Reckoning (Book 4 of Lost Highlander series) (4 page)

Evie gave her a quick squeeze. “What do we do now, hire a locksmith?” she asked.

Piper bit her bottom lip, sighed, and then reached in and twirled the old fashioned combination lock, right, left, right again, pausing at each number as if she had chosen them herself. The lock clicked open with a soft wheeze.

“Creepy, right?” she asked shakily.

“Don’t be negative about yourself,” Evie said, then bounced on the balls of her feet. “Open it,” she demanded. “Don’t you want to know what’s in there?”

Piper almost laughed at sweet, naive Evelyn. She already knew what was in there. But, she swung open the door and reached in, pulling out a robin’s egg blue book with a silver heart shaped padlock.

In the middle of the cover, gold embossed letters spelled out the name Rose.

Tavish Glen was well and truly dead.

Lachlan crouched down and rolled him over, checking for breath or a heartbeat. He looked up at Gordon and shook his head, the surety of defeat dragging heavily at his limbs. The laird of clan Glen lay in a puddle of blood, his sham marriage to Bella was being called into question. His brother and men were outnumbered and in danger of being captured or killed at the first breath of what went on in this room.

As much as he tried, he couldn’t visualize a positive outcome to this. He was beginning to think the books he’d read in Piper’s time were a load of hogwash.

“I didna want to kill him,” Gordon said in a faraway voice. “But the lad …”

Bella stood clutching at her bodice and gasping for breath, first looking at her father’s body, then at Gordon. Lachlan feared she would faint or scream and took a step toward her.

She brushed past him and flung herself into Pietro’s arms, running her hands over his chest to assure herself Tavish’s knife had come nowhere near him.

Gordon found his way to a chair, and collapsed into it. “I couldna watch him strike ye, lass. I held my tongue all the years your sweet mother was alive, may God one day forgive me for that.” His face wrinkled into silent sobs as he looked at Tavish lying on the ground.

Bella broke away from Pietro and dropped to her knees at Gordon’s side. Taking his hands, she raised them to her lips and kissed them.

“Ye saved him, Uncle,” she said. “And me as well.” She looked defiantly at Lachlan and Pietro, as if daring them to judge her for not crying over her father’s death.

“Ye’ll get no argument from me,” Pietro said, placing his hand over his heart where the knife had been aimed. “I’m sorry ye had to live with the evil bugger so long.”

“The past is done with.” She and Gordon exchanged a long look.

He nodded and wiped at his eyes. “Still, I am sorry for standing by and watching his cruelty to ye all these years. I dinna think I ever saw ye happy. Except when ye walked in today, I thought I saw a difference. From the moment ye walked into the room I knew that the lad there loved ye.”

“I love him as well, Uncle,” she whispered, glancing at Pietro as if she feared what he would think of that admission. “I want to stay with him.” After glancing at her father’s body, she raised her chin, her eyes hard. “I’m no’ sorry ye did what ye did.”

Lachlan wasn’t shocked at her statement, couldn’t view her as being cold. He knew first hand what Tavish was capable of, and rumors of his cruelty to his wife and daughter had trickled through the countryside for as long as he could remember. Now her years of living in fear for her future were over. She was free of his iron grasp.

Pietro reached down and pulled her back up to standing, gathering her close to his chest and dropping a kiss onto the top of her head.

“What the bloody hell are we going to do?” Lachlan asked, their outward show of affection the least of his problems.

It was all well and good that Bella finally admitted she loved Pietro, and it was a relief that Gordon was taking that well. They were all going to breathe easier with Tavish gone, except he wasn’t really gone yet. His damned corpse was inches away from their feet.

Gordon may have been feeling sentimental now, what with basking in the forgiveness of his niece after having just murdered his mad tyrant of a laird, but he could turn on them at any moment, call for the guards and try to blame them for it.

With a sigh of disgust, Lachlan found a blanket in a chest and covered Tavish with it. He motioned for Pietro to pick up the sword Gordon dropped and be ready to use it.

“Bella’s an only child, right?” Pietro asked.

Gordon scrubbed away the last traces of his tears and stood. “Aye, lad, she is.” He circled Lachlan, barely coming to his shoulder as he looked him over. “Can ye explain why ye’re married to Bella, yet this one holds her in his arms and ye dinna break his teeth?” He scratched his jaw. “If I’m no’ mistaken, ye ran off old Galwain in order to marry her, aye? It seemed at the time that ye wanted her verra much.”

“Uncle Gordy, ‘tis a long tale,” Bella said, wriggling out of Pietro’s embrace and flushing with embarrassment. She didn’t seem to know what to do with herself, so she crossed her arms over her chest and stood roughly in the middle of Pietro and Lachlan. “But he’s a good man. He was doing it to protect me, I swear it to ye.”

“Protect ye from your father giving ye to the old buzzard Galwain?” he asked, nodding as if this made perfect sense.

Lachlan raised his eyebrow at Bella and she studiously avoided his gaze, having been quite pleased to be matched with the old buzzard, because she knew she could control him for the few years he had left, then live as a wealthy, independent widow after he died. At the time she’d been infuriated that Lachlan should spoil her plan.

“Then ye really never did consummate the marriage?” he asked.

Bella turned purple and ducked her head. “Er, no. Not with Lachlan.”

Gordon also turned purple and cleared his throat. “I see. I think. I dinna know what to think.”

“The matter at hand,” Lachlan bellowed, then lowered his voice. “What are we going to do?”

“Bella should be the new laird,” Pietro said. “Lady,” he corrected himself. “It’s her birthright, her land.”

Gordon guffawed heartily at that, and Bella giggled a little as well. With the stress they were under, a dead man at their feet, and the guards looming outside, all Lachlan could do was join in the laughter at Pietro’s suggestion. He looked hurt and confused and Bella squeezed his arm to take the sting out of her laughter.

“I canna lead the Glens,” she said. “They view me as a silly child, which perhaps isna so far from the truth.”

“Your husband can,” Gordon said.

Lachlan’s laughter died instantly on his lips and he gave Gordon such a look that the older man stepped back several paces.

“Tavish was … unhinged for some time,” he said. “Ever since Bella ran away to live with her auntie in Edinburgh. He drove the men into unnecessary battles, made unsettling alliances and unfair trades, threw good men into the tower for so much as disagreeing with him.”

“Ye’re saying he won’t be missed,” Pietro interrupted. “That a change of leadership would be welcome.”

“Aye, lad, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Why Lachlan?” Pietro shot back, eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“Everyone knows he’s Bella’s husband. Most everyone was at their wedding. He’s got the favor of some still for bringing the murdering fiend Brian Duncan to justice. Many would easily accept him as their laird.”

“Some? Many?” Lachlan spoke up, his head still spinning at the very suggestion that he lead this huge clan.

He’d been their prisoner not so long ago. He thought about Brian’s head sticking out on a pike at the front gates and unfortunately, could easily imagine his own taking its place. The Glens were an unpredictable lot. One day’s hero was the next day’s severed head.

“I think ye’re exaggerating my popularity with your kinfolk,” he said wryly.

Bella snorted, but Gordon continued on doggedly. With a grim look, he pointed at the blanket covered lump on the floor. “We’ll need to stand together. We’ll need a strong leader. Aye, there’s some as won’t trust ye. Probably more than will, but they’ll keep quiet about it, at least for a while. Until we can figure out something better. They all adore Bella, so ye’d have that on your side. And I can advise ye.”

“Ye’re speaking as if I’ve agreed,” Lachlan said, raking his hands through his hair.

A glance at Bella showed him she seemed to actually like the idea. With a groan, he realized they’d have to continue their ruse of a marriage.

“I think we kind of established that it’s me and Bella that are together, aye?” Pietro said, realizing the same thing at the same time. “Their marriage isn’t real.”

Gordon put his hand on Pietro’s shoulder. “Lad, if ye want any of us to live through this, ye’ll never let those words pass your lips again. I canna see any other way. If I were to explain exactly what happened in here, with all truthfulness, do ye think they’d believe me? They’d think I was protecting ye for Bella’s sake. Do ye think we’d live to see the tower?”

Lachlan felt a deep ache in his chest, that rolled through his limbs and wrapped him in fatigue. “Who can we trust?” he asked. “And who can be bought?”

He saw Pietro’s look of dismay and shook his head sadly at him. There was nothing he could do right now but try to keep them all alive. His brother was surrounded by armed Glens who wouldn’t hesitate to cut him in two if those orders came from their laird.

Lachlan would just have to make sure no such orders would ever come, and the only way to insure that was to be the one giving them.

“Cormag out there can be trusted,” Bella said, nodding to the door. “He used to be in love with me when we were children, and his mother made him promise to always watch out for me, when she was on her deathbed. The other one, I dinna know.”

“That’s Roy,” Gordon supplied. “Power hungry, might could be bribed, but I think we should just get rid of him.” At Bella’s gasp, he clarified. “Send him off, child.”

He told them his rough plan in a hurried whisper, then with a grimace, uncovered Tavish’s head, arranging the blanket so that no blood showed. “Ready as we’ll ever be,” he said.

Lachlan nodded to Bella and closed his eyes, wondering if it was worth it to offer up a prayer. A second later her scream echoed in the small chamber.

“Guards, quickly,” Gordon yelled.

The two guards threw open the door, immediately noticing Tavish on the ground. Bella stood in front of them, her face in her hands, sobbing in what Lachlan felt was an overly dramatic manner.

She pulled one guard forward, presumably the one who had loved her once, while angling her body to keep the other guard out. “My father’s collapsed,” she said behind her hands. “He clutched his chest and fell over.”

“You there, run and fetch the physician,” Gordon ordered Roy, who stood there stupidly gaping until Lachlan repeated the order with a more dangerous tone.

The guard took off in a hurry. Perhaps they would accept him as the new laird if he kept up a constant stream of threatening looks and menacing yelling. That thought settled like a lead weight in his stomach, but he ignored it, slamming the door shut again after the one guard who could be trusted entered the room.

“Cor,” Bella said, then burst into tears, real ones this time.

Lachlan had a moment of icy fear and prayed she wasn’t going to turn on them. She grabbed the edge of the desk to steady herself, seemingly unable to catch her breath. Could she only just now be realizing what a deep hole they were in? Not for the first time, he wanted to shake the lass.

The guard dropped to his knees in front of his fallen laird, and with a gasp, pulled back the blanket. His eyes grew wide and he reached for his weapon when he saw the blood.

Bella fell to the ground next to him and clutched at his weapon hand, sobbing and shaking almost uncontrollably.

“It was an accident, Cor, ye must believe me,” she said through her hysterical tears. “Ye know how he is. Can ye remember when we were children?”

Cormag gave her a look of confusion laced with distrust. “Who did this?” he asked in a low voice. He turned a hostile gaze toward Lachlan.

Bloody hell, thought Lachlan, his own hand moving to his sword as he took a step closer to Pietro.

Bella grabbed his face and turned it back to her. “‘Twas me,” she cried.

Pietro groaned and stepped forward, but Lachlan surreptitiously held out his hand to stop him, wondering how Bella would proceed. None of this had been part of their quickly cobbled plan. It had always been assumed Gordon would take the rightful blame. Gordon stood back with his lips pressed together, all the color drained from his face. He wasn’t sure of this new turn either, it seemed.

Cormag stared at Tavish’s body, then looked at Bella, his face softening. If Lachlan hadn’t seen it himself, he never would have believed it, but the guard’s eyes filled with tears.

“What happened, Bella?” he asked, his tone completely different from the harsh one a moment ago.

He actually reached up and wiped away Bella’s tears. Lachlan couldn’t make himself look at Pietro, couldn’t tear his eyes from the scene unfolding before him.

“My father threatened to kill my husband,” she said, small and wavery, her big whiskey colored eyes locked with Cormag’s. “He attacked Gordon, then turned on me when I begged him to see reason.”