Page 108 of Enchantment of a Highlander

And fully unprepared for a feminine room of lavender silks filled with MacDougall and his men, all gathered around Saraid’s writhing form on her bed.

Everything inside of Alec snarled for him to back out of there and leave.

Living a life of a noble after so many years of being a warrior was still a difficult adjustment to make, but going to the room of a woman who was not family—even he knew such a thing was indecent.

A scream pealed through the crowded room, so high-pitched it made Alec’s inner ears wince. The bed creaked and the silk curtains trembled. Saraid’s body jerked and she loosed another horrible shriek.

The guards shuffled away from the bed and exchanged looks of concern. MacDougall’s face paled beneath his white beard.

Alec stared down at Saraid where she still thrashed and wailed on her bed. Her lady’s maid perched on the edge of the bed and smoothed Saraid’s skirts down.

“She’s been poisoned,” MacDougall said in a gravelly voice. “She caught the witch I bade ye to find.” The harshness of his tone stressed his apparent accusation.

“And where is she now?” Alec asked, his voice normal despite the tightness in his throat.

“Escaped,” MacDougall snarled. His pale face bled to a purple-red. “She got away. Probably crawled back onto yer land.”

The clamp around Alec’s chest eased and air rushed to his lungs once more. His heart thumped with wild relief.

She was still alive.

This time he would bring her to Duart.

And this time he did not think she would protest.

Saraid gave a low, keening cry. “I trusted her and she poisoned me.” She gave a dramatic roll to the side, flashing a length of her calf before the maid hurriedly covered her up once more.

Alec watched the display with distrust. While Celia’s escape relieved him immensely, it did not surprise him.

She was resourceful and intelligent. But to poison Saraid…

No, his gentle Celia would never bring harm to another. Not even to her enemies.

MacDougall approached the bed and stared at his daughter with a sneer of disdain. “What do ye mean ye trusted her?”

Saraid stared up at him with a look of terror shining through the throes of her sickness. “I sought her out for a potion to…” her voice trailed off and her dark gaze dragged to Alec before regarding her father once more. “I sought her for a potion to make me more fertile when I wed so I could bear strong sons.” Her arms clenched around her stomach and her mouth fell open with a hiss of agony.

The coincidence of the well-timed pain did not sit well with Alec. The way she’d had the presence of mind to look at him before she finished her reply did not sit well with him. And the accusations toward Celia damn well did not sit well with him either.

MacDougall, however, straightened and approached Alec.

“She put herself in harm’s way to be a good wife to ye and how do ye repay her?” He grimaced in disgust. “By hiding the witch.”

Alec’s fists clenched. “If we were helping ye, why would we hide her?” He let a warning tone slide into his voice.

“It doesna matter why, but I know yer lie for what it is.” MacDougall grinned. “And I have men marching there right now to get her.”

A chill slid down Alec’s back, despite the obviousness of the older man’s tactic.

It was a test to see if Alec would run to Celia’s side. The MacDougall men would secretly follow him and then they would know what MacDougall said was true.

Alec had seen it done before and was not about to give in to the lure. MacDougall’s gray stare flicked behind Alec.

“Then wherever they are marching, they will be disappointed,” Alec said in a level voice. “I’m no harboring a witch.”

Saraid moaned pitifully on the bed.

“Is that so?” A slow smile curled across MacDougall’s thin lips. He nodded to someone behind Alec and a soldier’s heavy boots thumped across the floor and echoed down the hall.