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She nodded. Wolfric stared into the fireplace, anger twisting his gut. For this, he had risked his fledgling marriage to Orla. She had thought him an adulterer. ‘Why not go to your lover for help when you realised you were with child?’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘Surely his Laird would have made him do the right thing?’
‘Because he is awful. He seemed so kind at first, and he had a gentlemanly way with him. But he became more forceful as the weeks went by, and the last time, he was tearing at my clothes, pushing me against a tree and just using me like a whore. Even then, I still thought he loved me, Wolfric. But he is a villain. When I told him I was with child, he laughed at me and said it was not his. He said he had fallen low, being sent into Scotland, and I was just a warm body to cushion that fall, one of many women he was lying with.’
‘Sent into Scotland?’ hissed Wolfric, hands fisting at his sides as the implication hit.
‘He…he is a soldier. It was not my fault, Wolfric. I was young, innocent. And when I told him I would go to Fort George and report his misconduct and demand that he provide for me, that was when he pulled back his arm and struck me to the ground. He said if I ever came to Fort George or came near him again, he would beat me until he shut my mouth forever.’
‘So when I saw you come home crying with a bruised face and your clothes torn, it was from lying with him willingly?’
Elva burst into noisy tears, and between sobs, she said, ‘I loved him, Wolfric. I believed him when he said he loved me, but he never did. If I told you I had been lying with a redcoat, would you have helped me?’
‘Which redcoat?’
‘I cannot say. What will it serve, now I am going?’
‘I have been scouring the Highlands for months, searching for the man who wronged you. A name, Elva.’
‘Please, Wolfric. I know I have done wrong. I sought to save my reputation, but it is in tatters anyway. He is vile, a man of no morals, and he lies. That villain is not worth your trouble.’
‘Enough, lass. I demand a name.’
Elva bit her lip, then blurted out, ‘Nash. His name is Captain Giles Nash.’
***
Fort George was a windswept, desolate place, standing in defiance of the churning, icy ocean before it and with walls six feet thick and bristling with canon. Wolfric shivered and looked around the yard where he had been left, cooling his heels as he waited for an audience with its commander. Sleet gusted in, setting an ache in Wolfric’s bones, but when a soldier emerged and took him to Major Sutherland’s rooms, there was more comfort.
The Major stood before the fireplace, holding his ample rear to the flames. He looked Wolfric up and down in disdain and said, ‘So, to what do I owe this dubious honour?’
‘Tis no honour, and I’ve not come to exchange pleasantries.’
‘Oh, dear. I do hope you have not come prepared to use those fists again, Munro. That was a most unedifying spectacle you presented to the good people of Inverness.’
‘Nothing the oaf didn’t have coming.’
The Major raised an eyebrow and beckoned him forward. ‘I see. Nevertheless, you will find an Englishman’s welcome warmer than a Scot’s. Come before the fire and ease the chill of this infernal place.’
‘I don’t feel the cold. Scots are not as soft as Englishmen, lounging in the south, with days of ease and plenty.’
‘Hmm. Perhaps it is righteous outrage that keeps you warm, for you obviously have some grievance or other to which I must attend.’
Wolfric recounted Elva’s predicament while the Major listened, tutting and shaking his head now and again.
‘Shameful goings-on indeed, if they are true, a fact which we cannot verify,’ said the Major when Wolfric had finished.
‘Are you calling me a liar?’
‘Oh, I would not dare, given the last occasion we met. But the lass might be. Who’s to say she did not make up this tale for her advantage. These common girls lie as easily as they breathe. No honour, you see.’
‘I believe her.’
‘Well, that’s as maybe, but what do you want me to do about it?’
‘Punish Captain Nash. Make him provide for the bairn.’
‘What? Make him pay for some bastard whelped on a whore. I cannot do that.’ The Major rubbed his chin and said, ‘It does lead me to ponder, however, that if your accusation is true, perhaps Nash might have found favour with many a lass hereabouts. He is, after all, a fearfully handsome fellow.’
‘So you just turn a blind eye to your soldier’s amorous exploits, Major.’
