Part 19 (1/2)
”I'll come to the castle before I leave,” Robert told Brace.
”Aye, and thanks,” Bruce said, slipping an arm around her shoulder and leading her from the site.
They walked in silence along the brook, exiting to the road area where there were now at least a half dozen cars parked, along with the medical examiner's hea.r.s.e.
It wasn't until they were out of the woods that Bruce said suddenly and angrily, ”What in G.o.d's name were you doing in there--that deep, especially!--in the first place? I told you to stay out of the forest.”
She stared at him, startled, feeling a tinge of anger herself, ready to tell him that she had followed him. But he'd call her a liar, or worse, say she was mad. And she was feeling somewhat insane herself. If he'd headed straight for Edinburgh that morning, he couldn't have been on his horse, in the woods, beckoning her to come.
But what if he had purported to be making the drive to Edinburgh, then doubled back, taken the horse out, lured her into the forest, left her there and driven on to Edinburgh? Was the timing possible? Maybe. Just maybe.
And far more probable than seeing a phantom on horseback!
”I thought I saw you,” she said simply.
”Me?” he demanded.
She shrugged. ”I must have been mistaken.”
”Why would I lure you into the forest when I keep telling you to stay out of the d.a.m.ned place?” he demanded angrily.
”Hey! I thought I saw you. I was mistaken,” she said, shaking off his touch.
Evidently he caught hold of his temper. ”I'm sorry. You've been through a lot.”
”I haven't really been through anything,” she said softly. ”It's not as if I found.. .please, don't treat me like a frightened child. I'm all right.” She felt a twinge of anger, as well. ”And you might have explained to us that the bodies had been found in Tillingham Forest-- and that you were the one to discover a victim.”
”I had thought it would suffice to make your group understand that there were murders taking place. I had also a.s.sumed that, since it's my castle and I'm allowing you to stay, my directive to keep out of the forest would be respectfully observed,” he said.
”Bruce, honestly, I thought you were there and that you were calling me in.”
”Don't follow anyone, even me, into that forest.”
A strange surge of unease filled her, teased along her spine, then disappeared. She couldn't believe that he intended any ill to her.
”You're trembling,” he said.
”I'm fine.”
”Are you? Perhaps you didn't come upon Annie O'Hara, but such remains are still...disturbing. And I a.s.sure you, I wasn't so 'all right' the day I found the first body in the woods,” he said.
”That was different.”
”This was pleasant?”
Her lashes fell over her eyes. ”No! Of course not! Okay, I'm shaken. But I'm all right.”
”Let's get back to the castle,” he murmured, indicating his car. ”How on earth could you have thought that you saw me?”
”I was mistaken!”
She felt stiff, even awkward as she walked the few feet to his car and got in. So.. .she was lying now. Well, not really. She had followed someone she thought to be him into the woods. Maybe she should have told the constable that. Maybe there was someone who looked like Bruce MacNiall, who was playing games, luring people into the woods, for a psychotic reason all his own. Or maybe it had been Bruce!
But she couldn't really believe that. And just as she had felt earlier, a strange calm descended upon her.
”Please believe me, I'm okay. Yes, it was startling. Scary. But now, more than anything, I just think if s very sad,” she told Bruce, looking at him as he drove. He nodded, but his features were still tense. Despite the niggling suspicion of possibility that teased at the back of her mind, she found herself admiring the hard, sculpted line of his profile, the determined set of his jaw and the gravity with which he considered the situation. He might have let his castle go to h.e.l.l, but he had a deep concern for this, his home territory, and a decent and humane care for those found here who had suffered so cruelly.
He was also upset, she thought, because of Jonathan's certainty that they had found Annalise and that she had, indeed, been killed by her husband all those years ago.
In a matter of minutes, they pulled up to the castle.
Gina, Ryan, David and Kevin came bursting out the front doors. Gina rushed for her first, exclaiming, ”Oh, Toni! You poor dear!”
David was behind her, hugging her. ”Eban came and told us all about it.”
Ryan brushed back a thick strand of his long brown hair, hovering awkwardly by her side. ”We wanted to come to you, but Eban said the authorities were with you and that they wouldn't want anyone traipsing through the woods then. At least, I think that's what he said.”
”Toni, how about a drink?” Kevin suggested. ”I think a drink would be the best thing in the world right now.”
Toni took a deep breath, offering a rueful smile and returning the hugs. ”Guys! Honestly, I'm fine. Please, I'm not a hothouse flower.”
”Neither am I,” Gina said. ”But still, I can't imagine... Bruce, we're so sorry, by the way. Such things are always so horrible.”
”Sorry?” he said.
Gina looked awkward, uneasy. ”Well.. .we hadn't realized that the murder victims were discovered right here, in Tillingham, one by you and one by Eban. And though he was relieved that the corpse didn't belong to that missing girl, Eban indicated that the discovery probably means that a sad part of your family legend is true. Either way, we're really sorry. I guess our murder scenes have been in bad taste. And, of course, we will stay out of the forest--as Toni should have done.”
”Aye, everyone needs to stay out of the forest. Except for the police,” Bruce said. ”As for my family legend, finding a body doesn't prove how it got there.”
David slipped an arm around Toni's shoulders. ”Toni! Seriously, young lady! What were you doing so deep in the forest? Laird MacNiall told us to stay out of it!”
She inhaled very deeply. She'd be explaining this forever, she thought. ”It was a mistake, that's all. A trick of the light. I thought I saw Bruce there, beckoning to me.”
They all stopped, staring at her. ”Bruce left very early this morning, Toni,” Gina said, looking at both of them.
”I told you that, remember, when we were planning the picnic. You did leave, right, Bruce?”
”Aye.”
”Hey, it's a forest, a trick of the light!” Toni repeated, and headed inside to get away from their questioning stares.
The others followed, automatically heading into the kitchen, where it seemed they always gathered. Kevin immediately went about preparing drinks. ”This is one of those occasions that calls for tea and whiskey,” he said, as the rest of them took a seat around the table.
”Thayer hasn't come back yet?” Toni said, suddenly noticing that her cousin was absent.
”No, he's still off,” Gina said.
”He's got his cell, so we could call him,” David said. ”But we thought we'd let him finish out his afternoon before telling him about.. .this.”
She realized then that the group was once again nervous about Bruce, and the ramifications of what had happened that afternoon. He had been concerned about their show, and the fact that very real murders were occurring, but he had allowed them to stay so they could make some of the money they had poured into the place. Now it seemed that they had found Annalise.