Aye, indeed—if Evan had not been found in the house, he must have escaped it.
She returned inside and found Earl and Lady MacKallan in the hall, both pacing.
“This is terrible, terrible,” Lady MacKallan began as soon as she saw Annista. “But, my dear, I am certain your maid will be all right.”
“She is terribly frightened and did nothing to earn such abuse.”
“Indeed, not.” The earl and Lady MacKallan exchanged a look. Were they thinking of Robena and what she had earned?
Lady MacKallan’s hands fluttered. “We did not even ken he was here in the house. You say he came looking for you?” Clearly, she wondered for what purpose. Annista had been wondering the same.
Earl Neilan said, “We have had complaints in the past—tales that he struck the barmaid at the public house in the village, and the daughter o’ a tenant when she—er—repulsed his advances.”
Oh.
“He has tried to press himsel’ upon women—”
Was that what he had intended with Annista, in catching her alone? Perhaps in punishment for her standing up to him? Such men liked to humiliate as well as harm.
“Och, it could ha’ been worse,” Earl Neilan said, and Annista had to admit that was so. Had Evan forced himself on poor wee Bonnie, could Annista ever have forgiven herself?
“Morag is wi’ Bonnie now, but I want someone on guard outside that chamber when I am no’ there.”
Earl Neilan bristled. “Is that necessary? By all accounts, Evan is no longer in the house. And she is just a maid—”
Annista looked him in the eye. “Ye may treat your own servants wi’ neglect—as ye did my sister. While I am here,” she drew herself up, “it shall no’ be so.”
“Listen here, young lady—”
“Ye failed to curb that—that monster and failed to protect those who relied upon ye. While I draw breath in this house, it shall no’ be so again.”
How many times had Evan used harsh words against Robena, frightened and intimidated her, while these folk turned a blind eye? Nay, Annista could not make up for that, but she could protect Bonnie.
“Do no’ worry,” she said harshly. “Bonnie will no’ be under your roof for long. I intend to send her back to my father’s estate as soon as she feels able to travel.” If only Annista could accompany her.
“But then,” Lady MacKallan began, “ye will be here wi’out a maid.”
Her husband spoke over her. “To be sure, Annista, ye shall do as ye wish.”
“Until then, I trust ye to place one o’ the footmen outside my chamber for her protection when I am no’ by.”
“Surely ye will stay wi’ her,” Lady MacKallan said.
“Nay, for I mean to help in the search for that creature ye call a son. And when I do find him, he will regret it.”
Chapter Twenty
When Alan again went riding out on Chieftain, he did not harbor much hope of finding his brother. He’d previously checked all Evan’s haunts, at least those of which he could think. But he could not forget the look in his wife’s eyes when he’d come running in through the connecting door from his chamber. He’d thought for an instant it had been she who’d been battered.
Not that it was any better, what Evan had done.
He reminded himself now as he guided Chieftain down forest paths and narrow lanes, this was a whole new search. Evan had run off and, aye, might be found in any of these old hidey holes. Alan needed to check them all again.
Which could well prove dangerous.
All his life he had known that seeking out his older brother—who should have been friend and guide to him, teacher and companion—might cost him dear. In their youth, to be sure, Evan had not had recourse to fortifying himself with whisky. But Alan had never known in what mood he might find his brother. And he had learned early.
Riding out now through the growing morning light, he acknowledged that it had early caused a schism between them. And as a smaller, weaker lad, Alan had opted for avoidance.
