“Confess your sins, you conniving bounder,” he snarled.
Goggs raised his arms, trying ineffectually to defend himself. “Stop. Please. I admit it was me—Monique, the necklace, everything!”
“Then this is for my brother.” Richard plowed his fist into the other’s jaw. “For betraying yourfriend.”
“Wick has it all. Looks and ladies.” Tears streamed from Goggs’ eyes. “It’s not fair!”
Richard’s next punch made bone crack against his knuckles. “And this is for Violet. For drugging her, kidnapping her, and chasing her across a bloody field!”
Goggs gave a feeble moan, and his head fell to one side.
Richard was yanked backward. He fought against Kent and McLeod’s hold.
“Calm yourself, Carlisle.” Kent’s tone was firm. “The last thing we need is another murder on our hands. Goggs is down for the count.”
“I don’t give a damn,” Richard growled through a haze of bloodlust. “I’m going to tear him from limb to limb.”
“Not that I disagree with the sentiment,” McLeod muttered, “but you ken you have an audience?” The Scot jerked his chin to the right.
All of a sudden, Richard became aware of Violet… standing there in front of him like a dream. The one he feared he’d lost forever. An undertow of emotion swept through him as he hungrily took in the sight of her dirt-streaked face and tumbled locks.
“Lass,” he said through ragged breaths. “Are you… all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said tremulously. “I hit him with the crossbow, Richard! Got him in theeyeand made him lose control of the carriage. When it tipped over, the door flew open, and I was able to make a run for it. The bounder started to chase me—but you got here in time.”
Richard’s lungs strained, his inner pendulum veering madly between relief and chaos.
Because now that the danger was over, his treatment of Violet rose like a spectre to haunt him. Could she forgive him for the way he’d acted? For doubting her and accusing her so unjustly?
Remorse and self-recrimination twisted inside him. Aware that Kent and McLeod were busy dealing with Goggs, he knew there was no time like the present to address his wrongdoing.
Pushing the words through his tight throat, he said, “Can you ever forgive me, lass? In the churchyard, I was a bastard to you. I know I don’t deserve another chance but I—”
She launched herself at him, and he acted reflexively, his arms closing fiercely around her. Hope trickled through him. She was letting him hold her. That… that had to be a good sign, right?
“Why did you get so angry?” Her voice was muffled against his waistcoat. “Was it because of the ladies in your past?”
She’d figured it out. No surprise there. His lass was quick-witted.
“I didn’t tell you everything,” he said gruffly. “How the first one turned me down because she thought I wasn’t handsome and charming enough for her. How the other duped me… planned to make me a cuckold. She was already pregnant with her lover’s child and was only going to marry me if he didn’t return. Luckily for all of us, he did, and she eloped with him.”
“Butter and jam.” Vi leaned back, her eyes wide. “Why didn’t you tell me all this before?”
Swallowing, he said, “I didn’t want you to think that you were getting a bad bargain. You’re so beautiful and full of life—you could have anyone. And I’m… I’m…”
“You’re the man I love,” she burst out. “The strongest, fiercest, and most irresistible fellow I’ve ever met! Everything I could want.”
Her words pelted him like sunshine. He absorbed their vital warmth. They dissolved the shadows of his past and made him blink in wonder at the brightness of his future.
Heart drumming, he said, “So you… forgive me?”
“Yes, of course.” She gnawed on her lip. “The truth is Iwasacting, um, strangely. But I swear it had naught to do with Wick. I don’t know what came over me—”
“You were drugged, lass,” he said quickly. “Goggs put a powder in your cider that caused that reaction. He hoped to create a distraction, to throw us off his scent.”
Her eyes widened. Then she shot an indignant look at the unconscious villain. “Thunder and turf, I should have taken his other eye out, too!”
“God, I adore you, do you know that?” Richard cupped her jaw reverently with both hands, his voice trembling with the intensity of his feelings. “My brave, loyal, and terrifyingly resourceful lass. You are the rarest flower, Violet Kent, and I love you with everything that I am, now and forever. Will you marry me?”
