Tempting Taffy (House of Devon #8) - Meara Platt Page 0,11
Inverness, it is his duty to care for his people, not harm them. Our Fraser clan has been at peace with the neighboring clans for many years now. MacKenzie, MacKintosh, Campbell, Munro. The most powerful ones, too. Moray and Ross. The Grants used to be a thorn in our side, but I married Vera Grant to consolidate a lasting peace between us. We maintain good relations now.”
“Since this seems to rule out business relations, then we have all the more reason to believe this is a personal matter. I wish I could avoid stirring up these painful memories, but it is important we get some solid clues. It is obvious this villain wishes to kill your son as well as you. That is a deeply wicked and personal thing.”
He said nothing, merely frowned.
“Did your wife have a beau before you came along? Perhaps someone among those pesky Grants? A clan member who loved her and felt spurned? Someone with a possessive and jealous nature?”
“Aye, she was a beautiful girl and had several young men in love with her. But Rafe is her son, part of her lives within him. Why would anyone who loved her wish to destroy that?”
“You would never do such a thing, my lord. But others might look at the boy and think he has been tainted by you. This is how a twisted soul would think, because it would take someone quite twisted and putrid to want to kill a defenseless child. Who were these men courting her?”
He absently ran a hand through his dark curls. “Let me think. It was about seven years ago now that we were betrothed, and obviously Vera’s father was keen to keep any spurned hotheads away from me lest the hoped for betrothal fell apart. But there were two who were present at the time and made their dissatisfaction known. Aldous Grant was a distant cousin of hers who believed – perhaps he had been led to believe – that Vera’s father would betroth her to him.”
“What did he look like?”
He snorted. “Big fellow, at least a head taller than me and I am no small man. Fiery red hair and a temper to match. But a man like that would be noticed wherever he went. He is a giant with hair the color of a flaming torch.”
“That is excellent, my lord. I will relay his description to Mr. Barrow. Now for the other disgruntled beau who was present at the time. Who was he?”
“Bruce Gordon, a laird of Clan Gordon and cousin of the Earl of Moray. The earl is a powerful man, and Laird Gordon would have become quite important to him with a marriage to Vera Grant.” He rubbed his hand across his face. “Och, he is a nondescript fellow. Average height, average build. Brown hair. No scars that I noticed. Nothing unusual or memorable about him other than he is a weasel and I took an instant dislike to him.”
“Hmm, that is interesting.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Often people respond to what they sense in others. You did not like him perhaps because you sensed he did not like you.”
He shrugged. “That man was a nothing, yet full of his own self importance. I canno’ believe Vera ever took him seriously. But to hear him talk, one would think theirs was a love to rival that of Romeo and Juliet. Er, do ye ken what I am speaking of? Shakespeare, lass?”
“Yes, my lord. I’ve read his work.” She tried not to sound indignant, for most young ladies of her station were not well educated. The Ralstons had considered education important even for an orphan like herself, so they had taught her to read and write with great proficiency. “This man, Bruce Gordon, interests me.”
“Och, he was insufferable.”
“And capable of believing your wife was madly in love with him? Perhaps also believing you were the brute who stole her from him? It is quite possible this belief festered over the years, do you not think?”
He stared at her, not moving a muscle, not even a twitch to his clenched jaw. She waited a long moment, hoping to give him time to consider the possibility that such a man could be his unknown assailant.
It seemed a little farfetched, but not impossible. An unimportant man who was so full of himself, now convinced theirs had been a love of all time. Such a man could easily delude himself into believing Vera had been cruelly treated. Indeed, such a man would