AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Oh, God save us. That is terrible, Wolfric.’
‘Elva blurted out the truth to me, and since then, I have been looking for the man who forced himself on her.’
‘And have you found him?’
‘Not yet, but I will. I have a good description of the fellow, though all those bastards look alike with their red coats and smug superiority.’
‘And what will you do to him when you discover him, Wolfric?’
‘Do not vex yourself with it.’
‘Will you do murder?’
He walked away and tore some heather from a bush, plucking the purple flowers off and scattering them. But he did not answer her question.
‘Wolfric, those redcoats already know you are a Jacobite. They will hang you. Go to the authorities, the officers at Fort George. You can identify the man and see him brought to justice. Major Sutherland was not a pleasant man, to be sure, but I am certain he does not want to see such criminality in his ranks.’
‘Do not be naïve, Orla. Elva’s father went to the Fort and could not even get an audience with Sutherland. They beat him for his impudence in ‘maligning the name of the regiment with lies,’ they said and laughed him off the place. The English will do nothing. And someone heard of his visit, and a rumour started that Elva lay with a redcoat, so her family is shamed by the whole affair. She is spurned for it, no matter how much she protests her innocence. So I have pledged to support the bairn with my own coin, and she bides in my rooms in Inverness for her confinement.’
‘If that is true, you must continue to care for Elva. I will help you.’ Orla paced back and forth, her mind whirring with plans. ‘We must find a good midwife for when her time comes, someone close by who will be on hand and can bring the baby.’
‘I already know of a suitable person.’
‘Good. But they must be discreet. Coin will ensure that, I suppose.’
‘So, you believe me when I say I am not an adulterer?’
‘I suppose I do. But why this raging hate for the English, Wolfric?’
‘You do not understand them as I do, for you have been brought up by Dunbar Gordon. The English impose crippling taxes on our people so that they can fund their wars. Do you know that, in England, they joke that a Scottish farmer will yield more than an English one and squeal less about it too because he is accustomed to it, as a dog is used to feeling the ache of his master’s boot. I hate them, Orla, all the English, for everything they have taken from us.’
‘But why declare it so openly? What does that serve?’
‘Because men need a rallying point. They need to know who is with Scotland or against, who to come to for protection and justice. That is why your father has all but cut you off. He plays both sides to feather his own nest so he cannot ally himself with a Munro and have the stain of Jacobitism on him. And you can be sure that he has no interest in protecting the poor on his land from the excesses of English troops.’
‘And what about those two soldiers who have disappeared?’
Wolfric shrugged, and his eyes slid away from hers. ‘As I said, deserters, halfway to London by now. Do not vex yourself over it. The Major’s visit was an insult, a declaration of hostilities if you like.’
‘Do not vex myself! There are redcoats at our door, Wolfric. And another roaming the glens attacking women, and I am not to vex myself.’
Orla was sure that Wolfric was not telling her the whole truth. And if he lied about the missing soldiers, was he also lying about Elva, though there was truth in his look when he talked of the lass?’
Wolfric took her in his arms and kissed her with so much tenderness, that Orla thought she might swoon. ‘All will be well,’ he said, breaking off and clutching her arms tightly. ‘Orla, do you despise me now, as a liar and a fool?’
‘You are no fool, Wolfric, and as to the liar part, we shall see. It is getting dark. I am going inside. You have given me much to ponder.’ Orla walked away before she gave in to the urge to wrap her arms about her fierce husband. A heavy dread had settled on her from the soldiers’ visit. And those looks from Nash left her in no doubt that, by talking to him and sharing confidences, in Wolfric’s eyes at least, she had been consorting with the enemy.
Wolfric caught up with Orla and slid his fingers around hers as they walked back to the house, and guilt dragged on her heart like a lead weight. He put her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers, and when Orla stared into his eyes, there was an invitation there, along with a new warmth. She felt it too, so she knew what she had to do, and soon.
***
As they walked from the garden, Wolfric’s anger at the soldiers’ visit began to fade. He had finally unburdened himself, and Orla had taken him at his word and trusted him. It was a small kind of triumph, but it was a start. He coiled his fingers into her hand as happiness bloomed in his breast.
Though their coupling in the woods had been fuelled by lust and anger, what he felt now was more like tenderness and affection. The shared confidences and the united front before those arrogant redcoats had pulled them closer, and the intimacy he had begun to crave since wedding Orla was within reach. But when he thought of that smooth, young bastard of a captain, jealousy was a fire in his chest, a coil of anger in his fists and a pulse of fury in his belly.
If he did not take Orla to bed and rid her of the stain of that upstart’s admiration, he would explode. She seemed willing enough, following him meekly upstairs when he jerked his head towards their chamber. Wolfric smiled as he mounted the stairs, thinking of all the things he would do in the soft folds of their bed and the soft folds of her body.
Once inside, it seemed they were of one mind, and when Wolfric took Orla in his arms, she melted against him with a sigh of surrender. They kissed passionately and fell onto the bed, her fingers coiling in his hair, stroking his cheeks, her tongue flicking inside his mouth. Wolfric was rock hard and wanted nothing more than to be inside her, yet he delayed his pleasure.
