Free Lured to the Night (The Brotherhood Series Book 4) by Adele Clee

the fire while the marquess rearranged the chairs to accommodate their number. Whilst she felt the lady’s penetrating stare, saw her husband glance curiously at Lachlan, no one saw fit to pry.
    Douglas chose the seat closest to the fire. Lachlan sat at her side, opposite their guests. A charged silence pervaded the room: a hushed sense of excitement and anticipation. As with any complicated story, any life-changing revelation, an eagerness to rush to the denouement would undoubtedly leave many unanswered questions. Isla clasped her hands together in her lap; she would need to be patient as she listened to the tale unfold.
    Perhaps reading her thoughts, the lady spoke first. “I’m not sure where to begin.” Ivana glanced at her husband as though seeking permission to continue. Whatever silent message passed between them, he understood it perfectly.
    The marquess cleared his throat. “Some of what we might say will shock you. But you must trust we speak the truth. Perhaps we should start by telling you that, despite what you have been led to believe, you were not married to Nikolai.”
    Douglas thrust himself forward in the chair and punched the air. “Did I nae say there was something amiss?”
    Isla felt the words like a sharp slap to the cheek. She blinked, shook her head. She had stood in the chapel, astounded that anyone would agree to marry them in the dead of night. The scripted vows had fallen mechanically from her lips. “How do you know this? How can you make such a judgement when you were not here?” Her gaze shot to Lachlan as he pushed his hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck.
    Ivana shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. “Because I was also married to him, or so I thought, but it proved to be just another one of his deceitful tales.” She sighed. “I married him twelve years ago. A few days after our wedding, he left me. I saw him less than a handful of times over the years.”
    “That’s what the beggar did to Isla.” Douglas unleashed a torrent of incoherent Gaelic curses. “The sleeky toad. Thrust a dirk in my hand and I’d sever his baws from—” Catching her cautionary glare, Douglas stopped abruptly. He inclined his head by way of an apology for his enthusiastic manner.
    Isla was still a little confused. “But what makes you think you were not married to him either.”
    “Two years ago Nikolai returned to Bavaria.” There was a slight tremor in Ivana’s voice. Isla instantly recognised it as fear. “Leo had come to visit. The reason why he happened to be there is too complicated to explain. Suffice to say Nikolai intended to kill us. He told me then that he had married many women, in many countries. Money being the motivating factor.”
    “Money is the cause of most evil deeds.” Lachlan straightened. “So you’re saying Isla could not be legally married to Nikolai because he had been married before.”
    Ivana nodded. “Many times, by his own admission.”
    “It will be difficult to prove,” Leo said, “as we have no notion how many wives he had or where in the world they are. But we can both verify we witnessed his death. We can call other witnesses if necessary.”
    Nikolai was dead.
    She could not help but repeat the words over and over in her mind. It was a blessing. It was what she had hoped for whenever her thoughts drifted to the night he had left her alone in the mine. To suddenly wake from an induced sleep only to find she had an urgent craving for blood was possibly the most horrendous thing she had ever experienced. During the first year of his absence, Nikolai’s arrogant voice often invaded her thoughts. The evil whispers were like spindly vines creeping into her mind to strangle all hope.
    Lachlan’s voice disturbed her musings. “You saw him draw his last breath?”
    The marquess nodded. “An iron spear pierced his heart. A steel sword separated his head from his shoulders. The sun reduced all evidence to a pile of ash. The man is no more. Of