A Highland Folly (21 page)

“They have done nothing to make me distrust them.” She flinched at her words, which she wanted to be true. Yet, she could not help wondering why Lucais had reacted to Neilli's words as he had. Something was terribly wrong, but she could not guess what.

Parlan grumbled under his breath, then walked away, pausing only to pick up his coat. He muttered an oath as he shook water off it.

Anice continued toward Lucais's room. The door was ajar, opening farther when she knocked. As she had suspected when he was absent during the brangle in the hallway, he was not there. His formal coat was thrown across a chair, and his work boots were missing from beside his bed. The top of his desk was as clean as it had been when the room waited for someone to come to use it.

“Are you looking for Mr. MacFarlane?” asked a maid as she came along the passage.

“Yes.” Heat soared along her face, and she knew she was blushing, although she had no cause to be embarrassed at being discovered at Lucais's door. She was the chatelaine of Ardkinloch, so it should not be deemed untoward to be standing outside this bedchamber.

“He was here, but he left a few minutes ago.”

“Did you notice where?”

The maid shrugged. “He had a satchel with many, many papers in it. I noticed because I thought it was an odd thing for a gentleman to take to a party.”

Anice called her thanks over her shoulder as she went back along the hallway at an unseemly pace. Hearing the music from the parlor, she was torn between absurd laughter and ironic tears. She had arranged for this gathering to bring the residents of the glen and the roadmen to the same place so they might learn to trust one another. It seemed to be having quite the opposite results.

Halfway down the stairs, she saw a motion on the ground floor. Black hair glistened with brilliant fire in the lights from the chandelier that brightened the stairwell.

Lucais! He was below and headed for the main door.

Her feet threatened to trip her on every step, but she flung herself down the rest of the flight and rushed to the lower stairs. Her hair tumbled out of its neat bun, scattering flowers onto the steps. When she saw him nearing a footman who was reaching for the door, she shouted his name. He paused, but she could not guess if it was by his choice or because the footman did not open the door.

Ignoring the footman who was staring at her in astonishment, Anice pushed her loose hair back over her shoulders. “Lucais, where are you going?”

“A message was waiting in my room that the supplies for the camp have been delivered to Killiebige.” His voice possessed no more emotion than the wood in the thick door. “So I thought I should go and make sure everything is as it should be.”

“Now?”

“I did not think I should linger here to dance and share refreshments with those who have done all they can to undermine my work.”

Anice recoiled from the venom that she had not expected Lucais would aim at her. “Undermine your work? You know that tonight was to be the opportunity to heal the chasm between the villagers and the road crew.”

“Really? Or did you want to get us so foxed that we would spend the whole day tomorrow bemoaning our aching heads and getting no work done?”

“Lucais, you are mad!”

“Am I? Mayhap I am seeing things clearly for the first time since I was fired upon on the hill.”

“When
we
were fired upon!”

Something flickered through his eyes. “Yes, when we were fired on. If you will excuse me, my lady.”

“No!” She stepped between him and the door as she had between her cousin and his assistant. Motioning for the footman to leave, she struggled to keep her chin from quivering. “What is truly wrong, Lucais?”

“I told you that—”

“Yes, but you did not know that the supplies had been delivered until after you walked away outside.” She put her hand on his arm, then drew it back. “Will you tell me what Neilli said that upset you so? She should not have been repeating gossip, I agree, but that is no reason to be so distressed that you are leaving without the courtesy of a farewell.”

Lucais set his bag on the floor and his cap atop it. “I thought you would understand that I must not waste a moment of time in getting this project under way again.”

“While you still have the goodwill of those who live in Killiebige?”

“That is part of it.”

“And what is the rest?”

“My … Anice, there are some issues I should alone remain privy to.”

She recoiled as if he had struck her as savagely as Parlan had Mr. Potter. “You have said over and over that we cannot be enemies. Why are you treating me like one?”

Before he could reply, his name was called from the stairs. Anice turned and tensed when Neilli hurried toward them. All of this had begun with Neilli's comments. Glancing at Lucais, she saw his lips were even more rigid with fury.

“Tell me what is amiss,” Anice said softly as Neilli came down the stairs. “I would be glad to help.”

“Yes, I am sure you would.”

Anice stared in disbelief, too amazed at his harsh tone to respond. She tried to think of the right question, the one that would obtain her an answer to why he was acting as he was.

Neilli seemed to have no such uneasy thoughts. Her smile was scintillating as she swayed toward Lucais, her steps flowing as if she were walking among the clouds. Even when her smile became a pout, it offered an invitation that infuriated Anice. Why was her cousin acting this way toward
Lucais
?

“Are you leaving us?” Neilli asked, her voice a husky murmur.

“Yes,” he replied even more coolly than he had spoken to Anice.

“Must you?”

“Yes.”

“If you must … here.” Neilli took his cap as he reached for it. She held it tightly to her breasts, then offered it to him with a bright smile.

“Thank you.” He frowned when she continued to hold onto one side of the cap.

“You must forgive us.” Neilli eased between Anice and him.

“Us?”

She fluttered her golden eyelashes at him. “You are right. You must forgive
me
. I did not mean to discompose you with my comments.” Boldly she ran her fingers up the front of his shirt. “I meant only to discover the truth.”

Anice surprised herself as much as either of them when she grasped Neilli's wrist and thrust her hand away from Lucais. “Enough, Neilli. Please excuse Lucais and me while we speak privately.”

“
Speak
?” Neilli gave her a superior smile. “If you think that will help, by all means.” Again, as she walked back to the stairs, her hips undulated an enticement.

Anice looked at Lucais. As she had feared, he was watching her cousin closely. Her heart contracted, and she pressed her hand over it as she closed her eyes. Opening them, she discovered he was staring at her fingers that were spread across her bodice. His gaze slowly rose to meet hers. Something flickered in his eyes, but, like a firefly sparking through the darkness, was gone before she could guess what it might be.

“I need to go.” He bent to pick up the satchel.

“If you and your men—”

“I have left instructions for them with Potter.”

She hated the sarcasm in her laugh but could not halt it as she said, “I doubt if he will deliver it to them before he cleans off the blood left by my cousin's fist.”

“What happened?”

“What else?” She flung out her hands, hurt more by his cool tone than the pigheadedness of everyone around her. “Mr. Potter and Parlan let a silly disagreement become a milling. Both of them paid for it with their blood. Parlan's nose will be swollen like Mr. Potter's lip.”

“Were they hurt more than that?”

“No, because I halted them by talking sense to them. They heeded me, albeit with reluctance. They explained to me what had set them off. Mayhap if you were to offer me the same consideration, Lucais, I might understand why you are leaving just when it might be possible for the roadmen and the Kinlochs and their tenants to live peacefully.”

“The Kinlochs?” His laugh was icy as he dropped the satchel to the floor again. “Since when have the Kinlochs wanted to live in peace with anyone but those who bowed down to them? One of the first things anyone who enters this glen learns is that the Kinlochs should not be trusted, for they turn on friend and foe alike to obtain what they want.”

“Lucais!” She grasped his sleeves. “What has infuriated you so? Tell me the truth.”

He drew her hands from his sleeves. For the length of a pair of heartbeats, he held her fingers between his. He released them and picked up the bag that was bristling with long strips of paper. “You want the truth, Anice? The truth is that I have stayed too long at this house, where my welcome has been based only on what others want of me.”

“I still do not understand.”

“I think you do, although you may not want to own to that. Mayhap not even to yourself.” He cupped her chin in his hand. “That may be why I believed what appeared to be sincerity in your eyes.”

She put her hand up to his cheek. “Lucais, I have not been false with you.”

“I would like to believe that.”

“You can. You must!”

Shaking his head, he stepped back. He opened the door. “Whether you were honest with me or not, the result is the same. I am here where I do not belong. It is time I recalled that.”

“Lucais, please explain. I—” Anice stared in bewilderment as the door closed behind him. She opened it and went out into the courtyard in front of the house.

The shadows had already swallowed Lucais. Hearing the sheep baaing, she hurried toward the fold. Mayhap he had gone this way, and, if she could catch him, he would heed her request to clarify the words that only confused her more with each one he had spoken.

Something moved in the darkness. She rushed forward, but it was only the flutter of a forgotten blanket hanging over the railing by the barn.

Closing her eyes, she sighed. She never would find Lucais now unless she went into Killiebige. Even then, he might not ease her bafflement. Why was he speaking of the past when she had hoped he would want to discuss the future they might have?

She gulped as she stared down at the river that glistened beneath the rising moon. Lucais must have learned something about the Kinlochs that had soured him to the whole family, something that Neilli's actions tonight had exacerbated. Mayhap he had called at Chester Hills and learned something there, mayhap even the very truth that the marquess had suggested was found among her grandmother's possessions. If she could find that letter, she might understand the whole of this.

Going to the terrace, where she had found such ecstasy in Lucais's embrace, Anice sank to sit beside the fountain. She ignored the soft spray that pelted her as she blinked back tears. She swallowed hard when Pippy bounded toward her. Burying her fingers in his thick fur, she raised her chin.

She should say good riddance to Lucais MacFarlane. If he chose to believe the half truths that had been repeated along the Abhainn an Uruisg, then she could get him to own to his mistake only by showing him what the marquess had hinted would answer so many questions. Until then, she should not waste another thought on this mannerless cad whose heart was clearly as hard as the stones he was using to build his dashed bridge.

Her laugh was bitter on her lips. Did she think she could push him out of her mind—out of her heart—as easily as he had walked out of Ardkinloch? So many times, her mother had warned Anice to watch over her heart, for its beat could drown out the cautioning of her good sense.

She wished now she had listened.

Fourteen

How had Mother managed to overcome this pain of being left without the one she loved? Not just once, but over and over and over again.

Anice sat on the floor of her grandmother's sitting room and gazed up at the ceiling. She had been searching through her grandmother's rooms for the past two days. Finding forgotten miniatures of past Kinlochs and beads that had been tossed into a box would have been more interesting if she had not been determined to find the letter Lord Chesterburgh had spoken of.

She rubbed her forehead, although her heart ached worse than her head. No matter how much she pretended that she was intrigued with the treasure hunt the marquess had suggested, she knew she was continuing this futile search to keep from thinking about Lucais.

Rising, she went to the wide window that offered an excellent view of the Abhainn an Uruisg. The river seemed oblivious of the quartet of stone pillars that were being raised in its center, a project that had been begun the day after the gathering here at Ardkinloch, more than a fortnight earlier. From here, the columns did not look much taller than the roof of the sheepfold, and she knew the buttresses would need to be twice as tall to support the iron that would bridge the gap between the hill on the river's other shore and the ridge below the old castle.

She looked up at the ruined walls of Dhùin Liath. More than once in the past week, she had seen lights from one or more lanterns up there. Her visit to the castle the previous week had gained her nothing. Whoever had been there had not left even as much as a broken shovel as a hint to why they were there.

Resting her cheek against the window molding, she closed her eyes. Mayhap the lights had come from some lovers who had decided the old castle was the perfect place for a tryst. She should be understanding of that, because she had delighted in each kiss and caress she and Lucais had been able to steal. All she was now was sad.

Lucais had not returned to Ardkinloch. The day after the contest and the assembly, his men had taken the rest of his belongings to the new camp they had set up on the riverbank. Each morning, she awoke to the sounds of work from the river, so she knew Lucais was very busy overseeing the construction of the bridge. The work did not end until the sun had vanished beyond the western hills. She guessed he continued his own planning until long after dark.