To Catch a Highlander: A Highland Erotic Romance (9 page)

“Debt,” I repeated. “What is he
...”

“I have no idea,” Ewan interrupted. “And if you know what’s good for both of us, you shan’t ask!”

I could not deny the great hall was impressive. Larger even than Father’s, with scarlet trimming everywhere and wonderfully bombastic paintings looking down at us from every wall. All through the journey I had been trying to recall every detail I could from my visits as a girl, and I saw now that most of them were correct. The only thing I had got wrong, that I could discern, was that it was rather smaller than I had envisioned it.

Gordan
, alas, was not smaller than I had envisioned him. As Ewan and I stood uncertainly just inside the entrance, strung out from the long trip, he bumbled in through a doorway at the far end. “Well, now!” he declared with a leering grin at me, taking no notice of Ewan. “Bout time my spoils arrived, innit! Brianna, you’re nearly as beautiful as your father claims!”

“
Gordan, we –” Ewan began.

“I mean, I knew you when you were younger, you’re too young to recall that, Brianna, but I did, and I knew it couldn’t be as he said. I said to myself, I remember that wretched little runt who used to run amok all o
ver my land!”

“Actually,” I began.

“And then I said, Lord Douglas, why would I want to marry into your little family anyway, when I’ve got all I need here already and you’ve got nothing to offer but your daughter, and quite frankly I figured I could do better. But he told me, oh no, she’s grown into a poised young woman, and where else are you going to find one with connections to me, he asks?”

“
Gordan!” Ewan snapped.

“And I got to thinking, after all, I do like ‘
em feisty, and if she’s anything like her mother was, she’ll be perfect in my bed. Inn’t that right, Lord Galbraith?”

“Excuse me?!” I demanded, looking back and forth between both men.

Ewan wouldn’t make eye contact with me, but Gordan did. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough if my gamble truly paid off, won’t we?” With that, he reached out a chubby hand and rubbed my cheek with what he probably thought was finesse, but all I felt was clammy hatred. “Getting mightily late, but we’ll just have to let you have a bath, Lady Douglas. I don’t want you going to my bed smelling of horse and sweat!” He snapped his fingers at a servant who, I noticed only now, seemed to be hiding behind a column toward the back of the room. “Sarah! Take this lovely lady to the blue wing, and see to it that she has a bath. Give her whatever she wishes, but see to it that she is in my bed in an hour!”

“Yes, sir,” Sarah said. “
M’lady?” Apologetically she took my wrist in her hand and led me away. I gave some thought to fighting back, but immediately concluded that there was nowhere to go and no chance of my escaping. I looked back just in time to see Ewan being restrained by two servants while Gordan continued to mouth off at him.

“What are they doing to him?” I asked Sarah. “It does not look like they’re going to escort him to g
uest quarters!”

“I am so very sorry for this,
m’lady!” Sarah said as she prodded me up the stairs. “Believe me, I know what a miserable excuse for a human being my lord is – and yes, I know he’s no lord, but he insists upon us calling him that! I don’t know just where they’re taking Lord Galbraith; but you’re right, it won’t be to the guest quarters. Probably locking him in a vacant servant’s room if I had to guess!”

I was in a fog as we climbed the stairs, but I did have the presence of mind to not let on
all I knew of Gordan just yet. “But all the way here, Ewan told me again and again how Gordan was an honest, decent man…”

“He would, from what I’ve heard of him.
Undoubtedly just trying to do right by you, m’lady.”

I stopped on the next landing and turned
to stare at Sarah. She was clearly quite intimidated, and I intended to use that to my full advantage. “Just what have you heard of Ewan, then?” I demanded.

Sarah looked around at the doors off the landing. “I shall tell you everything I know,” she whispe
red, “But not here. Too much risk others might hear. We’ll have the bath chamber to ourselves and that shall be much safer.” With that she took my arm in her hand again and guided me up another flight of stairs, down a short hallway and into the most opulent bed chamber I had ever seen, garish touches in every corner and a huge bed along the far wall. I did not need to be told what would be expected of me in that bed! Sarah lit a lamp and bade me sit in a nearby chair while she prepared the bath, and I was left with my own hateful thoughts for several minutes.

At last, she called me into the bath. “I can step out of the room while you undress if you wish,” she said.

“No need,” I reassured her. “I have nothing to be ashamed of except how filthy this dress is.” I made fast work of it, and soon stood naked before her as I had so many times before Penny and, less to my liking, Alva. I stepped into the bath and sank down into the warm, soapy water, enjoying it immensely in spite of myself. If I was to be a prisoner, at least it would be an opulent prison. “Now then, Sarah,” I reminded her. “What do you know about Ewan?”

“Only what
m’lord had to say about him in his latest drunken stupor several days ago,” Sarah began. “He does get most boastful with his friends toward the end of an evening like that. I was in the room awaiting instructions, but we servants are invisible to his kind, particularly when they’ve been drinking. I’ve seen it in every home I’ve worked in. As for Lord Galbraith, as you might have guessed, nothing he said about him was in the least way positive; but knowing m’lord, that meant he must be a decent man, that much I was able to determine. He said Lord Galbraith was a useful idiot, I’m afraid, that he – m’lord, that is – and your father could be sure of his doing their bidding, and he went into absolutely nauseating detail as to why.”

“I’m afraid that is quite true,” I said. “Ewan told me of those very details on our journey here, and they are more nauseating than you could hope to imagine! Ewan
is no idiot, though, that I can tell you. He’s a decent, loving man whom your lord forced into a miserable situation, and he has been making the best of it for twenty-five years now.”

“
M’lady, I didn’t mean to…” Sarah looked horrified.

I reached out and t
ook her hand in my hot soapy one. “I know, my dear! I’m sorry. I only meant to reassure you that while your lord likely considers Ewan a useful idiot, he is no idiot. I am afraid he is quite useful to Gordan, although it is through no desire or fault of his own.”

“For twenty-five years, you say?” Sarah said, now looking mollified as I withdrew my hand and went on scrubbing myself. “May I ask just what he has done to keep Lord Galbraith in such bondage for so long? He gave his friends every indication that i
t was a most juicy secret, but naturally he kept the best parts of that secret to himself! He always does.”

“Always,” I repeated, deep in thought. “Yes, there are no doubt others like Ewan. I am ashamed to admit I never thought of that.”

“No need to be ashamed, m’lady. It is quite impossible to appreciate just what a brute m’lord is until you have lived with him some time. I fear you are going to learn, though.”

“And speaking of learning, Sarah,” I replied. “Yes, I would like you to know his secret regardin
g Ewan. I think anyone with the misfortune to be at his bidding night and day has a right to know just what sort of vile creature we are living with.” On that note, I set the cake of soap aside and got as comfortable as I could in the water, and recounted all that Ewan had told me the night before. Sarah looked sad and angry and outraged and disgusted at all the appropriate turns in the story. When I revealed that the young lady at the centre of it all was my mother, the poor dear looked ready to cry. It was all I could do not to leap out of the water and take her in my arms to reassure her it wasn’t worth weeping about now; naturally I did not think Sarah would appreciate my making her all wet in addition to her consternation over the tale.

“So taking you
away from Ewan is the final twist of the knife, I suppose,” Sarah said when I was done.

“Well, I don’t suppose either he or Father could have known Ewan and I would fall in love,” I said. “But had they known, I have little doubt they would have sent me he
re even sooner! It does seem all too fitting that such a thing would happen too late for poor Ewan or myself to do anything about it. I have no doubt we’d have found a way had we realized our feelings sooner. He’d have taken some convincing, but I’m sure he’d have risen to the challenge. As it is, I’ll tell you very frankly, Sarah, I do not intend to remain Gordan’s prisoner for very long.”

“If there were anything I could do to help you along with that,
m’lady, I would,” Sarah told me. “I know all too well what a miserable excuse for a man his lordship is.”

I thought of Ewan and last night, and the prospect of even one day with
Gordan, likely as not with Ewan held prisoner somewhere he would hear the effects of all that Gordan was likely to do to me in bed, and the spirit of the Boy Avenger arose in me once again. That irresistible pull I had always felt that enabled me to put aside my fear for my safety and the risk of getting caught and the trouble of breathing in my disguise…it was all bubbling up to the surface, and I had no doubt I had found an ally in Sarah. I turned to her with fire in my eyes and gripped the edges of the tub. “Do you fancy doing something about it?” I asked.

“I’d love to,
m’lady, but…what can we do?” she asked. “And what chance of success have we?”

“I don’t know our chances,” I admitted. “But I’m willing to take any chance to defeat that monster. If you join me, and if Ewan and I escape, we’ll bring you along. We can all start again
somewhere, Ewan has enough money to ensure that’s a possibility. And I don’t need to tell you how loyal he is!”

Sarah glanced back at the door into the bedchamber, in which
Gordan was probably due any minute now, and she looked ready to burst into tears. “Heavens, how I want to. That man is such a monster. But what can we do?”

“Once you wash my hair,” I directed her, “Have a look at my knapsack on the floor in there. There’s a pair of shackles. If he’s drunk enough when he gets in here…”

“He will be,” Sarah acknowledged. “He always is this time of the night.”

“Great! We restrain him with those, you and I together ought to overcome him, and once we’ve got him tied up, we can walk out of here at our leisure.”

“I think you’re missing a few steps there, m’lady, but I like it! I know where there’s some rope to be had, down the hallway.”

“Why don’t you go get it and let me finish my bath, then, and notify
Gordan that his gift is ready?” We made some further impromptu plans, and she was off, the plan all set for when the bastard was on his way. Once she was gone, I hastily scrubbed myself off and rinsed my hair out, and stepped out of the tub. As I was patting myself dry, it occurred to me that I didn’t know where Ewan was, and I was not about to leave without him! But I had a feeling there would be other servants ready to turn their coats for us if necessary.  Somehow I just knew we were going to win!

Once I was dry, I went out into the bedroom and settled myself on the bed to bait the monster. I was not at all happy about the prospect of him seeing me naked, but it was
absolutely necessary. I put on a smile that was only partially forced, knowing as sure as the day I was born that I would be back in Ewan’s arms shortly. Soon enough I heard that unmistakeable tromp upon the stairs, and Sarah came rushing back through the bedroom, the shackles at the ready in her hands, to hide in the bath chamber.

The room was big enough that I couldn’t smell the corpulent beast before he entered; but I could certainly sense his impending presence. The very air seemed to grow tense with
his approach. He looked smug as ever when he arrived and slammed the door, and loosened his belt buckle. “Why, you’re an eager young lady, aren’t you?” he asked upon seeing me.

“So I’m told,” I said. “But why shouldn’t I be eager with a man like you at th
e ready?”

“
Heh heh heh, you’re sounding just as feisty as your mother was. I trust your father did not tell you just what sort of trickery he used to take her from me. He’s much too crafty to share that sort of thing with his daughter, isn’t he?”

“My fathe
r never told me anything of your story with him, or with my mother” I said, amused to reflect that it was absolutely true.

Gordan
yanked his pants down and then kicked them off halfway across the floor. His belly hung down far enough to nearly hide his short, fat cock – but not quite far enough. Smiling through my disgust, I pretended to admire him. “Such a virile gentleman!” I cooed.

“Yes, and I’ve waited twenty-five years for this,” he said, tearing his shirt off. “Your father may have stolen your mothe
r away from me, but he couldn’t keep me at bay forever! So, my girl, just how does a lovely lass like you like it?”

“Well now,” I said, “I like to start with a nice backrub. For you, I mean. I like my men relaxed first; it loosens up their inhibitions.”

“You assume I have inhibitions to begin with, my girl,” he corrected. “But I do like the way you think. Scoot aside and I shall lie down and let you rub my back to your heart’s content.”