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A gunshot rang out. Aidan. It had to be him. He’d arrived. He was coming for her.
She heard voices raised in the hallway. She hadn’t been the only one to hear the shot.
“You think he’s coming, don’t you?” Fraser prowled closer, reaching out to grab her arm. “But he can’t save you now. ”
She ran to the hearth, but the only tool at hand was a bellows. She snatched it up, holding it before her like a shield. “I’ll fight you. ”
He laughed. “Little fool. The time has come. There’s no avoiding it. ”
She felt like a caged animal. Her eyes flicked to the locked door. “The moment you open those doors, I’ll run. ”
Slowly, he began to remove his overcoat. “Then I’ll simply have to restrain you,” he said, his voice gone steely. “I’d feared this, and so borrowed a little something from our good captain. ”
He picked up the heavy suitcase he’d been carrying and opened it. Dull metal glimmered within.
Shackles? “You wouldn’t. ”
“What I do is up to you. Will you succumb willingly, or must I bind you to make you say the words I do?”
There was another gunshot. The voices in the hallway grew louder. Someone jiggled the doorknob. Fraser glanced from his suitcase to the door, weighing his next move.
Her body trembled with desperate energy. There was nothing left to her but extreme measures. It seemed Fraser wanted her to bow to him, so bow she must.
She let the bellows slip from her fingers and fluttered a hand over her brow as she slumped against the back of the sofa. Inhaling deeply, she lent a dramatic quaver to her voice. “You win. I shall yield. ”
Growing eerily still, Fraser gaped at her, looking as though he didn’t trust his ears. “You surrender to me?”
Her face flushed hot. Never. But she had a charade to maintain, and so forced herself to speak the words. “Yes, you may begin your … lesson, if you must. ”
Chapter 35
Aidan steered into Arbroath harbo
r, and though it was far smaller than Aberdeen’s, navigating the waterway was simple. Since it was not nearly as thriving a port, dockage was easily had—found just next to a ship he’d recognize better than his own face in the mirror.
The Endeavor.
He tied up his sloop, feeling eyes upon him. Rather than glance up, he prolonged the moment, letting the gaze bore into him, steadily going about his work. Because he knew whom he’d find when he looked up.
He’d felt the gaze as a child, and recognized its stillness now. Dead eyes that’d bored into him, raking his soul. But now he was a man, and he knew who he was and what he was about.
Aidan glanced up, finally, his work finished. The man with the black pearl stood at the bow of his ship, docked not twenty feet away, silent as a sphinx and just as unreadable. They stared at each other.
It was his one chance. Captain Will’s crew bustled about, readying to cast off. Aidan needed to kill his enemy now—it was what he’d dreamed of doing for most his life. He could lure him away, take him in a sword fight. Aidan had spent the past thirteen years growing bigger, stronger, faster—he knew he’d best the man. Or he could watch him sail away forever, bound for God knew where, never to be seen again.
He could kill his enemy, or he could have Elspeth.
He waited to feel the familiar thirst for vengeance, but found the rage had burned through him. All he wanted now was his Beth.
His choice was clear. Exhilaratingly simple. He’d regret not killing his enemy. But even more would he regret losing her. There was only one thing for him to do. He needed to stop her wedding, before it was too late.
Because he refused to lose her.
Captain Will touched a finger to his head in a mockery of a salute. Only then did their gazes unlock.
Aidan jogged up the harbor, scanning for a likely source of information. He needed to find Fraser’s home, and quickly. It was while a dock rat was pointing him in the right direction that he sensed the Endeavor get under way at his back.
“I’ll just have to avenge you in hell,” he murmured, and then raced to find Elspeth.
