Page 45 of Lost with a Scot
The true worry that her mind kept running up against like the outer wall of a mighty fortress was,What if everything in the visions came to pass?Like the vision in the fairy pools. The one she’d had of herself kneeling beneath an executioner’s sword. Aiden falling into darkness was the vision that haunted her the most, the one that would drive her to madness if she didn’t find a way to stop it from coming true. To know her death, and the death of the man who was her mate for life, hersoulmate, might happen... She had to find a way to stop the visions.
Aiden kissed her cheek and stroked a hand over her back. “Try to rest.” The man’s touch was positively hypnotic. It made her long for more nights in his arms where she could explore him and be lost in the passion of his possession of her body and soul. When he claimed her with his kisses, she couldn’t worry about anything.
“I don’t think I can sleep. What if I see something else?” She curled her fingers in his cravat, playing with the delicate folds of silk. She didn’t care that Brock and Joanna could see her in Aiden’s arms, and that they were openly showing such affection. It felt right to touch him, to feel comfort with him. She craved closeness to him, a craving that seemed to have been born over a decade ago when the dreams of her flight in the woods began. Someday soon they would tell Brock, Joanna, and the others that she and Aiden were married, but not now. The time wasn’t right.
“Then I’ll be here to wake ye and remind ye it was but a dream, lass,” Aiden promised as he stroked a thumb along her jaw, the gentle touch not intending to seduce but only soothe. From anyone else, such a promise to keep nightmares away would have felt hollow, but with him, she trusted he would do what he said.
* * *
It tookfour days to reach London. They stopped briefly to rest the horses and sleep before pushing on toward the city. It was a relief to get out and stretch her legs and walk with Aiden in a field near the coaching inn.
They talked of everything they’d done back in Scotland and all the things Aiden was keen to show her in London. He also wanted to buy her a horse from someone named Cedric Sheridan. Apparently, the man had fine taste in horses, and he and his wife were breeding some of the most beautiful horses Aiden had ever seen. It felt good to discuss normal things, things a wife and a husband would talk about even though they kept their marriage a secret. She found herself laughing at Aiden’s gentle teasing, and they shared a few heated kisses behind the inn before they had to return to the coach. It helped her forget her worries.
Anna slept fitfully for the remainder of the journey, but as they reached London, she became more awake and alert. Brock and Joanna were quietly discussing things that would need to be done once they reached Rosalind’s home, and how they would begin the search for Alexei. Anna’s desire to be reunited with her brother was overwhelming. He was the one thing she was able to remember clearly, and she clung to those memories with a desperation that was almost frightening.
My brother could be here in the same city.That thought ran through her mind over and over, filling her with hope.
The pair of coaches rolled to a stop in front of a fashionable townhouse on Half Moon Street where Aiden’s sister, Rosalind, and her husband lived when they were in town and not at their country estate.
Anna peered out the coach window at the lovely home, and her stomach tightened with fresh nerves. “Do you think Rosalind’s husband can help me find my brother?”
“If anyone can, he can. The man kens everything about everyone. If he wasna on our side, I’d be bloody terrified.” Aiden said this last bit with a wink, and she tried to smile back, but the expression felt forced.
Aiden opened the coach door before a footman could do it and helped Anna down from the vehicle. She smoothed out the wrinkles of her frosted-blue carriage dress and wrapped a rose-red shawl tightly around her shoulders as they waited for Brock and Brodie to assist their wives out of the two coaches.
“Dinna worry, lass.” Aiden’s breath stirred the loose tendrils of her hair. “Rosalind will love ye, and Ash will too.”
She wasn’t worried about that. Well, she was a little. She did want all of Aiden’s family to like her now that they were married. But she had a terrible feeling inside her that she couldn’t quite shake free. She didn’t know what that bad feeling meant, and it kept her on a razor’s edge.
Lydia came up to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Anna, are you all right? You’re so very pale.” She gave Anna a gentle hug as they walked up the steps together.
“I had a bad dream sleeping in the coach,” Anna confessed, but she didn’t say much more as the Lennoxes’ butler ushered them into the townhouse. The group huddled inside, quietly talking amongst themselves.
Anna took in the opulent surroundings of the home as Aiden put a hand on her waist and gave it a light squeeze. Cool white marble stairs and lovely statues filled the alcoves that she could see, and paintings in gilded frames decorated the walls leading up the staircase to the upper floors.
“His lordship and her ladyship will see you in the drawing room.” The butler gestured for them to follow him as he escorted everyone to a room upstairs.
Anna drifted to the back of the group along with Aiden, and they were the last to enter the drawing room. A stunning brunette who looked like a feminine version of Aiden hugged Joanna and Lydia warmly. This had to be Rosalind. Behind her, an imperious but handsome blond man with bright blue eyes stood at her shoulder, nodding coolly but politely at the Kincade brothers as they approached to shake hands. When the man’s eyes met Anna’s, she saw a flash of surprise and then horror cross his face.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” the man gasped at her. The sudden silence in the room was deafening, and Anna’s ears started to ring.
Her world started to spin and her lungs seemed to collapse inward as she fought to breathe. She remembered this man’s eyes, the piercing blue, but she’d seen him somewhere else... somewhere... The images blurred, and she was seeing the tall blond man’s face in a grand palatial drawing room with the faces of her parents and her brother. Even the man’s voice brought back flashes of memories of someone talking about trade and politics... The pain in her head was pounding.
“Dead?” She said the single word faintly before her body crumpled and blackness swallowed her.
* * *
Aiden caughtAnna an instant before she would have hit the floor.
“Good God!” Ashton rushed toward him and Anna. “How the devil is she here...?”
“Ashton?” Rosalind knelt beside her husband and Aiden. “What do you mean she is supposed to be dead?”
Ashton raked his hands through his pale blond hair and stared wide-eyed at Anna as if he couldn’t believe she was there.
“Aiden, how did you find her? She was killed. She...,” Ashton muttered.
“Ash! You’re scaring me.” Rosalind shook his arm. “Whois she?”
