Page 28 of This Laird of Mine

“Milady, Lady MacIntyre, Claire.”

The voice pierced her distraction. She looked up to find David standing in the middle of the hallway, most likely outside his own chamber door.

“Sir David,” she said. “I did not expect to see you.”

He had been leaning against the wall, she realized, waiting for her. He pushed away from the wall to join her. “I simply wanted to make certain you were well after the ordeal.” The intensity of his tone startled her.

“The loch?” Claire stared at him in surprise.

“Nay.” David took her elbow and escorted her down the hallway toward the main stairs. “Jules told me all about it. Are you certain you are well?”

Claire stopped moving as ice infused her veins. Jules told him all about their lovemaking? Her vision blurred, and she reached out for the wall to support her. “He told you?” she whispered. Those stolen moments had been their private world, their bliss.

“Yes.” Concern tightened the corners of his eyes as he studied her face. “It could not have been easy to learn of James Grayson’s murder when we were all anxiously awaiting his arrival.”

His murder. The horror of the man’s demise reverberated through her, as did relief. David was talking about the man’s unfortunate demise, not what had transpired between herself and Jules. She released a stuttering breath.

David mistook her relief for grief. His hand tightened on her elbow. “Do you need to sit down?”

Claire uttered a silent prayer for her good fortune that David had been more intrigued by poor Mr. Grayson’s death than by what she and Jules had been doing down by the loch, or even by the smell of paint lingering in the hallway. “I am feeling much better than a moment ago, I assure you.”

“That is well, because there are other things that need to be discussed.” David’s brown eyes were concerned beneath the dark swath of his brows. His expression was sincere and intense. He leaned closer, his voice lowered. “There are things you need to understand about your husband. I think you should hear them now.”

They walked down the stairs. No one was around, not even the two women from the village who had come to clean. And yet, David turned toward the door leading outside. “It is best if we talk out here.”

She allowed him to lead her out into the courtyard. The sky had turned a pale pink with streaks of burnished red clouds. Night would be upon them shortly, but David walked her through the knee-high grass to what looked like it had once been a rose garden. Now all that remained were tall stalks of gray and the occasional age-darkened rosehip.

Claire frowned as they walked along a cobbled path overgrown with weeds. This garden had been beautiful once. Perhaps with some love and attention it could be again. She tucked the thought away and turned to her escort. “What is so important that we had to discuss it out here?”

“Jules has been through many hardships in his life,” David began as he released her arm and stood before her.

“If you are speaking of his time in gaol, I know about that already.”

“’Twas Jane who saved his life, though she was unable to gain his release from gaol.” David’s lips thinned as he studied Claire.

“Who released him?” Claire asked.

“All his friends have wondered the same thing. We had hoped that someone was you,” he asked with an arched brow.

Claire shook her head.

David’s face grew solemn. “I was so certain it was you.”

“It must have been horrible for him, waiting to be freed, wondering if anyone would ever come. I am grateful to whomever did release him,” Claire said as a shiver trailed across the nape of her neck. “The darkness, the filth, the loss of hope, the pain . . . how had he endured all that for so long and survived?”

“Not many men would have.” David hesitated as though trying to find the right words. “Jules has suffered greatly, and all of his friends mean to keep any future suffering to a minimum. That is why we are all here with him now, why we will be nearby always.” His voice lowered, his expression hardened.

Claire startled. “Do you think I—”

“If you hurt him, Claire, if you hurt him at all, you will have to answer to us,” David threatened.

The words surprised her, disturbed her. Regardless, she found her voice. “I will hurt him, David,” she admitted. “Over the course of a lifetime, I will do something that will displease him. It’s inevitable.”

His gaze sharpened. “You know what I mean, not the everyday we-are-partners-in-life hurts. The kind of betrayal that leaves a person raw.”

She nodded. She understood that feeling all too well. She knew what it was like to be moving along in one’s life, only to find in the next heartbeat that everything you ever knew was gone.

Claire turned away from David’s probing gaze. She felt as if she were falling into a deep, dark hole. She couldn’t reach out, couldn’t catch her breath. Her heart hammered in her chest at the knowledge that she would hurt Jules in the end. But she would be wounded as well, knowing she would never again experience the kind of passion she had shared with him earlier. They would both be raw when all of this was over. But Jules would survive with the help of his friends.