Page 25 of A Match Made in Heather

“Arabel,” he whispered.

With a small shudder, she tore her gaze away from the fire and sent him a faint smile which looked all the more weak for her attempt at bravery. “Surely you’ve heard by now. If not in England, then from Mr. Davidson or one of the villagers . . .” She swiped a hand at her eyes. “I’m certain there are many people in Kincardine who thought the Rowlands got exactly what we deserved. Who wanted nothing more than to see us fall. Including you, Garrick.” She gave a short, bitter laugh. “Ironically, in the end it was love that did us in.”

He hadn’t heard a word about it. Whether the village gossips had held their tongues because they knew of his connection to the Rowlands or because they no longer considered him part of their highland world, no one had shared this with him. And he was glad of that, because he wanted to hear it from Arabel.

She hesitated, then said softly, “That night, when we were supposed to elope, I told you only part of the truth about why I couldn’t go with you.”

He frowned. “You said Samuel had gambled himself into debt.”

“Yes. But what I didn’t tell you was that it was because he’d met an Englishwoman and fallen in love.” She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. Garrick’s throat tightened at how small she looked, drawn up into a ball like that. “She was already married to a very jealous man. It made no difference that her husband didn’t love her, that he spent his nights with light skirts, or that he’d only married her for her money. She belonged to him, and he wasn’t going to let some Scot have her. Samuel didn’t even know who the man was until it was too late. Until he’d lost twenty thousand pounds to him at cards and had his marker called.”

Twenty thousand pounds . . .Good God.Garrick wasn’t certain that his entire earldom was worth that much.

“When Samuel couldn’t pay it, the man had him tossed into debtor’s prison. My family paid the debt and got Samuel out of prison, but we stripped our fortune to save him, down to the last ha’penny. He’d put our family on the verge of bankruptcy, and he hadn’t even saved the woman he loved.” She pulled idly at the fringe on the end of the throw. “You see, when her husband discovered that Samuel was out of prison and that his wife planned to leave him, he was so enraged that he beat her to within an inch of her life.”

She fell silent, watching her fingers as they played with the fringe.

“And Samuel blamed himself,” Garrick said quietly. That would have been exactly what he’d have done if anyone had harmed the woman he loved.

“No,” she breathed, her hand stilling. “Samuel murdered her husband.”

She raised her gaze to meet his. The raw grief on her face took his breath away.

“I found out the night we were supposed to elope,” she whispered. “That’s why I couldn’t go with you. And why I couldn’t tell you the truth. If word had gotten out, when Samuel’s life still hung in the balance—I was too afraid I’d make everything worse for him.”

Garrick stared at her, frozen numb except for the fierce pounding of his heart. Dear God, the hell she must have gone through . . . and he hadn’t had a clue. For ten years, he’d blamed her for not loving him enough to choose him over her family, when she’d been faced with this.Christ,how wrong he’d been!

He yearned to pull her into his arms and hold her close, until her anguish and heartache vanished. But if he reached for her then, he knew she’d only push him away.

“We called in every favor we could,” she explained. She spoke so softly that he could barely hear her, but every whisper cut into his heart at the pain she’d suffered. Wasstillsuffering. “In the end, he was sent to an asylum instead of the gallows. He was there nearly six months when he . . .” When the words came, her sorrow chilled his blood. “He killed himself.”

“Dear God, Arabel,” he rasped out hoarsely. He hated her family for what he’d done to him, but he never would have wished this upon them.

She sucked in a deep breath to gather her composure, but the stilted inhalation only proved how upset she was. “So you can see why the Campbells no longer wanted to marry into the Rowland clan. Too much scandal and gossip, even for us Scots.” A grim smile tugged bleakly at her mouth for only a moment before fading.

He could no longer fight back the urge to touch her and placed his hand reassuringly over hers. “I’m so sorry, Arabel.”

She stiffened, then relaxed as her fingers entwined with his.

“Our misfortune wasn’t over even then, though,” she went on. “In his grief over Samuel and worry over money, Papa fell ill. He was dead by the following spring.” Her hand trembled in his. “David became head of the family. But our fortune had been too diminished by then, the properties all mortgaged to pay Samuel’s debt. A drought cost us the next harvest, and with no way to pay the bank . . .”

“The properties went into foreclosure,” he finished quietly.

She nodded, and her fingers tightened their hold on his. “We had no choice but to move to Edinburgh, to live with my mother’s sister. Mama never truly recovered from losing both her son and her husband, and Aunt Ethel had been housebound for years before. So I took care of them. I’ve been caring for them ever since.”

Garrick squeezed her hand to reassure her, although inside he was outraged that a vivacious young woman like Arabel had been ripped from her home and forced to be a nurse maid. All because of decisions she’d had no part in making. “Surely your brother David helped you.”

She shook her head. “There were no prospects of any kind for David in Edinburgh, or anywhere in Scotland for that matter. So he did the same as you and took a commission in the army. But he was sent to America. When the war ended, he stayed. A wise decision, too, as he had more opportunity there to earn his fortune.”

Anger pulsed through him.Coward.Leaving two old women and his unmarried sister to fend for themselves. But even now, Arabel chose to defend her brother. Was there no end to her loyalty to her family, even when they didn’t deserve it?

“And now you’re engaged to the banker,” he commented, doing his best to keep the bitterness from his voice. “Did your family arrange it?”

She paused, and in that hesitation, he had his answer. But she dissembled, “I want to marry Ewan.”

Thatwas a damned lie if ever he’d heard one. But it proved exactly how much her family still controlled her life. Rather, how much sheletthem control it. Even now.

Slowly, she pulled her hand away from his, and he let her go.