Ann Lethbridge - Regency Proposal

He doused the torch, tossed it over the cliff and continued leading the horse, back towards the road.

She clung on to the stallion’s mane and prayed they would make it home in time.

A good few yards from the keep’s entrance, Selina directed him across country. ‘There is an outcropping of rock on the back side of the hill,’ she murmured quietly.

‘I know it.’ Why had he never suspected it might hide an entrance? As lads, his brothers would have been delighted. The thought of the trouble they might have caused made him shudder.

They needed to hurry. Dawn was already changing the eastern sky from black to grey. Beau shied as a figure rose out of the heather. Ian jerked the horse to a stand.

‘Angus,’ Selina cried.

‘Shh,’ Angus hissed. ‘What by all that is holy are you thinking, Ian Gilvry?’

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.

Ian had a sinking feeling in his gut. Who else knew to expect Lady Selina?

Angus shot a glance up at the keep. ‘Do you think I don’t know every nook and cranny of my master’s house, my lady? So it is true.’

‘What are you insinuating, Mr McIver?’

Never had Ian heard her sound so haughty. So much like the stuck-up noblewoman Andrew had described on his return from London.

‘What is happening, Angus?’ Ian asked, jumping clear of Beau.

‘That young lady has been missed from her bed and her fiancé is crying foul, that is what is happening.’

‘Fiancé?’ His gut slipped sideways. He glared up at Lady Selina. Had she been playing some sort of game with him back there in the cave, the sort of flirtation engaged in by ladies of the ton , according to what Andrew had told him?

‘Nothing has been formally announced,’ she said, sounding defensive. She slipped down off the horse and stood at his side.

‘It may not be official,’ Angus said, ‘but he is verra angry. Threatening to ruin your reputation and that of your father. Interfering in official business makes you an accomplice under the law.’

‘He can’t know for certain,’ she said heatedly. ‘No one saw me.’

Ian had the feeling she had her fingers crossed when she said the last. ‘Did someone see her?’

‘I’m no privy to that information. I do know that young Dunstan is beside himself with anger. No doubt he expected a bit of glory out of tonight’s affair. Instead …’

She winced. ‘Father knows I knew what was planned for tonight and he thinks I betrayed him.’

‘Well, you did, didn’t you?’ Angus muttered, his deep voice turning into a low growl of frustration. ‘Lady Albright is in tears, speaking of ruin and disgrace. Your father …’ He shook his head.

Ian stiffened, but for all the anger he felt, he had to acknowledge that if word of her escapade got out Lady Selina would be ruined. Helping a Gilvry escape the gaugers would not be seen as heroic by her people. They also might ponder why she had helped him, and not to her credit.

‘I’ll just have to face the music,’ Lady Selina said in a small breathless voice. ‘It is no one’s business what I was doing tonight and so I will tell him. Father will forgive me, eventually.’

‘I advise against such a step,’ Angus said, his voice as dry as dust. ‘That young man won’t be satisfied until you admit where you were tonight and give evidence against the Laird. If he persuades your father he is right, you’ll have a hard task standing up to them.’

Ian’s fists clenched at the thought of her being bullied.

‘And once they have what they want,’ McIver continued, ‘the Laird will be convicted.’

‘But what else can I do?’ she said.

He gave her a sharp look. ‘According to that maid of yours, it wouldn’t be the first time you’d gone off on a whim in the middle of the night. All you have to do is disappear for a while and turn up somewhere else safe and sound.’

‘So Mary has been gossiping, has she?’ she said icily.

‘Mary is worried out of her wits that she will get the blame.’

Lady Selina’s shoulders sagged. She shook her head. ‘Surely, Father would not blame a servant for my actions? Besides, he knows I don’t do that sort of thing any more.’

‘Who’s to say what maggot gets into a woman’s head?’ Angus said. ‘There has to be somewhere you could go, some friend you could visit who could vouch for your whereabouts?’

She turned to Ian, her face full of worry. ‘There is Alice. Lady Hawkhurst as she is now. Hawkhurst is a formidable man. He might be able to convince them I left before all this occurred. Father would listen to him.’

‘You’ll have to be careful,’ McIver warned. ‘They’ll be searching the glens for you both by morning.’

Ian stared at McIver. ‘Are you proposing I escort her there?’

‘Aye. Unless you have a better idea.’

A curse sprang to his lips; he swallowed it. ‘Perhaps if you bat your beautiful eyes at them, Lady Selina, and tell them you were out for a walk, they’ll believe you.’

‘I’m willing to give it a try,’ she said with a defiant little toss of her head.

‘Laird, if I might have a word with you in private?’ Angus said. He looked up at Lady Selina. ‘Clan business, you ken, my lady.’

‘I suppose you are afraid I will tell them your secrets,’ she said. ‘Well, I’m not so poor spirited. However, speak privately if you must.’ She walked a few steps away.

Ian drew closer to Angus. ‘What is it, man? More bad news?’

‘It depends on your point of view.’ Angus gripped his arm hard. ‘I ought to beat you to within an inch of your life for involving her in your doings.’

Anger rising in his craw, Ian stepped toe to toe with the man. McIver was big, but Ian was taller and fitter. He clenched his fists and pitched his voice low. ‘Speak your piece, man.’

‘Marry the lass.’

The words hit him like a punch to the jaw. Words would not form for a moment or two. More shocking yet was the deep sense of longing filling his chest, as if some hitherto-unrecognised hope had been forced to the surface. No doubt the wrong part of his anatomy doing the thinking. ‘Are you mad? She’s Albright’s daughter.’

The child of his family’s enemy. That was why he’d driven her off all those years ago, when he realised he was in danger of losing himself in her velvet-brown eyes. When he’d felt the stirrings in his blood and in his heart—and seen his brothers’ horror.

Albright would never have countenanced their friendship, let alone anything closer.

And Andrew. Andrew would haunt his every moment if he did such a thing. If not for Selina’s request, and his lingering guilt at the way he had treated her, Drew would still be alive. Instead, he’d forced his brother to leave London and his pursuit of the heiress, his answer to the clan’s financial troubles, who just happened to be Selina’s good friend. Not only that, Ian had shipped the furious Andrew off to America, where he’d been killed. How could he marry a woman who had twisted him around her little finger to the detriment of his brother? He certainly didn’t deserve the surge of happiness the thought of it brought him. ‘You are out of your mind.’

‘I’m being practical, laddie. Marry her and even if they badger her until kingdom come, her word is no good in a court of law.’

‘I don’t believe Lady Selina would give evidence against me.’

‘She might do her best to hold out, but she’s made a complete fool of that young Sassenach. Let her go in there now and you might as well go in, too, with a noose draped around your neck. It’ll be the end for the folks around here. With you gone there will be nothing to stop them from clearing the land. As I said, Dunstan is threatening retribution against her and against her father. Who do you think she will choose, once you are hiding out in the hills?’ His grey brows drew together. ‘Think about it, Gilvry. No matter what happens, she is ruined. I just can’t see her letting her father be implicated, too.’