Page 78 of In Bed with a Highland Brute

“Dinnae tell me ye did that tae her, Harper. Dinnae tell me ye pushed yer own sister off that cliff top.”

“She flew.” Harper stood emotionless, as if it was only natural. “It was quite a beautiful sight before the… the final part.”

“God’s blood!” Murdoch backed up from her as much as he could, reaching for the door when he realized in horror there was another to worry about that. “Where is Eloise?”

“What?” Harper shook herself, as if she didn’t remember the name at all.

“Harper!” Murdoch marched back toward her. He took hold of Harper’s wrists and shook her, trying to bring some sense to her. “What have ye done with Eloise?”

“Ye didnae need her. I ken yer marriage was a fake one, Murdoch. Ye didnae need tae go ahead with it. Ye married me instead –”

“I wanted tae marry her.” Murdoch put as much strength into his voice as he could muster. It made Harper’s face change. It altered from some doe-eyed madness to pure fury.

“Nay. Nay, that isnae possible. Ye cannae love her.”

“I do!” Murdoch felt the truth of the words as they erupted from him. Never had he been so certain of anything. Harper tried to cower back away from him, as if he had struck her with those words. “Where is she? Harper, tell me now. Where is she?”

“There is nae point searching fer her.”

“What do ye mean by that?” Murdoch released her, stepping back one again.

“She’ll be dead soon enough.” Harper stared forward, but without focus, as if she was looking straight through him. “Ye cannae find her. It is the way it has tae be. Ye were never supposed tae be with her, Murdoch. Never –” She reached for him again, but he bolted for the door before she could touch him.

Murdoch sprinted from the room.

“Avery! Ian! Clyde!” he bellowed all of their names as he ran through the corridors in search of them all.

Yet Harper followed behind and he could not escape her, she continued to chase after him.

“Nay, Murdoch. Nay! Ye cannae go after her.”

There was a wild idea of where Eloise could be. It seemed mad, but then again, everything about this situation was mad. If he was right, he couldn’t waste a moment going back to the feast and explaining everything to his friends and family. He’d have to send a message to them instead.

I have tae get out of here now.

Eloise lifted her head. Her throat was hoarse from all the shouting and screaming she had done, begging that someone would come by and hear her, but they never did. Tears ran down her cheeks as she never once gave up fighting the ropes around her wrists. By now, they had dug so deep that she could feel them scoring into her skin. The drips of warm blood ran down her wrists and onto her palms, but she never stopped.

A sudden sound in the corridor beyond drew her attention. She turned her head toward the door, listening, praying that it was someone who had come to help her.

A key was thrust into the lock and the door was opened, but any prayer she had sent to God that it would be Murdoch or Avery was not to be answered. Two figures stood in the doorway, cloaked in hoods. They looked just like the pair who had attacked her in the garden that day at the castle.

With horror, Eloise stared at them, her wrists falling limp in their ties.

They were never sent here by Stewart. It was all orchestrated by Harper. These men, somehow, they work fer her!

One of the men jerked their hand in her direction and the other man approached. He reached for the ties on her wrist and undid them. She held her breath, waiting for the moment that they would be loose enough for her to act. As soon as she was free, she bent forward and kicked the chair back into one of the hooded men. He fell down with a heavy grunt, clearly not expecting her to fight.

She flung herself at the door, trying to escape as she tore the rope down from her mouth.

“Help! Help!” she screamed. “Murdoch!”

The man guarding the door took hold of her mouth and stopped her from shouting anymore. He forced her backward, pushing her with that hand until she dropped to the cobbles, grimacing at the pain that shot up her back. The other man recovered and reached for her. Grasping hold of her hands, he forced her wrists up behind her back once more, fixing them tight with a rope.

“What are ye doing here? What are ye going tae dae tae me?” She reasoned they could have killed her here, if that’s what they wanted to do, but strangely, they didn’t show any sign of doing so.

“We have our orders,” the hooded man in the doorway answered her. “We’ll take her out of the back gate. That way if she keeps screaming, nae one will hear her.”

There was something chilling to Eloise that he wasn’t going to bother replacing the rope around her mouth. He knew he had power over her enough that any shout she could make would be fruitless.