Eleanor looked at her brother. Was this about Thomas returning her to London or his concern that she not face Blackwood? Brice was looking at her as if asking what she wanted to do. “What can he do to me in London?” she asked, finding it ironic that she was asking a Highlander this question.
“He’ll protect himself any way he can. You said he forged the papers naming Charles a traitor; he can do the same with anything else, more than likely.”
Eleanor leaned her head against the chair and stared at the ceiling. “So what if he does? Will that affect me?”
“You’ll accuse him, people won’t believe you. That’s all,” Campbell said.
She looked at Campbell and found she trusted him. He had nothing to gain or lose in any of this. He was simply giving her his opinion as he saw it.
“Why do you care?” she asked.
Those lips curled again. “I don’t care, my lady. If you want me to take you to London, I will. There will be a price, though.”
Thomas shifted forward and Brice’s gaze sharpened.
Campbell looked at Brice, then Thomas. “Nothing comes for free, and I don’t offer my services for nothing.”
“This is preposterous.” Thomas shoved himself off his chair and paced away.
“What do ye want?” Brice asked.
Campbell appeared to think, but his shrewd eyes told Eleanor that he already knew what he wanted.
“My parents will pay you,” Eleanor said.
“Nay,” Brice said. “I asked for his services, I will pay.”
Eleanor pressed her lips together. She understood that she had pricked his pride, but hers was already precarious. She’d taken so much from him that she didn’t want to take any more.
Thomas paced back to her chair. “Eleanor, we are returning to London.”
She looked at Thomas, then at Brice, whose gaze was steady on her, and at Campbell, who was taking in the scene with an air of amusement that didn’t touch his eyes.
“What is your price?” she asked Campbell, uncomfortable with his silence.
“A favor.”
