Highlander’s False Betrothal by Alisa Adams
12
The next morning, Caroline was awakened by a knock on the door of their guest chamber. When she opened her eyes and turned, she saw that it had roused Aodh from his slumber on the floor as well.
She felt a brief and absurd pang of guilt as he leaped up from the rug a split second before the door opened. Most technically unmarried men and women would be shamed and disgraced if they were found in bed together. And here they were, sure to receive the same if they were found not in bed together!
The servant was a young woman with carrot-colored hair and a large freckled nose. She was one of Carnegie’s and wore a stained brown smock.
“Laird Aodh? You, um, have a visitor, sir.”
Aodh frowned. “Is it Edmund? Is something amiss back home?”
The girl blushed a deep crimson. “No, sir. That is, it’s a woman, sir. She says her name is Ainsley Fletcher, and she is demanding to see you at once. It is, um, causing quite a disruption downstairs, sir, if you take my meaning. She appears to be of noble stock, right enough, only her disposition has made her most unwelcome. Especially with regard to Laird Bhaltair.”
Aodh gritted his teeth so tightly that Caroline could see the muscles in his jaw twitching from across the room. She was extremely annoyed at the intrusion and offended that Ainsley had followed them here. But from the stormy look in Aodh’s eyes, she almost found herself pitying Ainsley as well.
Almost.
“I will see to it at once,” Aodh told the servant. “Thank you for letting me know. Please apologize to our hosts for this intrusion.”
After the servant left, Aodh turned to Caroline, looking mortified. “I cannot adequately express how sorry I am that this has happened.”
“It is hardly your fault,” she consoled him. She was tempted to continue, to remind him that Ainsley was a manipulative and unpredictable woman, but she decided it was the last thing he needed to hear at that moment. He seemed flustered enough as it was. “What on earth do you suppose she wants that she would come all this way?”
“I cannot even begin to guess at her motivations at times,” Aodh grumbled. “Most of the time, in fact.”
He was so distracted that he had begun to change from his sleeping clothes into his regular attire without noticing that her back was not turned this time. She considered going along with it, then relented at the last moment and turned her head away, shielding her view with her hand demurely until she was certain he had finished.
“Do you believe she will leave if you ask her to?” Caroline inquired.
From the look on Aodh’s face, he had not considered any alternative. “She will simply have to. Now, if you will pardon me, I will attend to this straightaway.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
He paused in the doorway, then turned to look back at her. “It would no doubt provoke her fury all the more… But then again, given the circumstances, I suppose it would be the most appropriate course of action, wouldn’t it? I shall wait in the hallway while you dress.”
She nodded. The thought of him meeting with Ainsley individually when this improper visit had already caught the attention (and disapproval) of Laird Bhaltair…she dreaded to think of the repercussions.
Aodh left the room and Caroline dressed, inwardly lamenting that she had now been forced to do so without the aid of a servant two mornings in a row. Was she not of noble birth? Was she not entitled to have a servant girl brush and style her hair at the start of each day and help her into her corset and gown?
No doubt this is what comes of marrying Scotsmen,she thought wryly. Someone ought to have warned me.
It was a small laugh but a welcome one in this situation.
Caroline met Aodh in the corridor, and they went down the stairs together, hearing the all-too-familiar voice of Ainsley echoing loudly from the drawing room: “I still do not see why I would need to be ‘announced’ to them like some common footman! I am born of a noble house, as you can plainly see!”
“If you are born of a noble house,” Scott’s voice replied, “then you should know that there are certain protocols where visitors are concerned, and you should show the good breeding and manners to wait when asked to!”
Before Ainsley could retort, Aodh and Caroline entered the room. When she saw them, she broke into a wide grin and ran to them eagerly. “There, you see? Here are my friends, come to welcome me!”
Aodh turned to Scott. “Would you give us a moment, please?”
Scott nodded, cast one final uncertain glance in Ainsley’s direction, and withdrew politely.
At least it wasn’t Bhaltair, Aodh thought grimly, or we’d never hear the end of it.
“Can you believe the fuss and bother they’ve been giving me?” Ainsley asked, crossing the room to embrace Aodh. “I told them that we are all friends and that you would not mind at all if I simply went up to your room to see you both!” She turned to Caroline and gave her a wink. “Actually, I thought you might not mind giving me and Aodh use of the room for a short while, eh?”
Aodh gently pushed her away. “Ainsley, it is most improper—and inappropriate—for you to simply show up like this, unannounced and uninvited.”
She balked. “Improper? Inappropriate? I certainly did not imagine that such formalities would apply to the three of us! After all, we are sharing this little secret amongst ourselves, aren’t we? I would think that would give us a bit of leeway where decorum is concerned!”
“You thought wrong,” he told her. “If anything, the delicate nature of this arrangement requires tremendous tact and discretion. To have you show up on a whim—and to blithely discuss our situation in a place where people might be eavesdropping on us—shows a disturbing lack of foresight. You must leave at once, and you must promise that you will not do such a reckless thing again.”
Ainsley looked as though she had been slapped. Venom slowly seeped into her eyes, and they narrowed coldly. “Oh. I see. Just a short while ago, you were begging my forgiveness for marrying another and assuring me that it was only temporary.”
“Ainsley, I beg you, keep your voice down,” Caroline warned.
Instead, the woman raised her voice even more. “And now it’s inappropriate for me to see the man who promised himself to me and the British tart he is falsely married to instead!”
“Enough!” Aodh snapped. “You need to leave immediately.”
She arched an eyebrow challengingly. “Or what, hmm? What, exactly, do you intend to do if I do not follow orders like one of your damn soldiers? It seems to me that I have the upper hand here. It seems to me that since I know your secret, you are in no position to tell me what I can and cannot do!”
Aodh and Caroline exchanged an uneasy glance. Neither one quite knew what to say.
Ainsley smiled cruelly and nodded, satisfied. “Yes, I thought as much. Well, I am going to choose to acquiesce to your request, even though I do not have to…and even though I traveled all this way to see the man I love. But if I decide to come back, or to visit you upon your return to Campbell Castle, or anywhere else I choose, I trust you will react quite differently next time and that you will make me feel more welcome.”
“Ainsley, I trusted you,” Aodh spoke up quietly. “How could you betray me this way?”
“Me? Betray you? Do not make me laugh!” she snarled. “You are the one who pledged your troth to me only to break your word and take up with her instead! You had the gall to blame it on the war and Edmund’s counsel, but you are the laird of the clan and may do as you please! How stupid do you think I am, eh? Did you think I would not realize you simply wanted to make sport of us both as you pleased? This is better treatment than you deserve from me, you selfish swine, and don’t you forget it!”
And with that, she turned her nose up and left.
Aodh looked to Caroline helplessly. “You needn’t say it. This was precisely why you did not want me to tell her, and now…”
Caroline put a hand on his arm tenderly. “You loved her. You wanted to believe in her. I understand, and I am very sorry that it has come to this.”
He did not know what else to say.
So he reached out and embraced Caroline gratefully, holding her close and drawing comfort and strength from her.
Meanwhile, as Ainsley trudged toward the stables where she’d left her horse, a voice called after her: “Pardon me, Lady Ainsley!”
“Oh, do leave me alone!” she retorted without looking back. “I am already leaving and do not require further rebuke!”
“Actually, I had rather hoped you might stay a short while longer.”
She halted in her tracks, tilted her head curiously, and turned to find the barrel-shaped Laird Bhaltair trying to catch up with her.
“And why is that?” she asked suspiciously.
He grinned. “So that you might enlighten me regarding several of the comments I overheard while you were in my drawing room. I can assure you that I will make it well worth your time.”
