Macbeth's Niece by Peg Herring

Author:Peg Herring
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, adventure, scotland, witches, sweet, spy, medieval, macbeth, outlaws, highlands

Chapter Nineteen

Amazed, Tessa stood looking down at Hawick’s prone figure for a moment. Finally she raised her eyes to see Jeffrey, wrapped in a black cloak that had served to hide his presence in a shadowed corner of the room. He clutched what looked like the leg of a stool in one hand. Directing his now-familiar look of amusement at Tessa, he asked, “Have I done the right thing, or were you expecting a night of bliss with this fellow?”

His cool manner irritated Tessa after the tense events of the evening. “Of course not,” she snapped. “They forced me to marry the man.”

“Well, then, we must do what we can to get you away from here before they discover your objections to being an outlaw’s wife.”

Tessa said no more, though she understood nothing. Jeffrey seemed to change from one moment to the next, but if he was willing to help her escape, she was certainly no worse off to go with him than she had been moments ago. She moved to assist him as he gagged Hawick’s mouth with his own belt. Together they tied the limp hands tightly with strips of cloth torn from the bed linen, then lifted him onto the bed, tying him to the slats so he would not be able to move when he woke.

“Now, how are we to get out?” Jeffrey mused as he checked the tension of the knots. “The gates will be shut by now, and I may be missed at any moment.”

“Where were you?” Tessa asked.

“While you were being prepared for a fate worse than death, the lovely Mairie suggested we go for a stroll in the autumn evening, actually more a command than a request. She was very cool about it, I must say, but I had my suspicions. Still, she got me out of the hall with no one to wonder where I might be, so I went along. She locked me in the stables, having some suspicion I might interrupt your nuptials, which it turns out she was quite correct to conclude.” Jeffrey grinned in the torchlight.

“It serves you right for chasing after that painted wench,” Tessa began, but a thought cut short her tirade. “Oh, Jeffrey, I can’t be married to this man!”

Brixton misunderstood her meaning. “Well, they did get a priest, but I believe your uncle will see to an annulment when he understands you were coerced into marriage.” It was a hopeful thought, although Jeffrey didn’t know everything. Tessa could not bring herself to mention her first marriage at the moment. It was too complicated, but the thought Macbeth could arrange an annulment might work as well for Cedric as for Hawick.

“I hope my uncle does not tire of my explanations. I have been nothing but a problem to him. First he must take me in, then I reappear from the dead, and now I’ll be needing a marriage dissolved.”

“He has problems to deal with much larger than you,” Jeffrey grimaced. “Still, we must get you away from here and back to him, which won’t be easy.

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