Page 87 of Sutherland's Secret
“That’s very good of you. I thank you,” Thomas said.
Eleanor hated that they were speaking about her as if she weren’t there. She hated even more that neither of them asked what she wanted.
And what would you answer?
She had no idea. She desperately wanted to see her parents, and she knew they needed to see her as well. She wanted to hug them, to feel her mother’s familiar arms around her. She’d never properly grieved Charles’s death, and she needed to speak to his family, to reassure them that he had not suffered and that she would do what it took to clear his name of the treason charges.
And yet she didn’t want to leave Brice. Scotland, Castle Dornach, was where her heart lay and where she felt the most complete. However, Brice had never asked her to stay. Beyond telling her he loved her, he’d never spoken of marriage, and she would not stay outside of marriage. She may have thrown away most of her beliefs of how a lady should behave, but she wouldn’t discard that one.
“My lord.”
Both Thomas and Brice looked up at Angus. When Thomas realized he wasn’t the one being addressed, he turned away.
“What is it, Angus?” Brice said.
“Ye’re needed in the stables, my lord.” Angus’s gaze flicked to Thomas.
Brice rose. “Excuse me,” he said.
As soon as he left the hall, Thomas said, “Pack your things, Eleanor. We’re leaving within the hour.”
She looked at her brother in disbelief. “Pack my things?” she asked, her anger overtaking her.
“Yes. Be ready to leave.”
She stood, her legs shaking, and without a word she turned and lightly ran up the steps to her room. Like Cecilia had earlier, she dug through the wardrobe until she found what she was looking for. She stomped down the steps and back into the hall. Thomas was still sitting there, eyeing a group of men on the other side of the room as they laughed and talked. A clutch of serving women were a few tables away, chattering to each other.
Eleanor slammed her hand on the table, making Thomas jump. “You wanted me to pack? Well, I’m packed.” She placed the garments on the table in front of him. He looked at the shredded, torn, and dirt-caked dress she’d put in front of him. Slowly his hand came up, and he fingered the once fine material, his thumb running across a bloodstain. “That’s all I have. That’s all I had on me when Brice found me. This is all I own. Are you happy now?”
He looked up at her in dawning horror. “Eleanor—”
“I don’t want to hear it, Thomas.” She spun on her heel and marched out of the castle and straight to the stables.
Brice was standing outside, his head bent as the stable master spoke to him. The sun glinted off his dark blond hair, and Eleanor paused to admire his broad shoulders and the muscled calves beneath his kilt. But her anger didn’t allow her to stop for long.
He saw her coming before she reached him, and dismissed the stable master. He waited for her with indifferent eyes, his feet spread wide, his arms folded in front of him.
She marched right up to him until they were toe-to-toe and she had to look up at him. She poked him in the chest. “I am not Alisa,” she said with clenched teeth. “I do not go to London because I miss that life or because I want the excitement of a big city. I go because my family needs me and I need to see them. Do you understand?” She emphasized her last question with a poke to the chest for each word.
His expression did not change, but his eyes twinkled with amusement. “I understand.”
“Good.” She dropped her hand to her side and looked at him for a moment. “That is all,” she finally said, and turned around to head back to the castle and her chambers, where there were no men looking at her in disappointment and sadness.
Chapter 35
“Eleanor?”
“What do you want, Thomas?” She was sitting at her window looking out over the bailey.
He approached and stood beside her to look out the window as well. “I apologize.”
“For what?”
“For not fully comprehending when you told me what had happened to you.”
She glanced up at him. “Did you think I would make something like that up?” She held her wrists up. “Do you think I did this to myself to back up my story?”
The skin over his cheekbones tightened. He looked pale. “I…I don’t know what I thought. Your story seemed so implausible. Treachery, treason, imprisonment. An improbable escape.”
