Part 14 (2/2)
”I wasn't aware of it until recently,” Edward answered, bringing his cup to his lips. He took a sip and s.h.i.+vered in his seat. ”That's quite potent,” he said hoa.r.s.ely.
Brodie, Will's father, cast him a contemptuous look. ”English.”
”D'ye know him then?” Jamie continued.
”Who?” Edward cleared his throat behind his fist.
”Connor Stuart?”
”I saw him only once, briefly. I hope to have the pleasure of meeting him someday.”
”Ye'll find him less amiable than his nephew o' the same name,” Will said, reaching for the bread. ”Admiral Stuart is a wee bit less concerned aboot guttin' a man based mainly on suspicions.”
”I didn't know ye'd seen him,” Finn said to Edward while the men around the table agreed that Stuart was a wary b.a.s.t.a.r.d.
Davina had gone back to watching Rob when he cast a curious look at Finn. He appeared to be about to say something, but Maggie's soft voice stopped him.
”Robbie”-she offered him a slightly less contented look than the one Davina was giving him-”is the rabbit tender enough?”
Rob's spoon paused on the way to his mouth. He slanted a guilty glance in Maggie's direction and murmured, ”Aye, 'tis fine.”
”That's good, dear. I'm sure yer approval would be a great consolation to its mother-if she wasn't roasting over the pit with the rest of her offspring.”
Will snickered behind his cup. Brodie delivered a sharp elbow to his ribs, and Rob, looking at his spoon with a measure of distaste, dropped it into his trencher and pushed his supper away. Maggie smiled at him, then shot her husband a critical frown.
”Ye would do well to show as much wisdom as my nephew one of these days.”
”That's no' wisdom, my love,” Jamie defended. ”'Tis fear.”
Soon, the conversation flowed to other, less pa.s.sionate topics. Davina basked in the joy around her, especially Rob's. His laughter was rich and robust when Jamie told him about the pig that escaped the pens and bit Brodie on the a.r.s.e hard enough to keep him asleep on his feet for two nights. They shared toasts to the demise of the hated Fergussons and to the MacPhersons' defeat in the next raid, but it wasn't until supper was over and a small group of them retired to the private solar that they discussed the king and Davina's relations.h.i.+p to him.
They asked her questions over warm wine, pillowed chairs, and the crackle of a toasty hearth fire. Why had she been hidden away since her birth? Did she know of anyone outside of St. Christopher's who knew of her? Did she have contact with the king? What were her father's ultimate plans for her? Each query stripped Davina of another layer of her guard. And as she answered each one with the truth, she understood how it must feel for a soldier to finally shed his heavy armor after a battle.
When they were done, Rob lifted his cup to her and claimed her heart once and for all with a slant of his mouth and a soft nod of his head.
”So.” Maggie, sitting closest to her, leaned in so that only Davina could hear her. ”Ye were imprisoned and set free from yer bars. I understand better now how ye feel about my nephew.”
Davina looked down at her and thought that Maggie MacGregor was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, and at that moment, the saddest.
”Rob”-Jamie's voice stopped Davina from pondering the reason for Maggie's regret-”I dinna' have to tell ye how concerned I am about all this. But we will discuss that later, in private.” He turned to Edward without waiting for Rob's reply. ”Tell us what ye know aboot this Admiral Gilles. How many men are at his disposal?”
Edward shook his head. ”I don't know much. He is a close ally to Prince William and commands a fleet of over a thousand men.”
”Dinna' ye mean that he is a close ally of the Duke of Monmouth?” Rob's eyes glittered like a snowy, starlit night as he set down his cup.
”What?” Edward looked as visibly shaken as he had on the morn of Monmouth's attack. ”That is what I said.”
”Edward, dear, you said Prince William.” Davina offered him her tenderest smile, sympathizing with his tenuous place here among men who considered the En-glish as detestable as the plague.
”Did I?” His breath broke on a strained chuckle. ”I fear your strong whisky has muddled my thoughts.”
”'Tis Angus's whisky, blame him,” Brodie drawled from his seat. ”And ye'll no' be tellin' him that I wasted any on ye when he returns.”
Jamie asked other questions and Brodie threw in some of his own, but Rob remained quiet-like the night air just before a storm. Davina looked at Edward. The storm was heading for him.
By the time the wine was finished and the fire died down, Davina was a wreck. What had Edward said to produce such a murderous gleam in Rob's eyes? When she tried to ask Rob, he pushed her gently aside and followed up the stairs after Edward.
”Something is troubling him,” Finn said, appearing at her side and following her gaze. ”And me, as well.”
”What is it?” Davina turned to him, hoping he could shed some light on Rob's foul mood.
”Well, Captain Asher told us tonight that he had seen my uncle once. But the night after we left Ayrs.h.i.+re, he told me that he hadn't left St. Christopher's Abbey in four years.”
”That's true. He hadn't.”
”But then when did he see my uncle?” Finn's green eyes widened on her, as if she should know the answer. She didn't. ”Admiral Stuart has been in France for the past four years. Before that, he was in Holland.”
”Holland?” Davina repeated softly, her gaze rising up the stairs. Was Edward in Holland before he came to her? It would explain how he'd known that an exiled duke and a banished earl were her enemies. But why would he not have told her he was there among them? And why hadn't he told her that he'd seen Connor Stuart? He knew the High Admiral was her cousin. Why had he kept so much from her? She could feel the blood leaving her face and growing cold in her veins as her trust in Edward fell to pieces at her feet. She realized with heart-stopping clarity why Rob had gone after him. No. No! There had to be an explanation-one that did not involve treachery. Edward would never have betrayed her. He couldn't have. Not Edward. Never.
Chapter Twenty-three.
Rob prayed to G.o.d he was wrong. If he wasn't, En-gland's new king was about to lose one of his captains. He found that once Davina had stopped following him from the solar, his steps lost their fervor. He wanted to reach Asher before she could stop him, but he wished he didn't have to. His hands curled into fists as he climbed the stairs. He prayed he was wrong. So what if Asher was the only other man in the king's garrison, including the king himself, who knew of Gilles's ties with the Dutch prince? It meant nothing. Surely, it didn't mean that Da-vina's closest friend had betrayed her. But something else, that suddenly made sense when Asher spoke of William of Orange, did.
When Rob reached the captain's door, he fought to harness his fury and pushed it open without knocking. ”I have some questions of my own to put ye, Asher,” he announced from the doorway.
”I suspected as much,” the captain said, turning from the narrow window with weariness marking his features. ”If this is about Prince William, I a.s.sure you I-”
”'Tis aboot the Abbess at Courlochcraig.”
”The Abbess?” Asher asked, perplexed. ”I don't-”
”She was expectin' Davina,” Rob told him, stepping inside and closing the door behind him.
”That's right.” The captain smiled, relief clearly etched in his features. ”I sent her a missive asking her if I could bring the Lady Montgomery to her.”
”Aye, I thought so.” Rob didn't smile back as he stalked across the room. ”The thing that nagged at my thoughts at the time was how ye knew Gilles's men were comin'.”
Asher almost swayed on his feet at the unexpected turn the conversation had taken. At this, Rob would have smiled if he didn't want to kill the man directly in front of him now so badly.
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