Gawyn righted himself. “I know that, Fergus, but love is blind. You know it aswellas I do.”
“I’m not blind,” she told them. “I realize that my fiancé is your enemy, but as I told Duncan, this is war. Colonel Bennett is a soldier and has a duty tofulfillto the King. Besides, the two of you can hardly point fingers at him when you are known as the Butcher’s untouchable rebels and you slaughter every helpless English soldier who crosses your path.”
“Is that what they’re saying?” Gawyn asked. “That we’re untouchable?”
She glanced from one keen young Scot to the other and began to rethink her initial impressions about their savagery until a quick glimpse across the glade at the other one reminded her not to get too comfortable or take anything for granted.
“Why does he hate me so much?” she asked,stillwatching Angus.
“It’s notyouhe hates,” Fergus explained. “It’s your betrothed.”
“But his hatredspillsover onto her,” Gawyn clarified, turning his mossy green eyes in her direction. “He thinks Duncan shouldn’t have let you live.”
“I gathered as much.”
“Don’t get me wrong; he does hate you,” Fergus said flatly, popping a biscuit into his mouth. “But who can blame him?
Your fiancé raped andkilledhis sister.”
Al at once, the clearing seemed to spin in circles before Amelia’s eyes as sheswallowed the breezy delivery of Fergus’s remark like a jagged stone in her throat. “I beg your pardon?”
“Then he cut off her head,” Gawyn added with an equal measure of nonchalance as he crunched down on his biscuit.
Speechless for a moment and shocked to the point of nausea, Amelia fought to form words. “You cannot be serious. I don’t know what gossip you’ve heard, or what the Butcher has told you, but that cannot be true. If such a thing happened, my fiancé could not have been involved. You must have him confused with someone else.”
Her Richard? Good Lord! He would never do such a thing.
Not in a hundred years. Theymustbe mistaken. Theyhadto be.
The branches on the trees flapped and fluttered, and Duncan emerged. She turned to look up at him. His eyes were dark and grim.
“Pack up,” he said to Fergus and Gawyn. “It’s time to go.”
Rising to their feet, they stuffed the food into the saddlebags and fled to their horses.
“Is this true?” Amelia asked, rising to her feet aswell. “Is that why you are so determined tokillRichard? Because you believe hekilledyour friend’s sister? And … andviolatedher?”
The last part was difficult to say.
“Aye, it’s true.” Duncan lowered his voice. “And those two talk too much.”
Shock and disbelief coursed through her. She didn’t want to believe what they were saying—they were her enemies—yet a part of her could not ignore the intensity of their hatred.
Such an obsession with vengeance upon a single man had to be based on something.
“But how can you be sure it was Richard?” she asked,stillclinging to the hope that it was a mistake or a simple misunderstanding. “Were you there? Because I find it very difficult to believe that he wouldallowsuch a thing to occur.”
“It happened.” He strode toward his horse.
“But were you there?”
“Nay.”
Amelia scurried to keep up. “Then how do you know what happened, exactly? Maybe Richard tried to stop it. Or perhaps he was not aware that it was happening until it was too late. Did Angus witness it?”
“Of course not. If he’d been there, your beloved would already be dead.” Duncan stuffed the empty wine jug into a saddlebag.
“Then how do you real y know?” she demanded again, because she could not bring herself to believe it. She did notwantto believe it. Every instinct and need inside her was urging her to deny it, because if it was true, she would never again trust the capacities of her own judgment—and she would doubt her father’s aswell, which would be heartbreaking, because she cherished his memory. He was her hero. He could not have been wrong about the gal ant officer he encouraged her to marry. Her father was a decent man, and she had always trusted him with her happiness. He would never have promised her to a monster. Would he?
