Midnight Secrets (17 page)

Before I had wondered why a woman such as Miss Prudence would have let herself be compromised. Now I had no question.

I should be horrified with myself for wanting him and responding to him. I should be outraged by his cavalier handling of my person. He’d given me no warning, nor asked for permission.

Hearing the sound of hooves, I looked back then swung around, shocked to see Sean charging up the hillside, astride a mammoth-sized stallion. He’d done little to change his appearance, only buttoned his stark white shirt to a barely decent point. The wind whipped at his hair and his clothes, defining his muscular frame.

I wrapped my hair up in my fist to keep it from my eyes and met his gaze.

“I owe you an apology. Do you accept?”

I couldn’t seem to speak, but I did manage a slight nod, not sure I wanted to accept his apology, but unable to deny him.

“Should you enter my quarters again, uninvited, be prepared to share more than a kiss, Cassie.” He raked his gaze down my body, fueling the fire he’d kindled. Then whipping his horse around, he charged down to the sea and went flying along the beach, making me envy his headlong pace and the wild freedom that seemed to pour off of him. I wanted to fly from here as well, to flee what was happening inside of me.

Shedding my prim, proper gowns for the loosely woven dress of a maid had unbound things within me that I never knew were there. A dark part of me wanted to return to his quarters uninvited to find out what would come next.

“Mar-ry!”

Before I could turn, Jamie’s huge arms wrapped around my chest from behind, jerked me up, and crushed me against his chest. The smell of soil and soured perspiration assaulted me. With my arms clamped to my sides, I couldn’t fight him or reach the knife in my boot, and he carried me like a rag doll away from the sea.

“Stop!” I kicked and squirmed, but nothing I did made any difference. “Help!” The wind seemed to swallow my cry and spurred his pace.
 

“Hu-urt you.” He sounded as if he were crying. He ran faster, as if trying to whisk me away before anyone could see. He passed the stables and ran farther on to where I saw an opening in the forest, a dark path leading to God only knew what.

“Put me down!” His hold kept me from breathing enough air, making me feel faint. Real panic welled inside of me. “Help,” I screamed, but I feared my voice had been reduced to a squeak.

He dragged me into the dense trees. The branches and sky overhead blurred. I struggled against his hold until I thought my bones would crack from the ferocity of his strength. Then he broke into a bright clearing and the sun blinded me. I heard a heavy thundering beat and thought it was the pounding of my heart until my vision adjusted and I saw Stuart charging toward us astride a dark horse.

“Jamie! Stop!” Stuart yelled.

Jamie turned and ran, nearly crushing me with the strength in his arms.

Whatever doubts I harbored about Stuart, I was never more thankful to see a man in my life.

“No…hurt…her!” Jamie yelled, rendering my breathing nearly impossible. I realized that I could die right there with help not more than ten feet away. I tried to reach out, to speak, but could only croak. The world around me turned into a blur of dark colors growing closer to black with every second that passed.

“Let her go!” I heard Stuart yell as if from a long distance away. Then suddenly Jamie fell to his knees. His hold loosened and I sucked in air, gasping desperately.

My vision cleared and I fought myself from Jamie’s grip, but it wasn’t hard to do at all. He didn’t try to hold me any longer. He lay on his side, crying like a small child, who’d been left desolate and abandoned.

“Hurt…her,” he cried. “Some…one…hurt…her.”

When I looked at Stuart, I gasped and stumbled back several steps. He held the butt end of a long leather whip stretched taut. He’d wrapped the painful tip around Jamie’s legs, forcing him to stop.

I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t decide if Jamie wanted to hurt me or hurt Mary. Or if he was saying someone was going to hurt me or had hurt Mary.

“Bloody hell.” Stuart turned to me with anger slashing the handsome lines of his face. “Why don’t you just leave! Get off this cursed land and go.”

He turned from me and went to his brother. “Jamie, it’s all right. Do you hear me? This isn’t Mary.” After touching his brother’s shoulder, he slipped the whip from around his brother’s legs, expertly rolled it up, and slung it over his shoulder.

“Is he all right?” I asked.

“What do you care?” Stuart shouted. “What did you do to him?”

“Nothing. He found me on the dunes, grabbed me, and carried me here.” I glanced about me for the first time and realized I stood in the middle of a circle of ancient carved stones. The stones faced the center of the circle, pagan in design with the curved figure of a woman on each of them. I swung around and found myself nearly at the foot of a huge center stone. The figure hewn upon it was decidedly male and played a harp made to look like a woman bent unnaturally backward, welcoming the musician with open arms. An eerie feeling swept over me, one that made me feel I had trespassed into a place no human should ever go. “What is this?”

“The Circle of the Stone Virgins,” Stuart said.

Just then the sound of pounding of hooves beat their way down the path and Sean charged into the clearing. Seeing us, he veered sharply and rode up.

“Good God! Killdaren out during the day? What in the bloody hell is going on?” Stuart stared at Sean, sounding as if he’d just seen the unbelievable.

The way Sean slid so expertly and fluidly from his horse evoked a feeling inside of me that made me want to do nothing but watch the man in motion. He seemed to be coming to my rescue. The horse heaved as if he’d been ridden hard and a dark trail of sweat drenched its sides.

“What is the problem here?”

“No problem, sir. Just showing Cassie the Stone Virgins,” Stuart answered, his tone sarcastic, much like sugar laced with arsenic. “Jamie tripped and Cassie and I were trying to help him up.”

“He—” I began.

“Is he hurt?” Sean cut off my denial of Stuart’s explanation.

I gasped. Well, I’d obviously mistaken his intentions. He seemed to be deliberately ignoring me.

“I don’t think so, sir,” Stuart said.

“Don’t you have duties to attend to, miss?” Sean turned and looked at me for the first time. Whatever warmth or fire I’d seen in his eyes earlier had fled, leaving cold green glass behind with edges jagged enough to slice a woman bare.

I couldn’t take it. I turned from him and stared hard at Stuart a moment. He met my gaze with one that told me I had better not say anything to Sean about Jamie, and I decided I wouldn’t. Jamie could have thought he was protecting me. He might have killed me in the process, but it was possible that his motives were honorable.

What would Sean do if I told the truth? Send Jamie away? Punish Stuart for lying? Somehow I felt that Jamie was part of the key in learning what had happened to Mary.

Sean looked doubtful, but he didn’t question Stuart any further, and the way they stared at each other sent even more shivers down my spine.

All was not well between Sean and his illegitimate brother.

“Please excuse me.” I backed away. Turning on rubbery legs, I ran down the path, past the stables and garden maze, heading directly for the castle. I slid inside, closing the huge door behind me. Then I shut my eyes and tried to breathe. My sides hurt and most likely had bruises.

“Where is your mob cap? Your hair is completely indecent. I’ll have a word with you immediately in my office.” Mrs. Frye clanged her teacup on the counter from where she stood next to Mrs. Murphy and left the room. Scones scented the air along with cinnamon.

“Yes, ma’am.” I followed her back to her desk, which seemed even more buried beneath papers and bills.

“I’ll not tolerate my staff being improper at any time!”

Outrage and heat flooded me. “I wasn’t.”

“Your unbound hair is telling enough. Tomorrow, there will be no meals and you will scrub every floor downstairs.”

I cringed at the thought, but didn’t argue. “I am sincerely sorry, ma’am. I meant no harm.”

She studied my face. “You are looking very pale. Are you having a bairn?”

“What?” I cried out.

“Are you pregnant? Has Seamus gotten hold of you, girl?” She shook her head. “No, you can’t be. You haven’t been here that long. So what is your ailment then?”

“I think you work her too hard, Ma.” Stuart spoke from just behind me.

Startled, I jerked to the side so I could see him.

“You don’t need to be interfering into my affairs, Stuart Frye.”

“Then don’t punish her for what God gave her. It would be no different than punishing Jamie for what God didn’t give him.”

Mrs. Frye gasped and turned as white as her stark collar.

Stuart ignored his mother’s reaction. “Cassie gets her meals and all of the maids will scrub the floors and have it done in an hour, rather than a day. That’s if they need scrubbing at all. And since her punishment is settled, I need to speak with Cassie about Jamie a moment.”

Mrs. Frye glared at her son. “Stuart Frye, I’ll not have you turning into your fa—”

“Don’t you dare say it.” He slapped the doorframe with the palm of his hand. “Cassie, would you mind waiting for me in the kitchen?”

I glanced at Mrs. Frye and she gave me a tight-lipped nod. Stuart stepped aside and I hurried out, but I didn’t go all the way to the kitchens, I stopped in the corridor, just out of sight and pressed my back against the wall, hoping I could hear more.

“It’s Mary again,” Stuart said.

“What do you mean, again?” Mrs. Frye cried out. “She’s gone, and good riddance. She almost killed him.”

I bit my lip and dug my nails into my palm. The anger and hate I heard in Mrs. Frye’s voice gave me a chill.

Stuart sighed. “She tried to help him. Tried to teach him to read and write.”

“No! What she did was made him think that he was normal. That he deserved more in life. She knew he loved her, and she made him believe that he could…he could…”

“Be a man?” Stuart said harshly. “Unfortunately, Mother, he is one, and you’re going to have to stop hating us because of it. Jamie is confusing Cassie with Mary. He just dragged her from the beach to the Stone Virgins.”

“Dear God. I’ll dismiss her! She’ll be gone in minutes.”

“And is that what you’re going to do the next time, and the next? Keep sending women away rather than fix the problem? I think with Cassie’s help, we can get Jamie over this.”

“What makes you think she’ll help us?”

“Two reasons. After being attacked herself, she worried about Jamie being hurt. And she didn’t tell the Killdaren.”

“What did ya say?”

“You heard me. The Killdaren was up and out riding in broad daylight.”

“But that’s impossible—”

“Apparently not. I’ll have Cass—”

I didn’t wait to hear anymore, but scurried quickly to the kitchens and had just planted my bottom in a chair by the fire when Stuart walked into the room. Mrs. Murphy raised her brows at me but didn’t say a word.
 

Stuart came and stood by the fire. Feet spread apart as if manning the helm of a ship, he held his hands out, warming them. “Fire’s an interesting thing, don’t you think, Miss Cassie?”

“What do you mean?”

“One can’t help but watch it, to stare into its depths and wonder at its power. It fascinates us. We can’t live without it. And it will kill in a flash. Like water you might say. Come walk with me a moment, and I’ll have you back safely before the evening meal.”

With both his mother and Mrs. Murphy aware that I was with him, I didn’t fear for my life. And I was more than curious about what Stuart had to say about Mary.

I knew my cousin well; there wasn’t a malicious grain of sand between her toes. So how could she have done anything to garner so much hatred from a rational person?

I stood. “The evening meal will start shortly.” I suddenly realized I hadn’t seen Bridget in a long time. My stomach knotted as I remembered Jamie following us from the village last time. “Mrs. Murphy, has Bridget returned from the village yet?”

She frowned. “No, lass. I haven’t seen her. She’s late.”

Stuart sighed, as if too burdened to carry another potato in his sack. “I’m sure she’s fine. I’ll check with my mother about Bridget’s expected return while you make sure she isn’t in your room. Meet me in the garden as soon as you are done.”

Swallowing the sudden lump in my throat, I nodded and hurried up to the room I shared with Bridget. Everything was as we had left it that morning. After splashing water on my face and gathering another mob cap, I found Stuart waiting outside the kitchens, just before the entrance to the formal gardens.

“My mother expected Bridget back an hour ago. I don’t think there is any cause for worry, but we’ll walk toward the village as we talk.”

“Why did Jamie drag me to the woods?”

Stuart didn’t answer immediately. He seemed to be thinking of what to say so I scanned the area, searching thoroughly as we passed the stables, even though it was unlikely Bridget was there. It wasn’t until I didn’t see Sean astride his horse that I realized I’d been looking for him. My anticipation irritated me, and I thought of Stuart’s assessment of fire and water. Sean was the same for me.

“I’m sure you’ve heard about Mary,” Stuart finally said.

I drew a deep breath. “Yes. She was a teacher here.”

“Teacher, mentor, rebel. Mary came and wanted to change everyone’s lives. For a time I think we believed she could, and that makes her senseless death even more painful.”

“You were involved with her, then?” My hand fisted as I waited for his answer.

He searched my face intently. “We weren’t lovers. So you can disregard anything Bridget has told you otherwise. Mary was a friend to all, and she brought…hope. Mary
was
hope, especially to my brother Jamie. As you heard my mother say when you eavesdropped on our conversation, Jamie loved Mary in the way a mortal man might love an untouchable angel.”

“I didn’t—”

He lifted a questioning brow. His dark eyes held a challenge to tell the truth as well as a hint of humor. “I would have in your position. And I would think it insulting if I didn’t credit you with as much intelligence as God gave me.”