"I have no intention of asking you. I'm telling you what your first payment is going to be."
"First payment?"
"Did you think a few years of servitude was going to be your only punishment? Given the opportunity to consider the possibilities, I'm not so lacking in imagination I won't find a better way to hurt you."
She was tempted to tell him she was already hurting, but she knew he wouldn't believe her. She had never seen such bitterness as she was now confronting. "You'll have to do as you see fit. I'll do everything I can to help Ian." She reached up and rubbed her aching temple. The whole world seemed full of pain tonight. "But Li Sung and Kartauk must come with me. It's dangerous for them to stay here."
"By all means, take your little covey. Ian will need all the help he can get."
"And Patrick." The words came out of nowhere, startling her. She had thought she was done with Patrick, but the habit of years would not be broken in spite of her disgust and revulsion. She could not leave him to face Ruel's deadly wrath.
His gaze narrowed on her face. "I was thinking of taking dear Patrick with me to Cinnidar to assure your continued support."
"He'd be in your way," she said quickly.
"You think I might kill him." He was silent a moment. "Maybe you're right. If I started thinking about Ian, I couldn't promise not to lose my temper and push the bastard into the canyon. Besides, I don't need a hostage. I'll be in touch with Maggie and I'll know if you're keeping your word."
"I'll keep my word." She added wearily, "And perhaps you'll change your mind in time."
"I won't change my mind." He turned and moved toward the door. "I told you I have a long memory."
The Bonnie Lady sailed out of Narinth harbor three weeks later with Jane, Ian, Li Sung, Patrick, and Kartauk on board.
Li Sung glanced back at Ruel standing alone on the dock. "He's staring at you."
"Is he?" She knew very well Ruel was staring at her but did not look back. She had made the mistake of meeting his gaze a moment before as the ship had left the dock and had felt bound, enchained. It was exactly how he meant her to feel. He wanted to remind her this parting was only temporary and that she would never be able to escape him.
"He behaves very strangely with you now. I don't suppose you'd like to tell me why he's—"
"No, I would not." While hiding in the inn in Narinth, he and Kartauk had not heard of the inquiry and she had no intention of enlightening him. He was already overprotective of her and she knew very well how he would react to her shouldering Patrick's blame.
Why didn't Ruel look away? She could feel his eyes on her. She straightened away from the rail. "Well, I can't stay here any longer. I have to get back to Ian."
Li Sung shook his head. "Kartauk is with him. He seems to be able to amuse him."
She had noticed that herself and had blessed Kartauk during the two days they had spent at the inn prior to their departure. Heaven knows, no one else had been able to raise lan's spirits. "Where's Patrick?"
"Where he usually is, trying to crawl into his whiskey bottle. He's gotten worse since the wreck."
"Yes."
"I notice you do not try to defend him any longer."
She could not seem to stop protecting Patrick, but she would no longer lie to either herself or anyone else regarding his flaws. "No."
"Why not?"
"He has to shoulder his own burdens. I have enough to worry about."
"Yet you're taking him to Glenclaren."
"He's not going to Glenclaren."
A flicker of surprise crossed Li Sung's face. "He told me he was going with us."
"I'll settle him at a lodging house in Edinburgh. There was a little money left in the cash fund, enough to keep him for a year or so. After that he'll have to find work."
"With no help from you?"
"With no help from me."
He smiled faintly. "Unusual. I wonder what he did to open your eyes?"
Ruel was still looking at her. Why wouldn't he turn and walk away? she wondered desperately. The pain was too great. She had to be free of him.
"You're not going to tell me that either?"
"What?" She would not stand there, pinned by Ruel's stare like a sacrificial goat for the tiger. She turned and started down the deck. "You should be happy, Li Sung. You were always telling me how foolish I was."
He fell into step with her. "I'm not happy Patrick hurt you. It was what I always feared, but I never wanted it."
"I'll get over it." And she would also break free of Ruel in spite of his determination to make her aware of his power over her. If she had not wanted to go to Glenclaren, no coercion would have forced her to go. It had been her decision to try to right the wrong she had done Ian.
"You're walking too fast. Since you refuse to honor me with your confidence regarding MacClaren and Patrick, may I at least ask where we're running in such a hurry?"
"Sorry." She slowed to accommodate Li Sung's limping gait. She had been running from Ruel, she realized suddenly, away from that implacable will that had jerked Ian back from the gates of death and was now focused on her. "I thought I'd go down to the cargo hold and see how Sam and Bedelia are doing."
"Everyone is going to be so happy to see you." Jane reached out and took Ian's cold hand. "Your Glenclaren is beautiful. I can see why you love it."
Ian didn't take his gaze from the towers in the distance. "Yes, it is beautiful."
She pulled the blanket higher around him. The jarring trip had not been good for him, she thought anxiously. If possible, he looked paler than when they had lifted his stretcher onto the back of this wagon at the docks in Edinburgh two days earlier. "Truly. Everything is going to be fine."
"I can almost believe it," he whispered, still looking at the castle. "Perhaps there really was a reason . . ."
Ten minutes later the wagon rumbled over the wooden drawbridge and into the flagstoned courtyard.
A chipped and stained cistern occupied the center of the courtyard, and scraggly blades of grass grew between the flagstones. Wherever she looked Jane could see signs of age and disrepair.
"It's not always like this," Ian said. "I've been away a long time and places this old need care and nurturing."
"Or tearing down," Kartauk murmured.
Jane gave him a withering glance. "It won't take us long to do a few repairs, Ian." How strange to realize Ruel had grown up in this castle. It was difficult to even connect Ruel with this weathered, ancient place.
"Where is he?" The brass-bracketed front door flew open and a young woman marched down the stairs. "Good God, Ian, have they not got you sitting up yet?"
"Margaret?" Ian said in disbelief. He lifted himself on one elbow to look over the side of the wagon. "What are you doing here?"
"Where else would I be?" She strode toward the wagon. "When I received Ruel's letter I moved Father and myself to Glenclaren. Until you're over this infirmity, it was clearly the most practical thing to do."
Jane felt a ripple of surprise at her first sight of Margaret MacDonald. Soft hands, lace, and a fashionable bustle . . . She could see why Ian had laughed when she had described how she had envisioned his Margaret. She could not see the woman's hands, but her high-collared dark blue gown was faded and shabby with long use, and she moved with a bold economical grace. She was tall and slim, her wheat-colored hair worn in a smooth bun. Her square chin and large, mobile mouth were too strong to be considered beautiful, but she possessed wideset gray eyes that were startlingly lovely.