To Catch a Highlander: A Highland Erotic Romance (2 page)

“Gordan is a confirmed bachelor, Peter,” Father explained to his friend, who now had a vengeful grin on his bruised face. “But he always has adored my Brianna.” Turning back to me, he added, “You remember how he admired your growth every year when you were younger. He told me years ago, if you were ever in need of a husband, he would be delighted to volunteer. And you may not feel you are in need of anything, Brianna, but I do!”

“Surely you could not!” I insisted. “I know you are far too busy to escort me over there.” Gordan’s manor was on the coast of Moray Firth, at least three days’ travel by the roads I knew.

“Indeed I am,” Father conceded. “But Lord Galbraith is not, and he has graciously agreed to the thankless task of ensuring you arrive safe and sound at your new husband’s home. You shall both be leaving in the morning.”

“In the morning!” I laughed through my horror. “Lord Galbraith is a busy man, too. What makes you think he will be free to take me, and on such short notice?” But I knew it was a losing battle; Lord Galbraith was a gentleman and I admired him, but he was also among Father’s most obsequious yes-men.

“We arranged it several weeks ago, Brianna,” Peter chortled.

“I’m not stupid, young lady,” Father went on. “I have had my suspicions for some time now that you were the Boy Avenger. All I needed was proof, and as of this afternoon I have it. Lord Galbraith was awaiting my notification.”

“Father! You mustn’t –“

“I must, and I shall!” Without another word, he signaled to the doorman, who opened the study door. I did not need to turn to know that my detested nurse, Alva, would be waiting in the doorway. A devoted servant of my late mother’s, she had never forgiven me for growing up to be so very different from her.

“I understand we are finally to be rid of young Brianna, then?” she chirped when she arrived at my side.

“Indeed, first thing tomorrow,” Father confirmed. “You know what to do with her in the meantime, Alva.”

“Off to bed with you then, young lady!” she proclaimed, gripping at my shoulder from behind and shoving me out of the study and then off down the hall, never letting up even as I did not resist.

“All right then, I’m going!” I protested. “No need to push!”

“That’d be a first with you, then, wouldn’t it?” she said. “I’d never speak so freely in his lordship’s presence, Brianna, but I’ll tell you very frankly, we all think it’s long overdue. Running about the town in trousers, picking fights with your father’s most gallant men! What sort of lady do you think you are?”

“You didn’t even know that before today!” I protested. “No one k
new save Penny!”

“We had no proof until today,” she said, “But the rumours have been floating about for months. You aren’t nearly as clever as you think. Then again, Brianna, I’ve known you all your life and you have never been half as clever as you though
t you were.”

“Is that really necessary?” I demanded, intentionally adding an edge to my voice to keep from weeping at her harsh words.

“More than you can ever know, after all you’ve put your poor father through,” she said. “How do you suppose a proper gentleman is to address rumours that his daughter swims naked with a commoner, just for starters?”

I whipped around, my breath caught in my throat.
“How do you know that?!”

The bitch smiled grandly, clearly knowing she had won. “It is none of your concern ho
w we know. What you should know is that despite your naughty, unladylike behaviour all these years, your father has kept you and that little slut Penny safe in your distasteful pastime. If nothing else, you ought to be deeply grateful for that!”

I felt ano
ther wave of tears welling up, at the mention of Penny and the reminder that I would likely never see my dear friend again. Not wanting Alva to see me cry under any circumstances, I turned away again and allowed her to prod me up the stairs and down the hall to my chamber. Upon our arrival, she gave me one last rough push over the threshold. “Now then, dear,” she said, “give me your key.” She held her hand out, but I hesitated. “If you do not do so willingly, I shall have no qualms about tearing your dress right off your body to retrieve the key,” she warned.

It was no idle threat, I knew Alva well enough to know that. I reluctantly reached into the key’s hiding place in the folds of my skirt and untied the cord. In my nervous state, the key slipped to the
floor before I could hand it over. Seeing that, Alva shoved me away before I could bend down. I lost my balance and landed hard on my bottom at the foot of my bed. Alva collected the key and withdrew into the hallway. “Lord Galbraith shall be here at first light,” she said. “Don’t waste your breath asking to be let out before then; there will be guards on hand outside your chamber at all times.” Just before she slammed the door shut, she added, “Enjoy your new life, Brianna. It’s far better than a wretch like you deserves.”

And with that, the door was slammed and locked on all I had known in my life.

With the sting of humiliation now past, I did not weep. I gave no thought to undressing and going to bed, for I knew I would never get to sleep in the state I was in, but neither did I weep. Rather, I thought. Jumbled, confused thoughts, I confess, but I thought long and hard nevertheless. I thought of Lord Galbraith and how I might elude him on the morrow. That I must leave home was clear to me now; Father would never tolerate my presence again, and in light of all I had learned in the past hour I could hardly stand the thought of continuing to live under his roof in any event. But marry Gordan and live in that horrid, frigid village on the coast?! Hardly! I would find my own way in the world, free of the constraints of nobility and femininity and Father’s silly rules. I knew not how, but I was quite certain I would find my own way. Certainly that silly oaf Lord Galbraith would never be able to stop me!

It was no
t so much that Lord Galbraith was a bad sort. Rather, it was simply that he was chief among my father’s minions whom I had grown to hate so. Of course, the man could have been a living saint and I’d have nevertheless resented every bone in his spry, taut body when I learned of Father’s plans. But Lord Galbraith was anything save a saint. A terror to behold in a hunt or a game, he seemed to bring that same grim determination to everything he did. Where so many of Father’s other men were playful and good-natured when Penny and I wandered about underfoot, he was always terribly serious in telling us to mind our manners and remember we were young ladies. While I could not say he had ever been rude to me or treated me as less than a lady, he had long been the very epitome of the horribly dour atmosphere that had enveloped Father’s home for as long as I could recall, and which I should have been properly delighted to be escaping if only it were on my terms.

Of course, I knew “my terms” did not exist. I had known that for as long as I had known the difference between a boy and a girl, and my own cursed fate as the latter.

Lord Galbraith did look marvellous in a kilt, and back when Penny and I were only just coming to notice men as anything other than a nuisance, we had taken every opportunity to observe him from a safe distance and speculate as to what he might look like underneath it. That pleasant memory put me sufficiently at ease to lie down in the bed of my girlhood for that final night and imagine the view in the morning before I took my leave of him. After an hour or so of tossing and turning and thinking of Lord Galbraith’s body, at last I fell asleep.

I was not disappointed when Alva appeared at my bedside in the morning, ordering me to arise and dress. “For everyone’s benefit, you had best be on your way before your father is awake,” she said.

I sat up and focused, and saw Lord Galbraith standing at the foot of my bed, unsmiling as usual but resplendent in his tartan. “I am no happier about this than you are, Brianna,” he said. “But there is no use in fighting it. I shall wait in the hallway for you to dress.” Without awaiting a response from me, he turned and left the room.

“The ladies have packed a few changes of clothing for you,” Alva said. “You will find the pack waiting with your horse downstairs.”

“Honey will be joining us, then?” I asked hopefully.

“You shall ride her to Gordan’s home, but Lord Galbraith will return with her,” Alva said.

“But she’s
my
horse!” I protested.

“No, dearie, she is your father’s horse. Of course, if I were your father, I shan’t have even allowed you any of your clothes, much less your horse. But I suppose your father will have no need for half a dozen dresses in any case.”

“You bitch,” I growled.

“I’m a bitch, yes, but only one of us is still in your father’s good graces, dearie.” With a hateful smile she sauntered away. Castigating her further would only postpone the inevitable, that I knew, and so I cast off my nightdress and hastily put on the one remaining change of clothing I found in my wardrobe – clearly Father had planned everything quite carefully before breaking the news to me – and stepped out of my chamber. I had hoped Alva would at least have taken her leave now; but she stood there smug and silent beside Lord Galbraith. He was looking sombre, to my silent cold comfort.

“Well then,” he declared, flashing me what passed for a smile in his
case. “We’d best be on our way, hadn’t we?”

He held out his arm for me, and I linked mine through it. “You can go no
w, Alva,” I said without looking at her.

“I am under strict orders from your father not to let either of you out of my sight until you are gone,” she said sternly. I doubted that, but there was no point in arguing. What Alva wanted, Alva got, always. Yet
another silver lining to my miserable fate, I told myself as the three of us plodded silently down the stairs I had known all my life, through the parlour I had known and loved, and out into the dawn. Alva stopped in the doorway, but I did not need to look back to know she remained there with her hateful eyes upon me.

Brendon, the stable boy, had our horses at the ready. “Terribly sorry about this,
m’lady,” he assured me as I swung up into the saddle, not caring in the least that I was wearing a gown and would have caused a scandal had any of the villagers seen me riding thusly. Just let anyone try to tell me I was acting unladylike in that moment!

“I’m sure you are, Brendon,” I said. “No more peeping opportunities below my window.”

“Good heavens, you knew that?!” Brendon at least had the decency to look shocked.

“I had no idea, actually, but I know now,” I said. It didn’t surprise me in the least, knowing Brendon’s attitude about nearly everything.

We clopped off in stony silence, Lord Galbraith on my right and the edge of the ridge – our ridge, I had always called it – to my left. I gazed down wistfully into the dewy glen where Penny and I had rambled through the endless summer days of our childhood. Today was going to be a lovely day for lazing about there, and I could hardly believe it would never happen again. Once again I vowed that, somehow or other, I was not leaving forever. Someday, some way, I would make it back. I would depose Father and avenge his beastly treatment, and build a new and bigger estate for Penny and me to live. Down by the pond, it would be, so she and I could swim naked to our hearts’ content in privacy and peace, and an arena for Father’s men – now
our
men – to fight to the death if that were what we wanted, and for either or both of us to take any of them to bed should the fancy strike us.

Someday!

Lord Galbraith at least had the sense to hold his tongue until we were just past the town line, officially out in the wild countryside where I was no longer a nobleman’s daughter, but rather just a rebellious young woman in a bit of trouble. I found I preferred that. I had but a few yards past the border to muse about all that before he broke the silence for the first time. “Look, Brianna,” he finally said, “I want you to know why I volunteered for this.”

“I know why you did!” I snapped. “You are Father’s most loyal minion! I suppose I can hardly blame you for that, since you’ve done awfully well for yourself doing his bidding all these years, but don’t expect me to –”

“Enough!” he said. “You’ve got me all wrong, my dear. I respect your father greatly, but you were never meant for fulfilling the appropriate role of his daughter. I’ve known that all your life, and from the first time you were old enough to frolic about in the courtyard on your own, I could see you had inherited your mother’s free-spiritedness and your father’s smarts, but none of your mother’s sense of obeisance or your father’s gravity. That is neither a good thing nor a bad thing, Brianna, but it has always been clear to me that this day would arrive eventually. Having loved you since you were an infant, I simply wanted to do what I could to make the inevitable as painless as possible for you.”

Tears welled in my eyes at the mention of my mother. The consumption had taken
her when I was seven, and I had only the vaguest memories of her. As the woods encroached on both sides of the road and we were well and truly alone, I nearly gave in to my tears…but not in front of Lord Galbraith. I doubted that he even knew what crying was.