Working her gag while no one was watching, Roslynn finally managed to spit it out. “Untie me, and I’ll give you your money—in exchange for my dirk.”
“Dinna touch her!” Geordie commanded.
Roslynn turned on him furiously. “Shut up, Geordie! Do you ken what my husband will do to you when he finds out about this? You’d look bonny right now by comparison if he gets his hands on you again.”
Wilbert and Thomas didn’t miss the significance ofthat “again,” but they were done listening to Geordie anyway. They might have killed a few men in their time, but they had never harmed a woman before. They hadn’t liked this job to begin with, and wouldn’t have taken it if the Scot hadn’t offered what was a bleeding fortune to them.
Wilbert stepped forward and cut Roslynn’s bonds with her own dirk. Flipping the blade over in his hand, he handed it to her, but was quick to step back out of her way.
Roslynn was amazed it had been so easy, since she hadn’t been at all sure the two ruffians would obey her. But they had, and she felt infinitely better already. And she had obviously guessed right, or Geordie would have gotten them their money before she was cut loose. Instead, he had sat down on the bed, holding his ribs, warily watching all three.
“How much?” she demanded as she stood up.
“Thirty pounds, m’lady.”
She spared a contemptuous glance for her cousin. “You’re cheap, Geordie. It seems you could have offered a bit more to two such dependable fellows.”
“I might have, if they’d have gotten ye afore that bastard married ye!” he spat out.
She clucked her tongue, feeling rather good about having miraculously gotten the upper hand in the confrontation she had so dreaded. Reaching into the reticule that was still tied to her wrist, she took out a handful of money.
“This will do, I believe, gentlemen.” She handed the notes to Wilbert.
Both brothers’ eyes gleamed at what amounted to nearly fifty pounds. Wilbert glanced at her reticule. Roslynn intercepted his look, stiffening.
“Don’t even think about it,” she warned. “And ifyou don’t want to end up looking like him”—she nodded toward Geordie—“you’ll never let me see you again.”
They both grinned at the little woman threateningthem. But they had been paid enough. If the Scot hadn’t been mashed to a pulp, they would have gotten in a few licks themselves for all his insults. As it was, they were satisfied and, with grinning nods, left.
They stopped grinning, however, at the top of the stairs. Coming up them was the same gent whose house they had been watching for the past ten days, the same gent who was undoubtedly now the lady’s husband. He didn’t look menacing, didn’t even spare them a glance as he slowly mounted the stairs, and yet neither brother could get out of his mind the Scot’s condition that this man was responsible for.
Wilbert pulled his knife, just to feel safe, though he palmed it close to his thigh. That would have been the end of it if the nabob wasn’t deceptive in his nonchalance. He had in fact noticed the knife and stopped. They both heard him sigh before he spoke.
“Bloody hell. Come along, then, and let’s get this over with.”
Wilbert glanced once at Thomas before they both charged as one. Their attack didn’t turn out as they had expected, however. The nobleman stepped out of the way at the last second, putting his back to the wall, and with one foot extended, Thomas went tumbling down the rest of the stairs. And before Wilbert knew what was happening, he had lost his knife. Seeing it in the noble’s hand, he tore down the stairs himself, collected a groaning Thomas up from the floor, and dragged them both out of the building.
Upstairs in the room, Roslynn was pacing furiously before an embittered Geordie. “There are no’ enoughdirty, loathsome, vile names for what you are, Geordie Cameron. It’s shamed I am, you carry that name. You’ve never brought anything good to it, have you now?”
“And ye have, have ye?”
“Shut up, mon! Because of you I’m married now. Because of you Ihadto get married, when that was no’ what I was wanting, at least no’ this way!”
“And ye’ve lost it all, havena ye, ye stupid fool!” he shot back at her. “And I’m glad, do ye hear? If I canna have the Cameron wealth, at least I’m knowing he’s tricked ye oout of it as well!”
Roslynn stopped short, glaring at him. “What are you blathering about?”
“He told me he burned yer marriage contract,” Geordie replied in what passed for a laugh. “The wily bastard’s got it all now, and ye wouldna even be getting it back if he died, ’cause he’s leaving it all tae his own kin. Nice husband ye’ve shackled yerself wi’, cousin.”
She almost laughed, but if Anthony had gone to the trouble to tell Geordie that lie, she wouldn’t take it back. It was brilliant, really, in making Geordie think his chance was forever lost.
“I’d still rather have him than you,cousin.”
He tried getting up at that slur. He moaned loudly, falling back on the bed. Roslynn goaded him further, not in the least sympathetic.
“You should have left when you had the chance, Geordie. There willna be much left of you if my husband finds out you’re still here. He’s no’ a man to trifle wi’, as you’ve found out. But you deserve it for trying to kill him.”
“I was only trying tae scare him into forsaking ye. I didna know then ye’d married the mon. But he onlyhit me a few times fer shooting at him. The rest was all fer ye. And I’ll have ye know, I couldna even get up off the floor where he’d left me until this morning.” This was said in what sounded very much like a whine. “But ye can see fer yerself that I was leaving, sae ye’ve nae tales tae take tae that bloody Spartan.”
