The Hawk (Highland Guard #2)(29)

“What could you have been thinking? How could you be so irresponsible? To have no care for your duty and position? To gallivant across the countryside like some … peasant. And to goad your sister—”

“I was only trying to help. She’s been so sad lately. I thought the wedding would help, but it only seemed to make it worse.”

Her father’s jaw locked in a formidable line. “Ellie was fine.”

Matty felt a sudden spark of anger at her father’s willful blindness. “She wasn’t fine! But you didn’t want to see it, not when she was handling everything so that you didn’t have to.”

Her father flinched. “That’s enough, Mathilda,” he said angrily. “I think you’ve said—and done—enough for one day.”

Matty bit her lip and nodded, knowing she’d gone too far. Ellie was the only one from whom their father would accept criticism—and that was because she did it so skillfully, he usually didn’t realize he was being criticized.

They all looked to the door when Ralph burst into the room. Matty’s pulse did a strange little stutter step, as it had from the first time she’d set eyes upon him. How could Ellie not want to marry him? If Matty could have dreamed up the perfect English knight, he would look exactly like Ralph de Monthermer. Tall and lean, with thick dark hair and clear green eyes, he was handsome, strong, and honorable to the core. The fact that he’d once risked everything for love by marrying the king’s daughter only made him more of a romantic figure in her eyes.

For an instant, their eyes met before they both turned away.

“I have news,” he said. Matty’s heart stopped. He paused for only a moment, but it felt like an eternity as she waited to find out whether it was good or bad. “A woman was sighted not far from here by some of my men. Apparently, she’d jumped in the water and tried to call for help, but before my men could reach her she was recaptured.”

“Was it Ellie?” Matty asked, hardly daring to believe.

Ralph looked at her again, meeting her gaze for only an instant, but long enough for her to catch the glimpse of compassion. “It has to be. The timing and description both fit.”

Matty closed her eyes and said a word of thanks. She heard her father murmur “thank God” as well. The genuine relief in his voice surprised her. Though the earl cared about all of his children, he was not an overly sentimental man. Perhaps her mother and brother’s deaths had affected him more than she realized? Or maybe it was just Ellie. She was their anchor.

But his relief was quickly replaced by anger. “Recaptured? What do you mean recaptured?” he said. “By whom?”

Ralph’s jaw fell in hard line. “I don’t know. But the sail was said to bear the image of a hawk.”

Both men looked at each other, and Matty knew there was something significant about this.

“The man we’ve heard rumors about?” her father asked.

Ralph nodded.

“Edward will be pleased,” her father said. “He’s been looking for him since the escape from Dunaverty.”

Matty’s eyes widened. Even John and Thomas were taken aback at the suggestion that their brother-in-law could be involved with the men who’d taken Ellie.

“Robert wouldn’t do such a thing,” she said vehemently. “He would never harm Ellie.”

Neither man acknowledged her outburst. Whether they agreed or not, it didn’t matter. Ralph had once been a close friend of Bruce. Her father’s feelings for his son-in-law were harder to quantify. Though he would not help his son by marriage outwardly, at times she wondered whether he wanted him to succeed. But both were Edward’s men. They would do their duty despite their personal feelings. And if Robert had anything to do with this …

She shuddered. Her father’s anger would rival Edward’s.

“How did they escape?” John asked.

Ralph’s gaze hardened and his mouth turned white with rage. In crisp, staccato tones, he described the confrontation at sea and the ensuing chase by his men.

“This hawk boat was surrounded by four galleys and escaped?” Thomas asked incredulously.

Matty gave him a stifling glance, but it was too late.

Ralph stiffened. “So it appears.”

Matty could see that his pride had taken a heavy blow. Ralph set high standards for the fleet of galleys under his command, and he took his men’s failure personally. She took a step toward him before stopping herself. He was not hers to soothe.

“I don’t care what it takes,” her father said in a voice that held no mercy, sounding every inch the most powerful earl in Ireland. “Find him.”

Chapter Seven

They were blue. Sparkling blue, like the ocean on a sunny day.

Ellie had been prepared for that. What she hadn’t anticipated, however, were the dimples. Two of them. Two perfectly aligned deep craters on either side of that incorrigible grin. Combined with the thick, sun-bleached hair, the white teeth, and the golden tan that by all rights should have faded by now …

Her mouth pursed with annoyance. It was ridiculous. No man had a right to be that handsome—especially when he had a personality that was every bit as magnetic. It seemed an unfair bounty for one person to manage. Yet he did so with ease.

Of course, Ellie wasn’t the only one noticing.