As soon as she was gone, Duncan shoved Iona away, and she cried out as she almost landed on the floor. However, Duncan broke her fall by pushing her into a chair. He took a few steps towards the door, intending to follow Eliza, but he still had to put Iona in her place.
He bent over her, his amber eyes blazing.
“Listen to me, Iona Drummond,” he growled. “Whatever scheme you had in that devious mind of yours, it has failed. I have no interest in you. I never had. We were friends, nothing more, but we are friends no longer because I never want to see your face again. Now let me escort ye to your carriage. I’ll have your things sent over to you soon.”
He wrenched the door open, leaving a shaken Iona to sit and watch him.
Don’t leave me, Eliza,he thought desperately.I love you too much to let you go.
Maisie jumped, startled, when Eliza burst through the door, tears pouring down her face. She had been putting away some ofher mistress’s clean laundry, but stopped abruptly when she saw her furious face.
“Milady, are ye a’ right?” she asked. She had never seen Eliza lose her temper before, and it not only puzzled, but frightened her.
Eliza did not acknowledge the young woman, but went straight to her wardrobe and frantically began pulling out clothes, tossing them onto her bed in a disorganised heap.
“Milady, what are ye daein’?” Maisie asked anxiously. “Are ye feelin’ a’ right?”
Eliza lifted a tear-stained face to her maid, and when she spoke, her voice was a hoarse growl.
“I am packing my bags, Maisie,” she replied. “I am leaving this evil, cursed place. I should never have come here in the first place.”
Maisie began to straighten out the clothes, alarmed at the sight of the little satchel, into which Eliza was stuffing as many garments as she could. It was the same one she had arrived with, but now she had many more dresses, coats and shoes, and as Maisie looked at the heap on the bed she knew that Eliza could never cram everything inside it.
Eliza began to pull everything out again, tossing them everywhere around her, then she pounded her bed with her fists in sheer frustration. Nothing was going right; it seemed that the whole day had been cursed. She had had the love of her life wrenched away, and the smug, triumphant face of the woman who had done it would not leave her mind.
At that moment, Eliza knew what it felt like to truly hate someone with every fibre of her being. She had disliked Iona Drummond at first sight, but now, having come to know her better, Eliza could see the dishonesty, vanity and sheer malice beneath her glamorous façade even more clearly. She was a dangerous enemy, and she had won the war for Duncan’s heart.
Eliza shuddered with rage to think how cruelly she had been used. Duncan had obviously only wanted her body, but he wanted Iona’s too. He must be laughing in fit to burst by now, she thought. All the protests he had made as she left had clearly been for show, and he and Iona were no doubt laughing at her over a glass of fine French wine.
Eliza was furious with herself. It was only now that Eliza realised how naïve she had been. Had she honestly thought that a man who bought her like a piece of livestock could genuinely care for her? Of course not—especially when he had the delectable, esteemed and best of allScottishLady Iona Drummond to warm his bed!
No, Eliza decided. She had been a means to an end—a way to find out the identity of the traitor in his clan, and that was an end to it.
But there was one thing that made the whole situation ten times worse, for Eliza had fallen hopelessly in love with Duncan Sinclair, despite his duplicity. She had given him her maidenhead, but worse still she had surrendered her heart, and he had shattered it into a thousand pieces.
Did she still love him? Yes, fool that she was, she did, and she knew that whatever happened in the future, she always would.
Eliza decided to take only a few of her more useful clothes. After all, what use would she have for evening dresses and dancing slippers now? She would probably be wearing a maid’s uniform before too long.
Eliza heard the noise of the bedroom door opening and closing, and Maisie slipped out. A few minutes later, she returned.
“Milady,” she said quietly. “Maybe ye should sit an’ think about this for a while. Here is a wee somethin’ that will help tae calm ye down.”
She set a tray with a teacup and pot down beside her, and poured a steaming cup for her mistress. Eliza sipped it without looking at it. It tasted a little too sweet for her taste, but she was so agitated that she hardly noticed.
Presently, as she was trying to wedge a shoe into the bag, Eliza dropped it on the floor. She bent down to retrieve it, but her hand refused to take hold of it, and a strange feeling of dizziness and lethargy stole over her, causing her to close her eyes and slump onto the floor. She tried to rise, but her body seemed to have become too heavy.
When she opened her eyes, Maisie was leaning over her, but her face was a pale blur, and even though Eliza blinked and attempted to rub her eyes, she was unable to focus, and began to panic.
“Maisie, help me,” Eliza begged, but her voice was no more than a whispery croak.
Then gradually, blackness and silence stole over her.
18
Eliza drifted in and out of consciousness, and in her semi-lucid moments she could vaguely hear the deep voices of several different men laughing and talking. She could not make out what they were saying, partially because of her delirious state and also because of the crashing of thunder overhead. Eliza had always been terrified of thunderstorms, not because of the noise, but the stabbing blue-white bolts of lightning. She had seen trees being split in two and felled by its evil force, and had always been afraid that the same thing would happen to her.
As well as trembling with terror, her whole body was being bounced around, tossed from side to side on some wet, hard surface. Gradually, as the fog in her brain dissipated, Eliza realised that she was lying on the floor of a carriage. There was no blanket, pillow, or mattress to soften the pressure of the unyielding wood on her body, and she ached all over.
