My Heart's in the Highlands by Angeline Fortin (best english novels for beginners .TXT) 📗

the knowledgethat Hero would be safe, Ian turned back to the man whose shirt hestill held tightly in his fist. The man was holding his bloodiednose in both hands. “Who sent you?” Ian demanded once more,determined this time to have the answers he needed.

“Bugger off!” he spat, spraying blood.

“Wrong answer,” Ian ground out and hit himagain, driving the man to the floor. “Who?”

The man gasped in pain and finally said, “Alady.”

“What lady?” Ian snarled, lifting the man upto his feet in preparation for another go round, but the man heldout his bloody hands in submission.

“Stop, me lord, I beg ye,” he pleaded. “Herman came about looking for someone to do a job. I never met her.Only saw her once from a distance. I dinnae ken who she was, Iswear.”

“You’re lying!” Ian slammed him against thewall once more, feeling impotent fury surging through his veins. Heneeded an answer! Bloody hell, he had thought they were done withthis!

“My lord!”

Ian turned to find his two hired guards, Burrand McCaffey, behind him. A glance beyond showed a handful ofservants helping Hero douse the flames with pitchers of waterprobably drawn from his bath. The air was thick with smoke. His bedwas nearly destroyed, all the linens devoured quickly by the fire.If he and Hero had been asleep in it, the flames would haveswallowed them whole.

“Where the bloody hell were you?” he demandedfuriously of the guards as he lifted the arsonist and threw himbodily toward the men. “How did he get in here?”

“I dinnae ken how this happened, my lord,”McCaffey said defensively. “We were out in the hall all night.Cannae see how he got by us.”

“One thing I needed you to do was keep hersafe,” he all but shouted at the pair, trembling with rage and fearthat despite all his precautions someone had gotten that close. Tooclose. Bloody fucking hell! Swallowing his rage, Ian looked aroundthe room once more, taking in the servants, Boyle, Dickson, Mandyand a half dozen others in his room, all stopped, staring at him.Hero was as well. “The door was locked.”

“Aye,” Burr nodded. “Yer man, Boyle, had tolet us in.”

Boyle had let them in? Ian frowned andpointed to the bloodied criminal at their feet. “Lock him up andmake sure he doesn’t get away.”

“Where would you have us put him, melord?”

Ian smiled darkly. “The dungeons, of course.”Turning, he strode across the room and caught Hero by the elbow andpulled her out of the room, ignoring her squeal of protest. Oncethey were in his wardrobe, he released his grip and shared hisresidual temper with her. “I told you to get back.”

Hands on her hips, Hero simply frowned inreturn. “And let the fire burn down the entire castle?”

“That’s what the servants are for,” heargued, grasping her around her upper arms but resisting the urgeto shake her silly.

“I’m not incapable, Ian,” she retorted,thrusting out her chin. “And it would have engulfed the room beforethey arrived if I hadn’t done something.”

Swallowing a groan, he looked at the ceiling,begging for some divine intervention. “Good God, yer a stubbornlass!”

“Really?” she said sarcastically, crossingher arms over her chest. “Doyou think you’re the only one who gets to beintractable?”

His eyes ran the length of her, looking forinjury. Her hair and face were sooty, her dressing gown ruined, butshe didn’t seem to have gotten hurt. For that he was thankful, butit did not ease the frustration born of fear for her life. Bloodyhell, he needed to rid their lives of the threat against thembefore those machinations reached a deadly crescendo. “You couldhave been killed, lass. Please, just listen to me in the future,Hero,” he said, drawing her into his embrace. “I could not bear tosee you harmed. I only want you safe, protected …”

“Cosseted like a child?”

Ian stroked her hair with a chuckle ofdefeat. “Perhaps.”

“I’ll be sorry to disappoint again and againin the years to come,” Hero said, finally leaning in to hug himback. “What is going on, Ian? Who was that man? You seem more angryat all this than surprised. Just as you were the other day whenPapa’s saddle broke. What aren’t you telling me?”

Ian sighed, knowing that the time for secrecyhad come and gone. The whole of it would be out, and Hero wouldsurely give him a lecture with the sharp edge of her tongue forkeeping it from her, but Ian had no regrets over his actions. Hewould do it all again to keep her safe.

Drawing away, he turned to his wardrobe for ashirt, since there were still a half dozen servants milling aboutas they cleared away the damage from the fire. That was the onedetail he couldn’t understand. How had the arsonist gotten into hisrooms? How had the servants? “I will explain, but tell me first,how did the servants get in here? The door was locked.”

Heroshook her head in confusion. “What do you mean? They came inthrough the service entrance, of course.” Seeing his puzzledreaction, Hero sighed. “Did Jennings tell you nothing at all? Howdo you think Dickson gets in here without you seeinghim?”

Ianfollowed her to the far outside corner of his wardrobe and watchedwith surprise as she depressed a hidden panel and it swung outward,much as the tiny door of her mantel safe had. She pulled the dooropen and Ian looked inside to find a narrow, spiraled staircasewithin nestled into the thick castle walls. It was free of dust,well lit, and obviously frequently used. Bloody hell. All hisprecautions with locking doors and it had all been fornaught.

Runninga hand through his hair and over his face, Ian groaned in the faceof his own idiocy. The home of his childhood had been much smaller,and it never occurred to him that a larger, older castle would havehidden passages built into the walls. He had thought that the twosets of servant’s stairs outside the servant’s hall on the oppositeside of the castle near the kitchens and the ones just adjacent tohis chambers were their main corridors. Never had he imaginedanything like this. “How many of these stairs arethere?”

Herofrowned. “They are only in the original parts of the castle.There’s yours, and I have