Page 14 of Scandalous: Family Ties and Spies

Uncertainty barreled through him. What the devil was wrong with her? What if she didn’t regain consciousness? The thought immediately had Valeran debating his choices. He certainly wasn’t about to leave her alone while he went for help. While he could hoist her over his shoulder and carry her to the foot of the cnoc beag, his lack of sight made it a challenging descent on his own.

Not to mention, he didn’t know what was wrong with her. God only knew the state of her health. From somewhere below the cnoc beag’s summit, the cheerful banter of two men arguing good-naturedly drifted upward. Valeran cocked his head to one side to listen for a moment and exhaled a breath of relief at Jamie’s confident, self-assured inflections.

“Jamie,” he roared. “Get up here, now.”

“Val? Is that you? Are you all right?”

“It’s Amalie. She’s collapsed, and I can’t wake her.” Valeran’s reply made his friend utter an oath, and seconds later, he saw Jamie’s tall shadow appear at the top of the cnoc beag followed by someone else.

“What the hell happened,” Jamie growled as he reached the spot where Valeran stood with Amalie cradled in his arms. His friend brushed a lock of hair off of Amalie’s forehead to examine her features.

“She disagreed with me, then suddenly collapsed.”

“The two of you were arguing?”

His friend’s surprise made Valeran grimace. How in the hell could he explain the woman had been demanding he release her? Jaw clenched with tension, Valeran ignored Jamie’s question.

“She was in the middle of a sentence, and then she simply slumped toward the ground.”

A soft murmur drifted up out of Amalie as she stirred against his chest. Relief crashed through him. Thank God. As he looked down, Valeran saw the shadow of her arm move as she pressed one hand to her head.

“Amalie, what happened, pet?” Although she didn’t answer Jamie’s query, Valeran was certain his friend had seen the answer in his cousin’s expression as Jamie inhaled a quick breath. “Right. The an dara sealladh.”

Valeran stiffened as he heard Jamie use the Scottish phrase for the gift of sight. He knew several members of the Rockwood family possessed the an dara sealladh, including Jamie, but Valeran couldn’t remember his friend mentioning any of his family members ever fainting from a vision.

“Val, she’s incapable of walking down the slope on her own accord. I’ll have to carry her down.”

With a sharp nod, Valeran gently placed Amalie in his best friend’s outstretched arms. As the warmth of her body left his, a silent cry of dissent pounded its way into his muscles. Baffled by his reaction, Valeran frowned as Jamie turned toward the footpath and jerked his head at the tall figure standing close by.

“Theo, head back to the abbey and find Aunt Patience. Have—”

“Nae, ye will…upset her, Jamie.” Amalie’s hoarse whisper made her cousin shake his head in disagreement.

“And if I don’t tell her, there will be hell to pay. Theo, have Aunt Patience meet me in Amalie’s room.”

“Right.” The powerful voice of the Earl of Melton’s heir rang out his understanding of his cousin’s command. A second later, the man’s shadowy form disappeared down the slope. Jamie turned his head toward Valeran.

“Will you be all right finding your way back to the Abbey?” The quiet question made Valeran scowl at his friend.

“How long have you known me?” he snarled. “I might be blind, but I’m more than capable of climbing down this damn knoll. Just see to your cousin.”

“Then I’ll see you back at the abbey.”

Valeran nodded, trying to string several words of concern into a coherent sentence. Before he could do so, Jamie had already begun his descent from the cnoc beag’s peak with Amalie in his arms. The moment his friend’s shadow disappeared from view, Valeran drove his fist into his palm in a forceful gesture of frustration and guilt.

“Fuck,” he snarled viciously.

Had his refusal to release Amalie been the reason for her collapse? Guilt spiked through him at the thought. Jamie would probably say no, but Valeran couldn’t help thinking his actions might have been the catalyst for what had just happened.

“What the hell did you do to make the woman so furious, Sommerville?” Valeran shook his head. “No, not just furious, Amalie Rockwood would happily skewer and roast his ass over a fire.”

She hadn’t just been angry. Beneath her outrage, he’d sensed other emotions echoing in that lilting voice of hers. The strongest one had been her fear. It had reverberated just beneath her rage. She’d been frightened last night, too.

“Fear? Christ almighty, why would she be afraid of me? Today is the first time we’ve even had an actual conversation,” Valeran mumbled with frustration. Rubbing the back of his neck, he shook his head as he tried to make sense of Amalie’s reaction to him. “I have to be missing something. But what? What am I not seeing?”

Closing his eyes, Valeran cleared his thoughts and tried to recall the details from the night Jamie had introduced them at Lyndham House. Valeran had taken Amalie’s hand in his, and Amalie had immediately quivered. Her reaction had been identical to her response yesterday when he’d caught her wrist under the mistletoe and this afternoon when she’d tumbled into his arms.

No, that wasn’t right. He’d forgotten about the surge of electrical current that had barreled its way into him the moment her hand had slid over his palm. A small shudder had vibrated out of Amalie as his fingers had curled around hers. Although her features had been nothing more than a varied mixture of gray and white shadows, he remembered how the shadowy outline of her lips had formed a circle of surprise as she’d stared at him with what he could only assume was amazement.