The Seduction of Miss Amelia Bell (26 page)

“Papa.” Her tears came harder now. “I don’t want to marry Walter. I don’t love him.
But how can I leave ye to the duke’s mercy?”

“Och, hell,” Malcolm said, growing impatient and a wee bit sentimental, if the glimmer
in his eyes spoke true. “He can come with us. But let’s decide already and get the
hell oot of here!”

Her father at Camlochlin? Living among hundreds of warriors? She looked at him, hoping
he would consent. He shook his head and she covered her face against his chest.

“There now, my sweet daughter, I cannot leave yer mother, though…” He shook his head.
“I’ll be fine. Ye have my blessing to go.”

She had her father’s blessing but she still wasn’t sure what to do. Did she dare put
Edmund’s life in jeopardy by remaining with him?

She listened while Luke and Malcolm discussed rescuing Edmund and then hurried them
all out of her tent. What would she do? She knew one thing only. She missed Edmund
already. Lord help them both, she needed to see him.

An hour before dawn Amelia left her tent and headed to the place where Captain Pierce
had taken Edmund. She stepped across the grass and over sleeping bodies without crushing
any fingers under her shoes or even snapping a twig. Fate, it seemed, was on her side
tonight.

She spotted Edmund lying among a group of sleeping men and moved toward him. When
he saw her, he came slowly to his feet, his body lean and tense in the firelight.
She wanted to run to him and beg his forgiveness.

“My lady,” a voice in the darkness stopped her instantly, only inches from Edmund.
“I was correct then.”

She spun around and faced Captain Pierce behind the flames. “Correct about what?”
she whispered, hating him for being there and herself for being so predictable.

“You”—he turned toward Edmund—“and him.”

“Please, Captain.” Her voice remained controlled, save for a hint of breathlessness.
“Please remain quiet.”
Please
, she mouthed, praying that he would grant her wish as he had earlier.

He said nothing. She almost smiled when she caught sight of a shadow behind him.

A click of metal and a flash of steel against the captain’s temple stilled her heart.

“Were ye expectin’ us as well, Captain?” came the low growl and thick Highland burr
that Amelia had come to love.

She met Malcolm’s cerulean gaze over the captain’s head and held up her palm. The
captain had been kind to her tonight. She owed him something for that.

“Captain,” she said softly when he reached for the hilt of his sword. “I’ve seen what
they do in a fight and I never want to see it again. Please, trust me. Ye will lose
many men.”

The captain was still for a moment, his lips curling upward the only thing moving
on him. “If that pistol is fired, I may die, but so will all of you.” He looked Edmund
straight in the eye when Edmund stood before him. “You are all standing in the middle
of my army. When it is awakened, the men will not stop to see who they are killing.”

Edmund ground his jaw and looked at her. Amelia knew what he was thinking because
she was thinking the same thing about him. She didn’t want to see him die. She didn’t
let her tears fall. Now was a time to hold fast to her courage.

He looked at Malcolm next, holding the pistol to the captain’s head. He nodded and
then shifted his gaze to Pierce’s. “Give me a reason not to give my cousin the signal
to shoot ye, and make it a better reason than the threat of Miss Bell’s demise. Since
ye expected her to come to me, ye’ll understand that fer us, death is a better alternative
than being apart. If we die here, so be it.” He turned to Amelia and set his eyes
on her. “Aye, my love?”

“Aye,” she said rather meekly. She wasn’t truly ready to die, but she guessed neither
was Edmund. It was a clever ruse to show fearlessness to his captor.

“What glory is there for you in your death?” the captain pressed on courageously.
“In the death of a few Highlanders and a nobleman’s daughter?”

“’Tis likely ye’ll lose more men than I,” Edmund promised. “D’ye think my rescuers
would come alone? Look toward the tree line, Captain. An army of…How many would ye
say, Cal?”

Behind the captain, Malcolm shrugged. “Two hundred, last I checked.”

“Two hundred men await our signal to attack,” Edmund told him.

Amelia peered into the distance but because the tree line was beyond the light of
many campfires she could see nothing but darkness. Were there two hundred men standing
at the ready? Malcolm and Luke had told her that Darach went to get more men. Could
they be here already? She looked at the captain, wondering what he believed.

He showed her a moment later when he lifted his palms to the top of his head in surrender.
“Tell me what you want.”

’T
will be light in an hour,” Edmund told the captain. “Give us that hour to escape before
ye alert the duke. Bring yer regiment to Ravenglade and then go east when ye discover
the castle empty.”

“Very well,” Pierce agreed.

Intelligent man, Edmund thought. Brave, too. Pity he was a traitor to Scotland.

“One more thing.”

“What is it?” Pierce asked.

“I’m taking her.” He reached out for Amelia’s hand and almost tumbled forward when
she pulled away from him.

“What are ye doing?” he asked her, remembering somehow to keep his voice low. He’d
had plenty of time to think about what she’d told him in her tent earlier. He understood
now the reason she’d left him. He thought she was over this ridiculous notion of having
to protect her father, and him. Wasn’t that why she’d come to him in the middle of
an army, to tell him she loved him? Or had she come to bid him a final farewell?

“Amelia.” He said her name on a ragged breath. “I won’t leave without ye, lass. Nothing
else matters in my life but ye. I want to be yer husband. Sarah told me about the
chancellor’s sexual perversions. Yer father would not want that kind of life fer ye.”

“I know,” she told him. “He’s given me his blessing. But…” She looked like she wanted
to leap into his arms, but she shook her head instead. “I couldn’t live with anyone
else’s death on my shoulders. I loved Grendel. I loved him so much. I fear ye would
be next.”

“Amelia, I told ye that I’d battle misfortune fer ye. I’ll be safe, but I don’t care
if I am or not. As fer Grendel, I loved him, too,” he told her on a broken sigh.

“I know.” She tortured him further by letting her tears fall without a single swipe
to clear them. “This night will haunt me forever. I want no more like it. I will not
come with ye.”

He felt his stomach tighten into a knot. He looked at Malcolm and then at Luke standing
behind him, unnoticed until now by Pierce. Was he expected to leave her here? Leave
her to wed the chancellor? Was she mad?

He knew what he was going to do, but the sound of her mother’s voice shouting as she
ran forward from her tent—or was that the chancellor’s tent?—alerting the rest of
the men propelled Edmund into action.

In one fluid motion he stepped forward, swooped down over Amelia, and snatched her
up off the ground.

The captain reached out to take her back but collapsed to the ground when Malcolm
struck him in the back of the head with the handle of his pistol. Edmund didn’t wait
to see what happened next. He tossed Amelia over his shoulder and took off running
toward the tree line.

Twice the duke’s guardsmen swinging at him with long rapiers stopped him. Thankfully,
they were commanded not to shoot lest they hit the duke’s niece.

When Malcolm tossed him his claymore, Edmund fought with one hand, parrying and jabbing
and spattering blood onto Amelia’s back. Malcolm shot a soldier who was about to come
up on him, then tucked his pistol into his belt and pulled out another, ready to fire.
Luke dragged a man at his side as he ran. Edmund realized it was Amelia’s father and
wondered what the hell his cousin was doing.

By now all of the duke’s men were awake and scattering about, waiting for commands
from their captain—which wouldn’t be coming in the next few minutes at least. That
was all the time they had to escape.

Edmund thought all was lost when what appeared to be more than one hundred men stepped
out from beyond the trees, bows pointed upward and arrows ready to fly.

“Buchanans?” Edmund asked Malcolm as they raced toward them.

“Aye, William proved true. Darach also brought with him some MacLarens.”

“And I thought we were bluffing with Pierce.” Edmund smiled genuinely for the first
time that night. The coming morning was already looking better.

“Release her!” came a shout from the duke riding up behind them, “and I won’t carve
your heart out and send it to your family on Skye.”

Edmund stopped just before the trees and turned. He set Amelia down on her feet and
his lips snaked upward along her temple. “I can tell ye with confidence,” he called
out, “that my kin would love to have ye fer a visit, Lord Queensberry. Bring all the
men ye have. My kin will return later to comfort those soldiers’ widows and mayhap
bring their bairns back home and raise them as Highlanders.”

Standing at his side, Malcolm chuckled, then turned to him. “We should kill him now
and the chancellor after him.”

Aye, they should, Edmund agreed. The union might be dissolved without its two leaders’
signatures. But it would only delay the inevitable again and killing two prominent
men such as them would propel Parliament into war with the MacGregors and the Grants.

“Edmund.” Amelia’s soft voice in front of him pulled him back. “Ye cannot kill them.
The duke is my uncle, and the chancellor…” She paused, her breath suspended beneath
the curl of his arm. She turned to face him, offering him a view of the soft dip of
her brow, the raw, real emotion that lit her eyes from a place he wanted to continue
pursuing. He loved her. He didn’t want anything but her. “As terrible as he is, I
cannot have more blood on my hands.”

“Their blood would not be on yer hands, lass. This is about the union.”

“Please, Edmund,” she begged. “No more killing. I will go with ye. Leave this place
to live another day. I beg ye. I could not live knowing that ye were no longer here.”

“Edmund?” Malcolm insisted.

Edmund held up his palm to silence him. He would do anything for her. But could he
leave alive the two men whose names would set the union in motion? Ah, if he hadn’t
met her…but he had. He never thought anything or anyone could ever mean more to him
than Scotland. But she did. She was his everything. He remembered the stories about
his father, and how he’d gone to Dartmouth on a mission to save King James from William
of Orange. He hadn’t planned on falling in love with Edmund’s mother, or with Edmund.
But he did, and ultimately, he gave up his battle with the Dutch usurper to keep Edmund
and his mother safe. Love changed everything. Like his father, Edmund would do anything
for Amelia.

“Call off yer men, Queensberry,” he ordered, eyeing the men coming toward them, some
on foot and some on horseback. “Too many will die here today if ye don’t. Including
ye. We will release Lord Selkirk once we—”

“Selkirk doesn’t concern me, MacGregor,” Queensberry called out, causing Amelia’s
back to stiffen against Edmund when she turned back to her uncle. “I want the girl.
Or, should I say, the chancellor wants her. If ye release her now, I won’t have your
balls hacked off and presented to him as a wedding gift. I warn you—”

An arrow piercing his arm and Darach’s voice shouting from the trees cut off the remainder
of his warning. “I grow weary of yer threats, Duke. The next one enters yer heart,”
he called out his promise, another arrow cocked and aimed. “After that, I will take
doun the chancellor and any other man who dares to move forward.

“Edmund.” He turned his eye to his cousin. “Let’s no’ tarry. The army doesna’ have
their captain but soon they will. Horses are waitin’. Our friends will cover us. Let’s
get the hell oot of here.”

Edmund nodded, thankful as always to have Darach on his side in a fight. By now, both
of Malcolm’s pistols were again ready to fire, as were Luke’s. If the Buchanans and
the MacLarens could hold off the duke’s men for a little while, Edmund and his cousins
would be able to get Amelia to safety. They knew enough families on the way to Skye
who would give them shelter.

He turned to the duke. Hell, there were so many things Edmund wanted to say to him.
Mostly, not to merge with England. He wouldn’t listen. “Ye’ll be a witness to the
birth of a new opposition against yer united kingdom. Remember my mercy when ye speak
of this day in the years to come.”

“I will remember it, Edmund.”

Edmund looked over his shoulder at the bard warrior Darach and smiled. “I’m glad to
hear that,” he said and hauled Amelia over his shoulder again. “Let’s be the hell
away from here then, aye? Cover us.” He turned to run and almost tripped over a mound
of blond fur, teeth, and worshipful brown eyes. “Gaza!” Edmund nearly shouted with
gladness. “Amelia, ’tis Gaza!”

Darach watched them take off together and pointed his sword toward the heavens. “Archers
ready!” he shouted, commanding stillness while his unhorsed cousins found their saddles.

“Where is Sarah?” Amelia asked Darach when he caught up with them a few moments later.

“Janet took her, Etta, and Chester to Killiecrankie,” he told her, then turned to
the others. “We will meet up wi’ them there, at the mountain pass, and then continue
on to Rannoch. Jack Robertson will be expectin’ us.”

“This is why we bring him,” Edmund called out to his cousins, who all agreed wholeheartedly.
“We owe the Buchanans much as well,” Edmund told Malcolm, riding behind him.

“I know. I know,” Malcolm muttered on the way.

They rode hard and fast for more than half an hour before stopping to rest their horses
and part ways with John Bell and the Buchanans.

“Where do ye think she’s been?” Amelia asked Edmund while she scratched the dog behind
the ears and welcomed her back.

“I don’t know, but I’m glad she returned.” He watched her in the sunlight petting
Gaza and smiling at her. His heart swelled with emotion. “Amelia…”

She looked up at him, her smile fading.

“I don’t want to force ye to remain with me. I’m just not sure I can go on without
ye in my life.”

“Edmund.” She straightened and lifted her palm to his cheek. “Ye told Captain Pierce
that death was a better alternative fer us than being apart. ’Tis the truth. I don’t
want to live without ye but I cannot stand the thought of knowing that I brought ye
more pain.”

“The worst pain would be to lose ye,” he told her, taking her into his arms. “I love
ye, Amelia. I will never stop loving ye. If ye leave me—”

“Pardon me,” Amelia’s father interrupted them. “May I have a word with ye both?”

“Of course.” How could Edmund say anything else?

“I’m sorry Luke took ye with us,” Amelia said. “I don’t know why he did.”

In John Bell’s smile, Edmund could see his love for his daughter shine from a light
within. “I asked him to bring me a moment after everyone began running. I wanted my
chance to bid ye farewell. He was very clever about it, making it appear as if I were
being taken against my will. I’m in his debt.” Her father cut a brief side glance
to Edmund, who was listening. “I was fortunate to have some time to speak with Lucan
about ideals long dead. Codes of honor to God, king, and the women they loved.” He
chuckled at himself. “Living so long in the manner that I have has made me forgetful
of them. Do ye believe in these codes?” he asked, turning to Edmund.

“Aye, my lord. Everyone in Camlochlin does.”

“I like these Highlanders,” John told his daughter. “They put me in remembrance of
this country’s origins. When men took on giants like the Romans, the Saxons and Normans,
and the English, for the land.”

Amelia looked at Edmund and smiled. “Aye, Goliath himself couldn’t stand against them.”

Edmund shook his head at her secret insinuation of David.

“My daughter told me much about ye, MacGregor.”

Edmund grinned at her. “Aye?” It was nice to know that she spoke of him. “Well, my
lord,” he said, returning his attention to her father, “not everything ye hear about
the MacGregors is true.”

“I don’t know about all the rest of yer clan, but of ye,” John told him, “she told
me ye’re loyal and kind, and ye don’t always tell the truth.”

Edmund laughed, and hell, it felt good to do so again.

“And that besides me, ye are the only man she will ever love. So, I wanted to give
ye both my blessing. My only request is that ye give me yer word of honor that ye
will always care fer her.”

“Ye have it,” Edmund promised.

Amelia flung her arms around her father and held him close. “Oh, Papa, how can I leave
ye? What will become of ye? The shame of yer troublesome daughter riding off with…”

John Bell held his daughter at arm’s length so that he could look her in the eyes.
“Ye have never shamed me, Amelia. Never. Ye’ve done nothing but bring joy to my life.
I regret not defending ye more strongly.” When she tried to deny his words he quieted
her with a finger to her lips. “Fergive me fer almost failing ye again by accepting
Seafield’s offer fer ye. But it seems yer fortune changed fer the better the night
yer betrothal was to be announced but postponed because of a caved-in ceiling.” The
baron smiled over her shoulder at Edmund. “Come to think of it, that was also the
day ye arrived at Queensberry House, aye, MacGregor?”

Her father drew her in for a kiss and then handed her over to Edmund. “Write to me,
daughter.”

She nodded, tears streaming down her face while her father left her and saddled his
horse for the ride back to Edinburgh with the escort of a dozen Buchanans.

When they were ready to continue on toward the place Darach fondly recalled as being
the sight where the Jacobites almost took down William of Orange’s entire army at
the Battle of Killiecrankie in ’89, Edmund pulled Amelia close before they readied
their horses.

“I like yer father.”

She nodded and smiled against him. “I knew ye would.”