Page 41 of Bought By The Highlander

‘I am glad to hear it,’ he snarled.

Callum ran a hand through his hair, and Tara noticed it had grown since last he had been shouting at her.

‘God, lass. ‘Tis a shock to find you in this filthy place, selling yourself.’

‘I am not selling myself, and you are a hypocrite. Why are you here if not to buy a woman’s flesh?’

Callum took her by the arm. “I am here trying to forget the injury you did to my heart, and then to find you looking like this…,’ he sneered.

‘It is not my fault. Mistress Shaw was so angry with me that she threw me out. She said she had arranged a place for me as a servant in a great house where I would learn the meaning of penance for my sins.’

‘Ran out of patience and good Christian virtue, did she?’

‘No. It was not my fault. The Reverend, he…he….’ Tara burst out crying again at the horror of the recollection.

‘Tears will not help you,’ said Callum. ‘The truth, Tara, now.’

‘He came to my chamber to ‘console me,’ he said, and then he tried to kiss me. It was awful. He is a horrible lecher and not a godly man at all. And Mistress Shaw came in and saw us and said I had seduced her husband. There was a terrible row, and I am sure she will go about Inverness telling everyone. She will shame me.’

Callum grimaced. ‘I don’t think there can be a greater shame than being found in a whorehouse, Tara.’

‘Aye, ‘tis a great shame for a woman, but apparently, not a man,’ she said, stemming her tears and looking Callum in the eye. He had the good grace to look a little ashamed of himself. ‘You came here willingly, Callum, but I did not.’

‘How so?’

‘Mistress Shaw said I had to go to the almshouse for the night as she could not abide me under her roof a moment longer. The Reverend had taken himself off to escape her wrath, which was fearsome. Then some rough women came to the house and dragged me out here to the middle of nowhere, and that awful red-haired woman dressed me in these clothes and locked me in. I banged on the door and the shutters, but I could not get out.’

‘Mistress Shaw is a vicious weasel of a woman, and I shall deal with her later,’ said Callum.

‘Oh, please don’t start any trouble.’ Tara grabbed onto his plaid.

Callum looked down at her hands and plucked them free. He held onto them, his palms warm against her icy fingers. ‘We must leave this place,’ he said, leading her to the door.

Tara nodded her agreement and Callum led her downstairs. They were met with vulgar merriment, and Cora at the centre of it, singing a song and kicking up her skirts to the delight of several gentlemen.

They slipped out, unnoticed, and as they rode from The Hollow Oak, Callum wrapped his plaid around Tara. He said in a voice of quiet authority, ‘You are safe now. I have you.’

Somehow Tara could not quite believe in safety, but she submitted to Callum’s iron embrace as she was too exhausted with the struggle of her life to do anything else.

Chapter Sixteen

Dawn found Callum in the stable, mulling over what to do about Tara. She had not yet risen from his chamber where he had deposited her the night before. The poor lass had fallen onto the bed and curled into a ball of misery. He had piled furs on top of her and left, unable to find the right words to soothe her and painfully aware that she had suffered a terrible ordeal. It might have been much worse if he had not stumbled upon her at The Hollow Oak.

Perhaps it was a sign from God that he was meant to be her protector. It felt good to have her at Raigmoor, in his home, his chamber. Callum dearly wanted to speak to Tara, but he was reluctant to wake her. So instead, he stroked his horse's shiny black flanks with hay, absent-mindedly, over and over, trying to find the best path.

Coarse shouting echoed from the yard, but Callum ignored it until Greaves shuffled breathlessly in. ‘You must come,’ he said.

‘Why?’ barked Callum.

‘There is a matter of great import,’ he announced. ‘Some slattern has come demanding coin, and though I threatened to give her the back of my hand, she will not be gone, she says, until she has seen the Laird. Yelling, fit to raise the dead, she is.’

Callum sighed and headed to the yard, where he was confronted with the unwelcome sight of Cora Adler. She cursed and spat when she saw him coming, and Callum braced for an unholy row.

‘How dare you steal my lass from me. I want her back.’

‘Well, you can’t have her, so take yourself off before I have you whipped, you venal old woman.’

Cora spat again. ‘I have rights before the law, Callum Ross. I will go before a magistrate and demand the return of my property. I paid for that lass, good and proper, and she is mine.’

---