The Heir

Chapter Forty-six

Sabrina expected Duncan to be knocking on their door any time now. She didn't expect the door to open without her aid, but that it did, the reason being she'd forgotten there was a key to it.

The fourth ransom demander stood there just inside the doorway, key in hand. He was the one who was less unkempt than the others, the one without a weapon—at least, none that he'd revealed thus far. Which didn't mean that he didn't have one on his person somewhere, just that he seemed the less dangerous of the lot—so far.

His first words didn't give cause for alarm either. "Come along, ladies, I'm here to save you. There's a bloody big Scotsman on a rampage downstairs."

"That Scotsman happens to be a friend of ours," Sabrina pointed out.

"I was afraid of that," he said, chewing at his lower lip in a way that revealed just how worried he was now. "Well, one of you is coming along with me, to save me, then. And I'd rather it not be you, Miss Never-Shuts-Up."

Sabrina, a bit indignant over his description of her, replied stiffly, "You are not inconveniencing my friend here any further than you already have in detaining her here. If you mean to save yourself, I suggest you get to it. There's a window right there."

"We are upstairs," he complained, as if she had overlooked that fact.

"So? I would imagine any fall you might take on your way down will be less painful than if Duncan MacTavish gets his hands on you."

He turned more fully to face Sabrina to argue with her. "Now, look, lady, I'm the one in charge here, and I'm not about to give up using one of you as my ticket to escape this mess, especially when you didn't even give us the bloody forty pounds you owed us!"

"Well, if that's all you still require—"

Sabrina didn't need to finish. Mavis, quite familiar with the room in the dark, had managed to find something heavy to use as a weapon and took the opportunity of his turning his back to her to bash him over the head with it.

She then set the object down, dusted her hands briskly, and said to the unconscious fellow, "That was for feeding me only bread."

Sabrina started to grin, but the door opened again. It was Duncan this time, and after he stared a moment at the man on the floor, he glanced at her and said accusingly, "I thought you were going tae lock yourself in."

"Well, I did," she replied uncomfortably in her own defense. "I suppose I forgot that he had a key that might circumvent that."

"Did you now?" he said in a disgusted tone as he hefted the unconscious man over his shoulder. On the way out the door, he added, "You can come downstairs now. Newbolt has gone tae fetch someone tae collect these fellows."

"He was all right then?"

"Aye, he's fine, more embarrassed than anything else, that he let riffraff get the better o' him. Och, and a wee bit angry o'er it, I might add."

"Did you let my aunts know that you have everything under control?" she asked as she followed him downstairs.

"When I didna have this fellow yet, nor even know your aunts are here? Where are they?"

Sabrina blushed slightly, to have forgotten that she hadn't mentioned their presence yet. Adventure just wasn't her cup of tea, she supposed, when it caused her to make one blunder after another.

"They're outside in our coach. I'll be right back then," she said, and hurried out the front door before he noticed her embarrassment.

It took a bit longer than she imagined to reassure her aunts that no one was in any more danger. She'd been inside the house too long for them not to have gotten extremely upset. But as soon as they started to argue with each other over whether they should return home immediately or try to find an inn open at that hour, she knew they had calmed down enough for her to go back inside the house for a moment.

She still had to give Duncan the good news, that Mavis wasn't going to tell anyone about what she'd seen that night at Summers Glade, if Mavis hadn't told him herself by now. Mavis had followed her downstairs, so she might have assured him already that he didn't have to marry Ophelia.

She was surprised to find him alone by the stairs, and not exactly looking like someone who had just performed a very nice and successful rescue, nor someone who'd been saved from a marriage he didn't want. He looked like he'd just lost his best friend.

She was alarmed, demanded, "What happened?"

He barely glanced at her in his dejection. "She willna help me, lass. She flatly refused tae keep silent if I dinna marry Ophelia."

Sabrina frowned. "Nonsense, she already assured me she would."

"Then she lied tae you. She's delighted tae be able tae serve Ophelia her just deserts. Her words exactly. And she willna discuss it further."

Sabrina sat down on the stairs, a bit dazed in her confusion. "I don't understand. She thought you were already engaged to Ophelia again, that that's why you were with her that night. It made her miserable to think that Ophelia was again getting just what she wanted. That's why Mavis left. She was completely disheartened. But when I explained to her what had really happened, and that you were only marrying Ophelia to protect her reputation because of what Mavis saw, she swore she'd never tell. Why did she change her mind, Duncan? What did you tell her?"

"The truth."

"And I didn't?" she asked in a bewildered tone.

"Aye, you did," he assured her. "There was just a wee bit more that you didna know aboot, and I didna think tae keep from mentioning. I was forgetting how much the lass hates Ophelia. I was appealing tae her compassion only, but it apparently takes second place tae her desire tae have Ophelia no' get what she wants for once."

"What truth?"

"Ophelia doesna want tae marry me, any more'n I do her. After a talk she had wi' Neville, where he explained tae her the responsibilities she'd be facing as the next marquise, she's determined that being m'wife will be tae much a chore for her. Rafe was right, 'twas only the title she was interested in, no' me in particular, and now that the title entails more'n she was expecting, she wants oout o' the engagement again."

Sabrina didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. She was relieved, greatly, that Ophelia didn't want Duncan, that she'd never really wanted him, only what came with him. But she was going to get him anyway, because of the way she was, because she'd created such baleful feelings against her that her onetime best friend would rather get revenge on her than do what she knew to be the right thing.

"I'll talk to her again."

"You're welcome tae try, lass, but I saw it in her eyes, the triumph I just handed her, that she now has the means tae get e'en wi' her enemy. She'll no' be giving that up."