“Och, no. We would no’ harm him,” James intoned. “In truth, I think he was relieved we took him.”
Miranda’s eyes widened. “Relieved?”
James nodded. “Aye, he cares for his daughter, but he’s in an impossible situation with his wife. She’ll make his life a misery for the next hundred years if she thinks he signed willingly. So, it could be said we did him a favor.”
“By abducting him?”
“Aye,” Bram said.
Hugh nodded. “Although I prefer to think of it as taking him out for a night on the town…a very long night. In fact, he expressed his appreciation to us. It’ll probably be the most restful hours of peace he’s had since marrying that woman. The friend of hers, Lady Trowbridge, is a piece of work, too. The two of them nagging and goading the beleaguered Lord Lowery. And that Lady Trowbridge. She’s bold as a brass monkey, she is. Did Bram tell ye?”
Miranda shook her head. “Tell me what?”
Hugh’s expression turned to one of displeasure. “She came to his home and propositioned him.”
“Tried to seduce him,” James added with a grumble.
“She didwhat?” Miranda stared at the three Lanarks, quite aghast. “In front of all of you?”
“No, Mortinson told us about it,” James said. “As if Bram would ever waste his time on her.”
Miranda turned to Bram. “You didn’t tell me?”
“What was there to tell, lass? I was never going to betray ye, so I tossed her out in the soaking rain and warned her never to set foot in my house again. I dealt with her. Telling ye what happened would only have upset ye, and haven’t ye been through enough already?”
She supposed he was right. Learning of the incident would have incensed her.
More important, shetrustedBram, and this confidence she had in him was of far more significance.
He was a man of his word. Miranda knew it in her heart. Once given, he would always be true to his wedding vows.
Perhaps this was a Scottish trait, this fierce loyalty to the woman they would marry, for Hugh and James were also nodding as though this was the responsibility of every husband.
It eased her mind about Lady Trowbridge’s schemes. The horrid woman was too low and crass ever to win Bram’s heart.
Her concerns were now for Gwenys’s father. What the Lanarks had done was kidnapping, no matter how politely they sought to dress it up. They could all land in prison.
Well, not Bram. Dukes might not even be put under house arrest unless there was murder or treason involved.
“Where have you put Lord Lowery now?” she asked.
“Best ye no’ know where he is,” Bram said.
She ought to have frowned to show her displeasure, but how could she when she considered the plan brilliant? Was this not a delicious turn of events after all the misery those horrid Lawsons had caused her and Gwenys?
“Oh, Bram.” The idea of Gwenys’s father bound and gagged had her laughing instead.
It was dreadful of her, of course. She ought to have been outraged. But she could not summon a scintilla of anger.
Too bad it wasn’t Lady Lowery they’d taken and trussed up like a Christmas goose, although Miranda understood why they chose not to take her. “And what is his ransom to be, exactly?”
“Well,” Bram said, “we’ve already collected it because all we wanted was his consent to Gwenys’s marriage. But we canno’ let him go just yet or else his wife will catch on to what we’ve done. So, he’ll be released once Gwenys is married. And he’ll be present at the ceremony.”
Miranda gasped. “He will?”
Bram nodded. “He wants to be there. He confessed as much to Montrose. Ye know, Lowery loves his daughter, but he’s such a weakling of a man and fears admitting it to his wife.”
“I have no pity for him,” she said. “Gwenys deserves a father who will fight to the death for her.”
