Then the door burst open, and Seamus charged in, flanked by a pair of his guards. Brodie jumped backward with a gasp, and Margaret was so startled that she almost fainted.
“What is the meaning of this?!” Seamus thundered. “Ye were both given a second chance to regain my trust, and this is how ye have chosen to squander it? By meeting in secret once more and undermining the marriage that is set to take place tomorrow? How dare ye?!”
“We were merely talking, sir!” Brodie insisted. “This is not what it seems!”
Oh, but it could have been,Margaret thought mournfully,if only we had not been interrupted. She felt as though all of her worst nightmares were coming true at once.
“Do not speak to me as though I am some sort of fool!” Seamus roared. “I saw ye both just now with my own eyes, attempting to break my daughter’s heart and ruin her bloody future! Thank heaven she is not here now to see ye both betray her so cruelly!”
“We were not going to betray her!” Margaret’s eyes blazed with fury. She wanted to confront Seamus about what she had learned from Ainsley, to call him a liar and a brute and a cheat…
Except she could not.
For the fact remained that no matter what she said to him in this room, she remained at his mercy. And if he knew that Ainsley had broken the vow of silence that she had made to him, she would be punished harshly, and it would be Margaret’s fault for betraying her confidence.
“More lies from a scheming little harlot who seeks to steal Isla’s groom for herself!” Seamus retorted. “I tell ye, I shall hear no more of it! Ye are to be taken to the dungeons at once and kept there until after the ceremony so that ye may commit no more mischief. And ye may count yerself lucky I have no desire to end yer miserable life…though I could well be persuaded otherwise if ye do anything else to prevent this wedding from transpiring.” He turned to his guards. “Seize her!”
The guards moved forward, but Brodie stepped in front of them, blocking their path. “Keep away from her! None shall touch her while I draw breath!”
“Ye would speak to my guards so insolently?” Seamus bellowed. “Ye have no authority here, little laird. Not today, at any rate! Now stand aside!”
“I will not!”
Brodie raised his fists and swung at the first guard, punching him in the jaw. The guard’s head snapped backward, and he reeled, blood trickling from his mouth. The second guard swung at Brodie, who blocked the strike easily enough, except that by then, the first guard had recovered and managed to position himself behind Brodie, grabbing his arms and immobilizing them.
A vicious punch slammed into Brodie’s abdomen, followed by another, and another. Margaret cried out, horrified but unable to turn away from the brutality. Brodie kept struggling against the first guard’s grasp, but the man’s grip was too strong.
Brodie waited for the space between punches and then drove his boot down into the inner arch of the first guard’s foot, snapping the bone there. The guard howled in pain, loosening his grasp momentarily.
It was all the opening Brodie needed.
He slammed his head backward, his skull connecting with the first guard’s nose and snapping it. The guard lost his grip altogether, and Brodie slipped free, just in time to avoid the next punch from the second guard. Brodie laced his fingers together into a single large fist and smashed it against the base of the man’s skull, knocking him to the floor.
Brodie was breathing hard, and he was fairly certain that at least two of his ribs had been broken by the second guard’s onslaught. Still, he was standing, and they were not.
Seamus raised an eyebrow. “Impressive, lad. Given that ye have never been to war, I assumed ye would be worthless in a brawl. I appear to have underestimated ye.”
“I will not let you take her to the dungeons,” Brodie told him, his voice as hard as flint.
But Seamus was a large man and battle-scarred, and the guards were already beginning to pull themselves off the floor.
“Ye will not stop me, whelp!” Seamus countered.
Each guard grabbed one of Brodie’s arms this time, and Seamus delivered several swift punches to Brodie’s torso. “No hits to the face, aye? We want ye looking pretty for the ceremony tomorrow!”
Brodie felt another rib give way beneath the assault. The room swam around him, and it seemed as though he could hear Margaret calling his name from a long way off. Then he was facedown on the floor, tasting dust and his own blood.
“Ye shall remain locked in here until the nuptials,” Seamus told him. “I shall order the same for yer servants so that they may do nothing to aid ye. Remain here and go through with the wedding tomorrow, and Margaret shall be released. Cause any more trouble, and Margaret’s life shall be forfeit.” He paused, sighed, and added, “Ye are young, handsome, and about to be a laird. All ye had to do was charm my damned daughter, keep yer hands off her maid, and play yer part in this blasted wedding, and none of this would have had to happen. All that has transpired here is yer fault, lad. I hope ye use yer time alone in here to consider that carefully and to resolve to behave yerself at the altar tomorrow.”
And with that, Seamus and his guards left, dragging poor Margaret behind them and locking Brodie inside.
He reached up and touched the nearest wall, using it to brace himself and stand up. His broken ribs felt like daggers digging into his sides, and each breath he drew was sheer agony. He spit blood into the basin, wiped his mouth, and staggered to the door to see if he could find a way to open it.
It was secured tightly. Even if he were uninjured, he would have been unable to force it.
He limped over to the bed and collapsed. He knew he could not afford to lose hope; he had to keep trying to think of a means of escape. Then he could liberate Margaret from her imprisonment, and together, they could find a way out of all this.
All well and good—except that in his present state, he could scarcely roll over without biting his lip to keep from screaming in pain.
There must be a way to fix this before it’s too late, he repeated in his aching head over and over.There must, there must, there must...
