Page 96 of Sutherland's Secret
“I can attempt to find it,” Blackwood said. “But with the move from Edinburgh to Aberdeen and then on to Fort Augustus, it might take some time.” He was pleased with himself for putting doubt in the minds of everyone here that the fate of the signed confession was precarious at best.
Eleanor’s face was twisted in fury, but she remained silent.
“I will require the paper,” Scarbrough said.
Blackwood tipped his head. “Certainly, my lord.”
“And then what?” Cumberland asked.
Blackwood turned his attention back to Cumberland, knowing him to be the biggest threat in the room. Scarbrough, Blackwood could deal with. He’d been dealing with men like that all his life. After all, look how ineffective Glendale had been against him. But Cumberland was a different story. Blackwood actually feared Cumberland.
“Yer Grace, I’m certain Glendale’s widow does not want to hear the details of her husband’s—”
“I was there, Colonel,” she said, speaking for the first time. “I was present when he was arrested and dragged from our quarters. I was there when he questioned the soldiers who put him in manacles. I was there when he was hanged, still declaring his innocence. I watched his legs kick as he struggled for breath, and I stood there watching him die. You can spare my sensibilities now.”
The large Highlander behind Blackwood shifted, drawing his attention. The lethal glare he received made him flinch.
“You may proceed with your story,” Cumberland said with a slight smile.
Blackwood swallowed through a dry throat. “It was as she described, Your Grace. Lord Glendale was arrested and hanged the next day.”
“Was he tried?”
Blackwood hesitated. It was a fatal hesitation, he knew that immediately, but he tried to cover it up by speaking with authority. “We were preparing to leave for Aberdeen any day. Things had to proceed quickly.”
“I see.” Cumberland studied Blackwood. “And what happened to Lady Glendale after that?”
“I…” He looked at the lady in question. She was watching him, waiting for his answer. But there was no ready answer. His mind had gone curiously blank. For the first time he thought that maybe he wouldn’t talk his way out of this, that maybe Cumberland wouldn’t take a soldier’s side and would instead believe Lady Glendale and Lord Scarbrough.
“Is it true, Colonel Blackwood,” Cumberland said in a tone that one could not ignore, “that you had Lady Glendale arrested, brought to Aberdeen and then Fort Augustus, and kept her imprisoned?”
Blackwood had the curious thought that this had moved from a mere questioning to a trial, and he was the accused. But he persisted, refusing to believe that his illustrious career would end in this way.
The large Highlander shifted again. Campbell was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, watching with a bored expression. Scarbrough was pale and appeared as if he could be sick at any moment.
And in the midst of them all stood Lady Glendale, standing tall, watching him with those blue eyes that had laughed up at him while they’d danced at the officers’ ball. He’d known then that he’d needed to have her, and when he realized that she was the daughter of Hopewell, a very powerful and well-off lord, and the wife of another powerful lord, he knew what he needed to do. He had to get her husband out of the way and then convince her that she needed him.
Looking at the proud tilt of her head and the squared shoulders and the accusing eyes, he wondered what he had been thinking. She was no terrified woman who was lost and alone and shamed. Not anymore, at least.
She faced him. The Highlander behind him moved closer. Campbell perked up in interest. She held her fists up and shoved her arms toward him. “Please tell the duke where I got these,sir.”
Blackwood had to lean back to focus on her arms, and what he saw had his blood running cold. Scars circled her dainty wrists and there was no mistaking what they had come from.
“I have the statements of two of my guards that a woman was in our prison for close to five weeks,” Cumberland said. “What say you, Colonel?”
“I—I…” Blackwood cleared his throat. “I feared—with good reason—that the treason ran deeper than Glendale himself and that his wife could be involved as well. I wanted to be assured that no more secrets were being relayed to the Jacobites and endangering England.”
Chapter 39
“Do you deny coming to me the afternoon my husband was murdered and telling me I needed a protector? And when I asked what you meant by that, you said I would sleep with you for my protection, because there were others who believed that I might be a traitor as well.”
Blackwood looked down on Eleanor Hirst; it took everything inside him not to squirm. How had everything gone so terribly wrong? Where was the frightened woman from Edinburgh? This was no scared woman. This was a she-warrior ready to do battle.
“I recall telling you that you were being scrutinized as a traitor,” he said. He felt like he was feeling his way in the dark, and he didn’t like the feeling one bit.
“This is preposterous,” Lord Scarbrough exploded. “We are from a highly respected family who has always supported England and its causes. To be accused of such a heinous crime is an insult to my family and to my sister.”
Cumberland held his hand up to quiet Scarbrough. Blackwood felt his defense slipping beneath his muddy boots. He’d never had any intention for it to go so far. He’d firmly believed that Lady Glendale would accept his offer of protection and that eventually they would marry and he would have everything he’d always wanted. He’d gone about it all wrong. He knew that now. He should have moved more slowly after her husband’s hanging. He never should have offered to take her to bed. If he’d moved more slowly, she would have accepted him. He’d panicked when she’d denied him. He hadn’t wanted her going to his superiors with her story.
