But not Lachlan. He had kissed her goodnight and told her that there was business he needed to take care of and that he would not be there to join her till later. But she knew what business he meant, and she did not intend to just sit by and let it happen.
Rising from the bed, she made for the window, peering down into the courtyard. She had not been able to sleep anyway. It was difficult to rest when all you could think about was what your husband might have pictured when he saw those words from his former lover.
Had he been excited? Was this what he had hoped for when he had finally accepted that her brother could visit her at the Keep? She wished she could snake inside his mind and find out…
But a noise drew her attention from down below, and she realized that she might not have to become a seer to tell the truth anyway. The glow of a lantern cut across the courtyard and towards the stables, and, as it turned the corner, it cast a glow down on to the man carrying it.
Lachlan.
Her heart felt like it was sitting in her feet. She watched helplessly as he went to take a horse from the stables, making his way towards the gate in silence.
He was going to meet her, there could be no doubt about it now.
He had lied to her, knowing that she would be so hurt by what he was about to do, but not thinking better of it to leave this meeting entirely. She felt a sickness stir within her as she watched him leave, realizing what this was.
And then it turned to something else. To anger.
No.
If he was going to do something like this, then she deserved to know exactly what it was he was getting up to. If he thought she was just going to sit at home like a simpering little wife while he ran off to do goodness knows what, then he had another thing coming.
She turned to her trunk to pull out some warm clothes for riding. She might not have imagined that tonight would end in amission of espionage, but if that was what it took to find out her husband’s true intentions, she would take it.
Chapter Fourteen
Innes ducked low into the bushes, glancing behind her to make sure that her horse was disguised by the trees. In the distance, an owl hooted. From inside the Torrisdale Inn, she could hear a few people talking, the last local drunks putting away their ale for the night.
But she wasn’t much concerned about the regular patrons of this place, no. She wanted to see when her husband was going to make his appearance. Where was he anyway? If she had made it there already and found the inn, he must have arrived long before her.
It was close to midnight, and she had been hiding out in the bushes not too far from the back entrance of the inn.
It was here, she supposed, that this clandestine meeting would take place if it were to happen at all. She kept praying that she might have been wrong about all of this, that her husband would prove her paranoid beyond all reason with her actions, but she got the feeling, the more time passed, that she was not going to be so lucky.
Finally, the door to the inn swung open. A familiar figure stepped out into the dim light—Isobel.
She was draped in a shawl and carrying a lantern, a small smile on her face, as if she already knew that everything had gone exactly as she had intended it to. Innes almost wanted to call out to her then, to demand what it was she thought she had been doing when she had left that letter for her husband, but she knew she would never be granted an answer. Isobel did not even see the two of them as being on the same level, and she would dismiss Innes out of hand with no warning.
A few moments later, the clatter of hooves on the soft earth cut through the air, and Isobel turned her lantern to light Lachlan’s passage. Innes pressed her lips together when she saw that her husband truly was there to meet with another woman. A part of her had prayed that he would not show his face here, not risk harming his marriage with such nonsense, and yet, there he stood.
“You got my letter, then?” Isobel asked with a hint of surprise in her voice. Was she not expecting him?
Lachlan dismounted and made his way towards her.
“Aye, I did,” he replied.
There was no affection in his voice, though. This was something else entirely. Anger. Distaste. Like he wished he could brush her off right then and there.
“And I’m glad to see that you have recovered so quickly,” he went on, an edge of sarcasm to his voice. “But I must inform you that whatever you think there was between us, it’s gone.”
She laughed, the sound a tinkling tune in the air. “Oh, Lachlan,” she replied, taking a step towards him. “Because of that young filly you’ve married? She doesnae ken how to please a man like you. Not as I do, at least.”
Innes gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth. It wasn’t just the shock of a woman like Isobel speaking in such blunt tones, but to a married man, no less, and while she herself was bound to her own husband. It was almost beyond her comprehension.
Lachlan moved away from her at once.
“Dinnae speak to me as though ye ken me, Isobel.”
“But I do, Lachlan,” she reminded him sweetly. “I know that you’ve tried to make me jealous with this little game. Ye don’t have to pretend any longer.”
