The Viper Read online

  “Then don’t act like one,” he said bluntly. “You almost fell off your horse; you’re so exhausted. Damn it, Bella, I told you to get some rest.”

  “I did,” she protested. She slumped against him, defeated. “I tried. But I was too excited.”

  He wanted to stay angry—angry was safe—but he felt himself soften. “To see your daughter?”

  She nodded, a radiant smile lighting her face. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen her.”

  There wasn’t anything accusing in her tone, but he felt a stab of guilt nonetheless. “I know.”

  As their eyes met in the darkness, a lifetime of memories passed between them. “I don’t blame you,” she said softly. “Not anymore. You were right. If I’d taken my daughter, she might have …”

  Her voice was too thick to continue. But he knew what she was thinking. Her daughter might have suffered the same fate as she did—as young Mary Bruce had as well.

  “What’s she like?” he said, trying to distract her.

  It worked. The smile was back on her face. “Smart. Quiet. Not shy, but reserved. She has her father’s coloring but my eyes.” Her mouth quirked, and she gave him a sly glance. “But I don’t need to tell you that, since you’ve met her for yourself.”

  He knew she was referring to the message he’d taken the girl not long after her mother’s departure—a message he’d denied taking. Obviously she hadn’t believed him.

  He didn’t bother denying it a second time, but her faith in him after all that had happened surprised him. It caught him off guard. “She’s a lovely girl.”

  Just like her mother.

  Bella stared up at him as if she could read his mind. His chest tightened. Squeezed tight with an emotion that didn’t belong to him. He’d forgotten this. Forgotten the intensity of the connection and how hard it was to resist her. He had to force his gaze from hers. “Get some rest, Bella,” he said, as sternly as he could muster.

  She seemed to want to say something more, but after a moment she nodded. It didn’t take her long to fall asleep. A few minutes later, he felt her body slump into his and heard the soft, even sound of her breathing.

  A wave of contentment came over him. He was glad to have her safe, that was all.

  If he relished holding her just a little too much, he consoled himself that at least this way they could quicken the pace.

  In fact, he might just have to ride with her the entire way back to the Highlands. For her safety as well as theirs, of course.

  Bella sighed with contentment, burrowing deeper into the warm coverlet that smelled of leather and spice. She felt so safe and warm.

  The eye that wasn’t resting against the coverlet popped open. Her coverlet was of silk, not of leather, and it smelled of lavender, not spice. And she hadn’t slept with a coverlet and been warm since …

  She startled, but his arms tightened immediately around her. Lachlan. Sensing her disorientation, he soothed, “It’s all right, Bella, you’re safe.”

  Safe. A wave of relief flooded her, followed immediately by one of gratitude. She was out of prison. It wasn’t a dream. He wasn’t a dream.

  She leaned her head back to look up at him. “You came for me.” She hadn’t been awake long enough to form her defenses, and the wonder and emotion rang clearly in her voice. “Not just this time but before also. The rescue. That was you.”

  Her heart stabbed at the memory. She remembered looking down into the darkness at the two men racing out of the tower after the explosion had woken her. One of the men had looked up. For a moment she’d known, but then she’d told herself it couldn’t be. He’d betrayed her.

  But now she knew differently. He hadn’t knowingly betrayed her. She believed him. Part of her had always known.

  His jaw tightened. A strange emotion crossed his face. If she didn’t know him so well, she would think it was pain. “I vowed the moment I saw you being loaded in that cart that I would get you out. I just wish it could have been sooner.”

  “What happened that day?” He’d given her a brief explanation, but she wanted to hear it all.

  He stiffened. She could see from the hardness of his jaw that the subject was a distasteful one. He looked angry, but she knew it was at himself, not her. “I told you most of it. I was angry and not paying as close attention to my surroundings as I should have been. One of Ross’s men saw me near the docks while I was trying to arrange a birlinn. While I drowned my sorrows in a flagon of the local ale, he had time to warn Ross. They followed me from the alehouse, and once they realized where I was going they surrounded me. I put up a fight, but there were too many of them and the drink dulled my reactions. They knocked me out and put me in manacles. I regained consciousness right before you and the rest of the women walked out of the chapel.”

  “Chains,” she said. “That’s what William was trying to tell me. He saw the chains.”

  Lachlan nodded. “I tried to go after you. Even managed to slip out of one of my manacles before someone noticed. But Ross was watching me too closely. He had reason not to trust me. We’d had dealings before.”

  “You were imprisoned?”

  “For a few months.”

  “But you managed to escape?”

  He nodded. “But by that time you were already imprisoned, and I’d learned Bruce was on his way back to Scotland.”

  She frowned. “How did you learn that?”

  “Bruce had a spy in the English camp. A man I knew. I also learned that Gordon and MacKay were being held at Urquhart. I went south to get some help, caught up with Bruce and the rest of the Guard—”

  He stopped. “The army,” he corrected. His jaw clenched even tighter. “It took nearly a year longer for the king to solidify his position enough to risk a rescue. And then when we finally got there, we failed,” he said bitterly, shaking his head. “God, we were so close. I was halfway up the tower with Seton, but a soldier had been using the garderobe and heard us go by. He raised the alarm. Gordon was forced to set off his explosion early. Seton and I barely made it out in time.”

  Part of her was glad she hadn’t known how close they’d come. It would have made the disappointment all the more difficult to bear.

  “I saw you.” There was a strange hollowness in his voice that she didn’t recognize.

  The realization that he’d seen her at such a moment made her feel oddly vulnerable. “I thought I saw you, too.”

  Clearly, she’d shocked him. “You did?”

  “When you exited the tower and looked up. Another man was pulling you.”

  He held her gaze. “Seton,” he said flatly. “I didn’t want to leave.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for coming for me twice.”

  His mouth fell in a hard line. “I would have come for you a thousand times.” He looked away, as if he’d said too much.

  “Why, Lachlan? Why was it so important to you?” She held her breath. It felt as though they were on some kind of precipice.

  But he didn’t leap. “I always finish the mission. No matter what it takes.”

  The mission. Finishing the job. Of course that was why he’d come. Not for her. He would have done so for anyone. If her heart squeezed with disappointment, Bella quickly smothered it.

  They rode in silence for a while. She was content to lean against him and let his warmth encompass her. The thought of being cold …

  Some memories would be harder to forget than others.

  The closer they drew to Roxburgh, the more her excitement grew, and the more she started to wonder whether she could rely on Lachlan to keep his word. She knew he wasn’t happy about their detour to Roxburgh—that he regretted giving in to her—and she couldn’t help but wonder whether he’d done so merely to appease her.

  Could she trust him? Would he really attempt to take a message to her daughter, or was he only trying to placate her?

  Clearly, he couldn’t wait to get out of the Marches. Not that she blamed him. The borders were still under firm Eng