Page 52 of A Nameless Highland Laird
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Aloud bang on her door roused Charlotte from her sleep. It was not often that she did not beat Elizabeth to waking, but after all the emotional upheaval yesterday, she must have slept in later than she thought.
Pushing out of the bed and tying her wrap around her waist, she hurried to the door.
“Ye dinnae have to knock so loudly this early in the morning, Elizabeth. I dinnae ken why ye bothered with knocking at all. Ye normally just let yerself in and—”
Her words stopped in her throat as she wrenched the door open to find not her maid on the other side, but a messenger from her father’s clan.
“I am sorry to wake ye, miss,” the young man said in a hushed voice, “but I was given clear instructions to ride as quickly as I could to ye, deliver this letter into yer hands, and wait for a reply. Yer father was quite impatient for yer response when I left yesterday.”
Charlotte took the parchment that the messenger extended out to her, uncertainty already building.
“Ye rode all day and all night?” she asked as she flipped the letter over to see her father’s handwriting on the front.
“Aye. I would nae disobey my Laird’s orders,” the young man said sternly.
She sighed, still trying to get her mind to wake up and catch up with what was happening. One glance at the messenger and she could see just how tired he really was. There were dark bags under his eyes and his hair was skewed, though she could tell he had tried to fix it before coming to her door. Letting her eyes drift shut for a moment, she nodded and then met the man’s gaze again.
“Head down to the kitchens. They will have breakfast and some strong tea for ye. Elizabeth should be there by now, she will help see that ye are tended to. Be sure to pack food to take for yer journey back. Make sure yer horse is watered, fed, and brushed. By the time that has all been completed, I will have my response ready for ye.”
“B-but yer father told me I was to wait outside yer door until I had an answer,” he stammered.
“It will seem odd for a man to be standing outside my rooms so early in the morning. Laird Knox will nae like this. It would be better for ye to do as I say. My father need never ken that ye waited in the kitchens instead of the hall. Besides, if ye fall off yer horse from hunger and exhaustion, then he will never get his letter and we cannae have that.”
She could see his hackles rise at the mention of him falling off his horse, but as it was, he was swaying on his feet.
“The biscuits will be warm as will the tea. Go, now, before it is all gone.”
The promise of a fresh meal was enough to get him moving. She waited only until he had turned out of her hallway before she closed the door and ripped into the letter.
It was the fifth note her father had sent since her arrival and its contents had hardly varied from the others. More demands for her to send as much information on Cameron and his castle as possible. More questions that he needed answered and little explanation as to why these answers were so important.
She read the note once, twice, and a third time before she slipped into her sitting room and the writing desk that waited there for her. She took her time pulling out a fresh piece of paper, a new quill, and her ink pot. Those precious few minutes gave her time to think of how she would respond.
She had never felt truly comfortable feeding her father so much information about Cameron. And the more she got to know him, the worse she felt about it.
After their talk yesterday in his sitting room, she knew for sure that Cameron’s claim to the lairdship wasn’t the most stable. And while she didn’t know all the details, she knew enough to ruin everything for him if she wanted to. She could easily write to her father that Cameron wasn’t the true laird of the Knox clan; that was the chink in his armor that her father would use to bring the entire Knox clan down. Despite not knowing her father’s exact plans, she knew that he was not completely ready to forget the past decades of rivalry between their clans. She knew that he would take whatever chance might come along to attack the Knox clan, viciously and without hesitation.
But when she put pen to paper, she said nothing of Cameron’s illegitimacy. She only spoke of the things she had already told him. For the third time, she told her father that she had not found anything suspicious about Laird Knox or the happenings of the castle. She feigned ignorance as to what things might catch his attention, what he might really need to know. There was more she could tell him about Alastair or Cameron or the castle, but it felt like she would be breaking the promise she had made to Cameron not even the day before. She had pledged her loyalty and sending her father information that could be used against him was nowhere close to being loyal.
She had asked him to trust her with his secrets, not just about his claim to the Knox clan but also of his breathing attacks. In return, she needed to trust him—that he would help her escape Alec but also that he would make a good Laird for the clan. She knew Cameron truly wanted to pursue peace for his people. Going to war with her father would be the opposite of the vision he had. And the more she thought about it, the more she longed for peace too.
So without giving anything away, she finished off her letter and signed it. There were no second thoughts or hesitation that she was doing the right thing as she folded her response up and sealed it with wax. She doubted her father would be pleased with her answer, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was securing the future she was trying to build with Cameron.
By the time she finished, Elizabeth had still yet to make her way to her chambers, likely tending to the messenger first. Charlotte didn’t mind the solitude as she went about dressing herself. She chose a simple pink gown that was easy enough for her to get into without needing an extra set of hands.
Even with the front tie laces, her fingers still fumbled as her mind drifted to her betrothed.
Yesterday had not gone the way she thought it would, though she couldn’t say that she was disappointed by the end results. When she had gone marching up to his room, she had never anticipated that he would be as sick as he was. Nor did she anticipate that he would latch onto her the way he had, even if it was done in his sleep. And the Cameron that emerged when he woke up was different from the man he had been in the library the week before. He wasn’t shy or unsure but calculated and steady. And while he had been direct in telling her just what he thought, he wasn’t cruel or abrasive the way Alec was. Nor had he been demanding and dictating like her father. She knew exactly what he wanted and what he was willing to do to get it.
When she had left his sitting room, her thoughts had been so jumbled that she didn’t emerge from her room for the rest of the night. His parting words had burned through her and his kiss to her hands only seared in that heat. For hours all she had been able to think about was how committed he was to marrying her. He had not flinched as she had explained her past with Alec, nor had he balked at her request for his help. He was determined to make things work between them which was a huge relief to her. It had dawned on her that she didn’t want to go back to her father’s castle and the life she lived there.
Though, as her thoughts cleared, she realized just what was now shared between them. He knew all there was to know about Alec and in return, she knew that his claim to the clan wasn’t what it seemed. He had not divulged any details about his situation or how he even came to the position he currently held, but it was clear that he felt that the truth was a threat to his claim. That much was made clear when he reminded her just how few people would believe her if she decided to start spreading the story.
His words had stung at the time, but the longer she thought about them, the more she realized they were a front to cover his fear. And he had every right to be afraid. If the other clansmen or the other Lairds found out he was not the rightful heir, he could be charged with treason or much worse. It wasn’t just the fate of the clan she held in her hands, but his very life.
Their discussion had answered so many of the questions that had arisen in her short time at the Knox castle. From the moment she had met him, she had her suspicions that he was not what he seemed. Between the ill-fitting jacket and his gentle demeanor, it all added up to something that made no sense. But knowing that he had never truly been trained to be the Laird was the missing piece of the puzzle. It explained his lack of manners and education as well as his storied past. Not to mention that the man that welcomed her into his home was nothing like the man from the rumors. Cameron wasn’t ruthless or cruel for sport the way legends described.
