Iain left Palmer with his housekeeper and took the stairs two at a time. Adair had found them riding back to the big house and pulled Iain aside to tell him that Cait had asked to spend the night at the house and that something was wrong but he didn’t know what.
Iain headed toward the room the housekeeper had said she’d put Cait in but stopped before entering to gather his composure. He wasn’t certain what he was feeling, but it was a volatile mixture of emotions that would do Cait no good if she was indeed shaken. A thousand thoughts had gone through his head, a hundred scenarios of what could have happened, none of them good. He’d been shaking by the time he could extricate himself from Palmer, but racing into her room wasn’t the way to address whatever problem she had come to him with. That she’d come to him at all was a small victory, but that was not what was important now.
He opened the door without knocking and with as much control as he could manage. She was standing in the middle of the room in nothing but a white dressing gown—where the hell his housekeeper had found that, he didn’t know. She was combing her long red hair, which hung down her back in thick wet coils.
“Cait?”
She gasped and spun around, grabbing the front of her dressing gown and pulling it tighter around her. Good Lord, but she looked horrible. She was extremely pale, and her body was trembling. Dressed in just a thin shift, she appeared too thin and extremely vulnerable. Not like the strong Cait he knew.
“Iain,” she breathed, pressing a hand to her chest. “Ye should knock.”
“My apologies.” They both knew he wasn’t repentant. “Adair said something happened.”
“I never said that.”
“Not now, Cait. We’re not arguing now. Adair said you were frightened and asked to stay here. And you sent him to warn Sutherland off tonight. What happened?”
She stood there staring at him, and he began to get angry that she wouldn’t trust him with her fears. What the hell did he have to do to prove himself to her? Then he realized that she was silent not out of stubbornness but because she was desperately trying not to cry.
He closed the distance between them and took her in his arms. She put her head on his shoulder; she didn’t cry, just shook and leaned in to him. Though his mind was whirling with so many questions, part of him just wanted to stand there and enjoy the feel of her in his arms and the sense of rightness and the fact that she was willing to let him hold her without arguing. But something had driven her into his arms. Something that had frightened her so badly she was still shaking, even hours later.
Eventually, she pulled away. The sleeves of his coat were wet where her hair had lain, but he didn’t care.
She half turned away from him and fingered the hairbrush that she had put down when he walked in. “I was on the road to visit Alice this morning,” she said, her voice tight. “She’s close to delivering, and I figured I would stop in to see Murtagh as well because he’s no’ following my orders to sit with his leg elevated. His knee has been paining him awfully lately—”
“Cait.” He took both of her hands in his. “While I love to hear about my clansmen’s ailments and births, I don’t think that’s why you’re here.”
She tried to smile, but it wobbled and turned down at the corners as her chin trembled.
“Just tell me,” he said a bit desperately.
“I came across four English soldiers on the road.” She looked up at the ceiling and blinked rapidly, her fingers tightening around his. “They wouldn’t let me pass. One was injured but didn’t want the help of a Scottish healer. The other…” She swallowed. “The other rode closer to me and…” She shuddered. “He told me that we will…He would…”
He was glad that he was holding on to her, because his anger spiked immediately, and at the moment her touch was the only thing anchoring him. “Cait,” he said on a strangled breath.
She was in her own world now and wasn’t listening to him. “He told me that he would be at my cottage tonight. If I cooperate, I will be well protected from the other English soldiers. And…he said if I told someone then I was just postponing the inevitable.”
Iain squeezed her hands, wanting her to stop. His anger was choking him, strangling the breath in his lungs. There was a strange noise, and Iain realized he’d growled like a damn dog. “Did this soldier give you a name?” he asked quietly.
“Donaldson. Lieutenant Donaldson.”
“He said he would return to your cottage tonight?”
She nodded. Her eyes were dry, but she was clearly shaken. Hell, he was shaken. And he was furious. Murderously furious.
He touched her chin with the pad of his thumb, moving her head one way and then the other. There were two bruises, one on either side of her jaw.
“He touched you.” It wasn’t a question, and he really didn’t need confirmation.
“He…” She swallowed. “He kissed me,” she whispered.
Iain was going to meet this Donaldson tonight at Cait’s cottage, and God help the man.
“Ye can’t go to the cottage,” Cait said. “Please, promise me ye won’t go.”
“Oh, I’m going.”
She grabbed his arm, her fingers digging in. “Don’t. It will only make things worse. A Scotsman can’t confront an English soldier like that.”
“This Scotsman can.”
She pulled away and struck him in the upper arm. It was so unexpected that he could only stare. “Damn ye,” she said between clenched teeth, her face twisted into an ugly grimace. “Damn ye.”
“Cait—”
She hit him again. And again. He didn’t even think about turning away or defending himself. The raw anger inside her paralyzed him. Her blows didn’t hurt, so he stood there and became the outlet of her anger as tears ran down her cheeks and sobs shook her body.
“Ye don’t listen,” she said. “None of ye listen. Ye just go and do what ye want without thinking of anyone else.” She balled up her hand into a fist and punched him; he’d tensed for it, and it didn’t hurt. “And then ye…die.” The hits came faster, and then she stopped and spun around, grabbing the hairbrush and hurling it across the room. “Ye all die. And ye don’t care about who ye leave behind all alone.”
Good Lord. She was coming undone. All of those years of staying strong had come to this.
She sank to the floor and buried her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking with sobs. Iain knelt next to her and gathered her trembling body to him, rocking her as he stroked her wet hair. “Cait,” he whispered, his heart breaking. Had she ever had a chance to grieve the loss of her daughter and husband? She’d been pushed out of her home by her grandparents, but had she ever given herself time to feel sorrow over that loss? He’d argued with her about confronting Donaldson, and she’d equated it with him marching toward his death.
He kissed the top of her head, wishing he could take away all of her pain and make it his. He settled more fully on the floor and pulled her onto his lap. He didn’t think she even noticed, she was so far into her grief.
“I hate him,” she said, her voice hoarse.
He wasn’t certain whether she was referring to Donaldson or John.
“I felt safe in my cottage, and now…” She sniffed. “And now I don’t. He took my safety away.”
Iain tucked her head beneath his chin and closed his eyes. “You’ll feel safe again. I promise you that, Cait. I’ll make it so you feel safe again.”
She rubbed her wet cheek against his coat. “I hate him for leaving me,” she whispered, and Iain figured she was talking about John now. “If he were here…”
“He would kill Donaldson.”
She sighed and turned her head so her cheek was resting against his chest. “I never would have been alone if he hadn’t died. I wouldn’t have been alone on that road or in my cottage.”
Iain’s heart twisted, and he wanted to say that she wasn’t alone now, but he thought better of it. Now wasn’t the time. She was too vulnerable and too angry to accept him as a substitute for John.
“Ye didn’t see him. He thinks he’s invincible. He thinks he can do anything and nothing will happen to him.”
He was finding it a bit difficult to follow her train of thought, but he figured she was speaking of Donaldson again. “He’s not invincible. Not on my land.” And not with my woman.
“I’m afraid,” she whispered. “And I hate being afraid. I don’t want to be afraid. I want my life back. It was simple and uncomplicated.”
Was her life more complicated now because he was in it? Was she accusing him of turning her life upside down? He’d forced her from her comfort and made her face things she’d turned away from for years.
“I’m sorry you’re so afraid,” he said. “I want you to feel safe again.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible anymore.”
“It is, and I will see that it happens. For now, know that you’re safe here.”
“I don’t think any of us are safe anymore.”
He found the English captain in the study, drinking a Scottish whiskey and thumbing through a book on animal husbandry. Iain went straight to the whiskey, poured a shot and downed it, then poured another while Palmer watched.
He was shaken. More shaken than he wanted to admit. To watch Cait break down had been heartbreaking and frightening, and his hand was trembling as he raised the glass to take a drink.
“What do you know about a Lieutenant Donaldson?” he asked after a third shot that didn’t even come close to calming his nerves or blunting his rage.
Palmer hesitated, and in that hesitation Iain had all the information he needed.
“He threatened one of my people,” Iain said.
“Threatened how?”
“He told Cait Campbell that he would come by her cottage tonight and that she had better be there. He even kissed her, and I have no doubt that he has intentions of raping her. What the hell is that all about?” He wasn’t couching it in nice words. He was too raw for that right now.
Palmer looked at him sharply. “He told her he was going to rape her?”
“He told her if she cooperated, then he would protect her. If she didn’t, then things would go badly for her. I don’t know what else you would call that.”
“He’s a good soldier.”
“He’s a bloody bastard. No one threatens one of my people and gets away with it.”
Palmer held out his hand. “I think you need to calm down.”
“He wants to bed her, Palmer. He was very explicit about it.” Iain’s anger was rising again. “He kissed her. He demanded that she become his mistress. He didn’t ask. He demanded. I don’t care if he’s a bloody lieutenant in the bloody English army. He doesn’t treat my wom—my people like that.”
Palmer eyed him with interest. “Think before you act, Campbell. Donaldson is a bastard, I’ll give you that. But he has connections.”
“They give him no right to threaten to rape women.”
“I doubt he said he would rape—”
“No?” Iain asked quietly. “Then why is Cait Campbell upstairs, afraid to go home? Why did she fall apart upstairs, so frightened she can barely talk?”
Palmer appeared decidedly uncomfortable, and Iain wondered what it was about this Donaldson that had Palmer warning him away.
“You and I are going to Cait’s cottage this evening, and we are confronting Donaldson. The English army may let him run wild, but I won’t tolerate his behavior on my land or with my people.” Iain had worked himself into a rage again. He’d never seen Cait so frightened. Not when she had a house filled with runaways and the English at her doorstep, and not when she was healing the sick and injured.
“Campbell,” Palmer said. “I understand that you are angry at Donaldson, and you have every right to be, but confronting him is not advisable.”
Iain nearly choked on his drink. “Not advisable? And pray tell me what you advise, Palmer? How do I rectify the fact that one of your soldiers has demanded that one of my clansmen become his mistress? Shall I just let him do it?”
“No, no. Of course not. But what do you hope to accomplish by facing him tonight?”
“Kill him?” Iain bared his teeth in a parody of a smile.
Palmer’s own smile looked a little sick. “That would surely bring the wrath of the English army down on your head.” He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I will go with you, because if I don’t, you will go anyway, and at least this way I can keep you from murdering someone.”
It took everything in Iain not to leave right then, but Palmer demanded they eat dinner first. Iain ate little and took a tray up to Cait. She was sleeping, and he wasn’t about to wake her, so he left it for her and hoped she wouldn’t wake up while he was gone.
When they arrived, the cottage had a strange, deserted feel that put Iain on edge. It appeared lonely without Cait’s vibrant presence, and while he liked that she was at his home, he had to admit that her true place was here.
He went inside, leaving Palmer outside with the horses. Immediately, Black Cat streaked out of the cottage and straight into the woods. There were no horses or men. Iain checked on the animals in the barn to make sure they had food and water. The chickens scattered at his presence, squawking angrily.
The sun was setting as he walked back through the house. Donaldson rode up alone. He hesitated when he saw Palmer outside and stiffened when Iain walked out of the cottage. Donaldson slid off his mount and saluted Palmer. “Sir.”
“Lieutenant,” Palmer said.
Iain took Donaldson’s measure. He was a supercilious bastard, and while he was standing at attention, Iain got the feeling that he resented having to do so. Iain guessed that the man did what he wanted when he wanted. He had the look of nobility; then again, so did Iain. And he used it to his advantage now.
Donaldson’s eyes flashed irritation, but he maintained his stance while seeming to look down on Iain.
“I hear you spoke to Cait Campbell,” Iain said.
Donaldson’s jaw worked. “I did.”
“I’m here to tell you that she is not to be disturbed or bothered by you again.”
Donaldson’s eyes narrowed. “How can I be bothering her when she invited me here?”
Fury propelled Iain forward. Palmer’s arm flew out to stop him. “She is a Campbell, under my protection. You are not welcome in her home or on my land.”
Donaldson smirked. “You have no authority over the English army, and you cannot tell me where or where not to go.”
“Enough, Donaldson,” Palmer said quietly. “Lord Kerr is a supporter of the English. An important supporter. You will do as he says, and if that’s not good enough for you, then I will make it a command. Cait Campbell is not to be disturbed by you or your men again. If you see her, you don’t speak to her.”
Palmer had used Iain’s English title, and Iain could tell that Donaldson recognized it. The tip of his nose and cheekbones were red with anger. Still, Iain worried that Palmer’s authority would not be enough to keep the man in line.
“The lady asked me to pay her a call,” Donaldson said. “But if you don’t want me here, I won’t come calling again.”
This time Palmer’s arm was not enough to keep Iain in line. He stepped close to Donaldson. They were of the same height, eye to eye, nose to nose, toe to toe. “We all know the truth, Donaldson. But hear me now. If I hear you have bothered her again, I will come after you.”
Cait was right. The man’s eyes were soulless, and Iain wanted to wipe the smug smirk off his face. But he restrained himself, heeding Palmer’s earlier warnings. There was something about the man that made Iain pause. He had come across a lot of English soldiers and a lot of English aristocrats. Donaldson was a dangerous combination of both. A man who bought his way through life and thought nothing of those he considered beneath him. No doubt Iain’s title was above Donaldson’s, but because Iain was Scottish, the lieutenant thought Iain beneath him.
Donaldson’s gaze slid to Palmer. “You will let a Scottish heathen speak to an English officer in this way?”
Instead of being angry, Iain was glad to see his speculation proved correct. The man was dangerously supercilious.
“Iain Campbell is the Marquess of Kerr and the Earl of Corrington. He possesses both an English title and a Scottish title that are older than your father’s. So if I were you, Donaldson, I’d walk away and forget this day ever happened.”
For a long moment Donaldson stood stiff and unyielding, his cold gaze locked on Iain. Iain’s muscles tensed in preparation for a fight, but Donaldson turned on his heel, mounted his horse, and rode off.