Page 78 of His Secret Highland Bride

Chapter Twenty-Seven

It’d been a long week for Shane and Alec to fix what needed immediate attention at Collier so they could return home. In that time, Shane had nearly healed, making the trip back to Cluny easier to manage than his trip had been in getting there.

They arrived home late, when everyone was already in bed. After pilfering some food from the kitchens, Shane went to his study to see to any correspondence. He lit a lamp and sorted through the messages on his desk. The first missive held the Cameron crest on the seal. Shane worried if the clan that helped them win against the MacColls was now sending a bill for their services. If it was so, they’d be disappointed.

Shane didn’t have two pennies to rub together. A familiar throbbing began behind his eyes as the pressure of his new role began to build. Collier had given nothing of great value that a poor laird could sell to feed his people.

He’d found a village in worse shape than at home and fields that had been planted but poorly tended. There wouldn’t be many viable crops to harvest next month.

Laird,

I thank you for the opportunity to fight beside you to destroy our common enemy. We have proven we are an unstoppable force when we work together. Perhaps it is time the MacPhersons and Camerons stop raiding each other’s lands and create an alliance. Let us consider building each other up instead of breaking each other down. Our fathers have held on to this hostility between our clans for far too long. I doubt they even knew why they hated each other. It was simply done because their fathers had acted the same. Let us stop it with us. If you are interested, I look forward to discussing it.

The letter was signed by Robert Cameron himself. Shane read the letter again, scouring the words for tricks and finding none. Could it be? A bit of good news after months of nothing but more and more impossible situations?

Alec entered, looking as tired as Shane felt.

“I thought you would have gone straight to your bed.”

“I may have, but there is a woman and three bairns in my bed. So I came here so as not to disturb them.”

It made sense that Tory and Lindsay would have made use of every available bed, with the castle overrun by needy families looking for a safe home. Shane and Alec discussed strategies about what to do with everyone, and Shane was impressed by Alec’s ideas. They must’ve dozed off, for Tory woke them when the sun was shining through the window.

She held out yet another missive, despite the remaining ones on his desk that still went unopened. One of them was from the MacLeods, and he could only guess that they demanded the remaining balance on a ship he would never use.

Tory frowned at them. “I see you’ve returned, even though you didn’t deign to tell me you left.”

“I’m sorry, Tory. I’d not wanted to hunt you down and be lectured about my health. As ye can see, I’m fine.”

“Are ye?” she said with a shake of her head and a sniff. “Fine? Ye don’t even realize how far from fine you are at the moment.”

“What has happened?” Shane tilted his head before asking after his wife. “Where’s Lindsay?”

“That’s a good question,” his sister said with a shrug. “I imagine she is nearly home with her father. I expected this might be word of your annulment, but it’s from Ronan.”

“She left?”

“I would point out, you left her first. What did you think was to happen?”

If he thought his sister would have his back in all things, he’d been mistaken.

“She was new to the castle, a stranger to everyone, thrust into taking over for ye when you were wounded and then abandoned. All this after she’d heard you plan to leave her to marry another. What did you expect would happen? That she’d feel welcomed and loved and wish to stay? Ye are daft.”

“I didn’t have to because I was already married to her! And I changed my mind almost immediately after agreeing to that foolish plan of annulling my marriage to her,” he said. “I thought it would be the right thing but realized right away it was not. I am not without faults, you know.”

“Well, ye won’t be married to her for long. I overheard her father offer to take her home and end your marriage, since you’re unable to care for her the way ye should, and she leaped at the chance. I can’t blame her.”

“She saw I wouldn’t be able to clothe her in the fine garments and jewels she was accustomed to and decided to find someone else who could offer her more.”

Tory laughed but not with humor; instead, she glared at him. “Men! Ye think ye know everything, but ye are as helpless as a newborn babe.” She reached into the bag tied at her waist and pulled out something that shimmered in the light. As she slammed the jewels down on his desk, Shane realized it was the necklace he’d last seen draped around his wife’s neck. “It’s the only thing she left behind. My guess is it was her way of helping in the only way she could. In a way you don’t deserve.”

Shane stood holding the emeralds and rubies as he watched his sister storm away out of his study. He’d made yet another mistake.

“Aye,” Alec said beside him, making Shane think perhaps he’d said it out loud. “Look at this.”

He held out the missive Tory had brought in—the one from Ronan that Shane hadn’t realized he’d dropped. He was still reeling from what Tory had told him.

Lindsay had left him.