The Highland Laird (Lords of the Highlands #8) - Amy Jarecki Page 0,70
been wasted. Worse, it had taken a week of hard riding to reach his wife, where he learned Emma had not only spirited to Fort William with the son of Lochiel’s coachman, she’d picked the locks to the fortress and aided in Dunollie’s escape after the man had been incarcerated for murder.
The man Robert had considered his greatest ally had the gall to send the stable boy home, but the MacDougall scoundrel had gone into hiding with Emma. What the blazes was he thinking?
And things only grew more precarious by the moment. Not only was Robert’s sister ruined, she had been captured on the Isle of Kerrera, taken back to Fort William, and locked in the public pillory for all to torment and ridicule.
Robert had only discovered the bulk of this information after he’d paid a visit to Achnacarry. He’d been riding for a sennight with little sleep and had barely had a chance to greet his pregnant wife when he had no option but to change horses and make haste for Fort William.
I’ll never forgive Ciar for this!
Had the man completely lost his mind? Why in God’s name had he gone into hiding and taken Emma with him? A blind woman, for heaven’s sake. As Robert rode, the burning ball of fire in his chest raged.
He crossed the bridge at Inverlochy and demanded more speed, the horse snorting with exertion. When High Street came into view, the sight of his sister, wrists and head locked in the bars of a pillory, made the bile in his stomach churn.
A crowd stood around the platform, their jeers echoing down the cobbled road as Robert rode forward, his horse spent.
“You’re the devil’s own!” spewed a woman.
“You should have been drowned at birth. You are a scourge that should be snuffed in flames.”
“No!” Emma cried, her voice hoarse and grating.
Her hair was matted. As Robert dismounted, he couldn’t see her face. “Go on, the lot of ye!” he bellowed. “You’re fiendish troublemakers!”
He dashed up the steps, but was met by a dragoon pointing a bayonet between his eyeballs.
Robert could have ripped the weapon from the blighter’s hands and bludgeoned him with it. “Release her,” he growled.
“Brother!” Emma croaked.
The man threatened him with the bayonet again. “You, sir, are interfering with justice.”
Losing his patience, Robert grabbed the musket’s barrel, yanked it from the soldier’s hands, and jabbed him in the shoulder with the butt. “Do you find torturing and humiliating blind women amusing?”
“Stand down, you insolent cur!”
“Release her now,” Robert seethed through his teeth. “And I will take her directly to Wilcox and castigate the cowardly governor for the abhorrent treatment of the sister of the Clan Grant chief.”
The man stood dumbfounded.
Sauntering forward, Robert grasped the weasel by the cravat. “If you do not unlock the pillory immediately, I will impale your arse with this worthless bayonet.”
A bead of sweat streamed from the soldier’s temple. “M-my superiors will hear of this.”
He pushed the man toward the lock. “They will, and I’ll be the first to tell them.”
As the dragoon opened the padlock and lifted the bar, Emma dropped to her knees.
“Good God, you’re too weak to stand,” Robert barked, scooping her into his arms. “Have they not been feeding you?”
She weakly brushed her fingers across her dirty mouth. “A slice of bread and a cup of water.”
He dashed down the platform. “How long have you been here?”
“Three days, I-I think.”
Robert’s jaw twitched as he marched through Fort William’s gates and headed straight for the governor’s office. “Hold fast, dearest. I’ll have you safely at Achnacarry in no time.”
“But—”
Before she uttered another word, Robert kicked open Wilcox’s door. “What in God’s name were you thinking, making a public display of the blind sister of one of the most powerful clans in the Highlands?”
The sour-faced governor looked up from his writing table. “Grant? Devil take it, you’re not the Scot I was hoping to see.”
“I would have arrived sooner had I not been north of Inverness when I received word.”
The man placed his quill in its holder. “Your sister aided a murderer to escape this very fort. She’s dangerous and cunning.”
Robert looked down at the half-starved woman in his arms. “You mean to tell me you’re afraid of this wee lassie?” He looked Wilcox in the eye. “Furthermore, you’re saying that she, a blind woman, broke into this fortified establishment, slipped past innumerable guards, and freed your prisoner?”
Feigning disbelief, Robert stepped forward. “You saw my sister break into your prison?”