Page 21 of A Bride for the Wicked Highlander (Daring a Highland Laird #2)

M addie trembled though it wasn’t cold in the hall, her body seized by tremors that she couldn’t stop. All she could do was focus on the man kneeling in front of her, his gray eyes searching her face as if looking for hidden injuries.

“Ye’ve had a shock, lass,” Oscar said, reaching up to brush a stray lock of hair out of her face. “It’ll pass.”

She nodded, her teeth chattering. “Ailis would know... how to remedy it. I didn’t bring any of her... tonics with me.”

The healer at Hunter’s castle, who had taught Maddie so much of herbs and plants, knew everything.

“I didn’t think to bring anything either,” Grace said, standing close by as if she didn’t want to intrude but didn’t want to be far from her friend.

“Ye dinnae need a tonic,” Oscar insisted. “Ye just need a moment, and perhaps a nip of somethin’. Grace, I ken I shouldnae ask ye, but would ye mind fetchin’ some whiskey for her? Ye should probably tell yer husband that ye’re unharmed too, before he starts rampagin’.”

Grace hesitated, chewing her lower lip. Maddie could sense her reluctance, for if the roles were reversed, nothing would have been able to remove Maddie from her friend’s side. The only thing that ever had was Oscar himself, holding her back on that terrible night with John Fitzwilliam.

“You shouldn’t let Hunter hear it from someone else,” Maddie said, offering Grace an encouraging smile. “I’ll be perfectly fine, I promise.”

Grace frowned, expelling a heavy sigh. “Very well, but I shan’t be long.”

She turned and hurried out of the room, while a small group of sturdy soldiers marched in under Ryder’s command. They approached the body of Laird MacPhee with the indifference of men who’d seen far worse, but Maddie couldn’t bring herself to look.

“I never knew there could be so much blood,” she whispered, her stomach lurching.

She wasn’t squeamish by any means; she hadn’t even balked during the dissection of a rat that she’d witnessed during her short time at St. Andrews.

But there was a stark difference between cutting open a drained creature for science and seeing a person’s literal life blood leak out into a scarlet pool that just kept spreading.

“It’ll be gone soon enough,” Oscar said, as half the soldiers hoisted Laird MacPhee up and carried him out of the room. The other half set to work, cleaning up the blood.

Maddie stared at Oscar, if only to keep herself distracted. “How can you be so calm?”

She was shocked by what he had done, and how swiftly it had all happened. Yet, there was admiration too, in how effortlessly he had taken care of the situation. Not once had he seemed flustered or panicked, while her heart had been hammering so hard, she had felt each beat in her skull.

“Experience,” he replied. “Ye dinnae get used to it, but ye adapt to it.”

“Natural theology,” she mumbled.

Oscar frowned. “Eh?”

“It is the principle that all creatures are designed perfectly for their existence. Beings that live in cold places have thick fur, birds of prey have sharp beaks and talons, etcetera,” she replied, the words calming her anxious mind.

“Buffon spoke of adaptation in his works, how animals adapt to their environment. You have adapted to yours.”

His lips lifted into a sly smirk. “Are ye callin’ me a beast, lass?”

“We are all beasts, Oscar,” she answered, her nerves beginning to ease.

“Although, the human beast is rather a conundrum. We seem to be capable of existing almost anywhere, yet our design doesn’t always complement the environment.

For example, we suffer when it’s cold, but we have the capacity to make ourselves warm.

We suffer when it’s too hot, but we are able to sweat and cool ourselves by building shaded shelter.

Why, there are people who have lived in deserts for thousands of years, adapting seamlessly to such a harsh environment. ”

The more she talked, the calmer she became, using the theories of natural history in the same way she used the names of flowers and herbs.

“So, ye’re sayin’ that we Scots should’ve grown gills by now, considerin’ how much it rains?” Oscar said, humor glinting in his eyes, making her feel infinitely better.

She managed a small laugh. “Perhaps, skin that deflects the rain would be more useful than gills.”

“Are ye feelin’ more like yerself now? I’m fairly certain that was a chuckle I just heard,” he said, sitting back on his haunches.

She shrugged, shifting uncomfortably on the chair.

“Yes... maybe. I don’t know. It’s hard to tell.

” She glanced down at her hands, noting the faint tremble that had not yet gone.

“I’ve never been... attacked before. Not with a weapon, anyway.

I’m not sure what’s normal and what’s not, in the aftermath of such a thing. ”

Oscar took hold of her shaking hands, rubbing slow circles with his thumbs. A tender touch that demanded her full attention, reminding her of a more pleasant occasion.

Although that had ended in confusion, too.

“Who attacked ye?” he asked, his tone carrying a bite to it.

“What?”

“Ye said ye hadnae been attacked with a weapon, but it sounded like ye’d been attacked before.” His expression hardened. “Who hurt ye? What did they do to ye?”

The dangerous look upon his face begged another question, unspoken: Who else do I have to hurt for ye?

Maddie shook her head effusively, blaming the fog in her mind for her lack of appropriate phrasing. “No... goodness, no, it’s nothing like that. I had my... character attacked, I suppose you could say.”

She had never felt so foolish, trying to explain to a true warrior who had seen battles and war about wounded feelings. “An assault of words, rather than physical force,” she added quietly. “As I said, it’s nothing.”

“I’m askin’ ye to tell me,” he insisted.

Scrunching her face, she took a deep breath.

“Well... it’s just that... goodness, where to begin.

” She shook her head and tried again. “My brother-in-law was my suitor once, or I thought he was. He behaved like a suitor, and I’d seen enough of them coming to call upon my sister to know a suitor when I encountered one.

But then, all of a sudden he wasn’t my suitor anymore and he said.

.. Well, it doesn’t matter what he said.

It just felt like an attack upon everything I was, that’s all. Silly, really.”

To her surprise, Oscar’s expression had darkened further, his eyes flaring with something like anger. “Do ye want me to take care of him?” He nodded in the general direction of where Laird MacPhee had been. “Nay one touches me wife, and nay one insults me wife either.”

Against her will, her stomach fluttered a little. No man had ever defended her before, in any capacity. She couldn’t deny that it gave her a fleeting thrill, to hear Oscar’s threat and know he would carry it out if she but asked.

Are you quite mad? The thought brought her back to reality with a necessary bump. It was mad to be charmed by the idea of having Simon Barclay skewered for something he’d said years ago.

“No!” she choked abruptly. “Heavens, no. The offer is... very generous, but that would only hurt my sister. I have no doubt that she’d find someone infinitely more deserving of her if she were a widow, but who can be bothered with the rigmarole of seeking out a new husband?”

She forced a laugh, relieved as the cold look on Oscar’s face began to thaw. It seemed she had just saved Simon’s life, though part of her did wish that Oscar might have made the threat to Simon himself. She’d have liked to watch that weasel squirm in the presence of a man like Oscar.

“Well, if ye change yer mind,” he said, smiling.

“I won’t but thank you.”

His smile faded for a moment, his thumbs ceasing their comforting caress.

“The world ye left isnae the world here, lass,” he told her.

“Aye, it can be harsh at times, but ye dinnae need to fear anythin’ so long as ye’re here, Maddie.

I mean to protect what’s mine. As me wife, nay one will dare to hurt ye again, nae with words or swords. ”

She swallowed thickly, moved by the sentiment for a second time.

She couldn’t even begin to explain what it meant to her, to know there was someone who would keep her safe.

And not safe in the way that Miss Sutton had tried to do, but safe in the way that no one could ever drag her back to London or threaten her dreams again.

“Ye believe me, aye?” he prompted, his hand coming up to cup her chin.

She leaned into the touch, liking how it felt. “I do.”

Don’t you dare forget what happened yesterday! Her mind swooped in with a jarring reminder.

She had every faith that he would protect his interests, but she was not so certain that his actions were any good for her heart and mind.

He had hurt her last night, when he sent her away.

He had made an attack upon her character, whether he realized it or not, when he had given her but a moment while he gave his lovers all night.

Regardless of what he had done to save her today, she would be even more foolish if she allowed herself to overlook how their wedding day had ended.

“I think I would like to take a walk around the gardens,” she said briskly. “To clear my head.”

She rose on still-unsteady legs, holding onto the back of the chair for a moment, to let the dizziness pass. Oscar rose with her, his hand shooting out to balance her, holding her above the elbow.

“Do ye want me to come with ye?” he asked, frowning at her with concern.

She pulled her arm away, shaking her head. “No, thank you. You have aided me quite enough for one morning. I’ll find Grace and have her join me.”

Refusing to look down at where the blood was still being mopped up, she skirted around the soldiers who’d been tasked with the grisly job. She didn’t look back, not wanting to see Oscar’s face, as she hurried out of the room.

I will not forget. I will not let myself.

“He did what?” Grace gasped, halting sharply on one of the wide stepping-stones that wended through the herb garden.

Maddie’s entire face threatened to burn to a cinder. She could wax poetic for hours about the mating rituals of exotic birds and fascinating beasts, but when it came to humankind—rather, her personal experience of humankind—she would have preferred to chew through a bowl of hot coals.

Which part is she shocked about? She’d divulged most of the details to her friend, from the sublime to the devastating.

“He just told you to get out?” Grace elaborated, her hands clenching into fists. “I ought to march back in there and box his ears!”

Maddie put a finger to her lips, nodding toward the kitchens.

“Sorry,” Grace whispered, cringing. “I just couldn’t hold it in. I am... furious with him. How could he do that to you? How could he send you away like that?”

To hide the heat in her face, Maddie crouched down, rubbing the leaf of a rosemary bush between her fingers. She brought her fingertips to her nose, inhaling the soothing scent.

“He didn’t like me dancing with his councilman,” she said simply. “It wasn’t anything more than that. But it’s fine; it’s not the first time I’ve been rejected, and it’s not as if I want his attention anyway. It would only be a distraction to my education.”

She made a note in her mind to ask Lilian to draw some illustrations of the herbs here, for her collection. Unusual and little-known flowers and herbs were all well and good, but there was no substitute for the native plants that had so many uses, from the delicious to the medicinal.

“Frankly, I’m more embarrassed that I tried to compare my injured pride to a vicious attack,” she said, when Grace hadn’t spoken for a while.

“I told him about Simon, and the brute asked if I wanted him dead! Can you believe that? As if having an unkind opinion makes someone deserving of a bloody execution. It’s not nice, but it’s not a reason to kill a man. ”

Grace’s hand came to rest on Maddie’s shoulder. “Did you tell him everything?”

“I told him as much as I tell anyone,” Maddie replied, standing up slowly, the scent of rosemary still lingering in her senses. “That he was my suitor and now he is my brother-in-law. It doesn’t really warrant further explanation.”

She’d given her dear friends the abridged version of the story, too.

The long version, as far as she was concerned, was just common sense that any reasonably intelligent person could fill in by themselves.

Besides, it wasn’t just her story to tell, and even though they were married now, she didn’t want to reveal what Colette and Simon had been up to before they were wed. Sisters kept their sister’s secrets.

“Would you explain it to me anyway?” Grace asked, wearing such a hopeful smile that Maddie didn’t know if she could bring herself to refuse.

Huffing out a breath, Maddie moved on to a tangled shrub of thyme, green fronds spilling out like some manner of strange creature or a rather bold wig.

“I want to, but it’s… just too hard,” she replied, savoring the anchoring aroma of the thyme upon her fingertips. “I feel so stupid whenever I think of it, much less speak of it. Anyway, I should be grateful to him really. He’s the reason I ended up at Horndean.”

Grace’s frowned. “He is? I always assumed it was your love of learning that brought you to Horndean.”

“It was,” Maddie insisted, wishing her friend would not look at her with such pity.

“I just needed the motivation to make up my mind. Simon made me see that my only passion really is learning about the world and what makes it what it is. He was cruel to be kind, in a way. I needed to understand, without doubt, that I had no place in society first, that’s all. ”

“Oh, Maddie...” Grace swooped in, hugging her tightly. “Don’t you ever be grateful to any fool who behaves like that, who makes you feel like you are less than the glorious woman that you are.”

Maddie held her friend in return, watching a small beetle clamber over the fanned leaves of a parsley plant.

But what if that man is my husband?