The Scottish Bride - Catherine Coulter [83]
It was her last words that finally cleared away all the rage from his brain, made him aware of the nagging and various pains in his own body. His blood was no longer furiously pumping through him. Everything was slowing now. He felt his heart steadying, slowing back to normal. He rose to his feet and stood over Erickson MacPhail. He said very calmly, as he stared down at the man, “If I ever see you again within fifty feet of Mary Rose, I will kill you. Do you understand me?”
“All of us will kill you. We will take turns, each with a gun or fists or a knife,” Sinjun said. “God will forgive my brother his violence toward you because you are such an evil fraud that you deserve to be sent to hell.”
Colin said, “Now, like my brother-in-law, I want to know why you want Mary Rose so desperately. A man who truly loves a woman doesn’t try to coerce her, doesn’t try to rape her, certainly doesn’t steal her away in the middle of the night. Why do you want to wed her? Come, tell us the truth and perhaps we will let you live.”
Erickson, his nose bleeding, his lip split and oozing blood, his belly caved in, his neck and jaw so sore he could barely talk, said, “You’re wrong about all of it. I have no base motive. I love her. I must have her for my wife. I am not lying, there is no other reason, just my sincerest affection for her.” Then he looked over at Mary Rose, standing there, pale, the vicar’s nightshirt nearly covering her toes and her fingers. “You must marry me, Mary Rose, you must. My life cannot continue if you do not.”
Colin frowned. “You are lying. I want to know why you must have Mary Rose as your wife.”
Erickson shut his mouth so fast he bit his tongue.
Colin said very quietly, “Mary Rose, bring the candle over here so I can see this idiot very clearly. Yes, that’s good. His nose is bloody. It adds interest, don’t you think?”
“No,” Mary Rose said.
Colin stood right over him. “She’s right. Now, we will have all the truth out of you, or I will hold you down while Tysen finishes stomping you into the floor. Do you understand me, you treacherous sod?”
Erickson sighed very deeply, he looked defeated and desperate. Then shook his head. “No, I won’t say any more. There is nothing more to say. I am innocent of anything except my passion for Mary Rose.”
Colin came down on his haunches, grabbed Erickson’s shirt collar, lifted him up a bit, then, with no warning, no hesitation, he pounded his head against the floor. Erickson moaned.
“There is not a dollop of love in you for Mary Rose, probably not a bit for any woman. The truth, all of it. Now, or I will kick your brains into the wainscotting.”
Tysen was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, saying absolutely nothing.
Erickson yelled at him, “You’re a bloody vicar! How can you allow this man to smash my head? I’m already half-dead since the lot of you attacked me. Stop him, for God’s sake.”
“Not unless you tell us the truth,” Tysen said, examining his sore knuckles.
“There is no bloody truth to tell you, damn it.”
“Would you like me to take over, Colin?” Tysen said, taking one step toward them.
Both Mary Rose and Sinjun crowded in, keeping Tysen back, both of them staring down at Erickson as if he were a slug that was peering up at them from under a rock.
Colin leaned forward again, grabbed his collar.
Erickson groaned. “No, not again. Damn, I can feel one of my teeth loose in my mouth. I have nothing to say. If you kill me, then you will hang for it.”
“Tysen, where are you going?”
“It’s all right, Sinjun. I’m going to get my gun. I can’t take the chance that he will try tomorrow or the next day to rape Mary Rose and force her into marriage. I have to kill him. He won’t tell us why with all this dramatic charade we’re playing. There’s just nothing else to do.”
“We’ll draw straws,” Colin said.
“I want to draw a straw as well,” Mary Rose said. “I don’t want to be afraid of him anymore. They can’t hang all of us, can they?”
“No, they cannot,” Sinjun said. “Get the gun, Tysen.”
Erickson looked