Page 64 of Somewhere Along The Way (Mackinnon #3)

Chapter Twenty-One

Annabella was sitting in the parlor when Gavin entered.

She looked up to see the captivatingly formed features of her beloved brother.

She dropped the length of scalloped edging she had been crocheting and rose to her feet; the ornate scissors fell from her hand and dangled from the silk cord around her neck.

“Gavin, you’re here!” she said, crossing the room and seeing the minute she did that this wasn’t a social call. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

“Bella, what is going on? Father is in a blistering rage. Mother has taken to her bed. And I’ve been dispatched to Scotland to shake some sense into that lively but rattled head of yours.”

“In regard to what?”

“The time for claiming innocence is past. Huntly has gotten wind of Mackinnon’s presence here and he shot a letter off to Father.

And Father has shot one off to Uncle Barra.

You’ve stirred up a lot of mischief here.

I hope it can be resolved without anyone paying too dear a price.

You’re sitting in a cauldron that is about to boil over, and it could boil over into all of our faces. ”

“What does Father expect me to do?”

“For starters, we’ve got to send Mackinnon packing and he has to promise to stay away from you…far away.”

“Ross is not here,” she said. “He’s been back at Dunford for almost a month now.”

“At least that’s one thing in our favor,” he said.

Annabella’s face was pale, her lips pinched. “Is Huntly coming here?”

“Not that I know of, but I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s not known for his easygoing temperament, although I hope he does stay away, for your sake.”

“I can’t marry him,” she said at last.

“You what! ”

The tone was the same she would imagine him to use if she’d just announced her intention to walk into St. Paul’s stark naked.

He looked at the lovely figure in emerald-green velvet with the huge, round eyes and said, “Don’t be killing me with one of those looks of yours.

It wasn’t my idea. I’m here in an official capacity only.

As Father’s emissary. I talked him into letting me come by convincing him I could talk some sense into you. ”

“Then I’m sorry you have come all this way for nothing. I said it before and I’ll say it again—I’ll keep on saying it until someone believes me. I am not going to marry Lord Huntly.”

“Just what in the bloody hell are you going to do? Have you thought about the scandal?”

“I’ve thought about it, yes. I’ve also thought about living my own life for a change.”

“A nice idea, but an impractical one. A seventeen-year-old girl…”

“I’m eighteen now. I had a birthday last week. We had a lovely party. I wish you had been here, Gavin. It was the first birthday of mine you missed.”

“I’m sorry, puss. I would have been here if I could. You know that.”

“Yes, I do.”

He began pacing back and forth across the room. “Seventeen, or eighteen, it makes little difference. You are bound by a betrothal contract. You know it’s a legal document, don’t you?”

“I know, but I’m sure if we talked to Huntly, if we explained to him that I’m in love with someone else, that—”

“In love?” he said, cutting her off. He started to say something else, but just then he frowned. “Oh, Bella. You haven’t given yourself to Mackinnon, have you?”

“And if I have?”

“Damnation!” Gavin said, slamming his hand against the table next to him. “This is worse than either Father or I thought. Much worse.”

She looked skeptical. “I’d like to know how it could possibly be worse, unless, of course, I were already married to John. Now, that would be worse!”

“Well, you’re not married to anyone. But you sure as hell need to be.” He shook his head. “This is the worst…”

“It is not.”

“It is, and I’ll tell you how it’s worse. You were a virgin when Huntly signed those documents. You aren’t one now. That changes things—a lot of things.”

“Huntly doesn’t know.”

“He will soon enough.”

“Not if you don’t tell him.”

Gavin looked at her as if she didn’t have her baskets stacked right. “Huntly may be a sap, but he’s no idiot. He will know, Bella, on your wedding night. Even a moron would know that.”

Her face flamed. She wanted to slap herself in the face. Idiot! Of course he would know. What was I thinking?

Gavin paced the floor in silence. After a long while he came to her and put his arm around her, pulling her against him with a comforting hug.

“Don’t look so hopeless,” he said at last. “It isn’t the end of the world.

Above everything else, I’m your brother, Bella.

We may still be able to straighten this mess out… or die trying,” he said with a laugh.

“Straighten it out? You mean in a way that I’ll still have to marry Huntly?”

“That’s what I’m counting on. The first thing I’ve got to do is—”

“Gavin,” she said, feeling so frustrated she was about to cry, “I don’t want to marry Huntly. I won’t marry him.”

Gavin began pacing again. “I know you don’t want to, Bella.

Believe me, if it were in my power to do something, I would.

You know that. Believe it or not, I like Mackinnon.

I’d rather have him for a brother-in-law than Huntly.

” He stopped, looking at her. “Above all, I want to see you happy, Bella. I’d give my life for you, you know that. ”

She burst into tears and Gavin crossed the room and took her in his arms.

“Oh, Gavin, what am I going to do? I’m so miserable. I love Ross. He’s everything I ever dreamed of. He’s…” She buried her face in his jacket, unable to say anything more. What difference did it make anyway?

She had no idea how long she cried, or how long Gavin, with his infinite patience, his loving understanding, stood there holding her, letting her drench his shirtfront and jacket, offering her words of consolation, being her strong arm to lean upon.

At last the strain of seeing her in such misery proved too much for him.

“What can I do?” he said at last. “I can’t stand to see you like this.

I fear what this marriage would do to you more than I fear Father’s wrath.

” He kissed the top of her head and put his handkerchief to her nose, and told her to blow, as he had done so many times before.

Dear, sweet Gavin. He had never failed her. He had always been there for her when she needed him.

“Dry your eyes, Bella,” he said, “and try to compose yourself. All isn’t lost, at least not yet. I’ll go to Huntly and see if I can persuade him to agree to put an end to things between you. If he has any honor at all, he won’t want a wife who doesn’t want him. No man would.”

She threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you, Gavin. I knew you wouldn’t let me down. You never have. I’ll never stop thanking you for this, for as long as I live.”

“You’re going to have to stop for a little while, or I’m never going to get out of here,” he said, laughing and kissing her cheek as he pulled her hands from around his neck. Giving her hands a squeeze, he released them, saying, “I’d best be off. Thank me when I get back.”

“Are you leaving now?”

He nodded. “As soon as I talk to Uncle.”

“But it’s dark, and Uncle isn’t here. He’s in Ullapool with Allan.”

Gavin nodded and said, “Then I’m off without talking to Uncle. If he returns before I do, tell him there’s a letter on his desk from Father. But tell him not to do anything until I get back.” Then he disappeared around the door. She watched him go.

“What would I do without you?” she whispered, dropping wearily into the chair. “What would I do?”

Two days later Gavin was at the Earl of Huntly’s home, Mercat Castle. He was standing near the fireplace. Huntly sat nearby in a leather chair.

Huntly called his dogs to his side and listened to what Gavin had to say.

When Gavin finished, Huntly looked at him sharply.

“How charming. You seem overly eager to serve the cause. Pity you came all this way on a fool’s errand.

I have an agreement with your father.” The earl’s tone was not smooth enough to hide the ugliness that lay just beneath the surface.

“I’ll discuss matters with him, not his whelp.

” He picked up a letter on his desk. “You know, I do wonder why you are really here. I received this letter from your father only today. It’s quite enlightening.

It is also of a completely different nature from the speech you have just delivered. Who sent you, I wonder?”

“I was sent by my father and I act for him,” Gavin said. “Shall I take your silence for agreement?”

“The only agreement you have is the official one. The terms of the contract will remain as written. I do not choose to withdraw. The marriage will take place as planned. Hearing of Annabella’s obvious passion for the Mackinnon’s grandson is most unsettling to me.

The Mackinnon and I have long been at odds with each other, and his grandson’s interference in my affairs only brings back old and bitter memories that would be better left dead—at least for them. ”

“I have nothing to do with your old feuds, or the principals involved. My concern and my only concern is for my sister.”

“Come, Larrimore, are you more fool than I believed?”

“As I said, my concern is for Annabella.”

“Then let me give you some advice. Perhaps you should have a dram of concern for yourself.”

A cold wave, of air swept down the chimney and the flames dimmed, then burst to life. “Why should I be concerned for myself? I am a mediator, nothing more.”

“You are involving yourself in more than you know.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“I am not talking about your sister, although the lass does play an important role. But that is none of your concern.”

Huntly rose from his chair when Gavin said, “I would think you would have more honor than to want this marriage. It can’t be a noble cause that forces a man to marry a woman who doesn’t want to marry him.”

Huntly smiled. “You won’t succeed in provoking me to relinquish what is mine.

I’m old enough to recognize such an obvious ploy.

You are free to think what you will. You’ll not change my mind.

It’s useless to try. You may take that message back to your sister, or that bastard Mackinnon—whichever you serve—and tell them that I , unlike them, am a man of my word. ”

“I’ll relay the message, although I don’t think that will be the end of it.”

“While you are relaying messages, you might relay this one as well. Tell your sister that if she persists in acting like a bitch in heat, I may be forced to treat her as one.”

For a moment Gavin simply stood there looking at him.

At last, when he spoke, he chose his words carefully and spoke them articulately.

“You have my word that I will do everything in my power to persuade my father to break this contract with you. If that isn’t legally possible, then I can promise you that after he hears of this, he will severely reduce her dowry.

You may get my sister, but you won’t get the fortune that would have come with her. ”

“Get out!” Huntly said, the veins on his neck straining to carry the rush of blood that turned his face blood red. “Get out!” he said again. This time his words were a high shriek.

Gavin left, and Lord Huntly stood frozen in place until Fionn Alpin entered.

“You look like you could use a good stiff brandy,” he said after taking one look at Huntly. “What did Larrimore want?”

“Trouble. Mackinnon, it seems, has beaten me to the kill. My angelic bride-to-be isn’t as innocent as one would think.”

“He came to tell you that?”

“He didn’t have to tell me. I could see it in his eyes.”

“The Mackinnons again. It seems you have made a complete circle,” Fionn said. “First the aunt, and now the nephew.”

“You can leave Flora out of this.”

“Why? You’ve carried a grudge against the old duke for years, although I don’t know why.”

“Then let me tell you why. You know I was in love with his daughter—with Flora.”

“Aye, and I know Flora hung herself and that you hate her father. But I don’t know the connection between the two.”

Huntly poured himself a brandy. “I loved Flora, but I couldn’t marry her.

I had to marry someone with a dowry. After the wedding I went to her—on my goddamn wedding night, to explain to her that it would change nothing between us.

I told her I loved her, that she would want for nothing.

She went crazy, calling me names, hitting me, breaking things.

I tried to calm her down, to make her see reason, but she still fought me, wilder than before.

I tried to make love to her. She fought me, and I persisted… ”

“It was you?” Fionn said. “It was you who raped her?”

“I didn’t think…I didn’t know what I was doing…what I had done. Something went wrong. My mind snapped. I didn’t realize what I had done until I saw all the blood. I thought she was dead, so I ran.”

“And she killed herself rather than tell who raped her.”

“She killed herself because her father found out she was with child. My child. I didn’t know that she carried my child, or that her father found out about it until later—until the bastard told me.

He blamed himself for her death. He had threatened her, threatened to keep her baby and send her away where she would never see it or me again if she had any more to do with me.

It was that threat that made her fight me that night.

That threat that made her push me away.”

“And so she killed herself to put an end to it.”

“Aye, and I’ll not lose another lass to a Mackinnon. Ever.”

After another glass of French brandy to calm his nerves, he called for his horse to be saddled.

“Where are you going at this time of night?” asked Fionn.

“I have pressing business in Edinburgh,” Huntly said, then lowering his voice, he added, “After I kill the Marquess of Larrimore.”