Chapter 20

When the guards at the gate of the Henderson house saw Ava and Cameron they swung the gates open for them, but they looked bewildered as Ava, who had her own keys, fairly sprinted to the front door and rushed in.

Cameron called two of the guards over. "Do you know who I am?" he asked urgently.

"Aye, M'Laird," they said in unison, looking a little mystified.

"There are three young ladies inside who might be in danger," he explained. "I need your help. Come with me."

The two men did not hesitate, but followed Cameron as he took the stairs two at a time until he arrived outside the door to Janet's and Rona's chamber. Ava was standing with her ear to the door, her face a mask of fear.

"They are both weeping," she whispered, looking up at Cameron with tears in her eyes. "I think he is in there too. Cam - what are we goin' to do?"

Cameron took her by the shoulders and looked down into her tragic, tear-stained face. "You will trust me," he whispered, "an' I will do whatever needs to be done."

Ava nodded and gave him a faint smile of encouragement, then one of the guards escorted her away to a safe distance. Everything was done in almost complete silence, and it briefly occurred to Ava to wonder how Cameron knew how to fight this way. Her admiration for him was boundless.

Cameron bent to look into the keyhole, but was dismayed to see that the key had been left in it. Just as he was about to suggest to the guards that they must kick it down, he noticed that the door to the room next door was slightly ajar. He frowned and looked along the corridor at Ava, who made a motion with her hands, indicating that he should open it.

He did so, and once inside he saw how James Henderson had gained entry to the sisters' room. The two chambers had at one time evidently been used by a married couple, for there was a connecting door between them. It had obviously been disguised to blend in with the decoration of the wall, for none of them, not even Davina, had known of its existence.

Cameron could hear Henderson as he spoke to the young women inside the chamber. He did not have a particularly deep voice compared to his own, but now, it sounded like a high-pitched hiss, interspersed with guttural snorts of mocking laughter.

Cameron felt his blood begin to boil with fury and it was all he could do not to rush through the door and flatten Henderson's nose against his face, but he had no idea what the other man was doing, so he had to be cautious.

Presently, he heard Janet's voice, but she was not speaking in her usual assertive, almost arrogant tone. He could not hear the words properly, but he could tell that both she and Rona were pleading and weeping. He looked around at the two guards, uncertain of where their loyalties lay, but he could see by both of their faces that they were just as angry as he was.

This time, Cameron was able to peek through the keyhole. His view was very limited, but from what he could see, he could work out that Rona was sitting right on the edge of a chair. He could just see the fingers of Henderson's hand grasping the back of it, and he realised that she was in a very dangerous position.

He turned and outlined the situation to the guards in a low whisper, and a moment later they had decided on a plan. However, that was the moment that Ava chose to sneak in behind them, but Cameron only saw her a split second after he had given the guards the order to storm the room.

Ava had waited as long as she could, shuffling from foot to foot in a state of nervous apprehension before she could stand the suspense no longer and crept up behind Cameron and the guards. She peeped around the edge of the door, but no-one was watching her, since they had all their attention fixed on what was going on in Janet and Rona's room.

‘What is going on?' she thought desperately. She heard hushed whispers between them, but of course she could make out nothing of what they were saying. A moment later, however, the two guards burst into the other chamber, and Cameron looked back and saw her.

He looked shocked, but he could do nothing as his attention snapped back to what was in front of him. At that moment, Ava heard Rona scream and she rushed through the door to see her sister sitting on a chair, her eyes wide with terror.

James Henderson was standing above and behind her, holding a kitchen knife half an inch away from her throat, the candlelight glinting on its lethally sharp blade. His smug, gloating smile would have made Ava feel sick if she had not been so afraid. Janet and Davina were standing on the other side of the room, fear written all over their faces.

"This knife cuts thick chunks of beefsteak as if they were butter," Henderson said airily. "It should not have much trouble with this tender little neck." He chuckled and grinned at Cameron. Then he spotted Ava, and his leer grew even wider.

"Then these swords should no' have much trouble wi' yours," Cameron growled. "If ye lay a finger on Rona I will no' marry your daughter, but that should no' worry you, since you will be in your grave. I will put ye there, an' I will smile while I am doin' it!"

Ava could hardly stand to look at the agony on her sister's face. Rona had screwed her eyes shut, waiting for the fatal swipe of the knife, but tears were leaking from her eyes nonetheless. "Please, James," she begged. "She has done nothin' to you. Let her go. We can find a way out of this somehow."

James turned to look at her, and opened his mouth to say something, but he never got the chance.

Suddenly, several things happened all at once. Janet, who had been standing next to the fireplace, fell down, apparently in a dead faint, and knocked over the stand of fire tools by the grate. The noise startled James Henderson, who jumped in fright and dropped the knife. Rona leapt out of the chair, but Davina jumped forward, picked up a poker from the floor, and with all the strength she could muster, brought it down on his head. James Henderson gave one piercing howl, then fell to the floor, where he lay moaning for a few moments before falling silent and still.

Davina's normally pretty face was ugly with rage, and she looked as if she was deriving pleasure from every moment of her father's pain. Before he lost consciousness she bent down and spoke to him in a low, throbbing growl. "Are you enjoying this, Father?" she asked viciously. "Because I am!"

At the same moment Janet leapt to her feet and rushed over to Rona, who was weeping in Ava's arms. Clearly, her collapse had been a diversion, and it had worked.

Cameron leaned over and hauled Henderson to his feet. He was still wheezing and spluttering when he threw him towards one of the guards, who caught him and pinned his hands behind his back. Cameron stepped up to him and spat in his face. He was tempted to do more, but he held himself back, not wishing to add further pain to that which the sisters had already suffered.

"Are you loyal to this man?" he asked one of the guards, but it was Davina who answered.

"None of them is, and neither am I," she said scathingly. "Do what you like with him." She turned away and flounced out of the room.

The three sisters had their arms around each other in a tight embrace. All of them were weeping, and Cameron decided to leave them for the moment and deal with Henderson.

"Take him to his chamber an' bind him hand an' foot, then lock the door," he ordered. "At dawn we will take him to the castle an' give him a nice cosy cell to sleep in till I am ready to talk to him."

He waited while the two guards trussed up their prisoner and took him to his chamber. The Henderson house boasted only six guards, so Cameron ordered that the others be woken, and he paid them all to stay awake until he could send his own men from the castle to come and fetch Henderson. As a last precaution, he went to the housekeeper and took with him all the keys to the house.

When he came back to the bedroom, he found the three Struthers sisters sitting huddled together, comforting each other.

"He is gone," Cameron told them gently. "And he will no' be back. You need have no fear, ladies. I will look after you now."

"I cannot believe what just happened," Ava said weakly. "To think I was goin' to marry him!" She shook her head and once more buried her face in her hands.

Cameron wrapped his arms around her and looked over at Rona, who was still standing in Janet's firm and protective embrace. "How are you, Rona?" he asked softly.

Rona managed a trembling laugh. "I have felt better, Cam, but I am fine," she replied. "Thank ye for savin' us. That man is mad." she sniffed and started to weep again.

"Aye." Cameron's voice was grim. "But at least ye're safe now, because I am here." He looked at Ava. "I will always be here."

Davina had come back to the castle with Cameron and the sisters the next morning, and when he received her in his study he could see how badly the whole experience of the previous evening had affected her. She looked pale and exhausted, and all her former lively spirit had gone out of her. He ordered some mulled wine for both of them.

"Thank ye for comin'," he said warmly. "I am sorry about last night."

"Why?" Davina frowned. "You were not to blame for anything that happened."

Cameron shook his head and sighed. "Maybe no' directly," he said heavily, "but I should have seen the kind o' man he is. From the first moment I set eyes on him I did not like him, an' I could not tell ye why. Now I know."

"I am ashamed to call him my father." Davina paused for a moment as their wine arrived, then waited for the maidservant to leave the room. Servants' gossip spread news and scandal faster than the flight of an eagle. "He is an evil, manipulative man, and the only reason I am not just like him is because I had a few good friends and some distant family around me whom I saw behind his back.

Unfortunately there was nobody close enough to me to separate me from him. I was very glad to know I was going to marry you, even though I knew you were not in love with me. I went to find him last night to see if I could make him see reason about marrying Ava. She would have been so unhappy. Ava came to my room and told me what my father had done to Janet and asked me to watch over her sisters. I must have fallen asleep, though, and I woke when I heard Rona screaming. I did not know about the door in the wall - I don't think anyone did. I jumped out of my chair away from him and Janet managed to get away too. He said he would kill Rona if Janet did not submit to him. He had the knife already and was waving it about, but when he heard you he held it against Rona's throat. He is mad. The rest you know."

She paused and sipped her wine. "But there is one thing you don't know, Cameron. He wanted me to kill you, and eventually he would have done the same to Ava. That way we would have total power over the estate, you see, if no one else was found to inherit, you see, it would pass to my father, or at least that is what he thought. I would never have done it, of course, and I would have killed him myself before he touched either of you. He threatened me too if I did not comply with his wishes."

"Ava heard him telling you to kill me," he told her. "But his own daughter? I cannot believe it!"

"Can you not?" Davina asked bitterly. "My father loves no one but himself, Cameron, and he will use anyone and anything to gratify his own wishes."

Cameron sighed and paced the room for a moment or two. Davina watched him, wishing that he could be hers. He was everything she could ever have wanted in a man. He was kind, generous and caring, while still having the strength of character to stand up for himself, and to stand up for those he cared about. Moreover, although it was not a requirement in a husband, he was quite devastatingly handsome! His next words came as no surprise, however.

"I am sorry, Davina, but I cannot marry you," he told her regretfully, turning back to her.

Davina nodded and smiled at him sadly. "I know. I think I knew from the first moment I met you that your heart was not in that sham of a marriage. You love Ava, and it is quite obvious every time you look at her. I knew that somehow I would be thrown aside and never become your wife."

"Not ‘thrown aside'" Cameron protested. "I like ye, Davina, an' I am sure ye will make a man a very good wife someday, but that man will no' be me, because I love Ava wi' all my heart an' soul."

"And she loves you in exactly the same way," Davina remarked. "Her eyes shine every time she sees you."

At that moment, the door opened and Ava stepped inside. Her eyes widened when she saw Davina, but Cameron came up and put his arm around Ava's shoulders, then kissed her on the forehead.

The way they smiled at each other sent a shaft of envy through Davina as she looked at them. They had each other and a family who all loved them, and what did she have? She tried to smile as she gazed at them, even though she felt like blinking back tears.

"Davina?" Ava saw her expression and knelt down beside her. "I think I know a wee bit o' what ye are feelin'. Don't worry. We know ye are no' like your father, and we will look after ye." She looked up at Cameron, and he nodded and smiled warmly.

"We will have a big family," he confirmed, laughing. "An' there is no reason ye cannot be part o' it."

"Thank you." Davina let her tears fall, but they were not tears of envy or anger, but of happiness and relief. "I was not looking forward to being by myself."

"How would you like to be our sister-in-law?" Ava suggested.

"I would like that very much!" Davina was a little shocked, but happily so, as she looked from one to the other. "But you know my history - are you sure?"

Ava and Cameron exchanged glances.

"Very much so," said Ava, grinning. "Welcome to the family, Davina!"