Page 48 of Savage Kilted Highlander

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Bane felt the vague stirrings of wakefulness and immediately became conscious of a splitting pain in his head. He groaned, and that was how he knew he was alive. The enveloping darkness surrounding him slowly began to clear. He fought his way out of it as if he were trying to save himself from drowning, swimming upwards from the bottom of a loch to the surface, towards air and light.

His mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton that tasted metallic, like blood. He opened his eyes, his vision swimming hazily. As it slowly came not focus, he frowned, puzzled to see floorboards. He was lying on a floor, somewhere. Then he felt the rope cutting cruelly into his wrists. Alarm filled him. He was tied, a prisoner!

“He’s awake,” he heard a voice say, taking a moment to register it as Tav’s. Then he felt strong arms grasping him and lifting him up, but he was so weak, he could only make it to his knees. “Come on, lad, I’ve got ye, ye’re gonnae be all right,” his brother told him, keeping a steadying hold on him as he sagged, his bound wrists before him. He clung to his brother’s presence, finding comfort in it.

Groaning again, feeling as though his skull was about to split into pieces, he raised his hands to his head, trying to quell the agony within, to no avail. A confusion of thoughts and fragmented memories came rushing in. He struggled to make sense of them. One forced its way to the forefront of his mind.

Constance. Where is she? Is she safe?

Needing to know urgently that she was all right, by painful degrees, he lifted his head and tried to look about the strange room where he found himself. He licked his dry lips and coughed to clear the cotton from his mouth. “Constance?” he muttered, hearing his voice sound like a rusty hinge.

“I am here, Bane!” he heard her cry out, her voice laden with anxiety.

“Stay there, Constance, if ye will, please,” a deep, masculine voice commanded. Ignoring it, Bane shifted and turned his head in the direction from which Constance’s voice had come. There she was. But wait… there were two of her. He blinked, thinking he must be seeing double. But no, there were two of her, two Constances, standing a few feet away to the side, with their arms wrapped around each other.

Then it occurred to him that they were dressed differently. Suddenly, his memory returned full force. Constance and Agnes. The sisters were reunited, which meant he was in the castle. And Tav was with him. He finally understood what was happening and looked ahead of him, to a tall, glowering figure that pinned him with his cold gaze. The man he knew must be Ewan Kerr stood before him like a statue of judgment.

He swung his head to his side, and there was Tav, the expression on his face when he met Bane’s eyes betraying a confusing mixture of guilt and defiance.

“So, now ye’re awake, ye can explain tae me why ye intended tae abduct me daughter,” Ewan Kerr said coldly, folding his arms across his chest and not taking his piercing gaze from Bane.

Bane hung his head and tried to think of what to say. But before he could formulate any words in his throbbing brain, to his surprise, Constance stepped forward. “Father, you can see he is not in a fit state to answer any questions. I shall explain everything,” she declared boldly.

A hint of surprise flickered across the laird’s face, but he eventually nodded. “Very well, go ahead.”

Constance took a breath and began. “Well, it all began a little over three months ago, when I happened to accidently overhear a conversation between Lord Ashbourne and his friend in the garden at Ashbourne House in Hexham, on the English side of the border. That was when I discovered Lord Ashbourne was not my father at all. But rather that you, Ewan Kerr, are my true father. I also found out I have a twin sister…” She paused to smile at Agnes. “…about whom I knew nothing at all.”

Bane, though his head was thumping, paid close attention to everything she was saying.

“Of course, I was very shocked to learn all this, but I was very eager to meet you and my twin.” Again, she looked at Agnes, who beamed back at her, seemingly rapt. “But it was difficult to know how to get away. I could not simply up and leave, you see. My stepfather kept close control over everything I and my half siblings did. To say my life was sheltered is an understatement.

“Then, about three weeks ago, I was summoned to my stepfather’s study. There, I was introduced to the Earl, a man old enough to be my grandfather. It was the first time I had met him. I had overheard I was to marry him but I cannot describe how shocked and horrified I was when I saw him. He could have been my grandfather!”

This was the first time Bane had heard the horrific details of what Constance had endured. If he had not already despised her stepfather before, now he hated him. And he was not the only one who was shocked, it seemed, because Agnes let out a small gasp of dismay.

Constance continued, “Of course, I decided immediately that I could never go ahead with such a marriage. I would rather have died than be wed to that loathsome man. I made up my mind then that, however risky it might prove to be, I had to find a way to leave Ashbourne Manor as soon as possible and travel to Scotland to find my father and my sister. But it all had to be done in secret, without my stepfather knowing anything about it. I knew if he got wind of my plan, he would not only stop me, but he would also most likely lock me up until the wedding and force me to go through with it.

“If I was to get away without getting caught, I knew I would have to ask for help from the only two people in the world I could trust, my half-siblings, Henry and Amelia.” She went on, recounting how she had shared the truth of her origins with them and how, despite their initial shock at discovering their mother’s infidelity, they had immediately approved of her decision to leave. She described their emotional goodbyes later that very night as she left, taking advantage of Lord Ashbourne’s temporary absence from home.

Bane listened in fascination while Constance described dressing as a man for safety before setting out alone on her beloved mare Lucy, carrying only a few possessions, on the long ride over the border to her father’s lands in Scotland. Once again, he was awestruck by her bravery and began to forget the pain in his head and wrists as he listened to her amazing story.

However, at the same time, his misgivings concerning his fate increased, for he could not help but be aware that the incriminating details of the abduction were soon to come. Indeed, a few moments later, he found himself cringing, feeling like an idiot, as Constance related how he had waylaid her in the forest and, mistaking her for Agnes, kidnapped her. She also explained that at that point, she knew nothing of his intention to try to exchange her for Tav’s freedom.

Tav let out a pained groan and rubbed his hand across his scalp when he heard all this, no doubt thinking what a hare-brained as well as dangerous scheme his brother had cooked up to try to “save” him.

It was his bloody fault in the first place, thought Bane angrily. If he’d bothered tae write and tell him and Fia he was all right, he’d never have dreamed of doing such a thing. It was because of him that he put Constance through all that suffering for nothing. He was the one tae blame for him being there, on his knees, awaitin’ Ewan Kerr’s judgement upon his life.

But Tav’s culpability aside, the love Bane now bore for Constance made him burn with a mixture of shame, guilt, and sorrow as she described her initial terror of him, how she had feared for her life, and then the forced trek out of Kerr lands and the many hardships and dangers she had endured on the journey.

I’m gonnae hang fer sure after this, and I deserve it fer what I’ve done tae her.

Expecting the worst possible outcome, his ears pricked up when her narrative suddenly took an unexpected turn in his defence. Her voice growing stronger, her tone more decisive, she addressed her father directly.

“But though we suffered many hardships, mainly because of the bad weather, Bane looked after me the whole way. He made sure we had a safe place to stay each night, he fed me, and he did his best to keep me warm. He never tried to hurt me. When we were attacked by brigands, he protected me, vanquishing them all. He saved me from drowning too. I should be dead if not for him.

“Eventually, as we shared more of our histories, he explained his reasons for plotting to abduct Agnes and, of course, for kidnapping me in her place. You see, Father, he believed you had abducted and imprisoned Tav, and all he wanted was his brother back safely. He thought he was doing the only thing he could to force you to free Tav in exchange for my safe return.”