The Highland Laird (Lords of the Highlands #8) - Amy Jarecki Page 0,77
found his voice.
“Silence.” Wilcox stepped from around the table. “I thank you, Captain, for your quick work in bringing the truth forward.”
“I am the one who is grateful that a member of the army sought to uncover the truth.” Ciar shook MacLeod’s hand. “I am in your debt, sir.”
The man’s handshake was firm. “My duty is to maintain the peace. I hate to see an innocent man suffer for a crime he did not commit, even a MacDougall.”
“Dunollie, you are free to go,” said Wilcox.
Ciar held up his palms. “Not so fast. I understand you have taken Miss Emma Grant into custody. I will not take another step without her.”
Wilcox frowned. “I’m afraid you will lose on that count.”
“But she is innocent.”
“I daresay she is a pest. But, alas, she is not here. I’d hoped to lure you sooner by making a public display. When that didn’t work, her brother took the hapless girl home.”
“To Glenmoriston?” Ciar asked, his voice shooting up.
“I assume so.”
“When was this?”
Wilcox looked between his officers. “Has it been four days now?”
Shite.
Not that Ciar didn’t want Emma to be safe, but Robert wasn’t a man to cross even if they were allies.
“Now if you would all vacate my offices, I have a meeting to continue.” Wilcox’s eyebrows disappeared beneath his periwig. “And, Dunollie, I suggest you forget about the Grant woman and take a long rest in your medieval castle. You Highlanders are giving me ulcers.”
Clenching his teeth and bowing his head, Ciar backed toward the door.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The pungent smell of the bacon Mrs. Tweedie had brought in with the breakfast tray turned Emma’s stomach. She rolled over, hugging a pillow to her chest. Robert had visited her chamber once since they’d arrived home. Their discussion had been rather short. He’d insisted she was behaving like a spoiled child and forbade her from uttering Ciar MacDougall’s name ever again.
He never asked how she felt or allowed her to complete a sentence in defense of the Highlander she knew only to be kind and good and honorable. In her brother’s eyes, Ciar had become a scoundrel of the worst sort, Emma was ruined, and she had naught but to resume her role as the dutiful sister, fated to live in spinsterhood for the rest of her days.
When a knock came at the door, Emma drew the quilt over her head. “Leave me be.”
“I may not be able to pick locks, but I do have a key to this door.” The timbers muffled Janet’s voice, though she was clear enough. “And I will stay away no longer.”
Emma groaned and pulled herself up, fluffing the pillows behind her back. Her brother’s wife took his side, of course. She had to. They were married, after all.
The key scraped in the lock, and the door’s hinges creaked. “Good heavens, you haven’t eaten in days.”
“I’m not hungry.”
The wooden chair beside the bed groaned as Janet sat. “I ken how much you must be hurting.”
“Do you?” Emma couldn’t hide the sarcasm from her tone.
“I believe so.”
“’Tis easy for you to say. You are a happily wedded woman.”
“But my happiness didn’t come without paying a price. You ought to ken as well as anyone. You were there the day my father came and accused Robert of…” Janet cleared her throat. “…destroying my virtue.”
Oh, yes, Emma remembered all too well, though someone in the household appeared to have double standards. “And yet my brother sees fit to say the same about me.”
“You haven’t spoken much of your ordeal, aside from fiercely supporting Dunollie, which makes no sense at all. What happened all that time you were away? And why did he leave you alone on a barren isle?”
Emma clasped and unclasped her hands. “I’d prefer not to say.”
“Why? We have never harbored secrets between us. Why now?”
“Because if you misunderstand anything I say, you’ll go straight to Robert. He’s already forbidden me to speak of Ciar. I simply don’t feel as if I’ll be taken seriously by you or anyone in this household.”
“I see.” Janet sniffed, the chair creaking as she paused. “I also can confidently say I understand. If you recall, after I left Glenmoriston with my father, I was ruined. Moreover, it was nearly a year before I saw Robert again, and it took all but an act of God to prove to Da that Robert’s actions had been in consideration of my well-being.”
Emma smoothed her fingers over the quilt. What she wouldn’t give if her cloud had a silver lining like Janet’s.