How had Hargrave known such intimate details of the goings-on in the keep, and of Tavish’s younger years? Had Vaughn Hargrave been spying on him all this time, knowing who Tavish’s father was?
But why? And how?
He didn’t know the answers, but he did know that, no matter Glenna’s anger with him in the moment, and no matter the king’s decision in the days to come, Vaughn Hargrave was a danger to the beautiful woman whom Tavish had so taken for granted since he first stepped foot inside the Tower.
And it was his duty to protect her, whether she wanted his protection or nae.
Tavish strode through the crowd toward the doorway, feeling the inquisitive stares all but pushing him into the corridor. He bounded up the stone steps two at a time until he came to the uppermost level of the east tower. He paused before Iain Douglas’s door.
My door.
He wrapped his fingers around the handle, but then paused.
No. Not his door. Iain Douglas’s door. The door behind which Glenna’s beloved father lay dying.
Tavish released the handle and raised his fist, rapping swiftly. There was no sound from within, and Tavish’s concern rose.
Hargrave could have lain in wait for her. Glenna could already be gone from Roscraig…
Tavish pounded on the door in earnest now, shaking the very planks against the stone walls.
“Glenna!” he barked.
“Tav?” a voice called out hesitantly from the other side of the door.
“Mam?” Tavish asked. “Is Glenna with you?”
“Are you alone?” Harriet asked.
“Aye, ’tis only me.”
Tavish heard the scrape of the bolt and then the door creaked open a hand’s breadth. A slice of his mother’s face appeared in the opening, and she seemed to be wielding the same old sword that Glenna Douglas had threatened him with on the night of his arrival at Roscraig. The eye visible to him looked pointedly around the corridor before Harriet opened the door completely.
“Aye, Lady Glenna’s within. What do you want with her?”
Tavish tried to look around his mother. “I’ve come to escort her back to the hall, Mam.”
“Ah-ah!” she said in warning and raised the tip of the sword. “Nae ye don’t. She’ll nae be coming back to your grand feast, Tavish Cameron.”
“Mam, you don’t understand,” Tavish said, fighting to reign in his temper. “Glenna isn’t safe without me.”
“Oh, I think I understand a mite more than you do, ye wee kipping brat,” Harriet said with a stern expression. “Ain’t none of us safe with the likes of Vaughn Hargrave about the Tower.”
Tavish froze. “You know Vaughn Hargrave was here?”
“I’m nae deaf, Tavish. As soon as I heard him announced in the hall, I came straight to the laird’s side.” Harriet at last lowered the sword that, until that moment, Tavish had been unconvinced she wouldn’t use on him.
“Why would you come here?” Tavish asked, feeling reality growing stranger and stranger with each passing moment.
Harriet Cameron opened the door even wider, and Tavish’s eyes searched the room. Glenna stood before her father’s bed, and her eyes were cold as they met his.
Mam sighed and stepped away from the door. “You may as well come in then. It will save me breath not having to say it all twice.”
Tavish walked past his mother, his eyes only for the beautiful woman who didn’t give him a chance to speak to her.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said. “This is my home, and I’ll do as I please.”
“I have a hold full of guests, princess,” Tavish said. “I can’t be wandering the corridors after you all the night.”
