Slowly, staring the Earl down with each movement, Erskine reloaded his pistol.
“Are ye goin’ to make me say it again?” he asked Lord Moore.
“Why do I feel like I have seen you before?” the Earl frowned.
“We met a few weeks ago,” Erskine smiled as he aimed the pistol at his head. “We met at a gamblin’ hall in London. Ye lost a game of cards to me.”
“So I remember,” Lord Moore nodded, his gaze darkening.
“Well, ye have lost again,” Erskine gestured to the men now completely overtaken around them. “Release Laura, or I will fire.”
The Earl’s expression was a difficult one to decipher. The pure fury there was evident, but there was something else there too.
Is that…resignation?
He dragged Laura forward on her knees, pinning her wrist with his fingers.
“I take it this is the Highlander you gave yourself to, whore?” he spat the words.
Laura said nothing. She just kept her chin high, returning his stare with just as much strength, appearing more formidable than Erskine had ever seen her.
“Very well,” Lord Moore threw her forward, using his grasp on her wrist to toss her, so she was face down on the floor. “A Highlander’s harlot is certainly not worth my life. Now, release my men.”
Erskine placed his pistol in his belt and reached forward to Laura as she scrambled to her knees on the carriage floor. He swept his arm around her waist and scooped her up, carrying her out of the carriage with their fronts pressed together. He held her gaze the whole way, seeing the surprise with which her blue eyes were staring up at him.
Once he was certain he had Laura far enough away, he turned to the others.
“Release his guards, but keep their weapons,” at Erskine’s order, Camden and Aiden did just that before Camden rushed to attend to Tam’s wound, trying to stop the flow of blood.
The guards scrambled to return to the carriage just as Erskine placed Laura back on her feet, keeping his body between her and the stare that was no doubt coming his way from Lord Moore. As he heard the sounds of the carriage pulling away, Erskine gave his full focus to Laura. He gently tilted her chin back, looking at bruises that were all around her neck and on her arms.
“Laura, what has that bastard done to ye?” he asked in fear, his eyes darting up and down her.
* * *
“He didn’t…you know….” Laura struggled for the words, turning her gaze downward away from Erskine’s face. He was staring at her with such panic, she didn’t understand.
What is happening!?
“Thank god,” he brushed some of the hair back from her face, clearly understanding her meaning: Lord Moore hadn’t managed to force her.
“You weren’t there,” were the only words she could muster to show her confusion about Erskine. “This morning. You weren’t there.”
He grimaced in response. She didn’t mind that the others were nearby and that Camden and Aiden were watching them with interest while they attended to Tam. She needed to understand what had happened.
“I’m so sorry, Laura,” Erskine was shaking his head. “Me brother has betrayed me.”
“Dearg? What did he do now?” she asked, frowning.
“He wrote to Lord Moore, usin’ me name,” as soon as he said the words, she felt a knot from her stomach loosen.
Erskine did not betray me.
“He did?” she asked, desperate to hear it again.
“Aye, the jealous fool turned ye in just so he could take away the one I loved —”–” at his words, Laura’s eyebrows shot up “—“– he drugged me too. In me whisky. I woke to find I had been locked in a room with ye gone and Lennox poundin’ on the castle door, her head bleedin’.”
“Lennox?” Tam’s voice came up sharply from beside them. “What happened to Lennox!?” he tried to get to his feet, but he wavered, and Camden caught him.
