“What do ye want?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
Lachlan pressed a hand to his heart. “Ye think I wantsomething? Oh, that hurts, lass. What an implication! Perhaps I just wanted to catch up.”
Emma glanced over her shoulder at the distant lights of the pub. She could hear snatches of laughter from here. If she screamed, would they hear her? There was no sign of Thomas, but if he came out of the pub and found the carriage door swinging open and her not inside, surely he would worry.
“I shouldn’t think of running,” Lachlan said casually. “Gregor here bears quite a grudge against ye. He’s chomping at the bit for a chance to teach ye a lesson. I’d behave if I were ye.”
“Don’t ye dare threaten me,” Emma snapped, sounding much braver than she felt.
It did no good.
Lachlan grinned, teeth glittering wetly in the moonlight. “The thing is, lass, I only cared about men not laying a hand on ye when ye were the town healer. We needed ye, ye see? Ye were valuable. Well, since ye ran off and stopped working for me, I’ve got no need to keep ye safe.”
“Ye did little good of keeping the men away from me,” Emma retorted.
He shrugged lightly. “Aye, but it could have been worse, as I’m sure ye know. I’ll have no such qualms about keeping Gregor in check now, so it’s best that ye stand still and listen to what I have to say, eh?”
Emma swallowed hard, trying to get past the lump of fear in her throat.
It wouldn’t go.
“What do ye want from me, Lachlan?”
He picked thoughtfully at his teeth. “Business is not good at the McCabe pub at the moment. There’s a rival pub causing trouble for us. I’d like ye help to manage this nasty business.”
Emma blinked, confused for a moment. Why would he need her help for this? What was going on?
Then, it hit her.
“The Sinner,” Emma managed, watching the smile on Lachlan’s face widen. “The Sinneris yer rival pub.”
“Clever lassie. Didn’t I say, Gregor, that she was a real sharp one? Not just a pretty face, eh? Aye, lassie, the Sinner.Something needs to be done, and ye are in the perfect place to help me. I knew ye were in Keep MacPherson, but I had no idea that ye were shagging the Laird himself!”
Emma’s face went beet red. She could feel Gregor’s hateful eyes boring into her.
“How dare ye?” she breathed. “I’ll not help ye.”
“Here’s the plan,” Lachlan said as if she hadn’t spoken. “Yer man, Laird Thomas MacPherson, helps run the pub. Ye will give me all the information ye can get from him, and we’ll take it from there. Ye might need to nudge him in the right direction too, aye?”
Emma drew in a breath. “Nay.”
Lachlan’s expression hardened. “Nay? Ye are in no position, lass, to sayayeornay. Ye ran off and left me in the lurch, and I don’t care for that from my workers.”
“They’re not workers, they’re slaves.”
Lachlan took a menacing step closer. Emma longed to move backward, but her feet seemed to be frozen to the ground. He was far too close, his awful breath curling about her face. She tried not to breathe.
“What’s to stop me and Gregor just taking ye out into the woods right now and having a wee chat? Not that we’ll be doing much talking—until ye reconsider, eh?” Lachlan asked lightly.
“Let me get my hands on her, McCade,” Gregor growled from his hiding place. “I’ll teach her a lesson she’ll not soon forget.”
“Shut up,” Lachlan snapped. “Stay hidden. What say ye, Emma?”
Emma forced herself to meet his too-small, piggy eyes. “I say that Laird Thomas MacPherson is in that pub down there, along with about a hundred of his friends and family,” she replied, her voice surprisingly calm. “He’ll step out of the door at any second now and see immediately that I’m not in the carriage. He’ll know right then that something is wrong. He knows I was meant to meet him there. Then, he and his friends will swarm over these hills like insects, looking for me. I’ll be struggling, fighting for my life, probably screaming. Ye can barely keep up a brisk jog without wheezing, and I can put up a fine fight when I need to. So, I can’t help but think that ye are doing something very dangerous, McCade.”
Lachlan’s eyes hardened as she spoke, flicking back down to the lit beacon of the Sinnerand back again. Realization swept over him, along with pure hatred and anger.
Emma’s knees wobbled, but she refused to allow herself to buckle.
