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Justine watched him move, a pain in her heart like nothing she had ever experienced.

Oddly enough, it took her back to the day The Red Fury arrived, the day when she had read her cards for her sister.

She remembered the cards she had drawn that day, symbols that had no meaning at the time. But now, they did.

Now, she understood.

“I foresaw this,” Justine said fearfully. “My cards foretold this the day you came here.”

Andrew paused at the top of the stairs, looking at her irritably. “What are you babbling about?”

Justine looked at him with great depth of fear and foreboding.

“The day you arrived at Torridon, I consulted my cards about Josephine’s future,” she said as she came towards him.

“All of the cards were powerful and passionate, depicting extreme love and hate, and of a great battle. But the great battle wasn’t fought last night; it is yet to come. ”

His jaw muscles flexed as he looked away. “I have been waiting most of my life for this confrontation, Justine,” he said. “But I never in my wildest dreams imagined that the stakes would be this high. I love her, Justine. I cannot lose her. She is the world to me.”

“I know,” she said quietly. “I have always known.”

He glanced at her, a dull twinkle in his eye. “You might have let me in on it sooner.”

She shrugged. “You had to discover it for yourself,” she said, then smiled. “You were in love with her the day you arrived but I doubt you would have believed me.”

That was more than likely true. Andrew winked at her. “Take care of yourself and your lout-headed husband, Lady Montgomery,” he said. “When I return, I shall bring your sister with me.”

Justine’s smile faded. The chances of him not returning at all were great. She was deeply concerned for him and for her sister, and she felt an overwhelming urge to consult her cards again.

“Andrew,” she said. “Josephine is stronger than you know. She can take care of herself.”

His face clouded over and she felt a chill run through her. He looked as if he were about to reply, but it faded from his lips. He took the next step.

“I know,” he said softly, then descended the stairs. “But I am stronger than she is. And I will prove it.”

Justine stared at the empty stairwell for a moment, wondering if she would ever see Andrew or Josephine again.

The cards beckoned her and she complied.

*

Andrew marched boldly towards the keep entry, with his boots clacking loudly on the stone. He was exhausted, and his arm was seeping, but he had never felt so alert or fortified. Outside, it was damp and foggy, with the sun turning the fog from gray to white.

He met Thane and Etienne in the outer bailey. Etienne’s left hand was heavily bandaged, Andrew noticed, but he was too preoccupied to ask about it.

“Lady Josephine is not to be found,” Thane spoke before Andrew could. “The men are scouring the battlefield now in search of her… body.”

“She will not be there,” Andrew said, removing his gauntlets from his boot cuff and pulling them on.

Thane and Etienne looked at each other curiously, then back at Andrew. “You found her?” Thane asked. “She was in the keep?”

Andrew pushed past them. “Nay, she was not,” he said. “The king took her with him when he left. I am going to retrieve her.”

Thane and Etienne were rushing after him. Thane grabbed his arm, something he would never have done given a normal situation.

“Are you mad?” he hissed. “You cannot go alone!”

“He will not be alone,” came a voice from behind them. Sully walked up, calmly straightening and pulling at his mail coat that had tattered during the battle. “I am going with him.”

Andrew looked at Sully and knew instantly that Justine had rushed to him and spilled the entire story.

“I go alone, Sully,” Andrew said. “I must.”

Sully pushed between Etienne and Thane, his eyes boring into Andrew, and Andrew could see that he had a fight on his hands. He knew how close Sully and Josephine were, and he knew Sully was as loyal to her as a priest was loyal to God.

“Sully,” he said slowly. “This is something that I must do alone. You know why.”

Sully would not be dissuaded. “All I know is that wily bastard has taken Josephine and I shall assist you in your vengeance.”

“He has taken her to my brother,” Andrew countered. “And vengeance is mine. Stay here with your wife and protect your castle. I need no assistance.”

Sully sighed heavily and cleared his throat. “But you may,” he said. “And if you do, I shall be there. If you do not, then only time has been wasted on my part. I am going, like it or not.”

“But what of Torridon?” Andrew asked. “It is in pieces. Who will supervise the rebuild?”

Sully pointed to Etienne. “I have many competent men to oversee things,” he said. “Torridon will be well-tended until I return.”

It seemed there wasn’t anything more to say. Andrew continued to stare him down, his jaw flexing. He had no time for this and he knew no amount of arguing would change Sully’s mind. He looked at Thane.

“Prepare my horse,” he growled. “And prepare Sully’s as well.”

Sully knew that he was going to be accompanying him all along and did not react outwardly. But Andrew glared at him as Thane and Etienne headed for the burned-out stables.

“Do not get in my way, Montgomery,” he growled, and walked away.

Sully knew he was hurting, but he wondered if Andrew’s desire to kill his brother was greater than his love for Josephine.

Sully was going along to make sure, in any case, that Josephine came back to Torridon.

He feared Andrew’s true motive and wondered if Josephine would suffer if she got in his way.

*

They wasted no time.

Within the hour, Andrew and Sully were both on the road heading north, with their destriers kicking up round clumps of soggy earth as they jogged down the dirt road.

Both men had been silent since they left the fortress, their minds elsewhere.

The tension between them was tangible, however, until Sully finally broke the silence.

“Do you think the king will keep her at Edinburgh Castle for a while before taking her to Haldane?” he asked, looking across the moor.

Andrew pretended to be interested in the countryside as well. “Mayhap,” he said. “I am counting on the fact that the king’s lust for Josephine will keep her at the castle for at least a day, long enough for him to try to violate her. We can find her and shadow her on her ride to Haldane.”

“Why not kidnap her on the road to Haldane?” Sully asked. “That is where she will be most vulnerable.”

Andrew didn’t reply for a moment. “Because I have to go to Haldane if I am to kill my brother,” he said finally.

“Damnation, Andrew!” Sully exploded quietly.

“Your obsession with killing your brother has blinded you to what is really going on. Josephine is in peril and all you can talk of is the murder of a man you haven’t seen in nineteen years.

Tell me– what is most important to you?

Killing your brother or getting Josephine back? ”

Instead of fighting back, as Sully expected, Andrew looked at him with such pain and anguish in his eyes that Sully was instantly sorry that he had ever doubted the man’s motives. Everything he needed to know was written across Andrew’s face.

“You have no idea as to what my brother is like,” he said quietly.

“If the devil was mortal, he would be Alphonse. He was born vile; even as a child he was feared and hated. He came to the earldom only because he was the eldest. I sincerely believe that before his death, my father was plotting to kill my brother.”

It was rather shocking information. Sully didn’t reply as they plodded along the road, understanding now that Andrew felt he was performing a service more than fulfilling a personal obsession by ridding the world of his brother.

He was coming to suspect that his reasons were not self-centered, as Sully had believed.

“And this is the man who holds your family’s legacy?” he asked.

Andrew nodded, wiping exhaustedly at his eyes.

“I have always believed that it was my duty to kill him,” he said.

“The man has caused so much pain and suffering that I would kill him as an apology to all of Scotland and England, sorry that the evil seed fell into power. My family is old, Sully. We’ve always been one of the most respected families in England, until Alphonse.

He’s all but destroyed everything every generation of d’Vants has worked hard for. I have to rid the world of him.”

“But what of Josephine?” Sully asked quietly.

Andrew laughed softly, ironically, and shook his head.

“All of my life, I have been an avid opponent to love and marriage. Love, as I knew it, only held pain. Thane fell in love with a woman once, and I made him choose between her and my army.” His smile faded and his eyes took on a distant look.

“And then I came to Torridon, looking forward to a high-paying job, and I was confronted by the most exquisite woman who has ever walked the face of the earth. I experienced feelings I have never had before, and they scared me. I thought they would somehow weaken me. But once I gave into it and allowed myself to love her, I realized that I am stronger than I have ever been. I cannot put into words my feelings for her. To think of my brother, or anyone else, touching her fills me with the rage of the devil. In answer to your question, she is my primary concern, and will always be. But I must kill my brother.”

Sully understood everything now. He looked at Andrew warmly.

“As I stated earlier, I shall assist you,” he said. “Until I die, I shall assist you always. Any man who can win Josephine’s heart and hold it with the highest regard shall always have my respect.”

Andrew smiled faintly. “And you have mine, my friend.”

The storm between them had passed and now they rode together in companionable silence. The road ahead was long and uncertain, and their minds were far into the future.

They would rescue Josephine or die trying.