After a time, he heard footsteps and hoped it was Hume warriors. Instead, it was Walter, come to take another turn at him.
***
“I’ve a favor to ask,” Alison said, looking up at Patrick from under her lashes as they re-entered the hall. “I lost a ring my father gave me in the laird’s chamber. Would ye mind if I look for it?”
“I’ll send a servant,” he said.
“I’d rather look myself.” She lowered her voice. “’Tis quite valuable.”
She fought to maintain her innocent expression as he eyed her suspiciously. If he did not believe this excuse for her going into the laird’s chamber, he surely would not believe a second one. When Patrick’s expression suddenly changed, she worried still more.
“Ye don’t need an excuse to get me upstairs,” he said. “We’ve both waited far too long.”
God preserve me.Did he truly believe she wanted him? His arrogance knew no bounds.
She could not offend him before he took her upstairs. She must get into the laird’s chamber, and this was likely to be her only chance. Her heart pounded as they entered the stairwell that led to the bedchambers.
She prayed she would not have to let Patrick have his way with her, but she would do what she must to save David. Through the cloth of her gown, she touched the dirk strapped to her leg.
One way or another, she intended to succeed in her task.
Panic sang in her veins when Patrick started to pass the door to the laird’s chamber. Apparently he meant to take her straight to the first bedchamber with a bed, which was the one she had shared with David. That would be too hard to bear.
“I do want to look for that ring,” Alison said, tugging gently at his arm. When he turned to look at her, she tilted her head and forced a smile. “Please?”
She must be better at covering her loathing than she thought, for he turned back and opened the door to the laird’s chamber for her. She crossed the room and stood with her back to the wall where the bed had been.
“All the other Blackadder men were furious when ye burned the bed,” Patrick said, his eyes fixed on her as he slowly closed the distance between them. “But I knew ye hated to have him touch ye almost as much I hated it.”
“The ring fell between the head of the bed and the wall, where I couldn’t get to it,” she said, her voice coming out high-pitched.
“Ye needed a younger man to satisfy ye,” he said, and took a step closer. “Ye needed me.”
“I should have looked for the ring as soon as I had the bed removed,” she said, frantically looking at the floor, as if she expected the ring to magically appear. “But then there was the siege and…and…everything, and I forgot to look for it.”
He was almost touching her, so she dropped to the floor.
“It’s down here somewhere, I know it.”
She swept her right hand across the floor while surreptitiously running the fingertips of her left hand along the bottom of the wall, searching for a seam that would reveal the piece that unlocked the secret door.
She touched the wall lightly for fear she might actually cause the door to open with Patrick watching. The girls said the door was hidden behind the tapestry, but what if it opened with a loud sound or a rush of air from the tunnel that caused the tapestry to move?
She felt no sign of the moving piece, but it had to be here.
“Forget the ring,” Patrick said, and lifted her up. “I’ll have a new one made for ye.”
She was trapped between him and the wall. “But—”
“I said, forget the ring.” Patrick gripped her shoulders and pushed her backward until she felt the cold, hard stone behind the tapestry. “I’ve waited ten long years to have ye.”
“We must be patient,” she said. “There’s no marriage contract yet.”She did not point out that she was still married to another man, lest he decide to remedy that at once.
“I won’t wait another hour.”
“Ye don’t want to cross my brother,” she said quickly. “I expect he’ll soon be ruling the country in his stepson’s name.”
“Your brother is more pragmatic than you claim to be,” he said. “He’ll accept a done deed and agree on the terms later.”
