Colin shook his head. “Nay, he defended you, but even he could say nothing when they found the bag of gold. Forty gold ducats are hard to explain.”
Duncan felt the first prickle of true alarm. ’Twas a small fortune. But it was not his. “There must be some mistake.”
“There is no mistake. They searched our tent and found it in the bag you attach to your saddle.”
Someone had put it there. Someone who wanted him to look guilty. Grant?
“Anyone could have put it there. Let them bring these spurious charges to my face.”
“With the king on his way the chiefs are out for blood. You will be arrested. You must go.”
Arrested?“I won’t run. I’ll stay and prove my innocence.”
“Where, from prison?”
His jaw squared. “I’ll not leave father.”
“He would not want you to stay, not like this.”
From the courtyard below, Duncan heard the unmistakable clatter of soldiers.
“Go,” Colin said. “I will stay with father until you return. I swear it.”
He didn’t want to go, but Colin was right. He could do nothing to prove his innocence from prison. And without his father, who would fight for him? Archie would be having a time of it himself, defending himself before the king.
He clasped his brother around the shoulders. “Thanks for the warning, little brother. I’ve yet to have the chance to explain about Jeannie. I’m sorry if you were hurt, it was not intended.”
Colin brushed off the apology. “We were both fooled.”
Duncan gazed at him quizzically.
“You haven’t heard?” He shook his head. “Jeannie Grant is betrothed to Huntly’s son, Francis Gordon.”
Duncan froze, every muscle rigid with shock. It wasn’t possible.
Was it?
For the first time a shadow of doubt crept into the back of his mind and he allowed himself to consider what he’d been staving off thinking about for days. Why hadn’t she told him? And what had happened to the map? He’d had it with him the whole time, removing it only to sleep. He recalled his sporran neatly arranged with his belongings.
And now she was betrothed to Francis Gordon.
It suddenly cast what had happened between them in an entirely new light—a sinister light.
His stomach turned. Had his brain been too addled by emotion to see the truth? Had Jeannie been lying to him? Had she used him? He didn’t want to think it possible, but he damned well intended to find out.
Leaving Colin to watch over their father, Duncan slid out of the chamber, down the corridor, past the men coming to arrest him, and into the darkness of the night beyond.
Chapter 9
Jeannie startled awake, wrenched from a deep sleep by a sound. Her heart raced with fright. She didn’t breathe, waiting in the darkness for another sound, slowly exhaling when none was forthcoming.
She rolled to the side and settled into the mattress, trying to quickly reclaim the slumber that had just abandoned her, trying not to think…
Of Duncan. Too late, she realized, resigning herself to another sleepless night.
In the three days since her father returned she’d learned little of the fate befallen the Campbells. She could not ask her father, and she doubted he would tell her if she did.
Her father was anxious for her marriage to Francis Gordon to secure the alliance and Jeannie knew she would not be able to put him off much longer, especially now that Francis had arrived.
