Highland Heiress - By Margaret Moore Page 0,76

gasped when she saw the coat of arms on the door. “Papa! He’s home!”

She was both glad and afraid. Could there have been a worse time for him to return?

“Well, now, isn’t this interesting,” Robbie said with a sneer as he turned back into the room. “Judging by the guilt in both your faces, I gather the new-made earl doesn’t know about your little love affair. Rather selfish of you, wouldn’t you say, my high-and-mighty and oh, so judgmental lady? And not exactly proper, is it, Gordo? It’s a damn good thing McBean and I are here. The poor man should be made aware of the viper he’s been harboring in his house.”

“Robbie, say a word to my father, and you’ll regret it!”

“You heard her, McBean!” Robbie charged, turning to his solicitor. “She threatened me! Surely there’s something in the law about that!”

“If you leave without speaking to the earl, Robbie,” Gordon said before McBean could answer, “I won’t contest your suit and I’ll pay whatever damages you seek.”

“You heard that, too, McBean!” Robbie crowed. His lips turned up in a cruel smile. “Maybe I’ll do as you ask, Gordo, and maybe I would rather see the earl’s face when he finds out what his oh-so-wonderful daughter has been up to under his very own roof.”

If Robbie or McBean expected Moira to simply stand and do nothing, they were wrong.

Her back as stiff as that of a captain on the bridge of his ship, she addressed the footmen. “Take Sir Robert out of this house by the kitchen entrance. Drag him if you have to, but get him out of here at once.”

Robbie flushed bright red. “You wouldn’t dare lay a hand on me.” He stabbed his finger at Gordon, his whole body shaking, his voice quivering with rage. “As for you, you ungrateful wretch, I befriended you when nobody else at school would. I took you into my confidence. I treated you as an equal, and this is how you repay me?”

“You never treated me as an equal,” Gordon said. “You treated me as your lackey, your prize, perhaps even your pet, but never your equal.”

“I’m going to take you for every cent you’ve got, Gordo—every penny you earned because I took the blame for you all those years ago. But you’ve forgotten that, haven’t you? Forgotten what you owe me between that woman’s thighs.”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Gordon returned. “I haven’t forgotten how you used me to fight your battles, and made money betting on me—even here. I haven’t forgotten all the jokes at my expense. I am grateful that you took the blame for that theft, but it was my hard work that got me my post as a solicitor’s clerk and my own practice. I won’t let you take that away from me without a fight, Robbie. But worst of all, you tried to use me to hurt Moira.”

“Hurt? What do you think she did to me when she rejected me after accepting my proposal?”

“If I hurt anything, it was only your pride,” Moira said. “You never loved me. You never really wanted me. All you wanted was my dowry. Because you need the money.”

Robbie, staring incredulously, stumbled backward. “How did you…? Gordon! You told her?”

“I’ve told her nothing about your finances, Robbie.”

“I don’t believe you! You told her. You told her everything and now everybody in Scotland’s going to know Sir Robert McStuart is bankrupt! Scorned by a woman and bankrupt!”

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun.

“Robbie, what are you doing with my pistol?” Gordon asked warily, shoving Moira behind him while keeping his eye on the weapon he had carried in his greatcoat from Edinburgh.

Robbie’s eyes filled with tears as he put the end of the weapon to his temple. “What do you care what I do? What do you care if I live or die? You’ve got your career and now you’ve got Moira and I’ve got nothing. Nothing but debts and humiliation and shame.”

“Robbie, please,” Moira pleaded, “put that down.”

“Why? It’s not as if you care, either.”

“I do! I don’t want you to die.”

Robbie’s expression hardened as he turned the pistol to point at Gordon. “I don’t think you do, but you do care about him.”

“What the devil is the meaning of this?” the earl demanded from the doorway.

Taken aback, Robbie half turned—and the pistol exploded in a burst of heat and flame and the smell of gunpowder. Moira screamed and McBean shrieked. Gordon threw himself at Robbie. He got