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“Are ye well, Edwina?” Victor tapped her lightly on the shoulder.
She jolted in fright. “Goodness, I am so very, very sorry. I seem to be in a distracted mood.”
“Ye’ve had the most unfortunate of nights, Lass, so it’s nae surprisin’,” he soothed.
A pang of guilt struck her in the stomach, for Victor was behaving like a true gentleman, and she was accidentally ignoring him. All thanks to that awful man across the ballroom. It layered new annoyance on top of the old, but she knew it was no good—she would not be able to concentrate on Victor until she had dealt with that brute opposite.
Why, I daresay ye are a cowardbecauseof yer mask. Ye think yerself untouchable because ye’re a Laird.She sucked in a sharp breath, determined to follow through with the promise she had made to herself earlier. If another opportunity presented itself, she would not let that man’s rudeness lie, and one just had.
With his mockery achieved and his guests moving back toward the dancing, Laird Moore headed toward a door on the far right of the ballroom. Through the windows that ran along the same wall, the sprawling gardens of Castle Moore stretched toward night’s starry horizon. It was as good a moment as any for Edwina to enact her scheme. Indeed, she rather needed some fresh air.
“Excuse me, Victor,” she said, putting on a smile. “I am in need of refreshment.”
Victor frowned. “I can fetch ye some wine, Lass. Ye enjoy watchin’ the dancin’, and when I return, we can have a dance of our own.”
It was a tempting offer, but it would have to wait.
“When I say I need refreshment, I mean—” she trailed off, putting on an embarrassed expression.
Victor’s eyes widened. “Och, of course. Well, I certainly cannae do that for ye.” He smiled. “I’ll wait here until ye return.”
“I willnae be long,” she promised, though she had no way of knowing how long this would take.
Leaving Victor behind and swallowing her guilt at being dishonest, she weaved through the throngs of guests, hoping to lose herself among them so that neither Victor nor Kenney would see where she was headed. All the while, she made her way toward the door that Laird Moore had just used.
Slipping through to the outside world, the cool summer air caressed her feverish cheeks. It was enough of a relief to give her pause, making her wonder if she ought to stay there until she felt calmer instead of chasing after a dangerous man in the dark of night.
A crescent moon, shrouded in cloud, refused to cast much light upon the gardens ahead of Edwina, blanketing everything in eerie shadow.
Daenae be cowardly,she scolded herself, forcing one foot in front of the other.
Edging along the lip of a flagstone terrace, she descended a shallow set of steps to a stretch of lawn. So far, not so scary. But as the lawn gave way to those unsettling bushes and hedges, things began to move in the corner of her eye, and her heart began to race. Her mouth dried up in fear as she pressed on through a gap in the hedge, which seemed to be the only way a personcouldgo, for no moonlight at all permeated that part of the garden.
Indeed, she was not even sure if she would be able to find that gap in the hedge again, rendering her trapped in nightmarish gardens, potentially with a dangerous man that she could not see.
Up ahead, a shadow moved.
“Do ye nae ken that it’s dangerous to be outside in the dark, alone?” a voice drifted toward her on the wind’s cold fingertips. “Ye never ken what might be lurkin’ in the shadows.”
Coming to her aid, a slice of moonlight cut through the clouds, faintly illuminating the garden path. The glow twinkled for just a few seconds before it faded back into darkness, but what Edwina saw was enough to send a shiver through her: Laird Moore, standing there with an icy smirk upon his pale face, his eyes glinting as he spoke his threat like a promise.
Whirling around, Edwina ran as if her life depended on it.
CHAPTER5
“Daenae run, Lass!”Felix shouted to try and stop Edwina from fleeing. It was dark and unsafe for those who did not know the gardens, especially as several of the path’s flagstones were in need of replacement. He had tripped enough times to know.
With his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he watched her paw at the hedges, searching for the way out. Clearly, she could not see that she had already gone past the gap in the hedges.
“Lady Edwina, it’s hopeless,” he insisted, moving toward her.
Her head twisted around, her eyes wide in fright. “Daenae come a step closer, ye beast!”
“Beast?” Felix sniffed. Apparently, she had a whole array of insults to hurl at him that night.
“Aye! Only a beast would hide in the darkness, waitin’ for prey to come by!” she retorted, still clawing at the thorny hedges. Her palms would be scraped to ribbons if she was not careful.
Felix frowned. “Why would ye think ye’re my prey?”
