The Heiress Bride - Catherine Coulter [145]
When she awoke, not much time had passed at all. The kittens were asleep in her lap. The sun was very high in the sky, shining fully through the big window in the stable.
MacDuff was on his haunches beside her.
She shook her head, smiling up at him. “Hello, what a wonderful surprise. Let me get up and greet you properly, MacDuff.”
“Oh no, Sinjun, you needn’t move right now. Have some consideration for the kittens. Cute little buggers, aren’t they? No, just stay there, I’ll join you.”
“All right,” she said, and yawned. “So much has happened, so very much. I just wanted to get away from everyone for a little while. Have you seen Colin? Do you know about Aunt Arleth? Are you here to help us?”
“Oh yes,” he said. He leaned down very close to her. He gently lifted the sleeping kittens from her lap and placed them on an old blanket.
“Now,” he said, and drew back his fist and slammed it into her jaw.
Colin looked around the drawing room. It was late afternoon and everyone was assembled for tea.
“Where’s Joan?” he asked.
“I haven’t seen her since just after lunch,” Sophie said. “Nor has Alex, for we were together all afternoon.”
“We were looking for clues, specifically which door the murderer entered to come into the castle. But we couldn’t find any clues or a plausible entry.”
Sophie threw a scone at her. “You are so stubborn, Alex! We did find the door. It’s the small one off the kitchen, Colin. I know it had been forced, but Alex here claims that it was just normal use because it is so old.”
“I will look at it,” Colin said. “Thank you both for trying.”
“Where the devil is Sinjun?” Ryder asked the drawing room at large.
It was a small son of one of Colin’s crofters who delivered the letter.
“Don’t move,” Colin told the boy as he ripped open the envelope. He read it once and then again. He paled. Then he cursed.
Colin questioned the boy, but he could tell him nothing. It was a gentleman, the boy said, his hat pulled down over his eyes, and he wore a scarf that muffled him to his ears. He did look something familiar, but he didn’t know, not really. He was on a horse and he never got down from the big brute.
Colin walked into the drawing room and handed the letter to Douglas.
“Good God, I don’t believe this!”
There was pandemonium until finally, it was Ryder who read aloud:
Lord Ashburnham,
I have your heiress wife. I will kill her if you don’t bring me fifty thousand pounds. I give you two days to fetch the money from Edinburgh. I suggest you leave immediately. I will be watching. When you return to Vere Castle with the money I will contact you again.
“Blessed hell,” Alex said.
A few moments later Philpot came into the drawing room to announce that one of the lads had just found both Crocker and Ostle bound and gagged in the tack room. Neither man knew who had done it to them. Just talkin’ they were, an’ knocked all over their heads.
Colin turned to stride from the room.
“Where are you going?” Douglas asked, catching his arm.
“To Edinburgh, to get the damned money.”
“Wait a moment, Colin,” Ryder said slowly, stroking his long fingers over his jaw. “We must do a bit of thinking now. I do believe I have a plan. Come along.”
Sophie flew to her feet. “Oh no you don’t! We came here to help Sinjun and you shan’t exclude us now!”
“No indeed!” Alex shouted, then clutched her belly and ran to the corner of the room, where Philpot had placed a basin.
MacDuff watched Colin ride from Vere Castle early the following morning, riding that huge brute stallion of his, Gulliver. Fast as the wind, that one was. He’d supposed that Colin would have left immediately, but then again, this marriage hadn’t really been to Colin’s liking. He’d married Joan Sherbrooke only to get his hands on her money. Why should he hurry? Why should he care overly if she was killed?
Of course, his