Page 76 of A Virgin for the Icy Highlander
Lord Huston raised an eyebrow. “I am no fool, Lady Grace. She stays where she is until I decide otherwise.”
“What do you mean to do with her?” Grace swallowed hard. Her palms felt clammy.
Wandering toward the sleeping girl, he glanced back over his shoulder. “If you come with me without complaint, accepting myproposal, becoming mine, then nothing. She is free to return.” He stooped to pluck the kitten from Ellie’s slumbering arms and held it by the scruff of its neck. “However, if you choose that heathen over me…”
He made a terrible motion, drawing his hand across the kitten’s throat as it wriggled and hissed in his grasp.
Grace rushed forward. She ran down the aisle to take the kitten from him. He didn’t stop her, letting the creature go as soon as it was in her hands. She quickly pulled Snowflake to her chest. But it wasn’t the threat he had made to the kitten that shook her to her core; it was the threat hehadn’tmade.
His unspoken menace bristled in the air, looming like a shadow over the sleeping child.
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“I’ll come,” Grace said through gritted teeth. “Just… let me take Ellie and the kitten to safety first. I promise, I will not complain or protest—just allow me to put them in the carriage. My friend is waiting. She will take them back to the castle, and I can come with you.”
He willkill them if I don’t do this.
She knew it as keenly as she knew the color of Hunter’s eyes and the press of his lips. She would never see or feel those things again if she made the choice that she hadnochoice but to make.
Lord Huston shook his head slowly as he drew something from behind his back. “What of your other ‘friend’ who is waiting outside the door? Is it the heathen himself? Should we invite him in, so he can properly hear you make your choice?”
Grace’s heart sank like a rock to the deepest pit of despair when she saw the pistol in his hand. The weapon was the one thing Oscar could not defend her against with his sword or his fists.
“He is no one, My Lord,” she gasped, holding the kitten tighter as he attempted to escape. “My betr—I mean, the man I was due to marry, he is out searching for his daughter. He doesn’t know I am here. The man outside is merely my escort.”
Lord Huston narrowed his eyes, clearly not believing her. “Whoever you are, you may come in!” He lowered his voice. “And I suggest you start performing, my love. Best to make it convincing, eh? I would not want to leave here with the feeling that you are not at all my willing conquest, nor do I want to have to shoot anyone.”
The door squeaked on its hinges, and Oscar entered. The moment he saw Ellie and the kitten, his eyes widened. He turned to Grace with a look of such startled apology that she almost felt bad for him. Ithadsounded mad, even to her, but now she knew why—because it was the scheme of a madman with a vendetta.
“And who are you, exactly?” Lord Huston asked.
Oscar’s expression hardened. “The Laird of Clan Muir.” He paused, noting the pistol in the Earl’s grip. “And I dinnae think ye’re the lass’s braither.”
“John Fitzwilliam, the Earl of Huston,” the Earl declared proudly. “So no, I am not Lady Grace’s brother. I am her betrothed and have come to retrieve what is mine.”
Oscar sneered. “I dinnae see anythin’ in this chapel that’s yers. All I see is a thief with a pistol. A coward’s weapon.”
“Grace?” the Earl prompted. His eyes flashed at the insult.
There is only one way to save them all.
Whatever hope she’d had of Oscar being able to get them all back to the castle alive had vanished with the appearance of that pistol. If she refused Lord Huston, there was no telling who he would shoot first. Maybe he would shoot and miss, but that wasn’t a risk she was willing to take.
If he shot Oscar, she wouldn’t be able to overwhelm him by herself, and the sound of the pistol firing might bring Maddie into the fray too. If he shot Ellie… Grace couldn’t bring herself to think of that, not for a moment. Indeed, the only thing she coulddo was accept the increasingly clear facts: there was no possible outcome where this ended the way she wanted.
“Grace?” Lord Huston repeated sharply.
She snapped out of her thoughts and rested her gaze on Oscar. “He is not lying, Laird Muir. I have been his for three years. All this time, I have been his, waiting for him to come and fetch me back.” It surprised her how easily the vile deception rolled off her tongue. “I betrayed him, so I thought he would not want me anymore. I agreed to marry Hunter before I knew that Lord Huston’s love for me had never abated and that his hopes for our union were as they were three years ago. He has returned for me, to make me his wife at last, and I mean to go with him.”
Oscar stared at her. His brow creased, and though they were practically strangers, she could tell he didn’t believe her.
“I willnae leave ye here with this rat, lassie.”
“You can, and you must,” she replied. “Take Ellie, take Snowflake, and… make sure that Maddie doesn’t get out of the carriage. Donotlet her out, no matter what it takes to keep her inside, do you understand? Take them all back to the castle, and… yes, leave me here. I want to be here… with him.”
Oscar glanced back through the chapel door before returning his attention to her. “Are ye serious?”
“Perfectly,” Grace replied. Somehow, she managed to keep her voice even. Inside, however, she was screaming. “Tell Hunter that I am sorry, but my true love has forgiven me and come back for me, and I intend to marry this man. I will go back to England with him, where I belong. Tell him that I made a mistake, and… I am sorry to have wasted his time.”
