Page 31 of The Lady's Guide to a Highlander’s Heart
“What are ye doing?” She gasped between the words, the frozen air rending her lungs.
“Surely ye recognize the battlements?” Calder spoke through gritted teeth. “It seems the laird is nae as stupid as he looks, and has come tae reclaim ye after all. I doubt he’ll wish tae listen tae aught I say, but he’ll remember what I do.”
In a single movement, he threw what had previously bound her hands over her head. Flora attempted to twist away but Calder tugged hard. This time, his knot put a noose about her neck and, though she pulled at it with her fingers, there was no loosening the rope.
Calder was surely almost as cold as she, but an unnatural fire seemed to burn in his eyes as he surveyed her and then leaned over the side.
There would be nothing to see. She knew the tower they’d climbed as well as any other part of the castle. It was the twin of the tower that loomed above Balmore, its battlements visible for miles around, rising a hundred feet or more above the courtyard.
Nevertheless, Calder brought her to the edge, inclining her head to make her look as he had done.
“Ye dinnae ken, do ye?” He sneered, tugging at the rope so that it tightened further about her throat. “Ragnall ne’er deserved tae lead the clan. He’s no son of Broderick. With his brother’s death, the lairdship should hae gone tae me, as Connor’s heir. Ragnall is naught but a bastard, as everyone knows.”
Flora managed to shake her head. “’Tis idle prattle.”
“Ye think so?” Calder jeered again. “Only Vanora would know, but ’tis common knowledge Gillivray the falconer began bedding her soon after Alasdair was born. She was a strumpet, and Broderick had nae softness in his heart when he punished her and her lover both.”
He pulled the noose tighter still and Flora heard herself make a choking sound. Momentarily, the world dimmed.
Nay! I shan’t faint! Ragnall is coming. I’m not going to die. We are meant to be. Husband and wife.If she said the words over and over, it would make them true. She just needed to hold on, and to believe.
But Calder was tying a loop in the other end of the rope and throwing it over one of the slimmer pieces of stone. “’Ye’re no better, are ye—whoring yerself tae a man who thought ye was a servant? Dinnae tell me ye was behaving as a decent wife should, or I shall let yer guts spill as I send ye over, and the crows shall peck at ye all the sooner.”
A wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm her. He meant to push her over the battlements and leave her hanging there? What barbarity was this?
“’Twill hardly be the same as Broderick’s wrath, but I’m sure ’twill be close enough that Ragnall will ne’er forget.”
Flora could no longer speak but her questioning eyes drew Calder to continue, and he uttered each word with relish.
“Broderick hung them by the feet, letting them swing a full day.” Calder gave a wicked grin. “They were nae naked, but they might as well hae been, for the skirts o' both were aboot their heads and they were bare beneath. Vanora was free enough with her favours, Broderick reasoned, that she deserved nae modesty in death. ’Twas said they called tae each other until near the end.”
Calder’s mouth twisted again, in a horrible semblance of a smile. “At last, Broderick had them swing the ropes outward, so that the lovers’ skulls cracked on the granite, and they left two streaks of blood that took a whole winter tae wash away.”
Flora squeezed shut her eyes and took her mind away again. She didn’t want to hear any more. The story was too terrible. A story Ragnall had lived with all his life.
She couldn’t begin to imagine the treatment he must have endured from his father, nor the taunts he'd received until he was strong enough to silence them with his fists.
How much resentment had grown within him, knowing his mother’s tragic end? Whatever his feelings over what had happened, ’twould be little wonder if he feared for his own wife’s trustworthiness.
She swallowed down her shame.
Had she ever behaved in a way that would make him trust her?
Not that it mattered anymore—for she would never see him again. There would never be the chance to let him believe she might truly care.
She felt Calder nudge against her back, and the rush of wind at the embrasure. It would take but one push and she’d be gone.
She ought to send up her prayer, now, before it was too late, but she couldnae frame the words she might speak to the God she hoped soon to meet.
Instead, she saw Ragnall’s face and a single thought filled her mind.
I love him.
Chapter 14
Approaching midnight, Hogmany
Every part of her ached—especiallywhere the rope had rubbed—but Flora gave herself over to the softness of the bed in which she lay, to the comforting warmth of the tender hands on her skin and the familiar musk of the man who whispered low.
