“When did she see this?”
“Weeks ago, at Calanais.”
She worked over the details in her mind and clung to the absolute certainty that she would never betray her husband. Raonaid was wrong.
“Perhaps she was seeing the dispatch I sent to Colonel Worthington at Fort William,” Gwendolen suggested. “In it, I wrote that I wanted him to come and take you away by force, and hang you at the gallows. I wanted it very badly at the time. I have no excuse, but you already know this, because you read the letter yourself. You burned it, remember?”
He regarded her with suspicion.
“I confess that when I wrote it,” Gwendolen continued, “I was sincere in my wish to see you hanged, but afterward, I faced your wrath and regretted my actions. I meant it when I pledged my allegiance.” She moved closer to him and laid her hands on his chest, willing him to believe her. “Since then, we have spoken vows before God to unite us as man and wife. I have given my body to you willingly.” She paused. “Surely what Raonaid saw was a moment out of the past. That is all. I do not fault her for coming here. I would have done the same, but Colonel Worthington came here and met with you, and he did not do what I asked him to do, and thank God for that, because I do not want you dead. I want you to live. Ineedyou to live.”
He took hold of her hands and held them away from him. “How do I know I can trust you? You betrayed me once before, after you gave me your word that you would be loyal.”
“Things were different then.” He did not seem convinced, so she made another desperate attempt to prove to him that she could be trusted. “And today, they are different yet again.”
“How so?”
She placed a hand on her belly, and felt a strange mixture of joy and anguish. “Because I was ill the past three mornings. I’ve had no flux.”
For days, she had been anticipating this moment. She’d hoped to tell Angus the news in the Great Hall in front of the clans. She knew how pleased he would be, and imagined him gathering her into his arms, perhaps lifting her into the air.
He did none of those things now. The ice in his eyes grew more frigid than ever.
“How do I know this isn’t a trick meant to distract me from some other treachery?”
“Is that what you think?” Sudden tears of rage pooled in her eyes. “Do you truly believe that I would lie about something like this?”
“I don’t know what to believe. Raonaid has never been wrong before.”
“So you’ll believe her over me?”
She wanted to hit him, to scream at him, punch him, and demand that he take her side. She was his wife, and that woman was known all over Scotland as a mad witch!
He took hold of her arm and dragged her out of the room. “Come with me.”
“Where are we going?”
“Back to your chamber, and I’ll send for a midwife to examine you. I want to know if you’re telling me the truth.”
“Angus, how dare you!” Besieged by anger and disbelief, she struggled to pry his fingers off her arm, but he possessed an iron grip.
“I need to know, lass. There can be no lies between us.”
“There are none!” she shouted.“And I will never forgive you for this!”
He dragged her down the stairs and through the stone passageways of the castle. “I’ll believe you about the child when the midwife tells me it is so.”
“I suppose it’ll be a MacDonald midwife,” she retorted, “and not a MacEwen?”
“Aye, and I’ll be choosing the woman myself. At least that way, I’ll know I’m not being deceived again.”
He shoved her into the room and looked at her harshly, before he shut the door in her face and locked her in.
Chapter Eighteen
The midwife arrived within the hour to examine Gwendolen and confirmed that her womb was enlarged. Given her symptoms, it was therefore almost certain that she was expecting a child.
Gwendolen thanked the woman and escorted her to the door. “Will you inform my husband of the happy news?”
