Sure enough, by the time they got there, there was a dark carriage, gleaming where it was emblazoned with the gold and green crest of the Andersons—a thistle rising out of a field of grass.
But someone else, it seemed, had found out about the new arrival. By the time he had reached the courtyard, Innes was already standing, her hands planted on her hips, glaring at the pair of guards who stood between her and the carriage.
“Well?” she prompted them angrily. “Are you going to let me get my things, or will you insist on keeping them hostage in such a manner?”
“When did this arrive?” Lachlan cut in, stepping between them.
She whipped her head around, her eyes flashing.
“My brother has sent some of my things over,” she mused, her tone suddenly sugared by his presence.
He noticed it at once, the shift in the way she was speaking; she was well-mannered, that much was obvious, but that didn’t mean there was not human emotion tucked away underneath.
“And I simply want to unload my clothes and bring them to my chambers,” she explained. “But yer guards seem insistent on?—”
“Clothes, is it?” Lachlan asked, lifting his chin to look past her. “Then you’ll no’ mind me having a look, will ye?”
Her hand flew to her chest.
“Lachlan, you really trust me so little?” she retorted. “You married me, in case it has slipped yer mind, and I think I deserve a little more trust for all my troubles.”
“Anything could be in there, my Lady,” Keith cut in from behind her, moving past Lachlan with a pointed stare. “We need to open it before we bring it inside.”
“Aye,” Lachlan agreed, his eyes turning back to Innes. “Poison, weapons…”
Her cheeks darkened, but he paid no heed to it. This was the most time that he had spent with her since the night of the wedding, and he was not going to let his desire for her cut short what he knew needed to be done.
Pulling open the carriage, he grasped the heavy wooden crate inside and tossed it to the ground. It landed with a thump that made Innes jump, though she clearly didn’t want him to see that.He reached for the knife he kept on him at all times and pushed the blade beneath the twine that held it shut.
The pieces fell apart easily and the box sprang open. He pushed aside the wood with his dagger to check what was underneath. A large, gold dress was spread out over the whole crate, and, upon it, a small swathe of letters bound with ribbon and wax. He pulled aside the dress, not entirely trusting that it could be so easy, and instead of anything nefarious, found several slips and other delicate things underneath.
She gasped, and he straightened up at once, annoyed that he had allowed himself to expose her in such a way. He could only imagine how humiliated she was, having all this laid out in front of the Keep.
He glanced around and realized that almost the whole Keep had come to watch. Even though it was getting dark outside, the fuss caused by the carriage had drawn the attention of practically everyone in the county, or so it seemed.
Innes’ hands were clenched at her sides as she glowered at him, the shock and betrayal written all over her face.
“You cannae leaveanythingalone, can ye?” she exclaimed.
And, with that, she pushed past him and made her way into the Keep, leaving Lachlan wishing for nothing more than to be able to undo the mess that he had just made.
Innes paced in her chambers, too frantic to think about sitting down.
“You cannae go on like this all day, my lady,” one of the maids, Annabelle, chided her kindly from where she stood in the doorway.
She had been sent as some sort of peace offering, no doubt, after she had so furiously told her husband what she thought of him after he had laid all her personal things bare like that in front of the entire Keep.
Lachlan had sent the trunk to her rooms. At least she did not have to fight him on that matter. He seemed to be doing his best to make amends, but she found it hard to believe that he would even know that he’d done something wrong. How could a man be so willing to invade a girl’s privacy like that? The very thought of it was enough to make the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
“Would you like help unpacking yer things, my lady?” Annabelle offered, trying to turn her mind to matters a little less distressing.
Innes cast a look over to the blasted thing; she had been too stung to go through it yet, but in truth, she was relieved that her brother had sent some of her things. He knew her well and understood intimately what she might miss. She wondered, briefly, if his new wife had had anything to do with this, but she brushed that thought aside at once.
Stooping by the trunk, she pulled the bundle of papers into her lap. They might have looked like letters at a glance to anyone else, but she recognized them at once; small envelopes of her dried herbs, the kind that she kept to give away to visiting family or friends. She tore one open and brought it to her face, the scent of peppermint and fennel filling her senses.
“Will you bring me some hot water?” she asked Annabelle, her mind suddenly filled with an almost aching nostalgia. She rose to her feet at once and nodded.
“If you think that would help, my Lady, of course.”
