The answer came to him like a bolt of lightning: the abbey, where the prior was her late husband’s kinsman.
Alison had left him, and she could not have chosen a refuge that hurt him more.
She had gone to the Blackadders.
“We must ride hard for the abbey,” he said, though he suspected the Blackadders would have moved Alison and the girls by now.
That’s what he would have done in their place.
***
Alison’s fear mounted as they rode farther and farther away. Would anyone even look for them before Patrick had her and her daughters locked away inside Tulliallan Castle? And Patrick was well on his way to becoming as loathsome as her former husband.
She did her best to ignore his erection pressing against her backside, but when he attempted to cup her breast, she slapped his hand. “Stop it.”
“No need to play coy with me. We’ll be man and wife soon,” he said against her ear. “I’ve waited years for this, and I know ye have too.”
Was he mad or so vain that he had deluded himself into believing she desired him?
“Ye should have been my wife from the start,” he said. “I wanted to kill my kinsmen every time I saw him with ye. When he died, it was my turn.”
Patrick had always made her uncomfortable, but she had not realized he harbored such notions about the two of them.
“My uncle and the prior said nothing about my marrying you,” she said. It seemed unlikely he would let them go if he knew his father had a different plan, but that was the only card she held.
“I know they told ye we would wed,” he said. “That was the agreement my father reached with the Douglases.”
“’Tis not what I was told.”
“Don’t lie to me,” he said. “The prior told me they discussed the annulment with ye, and ye refused. Why would ye do that?”
“They did speak of an annulment,” she said, “but they said it was your father I must wed.”
“That bastard!” Patrick whipped his horse so hard that they jolted forward.
She gripped the horse’s mane to keep from falling and glanced over her shoulder at her daughters, who looked so frightened she could not bear it.
“So my father and the Douglases expected me to wait, like my idiot brother,” he bit out, “and wed one of your daughters when she comes of age.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and prayed.Please, God, don’t let this happen.Unfortunately, the betrothals could easily be broken. Without David’s protection, her daughters were in very real danger of falling victim to the Blackadders and her brothers’ schemes.
“Since your family did not deliver ye as promised, we Blackadders will change the terms to suit ourselves.”
“How so?” she asked, though she did not expect to like the new terms any better.
“You’ll be mine, of course,” he said, pressing against her. “My father will be happy to take one of your daughters. He has a weakness for verra young lasses.”
Alison felt nauseous. “Wedderburn will murder all of ye for even thinking of touching my daughters,” she said. “He’s verra fond of them.”
“The Beast isfondof them?” Patrick laughed. “He’ll be in a rage for certain, but not because he cares for them.”
“He does,” she insisted, emotion making her choke on the words, “as much as if they were his own daughters.”
She imagined David returning to the castle to find them gone. Why had she not told someone where she was going?
“What Wedderburn cares about is that we’ve ruined his own plans for the wee heiresses.”
“He’s not like you Blackadders or my family,” Alison said. “He pledged to protect my daughters with his life.”
