"You do indeed care for her."
Ignoring that comment, Rebbie went on, "That is, if I don't kill him first. In a fair fight, of course."
"I'll back you up. Be your second." Lachlan swirled the last sip of whisky in the wee glass, then tossed it down. After swallowing, he said, "Angelique told me something interesting a few days ago, right after you two went missing. Actually, I guessed it and she couldn't deny it."
"What?"
"Calla was the one we heard in the secret passage that night."
"Nay. Calla?" Rebbie frowned, his mind spinning and searching for a reason.
"Aye. She was spying on you." Lachlan grinned.
Dread slammed intoRebbie'sstomach. "Why?"
"She'd told Angelique she wished to see if you would make a good husband for Elena. But now we believe she'd recognized you earlier and wanted to check up on you before she came face-to-face with you again."
Rebbie felt sick of a sudden. "So, she is sneaky, aye?"
Lachlan shrugged. "Angelique is just as sneaky. She helped hide her. She told me she hopes the two of you get together."
Rebbie narrowed his eyes. "Not with her slipping about and spying on me. I wonder what she heard. I can't recall everything we talked about."
"Naught that can ruin either of us."
"I'm going to ask her about this."
"I'd prefer you didn't. If you do, she'll ken Angelique told me and that I told you. You could jeopardize Angelique's friendship with her. She values that highly. Angelique only told me because I guessed it. She tried to keep the secret hidden but I ken her too well. We were trying to figure out what had happened to Calla."
"Hell. I don't like this." Rebbie glared into the fire. "I have to find out what she's about."
"Mayhap she was just interested in you. She'd remembered you from years ago, you were not yet aware of her presence, and she wanted to learn more about you."
"I hope you're right. Aye, she was worried that I was going to tell everyone of our… association." Maybe that was part of it. But he had a sense that wasn't all. Nay, his gut told him she was hiding a secret that worried her incessantly. "I'll find out. I have to."
***
In the gloaming, Claybourne and his men quietly dismounted in the wood with a clear view of the small castle near a loch. Too bad the tall curtain wall appeared impenetrable.
Claybourne and his men had followed LairdDraughonand the rest of the men here. Was Lady Stanbury inside the castle? And if so, how could he get her out?
He'd wasted far too much time on this already, and he wanted to be done with it. Just after her husband's death several months ago, the lady had kept herself secreted behind the walls of the Stanbury Estate. Once she'd quit that place, she'd gone under heavy guard to her distant cousin, Barclay. She always had too many guards about her. Besides, he'd enjoyed slowly wearing her down just as he had done to her husband. The only difference was he didn't want to kill her; he wanted her occupying his bed.
Strangely, the harder she made him work to get a hold on her, the more determined he became. He grinned. The lady would not thwart him. He intended to have her. His lusts for her had magnified tenfold within the last few days.
He posted his men at various positions throughout the wood so they could watch the castle but remain hidden. A short time later, a man emerged from behind the wall, slipping along, and then running toward the wood. Had he come from inside or elsewhere?
"You three, go grab him and bring him to me," Claybourne whispered to his most skilled men.
"Aye,m'laird."
In the dim light of gloaming, the three crept through the wood toward the stranger. Upon seeing them, he cried out and tried to flee, but his men quickly disarmed him and dragged him by the arms deeper into the wood.
Claybourne hastened toward them.
"Who are you?" he asked the newcomer, a Highlander in a belted plaid.
The man watched him with wide, shifting eyes. "M-MacFadden."
