Page 145 of Wicked Highland Heroes

“What is it?” the marquess demanded.

“Have you discovered any clues to your wife’s whereabouts?” Laine demanded.

The unfamiliar experience of embarrassment washed over Erroll. He’d forgotten about alerting the sheriff.

Jean frowned. “She’s sitting right there. And who is the lass sitting beside her?” Jean elbowed his son, who was already staring at Grace.

She cast him a haughty glance.

“You found her?” Laine’s eyes shifted onto Erroll. “What happened?”

“Yes,” Ash said, “what did happen, Rush?”

A light hand touched Erroll’s arm and he whirled to face his wife who had risen to stand beside him.

She stared, eyes searching his face. “Never say you were worried about me, sir?”

His chest tightened. “You threatened to run as far as the Colonies to escape me.”

“Bloody hell, man,” Jean exclaimed. “You’ve been married three days. What did you do in so short a time to make her want to run away?”

Eve clamped a hand over her mouth, eyes sparkling with hilarity. “I told you everything you did had a way of getting around,” she said through her fingers.

She was right. News that his new bride threatened to flee the Continent to escape him would be all over the island by nightfall—and would reach London by tomorrow.

Erroll stepped close and whispered in her ear. “I redeemed the jewels as a favor to a friend. Nothing more. Her note was a fantasy on her part.”

“Speak up lad, we can’t hear,” Jean said in a loud voice.

Eve drew back, her eyes fixed on his face, and removed her hand from her mouth. “She isn’t your…”

He shook his head.

Her brow furrowed and Erroll’s heart pounded in his chest when he read the uncertainty in her eyes. A mental picture flashed of him one day returning to an empty house with no idea whether she had fled to France or the Colonies. He deserved nothing less, but wouldn’t survive the loss.

“Eve, I swear, I broke it off two weeks past,” he said. “Come, read my response to her letter.”

“Damn it,” Jean cursed. “Do ye know what they are talking about, Ash?”

“What in hell is going on?” Laine demanded. “Are ye saying she was never missing?”

“Not for a moment,” Ash said.

“You have caused more than enough trouble in the few days you’ve been here,” Laine grumbled.

“Leslie,” the marquess said, “see to it that the sheriff is fed and send him home with ample provisions for his family’s dinner.”

Laine frowned, and Ash said, “It’s the best bargain you will get today.”

The man’s expression cleared and he shook his head. “Aye.” He turned and left.

When the door clicked softly behind him, Jean said, “Well, lad, are ye going to stand there all day staring at her, or are you going to kiss her?”

Erroll sighed and said to Eve. “I did warn you about my relatives.”

“You did.”

“If it’s what you want, Eve, I’ll leave England, stay here, and do my best to make myself useful.”