Devil of the Highlands Page 0,107

have the heart to take it from Biddy." He turned a sad face to her and shook his head. "So I tucked it back in her chest so she never even knew it was gone."

"Maggie found the letter?" Evelinde asked faintly, realizing she'd made a big error in judgment. A foolish one when she really thought about it. She'd known in her heart of hearts that Biddy wasn't a killer. She'd also known that Fergus held feelings for her and that he was capable of killing. As a soldier, that was all he trained for—defending his home and people by killing others. She never should have come out here with him.

"I doona ken why ye had to stick yer nose in, lass."

Evelinde took a wary step back as he started forward.

"If ye'd just let the past lie… Now I'll have to kill you, too, to protect Biddy."

"To protect Biddy from what?" she asked grimly, continuing to back away as he approached.

"To protect her from anyone finding out she shot the arrow into Darach."

Aware that she was drawing close to the cliff's edge, Evelinde began to move sideways rather than back as she asked, "You have known all this time that she killed him and have been protecting her?"

"Nay, she didna kill him," he countered firmly. "I did."

"But you just said she shot the arrow into Darach," she pointed out with confusion.

"Aye, she did," he acknowledged. "But that isna what killed him. He was mending, so I smothered him in his sleep on the third day after he was shot."

Evelinde stopped moving. Relief had washed through her as she learned that Biddy wasn't a murderer after all, alas that news didn't help her now. Hoping to keep him talking while she figured out a way to escape him, Evelinde asked, "It was not the infection that killed him?"

Fergus shook his head. "It was his own stupid inability no to follow his cock that killed him."

Her eyes widened in shock, but he didn't apologize for cursing in front of her. She doubted he even noticed he had. The man was suddenly furious.

"He had a good woman to wife, did Darach!" Fergus said, suddenly shouting. "Biddy loved him. The woman thought the moon and stars rose in his eyes and forgave him every transgression," he said almost plaintively. "Dear God, any man would kill to be loved like that."

Evelinde nodded her understanding, "Or kill others to gain it."

Fergus scowled, but said, "Aye. He didna deserve her. It was bad enough that he was crawling under the skirts of every servant and wench he came across while she wept her eyes red, but then to go after her sister?" He spat on the ground. "Biddy forgave him those other women, but I knew she wouldna forgive that. She loved Jenny something fierce."

"You told her?" Evelinde asked uncertainly. She was more than a little confused by the suggestion that he had. The letter she'd read had seemed to imply that Jenny was telling Biddy something she didn't know when she revealed the affair and subsequent events.

"Nay. I wanted to, but couldna hurt her like that… but I knew. I came across the pair of them, Darach and Jenny, here in the third week of the first visit. He was charming his way under her skirt like he did every other female. 'Twas like a sickness with him. The man just couldna resist. And Jenny, she was so taken with him, crying out how she loved him, and was so grateful to be loved by one such as the laird." Fergus shook his head with disgust. "Darach didna love her. The man never loved anyone in this world but himself."

"He didna even have enough kindness to lie to the lass. He grunted away on top of her until he spilled his seed, and when she again begged him to tell her he loved her, Darach just laughed, and said, 'Of course I love ye, I love all women, they are flowers to be plucked.' And then he chucked her under the chin like a child who'd just performed a fine trick, and said, 'That was fun. Mayhap I'll give ye another tumble later in the day' and walked off, leaving her here, crushed."

Evelinde bit her lip. She couldn't imagine the humiliation Jenny must have suffered in that moment.

"Aye," Fergus said, reading her expression. "He was nothing but a rutting animal. And he left her here in a terrible state. The stupid chit tried to throw herself