The Highlander's Promise by Lynsay Sands

  Suddenly tired beyond words, Jetta decided to speed this along and said, "You pushed me down the stairs."

  Cat shrugged. "It worked with my husband."

  "You hid in a chest in the hall afterward to avoid discovery."

  Startled, she scowled and asked, "How did you know that?"

  "You dropped Father's ballock knife while you were hiding in there. We found it later."

  "Ah. I wondered where that had gone. I brought it, hoping to use it on you. I lay awake each night here, imaging what I would do to you with it."

  "We are sisters, Cat," Jetta said desperately. "More than sisters--twins--and yet you hate me and--"

  "Of course I do!" she bellowed. "You escaped Le Cok, forcing me to marry the marquis!"

  "He was your betrothed!" Jetta bellowed right back. "And I escaped nothing as you very well know. I was tied to the mast and it was ripped from the ship as if God himself reached down and tore it off."

  "God," Cat sneered. "Now you will try to claim God saved you? Where was he when I needed him, then? Why did he not kill my husband ere I had to marry him? Or ensure I was betrothed to someone else to begin with? Someone young, strong, handsome and virile?"

  "Perhaps he did try to give you a husband who was young, strong, handsome and virile," Jetta argued.

  "What?" Cat asked with confusion, and then snapped impatiently, "What are you driveling on about now?"

  "It occurs to me that had you not connived to make me marry the marquis in your place, and had you been on Le Cok the first time instead of me, it would have been you on the mast that tore from the ship and floated up to shore near Aulay's lodge. And had that happened, it might now be you married to him and enjoying the benefits of a young, strong, very handsome, and incredibly virile husband who is also kind and would never even think of hurting you.

  "Come to think of it," she added now, "mayhap I should thank you for your perfidy. For I owe every happiness I have enjoyed to date to your conniving and convincing father to send me to the marquis in your place."

  Cat's eyes narrowed, and then she gave a hard laugh. "Your husband is far from handsome. I may have married a man who was monstrous in deed, but yours is monstrous to look at. Frankly, I do not understand how you can bear to let him touch you."

  "I like his face and find him handsome," Jetta said unperturbed. "To me he is the most beautiful man I have ever met."

  "Of course, you would think so," Cat said with derision. "You always preferred the flawed to the flawless. I once told Mother I was sure you were blind, but she said nay, that you found beauty in imperfection." She rolled her eyes to show her opinion of that, and then her mouth compressed and she seemed to struggle briefly before admitting, "Although, I will concede that he seems very virile. The things he did to you in the stables . . . The way you moaned, cried out and thrashed about as he did them . . ." She gave a little shiver at the memory and said, "It made me think mayhap the bedding did not have to be so painful and humiliating. It made me want to experience that pleasure myself."

  "You watched us in the stables?" Jetta gasped with horror.

  "Where do you think I was sleeping up until then?" she asked tightly. "I could hardly sleep in the keep and risk you seeing and recognizing me. Others might have been fooled by the dirt I smeared on my face, and my covering my hair, but I knew you would not. So I slept up in the hayloft, and had a perfect view of both your wedding and the two of you consummating it afterward."

  "And then you locked us in and set the fire," Jetta said, her own voice a little cold.

  "Aye." Cat made the admission with no remorse. "The moment you fell asleep, I crept down, started the fire and blocked the doors so you could not escape." Mouth twisting bitterly she added, "But of course you did. Again."

  When Jetta just glared at her, she eyed her back for a moment, and then smiled cruelly and said, "But perhaps that has worked out to my advantage in the end. Because, I have to say, sister, I think I will enjoy having yer Aulay pleasure me before I kill him."

  "What?" Jetta asked sharply.

  Cat shrugged. "It is not as if I need rush home after killing you. I still want to kill Captain Casey, but there is no rush. I can dally here a day or two and taste that pleasure ye've been enjoying before I slit the Buchanan's throat while he sleeps."

  "What?" Jetta asked with amazement. "Why would you kill Aulay?"

  "Because he gave you pleasure while I suffered," Cat said furiously, and then shrugged that fury away like it was a pesky fly that had landed on her shoulder, and added, "It only seems fair that he gives me some of that pleasure too before I punish him."

  Relaxing suddenly, Jetta shook her head. "Nay. You will not. You said he had a monstrous face and you did not understand how I could let him touch me," she reminded her.

  "Aye, I did. And 'tis true, which is why originally, I intended to try it on with one of his brothers," she admitted. "Of course, I did not want them to remember it, so I dropped a few weeds and herbs in a pitcher of ale, covered my hair, muddied my face and took it out to set it in front of Conran. Unfortunately, Alick grabbed it and challenged Niels to a drinking contest and the two of them drank it all. Conran did not even get a sip of the concoction," she said with irritation.

  Smiling again, she announced, "But I have since decided that might have been fortuitous. Unfortunately, Edith was in bed with Niels so I went to Alick first. I tried to get him to bed me, but even drugged and brainless, he had too many scruples and would have naught to do with bedding his brother's wife."

  "O' course I would no'," Alick muttered with disgust beside Aulay in the dark passage, and he punched him in the arm for speaking. Although he was surprised at how quiet they had all managed to be. Aside from the occasional horrified gasp, or disgusted tsk, everyone had remained silent. Enthralled by the tale told. Even he was. It was the only reason he had not yet slid along the wall to the entrance to the passage from the bedchamber and gone to save his wife.

  "You tried to seduce Alick?" he heard Jetta ask with dismay and turned back to his spy hole as she protested, "He is just a boy."

  Knowing his brother as he did, Aulay quickly covered Alick's mouth with his hand, muffling the outraged squawk that followed that comment. When Alick's furious eyes swiveled his way, he whispered, "Quiet as mice, remember?"

  Unable to speak, Alick nodded.

  Sighing his relief, Aulay turned back to the hole as Cat continued, "'Twas probably for the best. I do not think it would have worked anyway. I learned from the few kisses I managed to coax out of him that he is a sloppy kisser. I did not feel even a touch of the passion you seemed to experience with Aulay."

  Aulay turned sharply on Alick, but this time Dougall had acted more swiftly and covered their brother's mouth.

  "Ye kissed me wife?" he demanded in a hiss.

  "He kissed Cat, no' Jetta," Dougall said soothingly. "And most like no' willingly. Ye heard her say he refused her."

  Aulay growled low in his throat, but turned back to the hole again.

  "But the night was not a complete waste," Cat commented. "I got him to show me the entrance to the passages. He was very gullible, or perhaps the weeds made him tractable. I told him Aulay said he should, and he did. He showed me the one in his room, and then took me through the passages to the entrance to the stairs, and then the tunnel and all the way out to the cave and back, and then he told me how to open the passage to each room as we passed." She grimaced. "I had to shush him a time or two, for fear he would wake those in the rooms, but we got away with it.

  "And then there was Niels," Cat continued, and Aulay tore his eye from the hole to glance worriedly along the line of dark shapes, trying to see Edith. He suspected she would be the one upset by what was coming and hoped to God Niels had the good sense to silence her when that happened.

  "It was morning ere I could get Niels alone." Cat's voice drew his attention back. "He and Edith went below to break their fast, but it was not long before he returned without her." Cat's mouth tighte
ned. "The drink I had given him had obviously mostly worn off by then, for he would not even kiss me. He was most upset for Aulay, and disgusted by what he thought was your behavior," she said with irritation. "And that is when I realized the only chance I probably have of experiencing that pleasure Aulay gave you was with Aulay himself."

  "You are not sleeping with my husband," Jetta said grimly.

  Cat laughed and taunted her, "Oh come now, sister, do not be so greedy. Mother always admonished us to share our toys."

  "Aulay is not a toy. He is the man I love and my husband."

  Aulay swallowed. It felt like his heart was swelling. He would never again doubt her love for him.

  Cat shrugged. "Which means he is the one man in this castle who will not reject me when I come to him as you. Instead, he will work hard to please me." She gave a little shiver of anticipated pleasure, and then added, "And, who knows? If he is very very good at it, as I suspect he will be, I may let him live a while. At least until I tire of him."

  "But you said you could not bear to look on his face," Jetta almost howled.

  "I will snuff out all the candles and torches," she said simply. "And if that does not work and the fire reveals too much of his face, I will close my eyes. Besides, I doubt you saw much of his face when he was under your skirts." Laughing at Jetta's expression, she added, "Actually, now that I have decided on it, I am looking forward to his pleasuring me. Ugly or not, I enjoyed his kiss earlier."

  "He kissed you?" Jetta asked, sounding wounded, and Aulay clenched his hands, wishing he could throttle his wife's sister.

  "Aye, and it was . . ." Cat shivered happily, and breathed, "Oh aye. I am eager for more."

  Aulay's mouth tightened at the very thought. It would be a cold day in hell before he would even touch the woman. Well, other than to apprehend her.

  "Speaking of which," Cat said now. "He and the others should soon finish their search, and then he promised to return to claim his husbandly rights, so . . . we really need to move this along so I can send one of the soldiers to fetch him back here. From what I have seen, I expect I will be naked, on my back and moaning and groaning minutes after he comes through the door."

  "Over my dead body," Jetta growled.

  "That is the plan, sister. Literally," Cat said on a laugh. "I plan to kill you first and, since I cannot move you until things settle down, shove your dead body under the bed. Your husband will literally be giving me pleasure right over your dead body."

  When Cat started toward Jetta, brandishing her knife, Aulay's heart nearly stopped in his chest.

  Chapter 21

  He had left it too late, Aulay realized with dismay. Instead of intervening the moment he saw both women in there, he had allowed himself to be distracted by the tale his wife's sister told. Cursing, Aulay pressed on the lever to open the passage entrance to the small room and rushed inside. But he didn't get to Cat before she got to Jetta. She must have heard him. Perhaps the rustle of his clothes or a footfall gave him away. He didn't know, but before he could reach Cat, the crazy wench rushed to Jetta and moved behind her. In a heartbeat, she had dropped to her haunches so that Jetta hid most of her from view, and placed her knife at Jetta's throat.

  Aulay froze at once. Trying not to show the alarm coursing through him, he growled, "Put down the knife, Cat. Ye're caught."

  "I am not caught yet," she assured him grimly, her gaze sliding from him to the passage entrance.

  Aulay glanced toward it, relieved to see that the passage looked empty. Alick had had the good sense not to follow him and was nowhere in sight. Turning back to the women, he said, "Ye're right, and ye do no' ha'e to be. Let go o' Jetta and--"

  "I am not a fool," she interrupted dryly. "The minute I let her go you will attack." Her gaze slid to the passage and back again and she urged Jetta to her feet as she said, "So . . . I think I will just take her with me."

  "I'm no' a fool either, wench," Aulay growled. "I ken do ye leave here with Jetta, she's as good as dead."

  "Jetta," Cat said with disgust. "Her name is Sorcha, or Sorry, as I like to call her. But it is not Jetta."

  "It is now," Aulay said unperturbed. He'd noticed Jetta's wince at the unkind nickname, and vowed if he ever heard anyone call Jetta that, he'd beat them into the ground himself. Returning to the subject at hand, he said, "Ye can take Jetta with ye as far as the passage entrance. If ye let her go there, ye're free to flee through the passages. I'll no pursue ye."

  Cat looked toward the passage and back to him, as if considering, and then said, "Move away from there then."

  Aulay nodded, and took a moment to glance to Jetta. He hadn't dared before this, but now he met her gaze and offered her a reassuring smile, trying to convey that all would be well. His heart nearly broke when Jetta peered back at him with apology in her eyes, of all things. To him that meant she'd already given up.

  Mouth tightening, he eased to his left, moving closer to the tub, but on the side opposite the two women. Cat watched him narrowly as if expecting a trick, but did urge Jetta to move along the other side of the tub in the direction of the passage. When she gestured with her head that Aulay should move further to his left, he took a couple of short steps along the tub toward the back wall of the room.

  Once he had, Cat moved Jetta another few feet the opposite way and then suddenly paused.

  Noting the way her eyes narrowed as she looked through the opening into the passage, Aulay felt his heart sink.

  "Who's in there?" she barked suddenly. "Come out."

  There was a pause and then Alick stepped into the opening, looking chagrined.

  "Get over there with Aulay," Cat snapped.

  Muttering an apology, Alick moved up beside him, and they both watched Cat tilt her head to get a better look into the darkness. A moment passed, and Aulay was quite sure she didn't see anything else. His brothers weren't stupid. They would have moved back to ensure they didn't give their presence away until she was in the passage. Aulay was positive she didn't see anything. Unfortunately, the lass was smart and said, "I know you are there. You might as well come out."

  When silence reigned and no one appeared, she said, "Or should I just slit Jetta's throat and be done with it?"

  Aulay saw Jetta wince, noted the bead of blood that appeared as Cat pressed the point of her knife harder against his wife's skin. Hands clenching helplessly, he barked, "Come out!"

  Dougall appeared, followed by Murine, Uncle Acair, Conran . . .

  Mouth tight, Aulay shifted his gaze to see how Cat was taking this development, and she snapped, "Over by Aulay. Now."

  The room wasn't a very big one, and they'd all been kind of gathering in front of the passage opening, blocking it somewhat from view, but now they moved as a group toward him and Alick, allowing Niels, Edith, Greer, Cam, Rory and Jo to follow.

  Cat scowled at the group of them now clustered across from her. She'd drawn Jetta back several steps to stay out of reach as the crowd grew, and now stood in the door to the master bedchamber and eyed them all with irritation.

  "What about the other one?" Cat asked sharply. "The one who was with the maid when I shot her?"

  "Geordie is with her still. He has no' left her bedside since she was injured," Aulay assured her solemnly, trying to keep her calm. She seemed to him to be getting agitated.

  "You probably have soldiers in there, waiting to grab me," she muttered to herself.

  Before Aulay could assure her there were no soldiers, Jetta said, "You cannot get away, Cat. It is finished. Please, just give yourself up before you get hurt."

  "You would like that would you not? Me being in your husband's dungeon for the rest of my days so you could visit me and flaunt how you outmaneuvered me?"

  "I would never--" Jetta began.

  "I do not think so," Cat spat, interrupting her. Digging her knife in again, she placed her mouth by Jetta's ear and added, "And you had best hope it is not finished for me. Because if it is, I shall make sure 'tis finished for you as well,
Sorry."

  "Cat," Aulay said quickly.

  Much to his relief, Cat shifted her attention to him and at least didn't put further pressure on the knife at Jetta's throat.

  "Surely we can come to some kind of arrangement?" he suggested in bored tones. While he was desperate, it wouldn't do to let that show. Predators fed on fear.

  Cat eased the knife out of Jetta's skin, but Aulay didn't feel relief as he watched the line of blood rolling down her throat to soak into the neckline of her shift.

  "What kind of an arrangement?" Cat asked warily.

  "What do ye want?" he asked, and then holding his hands out to indicate his entire domain, he said, "Ye can take whatever ye want in exchange fer Jetta."

  She considered him with interest, and then her gaze shifted from him to Jetta and back. A slow smile began to curve her lips, and Aulay had a bad feeling even before she said, "I want you."

  "You cannot have him," Jetta said at once. "He vowed himself to me in front of a priest. He's mine. He cannot give himself to you."

  "Oh, please," Cat said on a laugh. "My husband vowed to love and honor me in his marriage vows. Those vows mean nothing. Besides, mayhap Aulay would rather have me than a sorry creature like you, Sorry Sorcha. I was always the prettier of the two of us and more interesting by half than you with your stained gowns, always running about fetching Mother this, and getting Mother that like a faithful dog."

  "She was dying and in terrible pain," Jetta said angrily. "Of course I did all I could to comfort her."

  "And made yourself a dull little wren in the process." She smiled coldly, and added, "And a nag. You were forever locking away the whiskey and wine so Father could not drink. 'Tis why it was so easy for me to convince him to send you to the marquis in my place. I promised to let him drink all he wished." Raising her eyebrows, she asked, "Do you lock up Aulay's whiskey too?"

  "Of course not," Jetta said with a frown. "Aulay is not drinking himself to death. You know the healer said if Father continued to drink as he was it would be the death of him."