The Heiress Bride (Sherbrooke Brides 3)

He gave her a brooding look, saying finally, “Come to the stable. I will get my horse and then, my dear, I will take you to this special place and show you that a man can have a pretty face and be endowed with splendid attributes as well.”

“As splendid as Colin?”

He stiffened, taut as a poker.

“I could say many things about my husband, but the fact is that he is every inch a man. It’s just that he doesn’t care about me, just my money.”

“He is nothing,” MacPherson said at last. “I will prove it to you shortly.”

Sinjun sincerely doubted that could be true, but she held her tongue. She wanted him to come with her, not howl with fury and try to knock her from her horse. The last thing she wanted to do was to have to shoot him here on his own lands. It didn’t seem the politic thing to do.

Ten minutes later Robert MacPherson was surrounded by three ladies on horseback, each of them pointing a pistol at him. He turned to Sinjun. “So, I see I was right.”

“Not at all. Colin knows nothing about this. You see, Colin has much too much honor just to hunt you down like the wretch you are and do away with you. Thus, sir, we three have decided to remove the burden from his shoulders. I cannot allow you to try to harm him again. You really shouldn’t have tried to kill him in London or in Edinburgh. You really shouldn’t have burned our crofters’ huts and killed our people.

“You will pay for your crimes and it will give me vast relief to have you long gone from here. Incidentally, my husband didn’t kill your sister. If he wouldn’t kill a vermin like you, why then, how can you possibly believe that he would ever harm a woman who was his wife?”

“She bored him. He was tired of her.”

“Perhaps you have a point. After all, after only two meetings, you bore me quite beyond reason. However, even though I am tempted to toss you off a cliff, I won’t, even though in addition to being a boor, you’re a bully and a sneak and a man who knows no honor. I understand from Colin that your father is a good man and I wouldn’t want to distress him overly. Enough of this. Alex, Sophie, I’ve said my piece. Shall we tie him to his horse?”

Colin was at first utterly confused, then so furious he wanted to spit and curse at the same time, something that wasn’t easily accomplished.

He stood in front of his son and said in a voice so angry it sounded calm, far too calm, “You are telling me that your stepmother and your two aunts are out wandering about the estate?”

“That’s what Sinjun told me, Papa. She said she felt wonderful and wanted to show them around. I asked her where you were and . . . she didn’t tell me the truth, I guess.”

“You bloody well mean she lied! Damn her eyes, I’ll beat her, I’ll lock her in my bedchamber, I’ll—”

“My lord,” Dr. Childress said, touching his age-spotted hand to Colin’s sleeve. “What is amiss here? The countess isn’t ill after all?”

“My wife,” Colin said between his teeth, “pretended to be very ill, all to get me out of the way. Damnation! What is she up to?”

He was silent for several moments, then slapped his palm to his forehead. “How could I be so stupid?”

He turned on his heel and raced for Gulliver, who was chomping contentedly on some of Aunt Arleth’s white roses beside the front steps.

Philip said to the doctor, “I fear my mother has enraged my father. I’d best go after him and protect her. Forgive us, sir.” And Philip raced after his father.

Dr. Childress stood alone, bemused, listening to the boy’s footsteps echo off the entrance hall stones. He’d known Colin since the moment he’d slipped from his mother’s womb. He’d watched him grow straight and tall and proud. He’d watched his father and his older brother try to kill the spirit in him, and fail, thank the good Lord. He said aloud, his voice pensive, “I fear the young lady has unleashed a tiger.”

The tiger pulled to a stop in the cover of some fir trees and stared toward St. Monance Castle. Gulliver was blowing hard, and as Colin watched the castle he gently patted his stallion’s neck. “

You’re a good old fellow, aren’t you, Gull? Well, you’re in a damn sight better position than my wife, who isn’t going to like the way her day proceeds after I get my hands on her. Another thing,” he continued to his horse, “Ostle is gone, supposedly ill and back in his bed. I don’t think that sounds at all believable. Another thing, that fool wife of mine had the gall to take Argyll.” He shuddered even as he said those words to his horse. Gulliver paid no heed, just shook his head to get the flies off.

Colin couldn’t make out anything unusual at St. Monance Castle. MacPherson folk were going about their tasks. There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary, no massing of men, no shouting, nothing at all unusual.

What had Joan and the wives planned to do? That stymied him. What was she plotting? Had she indeed come here?

He realized after another ten minutes of quite boring observations that he was wasting his time. Unless he intended to ride up to the big iron-studded doors of St. Monance and demand to know where his wife was, then sitting here like a blind fool would gain him naught. His fear and fury at his wife had made him act without thinking.

Where the devil was Joan? Where were the wives?

He drew a deep breath, turned Gulliver, and stared at his son, who was sitting there astride his pony, quiet as could be. Colin said nothing. He hadn’t even heard Philip ride up. He was in bad shape. He shook his head. Together, father and son rode thoughtfully back to Vere Castle.

He supposed he wasn’t overly surprised to see all three horses returned to the stables, in their stalls, eating their heads off. It was obvious to the meanest eye that they’d been ridden hard. Damn her eyes. Argyll looked up at him and stared, as if to say, “She really did it this time, my good man.”

Colin grinned, but it wasn’t an amused grin. He was ready to kill. What the devil had she done? And she’d ridden that damned horse, curse her eyes.