Chapter Thirty-Seven

Rob woke to an ache in his back and a crick in his neck. He hadn’t slept in a chair since Davina fell ill last winter. He’d kept a vigil for his wife every night for weeks. He never imagined he’d be doing the same for his wife’s sister.

He looked at the queen sleeping in her bed with Tristan’s giant dog snoring beside her, and drew out a long sigh. He didn’t want to like her. He was never one for giving his loyalty to the monarchy, like Colin had when James II was king, and while he supported James Francis, Rob had never met him. But he liked Anne, damn it, and he suspected Davina would like her too.

But they couldn’t keep her here much longer. Abby was in the palace with General Marlow and his damn army, not to mention the Duchess of Blackburn, whom Anne herself called a viperous snake ready to plunge a dagger into her back. He had to get Abby the hell out of there and back home. She was doing no good with the queen here with him! He hadn’t agreed with this plan in the first place. He had to have been stark-raving mad to let his daughter come to England—and to travel with the leader of the queen’s army.

Anne thought Marlow had feelings for his daughter! Rob would kill him! But another thought, even worse, made his stomach sink. What if Abby was losing her heart as well? The general claimed to be a knight, and damn it all if his only daughter had grown up with knights on her mind. Damn all the talk of honor and gallantry in Camlochlin! It would do them no good if an army attacked, which was exactly what would happen if any more harm came to the queen. They had to get rid of her. Rob wanted to go home to his wife, his clan, and his castle.

And what about Montagu? He wondered if Colin had found out anything more while staying in Edinburgh with him. Leave it to his youngest brother to want to be in the midst of the action. Damn him for insisting on staying with only a few Buchanans to fight on his side should the need for bloodshed arise. Colin had refused his son Edmund’s aid, or anyone else’s. Rob wanted them all home, where it was safe.

He rose from his chair and stretched his long body. When he turned to examine the bodies asleep on the floor, he discovered a few of them gone. He stepped over the rest and had almost reached the door when it opened and his youngest brother, Colin, appeared. They embraced, glad to see each other alive. Then Rob walked him back to the bed.

“So, obviously, ye were correct,” he told Colin in a soft whisper over the sleeping queen. “Montagu bribed MacPherson to kill the queen.”

“Aye, but I dinna’ recall suggestin’ that we keep her in our care and nurse her back to health.”

“Should I have left her to die on the road?”

Colin shook his head. “She needs to be sent back though, brother. Accordin’ to Montagu, General Marlow will hunt down and decimate anyone who threatens her well-being. We dinna’ have enough men to fight his army.”

“We didna’ threaten her well-being, MacPherson did,” Rob reminded him.

“D’ye want to explain that to him while he’s fightin’ us?”

“Nae,” Rob admitted. He’d fought the general already and knew the man was a master with his sword. He looked around at his nephews and his brother. He didn’t want to lose even one of his men. “But we canna’ send her back in her condition. She’s badly broken and I dinna’ think Marlow will care who is responsible.”

Colin agreed and they decided to send Tristan, since he was the most diplomatic.

By the time the queen awoke, the men had decided on a plan of action.

“Robert,” the queen called out, smiling at one of the brothel wenches who’d entered the room with Anne’s food. “Tell the proprietor that I want Lynette here to return to St. James with me.”

“Now, Your Majesty.” Lynette giggled and patted the queen’s hand. “You don’t want a prostitute to wait on you in your palace. ’Twould be the talk of the whole country!”

“What do I care?” Anne smiled. “I enjoy our conversa—”

Her words ended abruptly when she looked toward the table at Colin sitting with the rest of them.

Rob realized an instant too late what had happened. He should have told her the truth from the beginning. Now it was too late. He motioned to Will to escort Lynette out.

“Colin MacGregor,” she said softly, backing up a bit in her bed. “General of my father’s army and close friend of the king.” She shifted her gaze to Rob, and then to Tristan, seeing their resemblance.

“You’re her husband,” she said to Rob. Her eyes grew large and wet and her cheeks burned with fire before she looked away. “I’ve been a fool. I hope you all enjoyed my mortification.”

“Nae, Ma’am,” Tristan was the first to go to her. “No one here has thought ye the fool.”

“Go on, then,” she cried, not listening to what Tristan told her. “Do what you mean to do.”

“We mean to do exactly what we’ve been doin’,” Rob promised her. “Seein’ to ye. We’re not—”

“It all makes sense now,” she cut him off. “You are with MacPherson—”

“Hell,” Darach stepped forward, no less brazen with the queen of Great Britain than he was with any other soul. “Did MacPherson’s face look like we’re on his side? I broke two bones in m’ fingers from hitting his hard face. If we were with him, one of his blasted teeth wouldna’ have been imbedded in m’ knuckle!”

“Yer Majesty,” Rob went to her and sat at the edge of her bed. “ ’Tis true, I’m Rob MacGregor, Davina’s husband and Abigail’s father. We came here to protect my daughter, not to harm ye. If we wanted ye dead, we would have let MacPherson shoot ye. Ye’re my sister by marriage, whether ye like it or not, and as my kin, ’tis my duty to protect ye.”

He was pleased to see that she stopped looking so damn sad. In truth, she wiped her eyes and may have even smiled at him. “Do you really think of me as family?”

“Of course,” he said. “And MacGregors dinna’ betray their kin.”

“Speakin’ of betrayin’ kin.” Colin stepped forward and peered down at her in her bed. “Richard Montagu is enlisting men to kill ye. He doesna’ support yer stepbrother but plans on havin’ ye both murdered so he can take over the throne.”

“What do you suggest I do, General?”

Rob saw Colin examining the bruises on her face, her wrapped limbs. He watched his brother’s expression go harder than he’d seen it in years.

“Let me kill him,” Colin said stiffly, “and MacPherson with him.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “But Richard’s life is Daniel’s to take if he wishes it. Young MacPherson will hang in Edinburgh, where others can witness what becomes of a man who tries to kill his queen.”

Colin bowed. “As ye wish, Yer Majesty.”

“You are still as handsome as you were when you served my father, Colin MacGregor.”

“Thank ye, Ma’am.”

“He loved you, you know.”

“I know.”

“Why did you abandon him to William?”

“He tried to have my future wife and son killed. He was fortunate I didna’ kill him.”

That seemed to mollify her. Either that, or she was afraid to ask anything else, knowing she would get the truth. Colin didn’t coat his words with honey, not even for the queen.

They made plans for Tristan to return to St. James’s Palace and inform General Marlow that they had the queen. And then they broke fast.

Rob enjoyed eating and drinking with his family whether in the Great Hall of Camlochlin or in a brothel in England. They shared laughter and a cup of whisky and drank to Connor Grant, who’d stayed behind to watch over their home in the mountains.

Rob caught the queen watching them more than once, a whimsical light shining in her dark eyes.

“Tell me about my sister,” she asked him when they were done eating.

“She is kind-hearted and gentle to all,” Rob said, missing his wife. “She was taught much at the abbey where she grew up. She can read and play half a dozen instruments. She loves fiercely and she loves silliness.”

“Silliness?” Anne lifted her brow and her mouth, enjoying hearing about her.

“Aye. She wasn’t allowed to play with other children when she was little. She was verra’ lonely.”

“As was I.”

Rob covered her hand with his. “ ’Tis a pity ye were separated. It seems ye needed each other then. Mayhap ye still do.”

She looked away, trying to keep him from seeing more moisture in her eyes. Hell, he had to do something about all these tears.

“We shall never meet,” she told him quietly. “It’s too dangerous for her to come here.”

“Well, Yer Majesty, ye never know what the future may bring.”

Rob thought it quite extraordinary that Davina and her sister looked nothing alike save when Anne smiled. They both shared an inner joy that no amount of sorrow or loss could overcome.

“Your daughter told me I would understand why Davina would always choose to remain with you and your family if I met you. Well, I’ve met you, and I do understand.”

Rob smiled and lifted his cup to her.