Amanda Scott (29 page)

Ominous silence greeted his words, and Duncan looked at Mary again.

She was gazing thoughtfully at his belt or stomach, but she looked up just then, right into his eyes, and any lingering doubt he might have had vanished in a blink. He drew her nearer, giving her a slight hug.

“One of the servant lasses, meeting her lad, I suppose,” he said with a sigh.

“In Mary’s cloak?” Neil said skeptically. He was not looking at Duncan, however. He was gazing thoughtfully at the stair landing.

Sweeping up her skirt with one hand, Serena descended the remaining steps, saying, “Why did no one tell me that we had company?”

Balcardane stepped forward then, saying brusquely, “They seem to have kept it a secret from us all, lass. How did you find things at Dunraven, lad?”

“In need of a great many repairs, sir,” Duncan said bluntly. “We can discuss all that later.”

“Indeed, we will. I must say, I don’t know why you’ve kept these men standing here in the hall. I don’t think I know them all, do I?”

Mary said quickly, “I beg your pardon, sir. I believe I need not introduce my cousin Sir Neil Maclean to you.”

“Of course not,” the earl said, “though I hope you have not left his mama standing about somewhere outside in the cold whilst you chatted.”

His light tone did not fool his son (or anyone else, he suspected). The Lady Anne Stewart Maclean was no favorite with Balcardane. Her tongue was too sharp to suit the earl’s notion of proper feminine submission to masculine authority.

“No, sir,” Mary said, smiling. “My aunt is still with my cousin Diana in Perthshire. Surely, someone has told you that Diana expects to be confined soon.”

“Good gracious,” Serena said. “Is everyone having babies? My sister-in-law also expects to be confined soon, too, Sir Neil. It’s prodigiously tiresome, however, because Juliet has already had five daughters, but it is the same every time, and since everyone at Inver House remains in a constant state of alt, I left.”

Balcardane moved to pull the bell cord near the fireplace. “Well, take them into the saloon, and I’ll order some refreshment. I daresay her ladyship will be as pleased as I am to offer Sir Neil and his men the hospitality of Balcardane.”

“There will be a few more,” Duncan said, watching his father warily. “Patrick Campbell and a company of his men are not far behind me, sir.” Balcardane gave him a sour look but said only that he supposed Patrick would not stay long.

Neil dismissed his followers, and Duncan went outside with them long enough to learn that the man heading into the woods had escaped, and to order arrangements for removing Sir Neil’s baggage to a guest chamber and housing his men. While he was thus engaged, Patrick Campbell and his men arrived.

Patrick laughed when Duncan told them to put up their horses and stay the night. “We’ll stay the night and thank you,” he said, “but I won’t impose upon your father’s legendary generosity any longer than that. We’ll leave at first light.”

When Breck ran to join Ewan in the woods, the much larger man grabbed him by the shoulders and would have shaken him, had Breck not snapped, “Someone saw me! I think it was Duncan. Run, man. Thank the lord I thought to tell everyone to muck about all over up here while I was gone, to hide our tracks.”

“Where is she? Damn you, I knew it was a mistake to let you meet her. I should have gone myself!” But Ewan released him.

“Nay, then, you dared not. I know a sight more about covering my tracks than you do,” Breck pointed out, pushing him ahead. “Go up toward the ridge. They’ll expect us to head for the road. Where are the others?”

“I told them to scatter and meet us at the cottage. That’s nearer than Shian, and I wanted an escort for when we took the lass. Why did you not bring her?”

“Wrong lass,” Breck told him, chuckling. “If you want to abduct Caddell’s daughter, instead, you’ll do it without me.”

“Caddell’s daughter. The Lady Serena?”

“The same, and a vixen if ever there was one. But she’s hot for intrigue, my lad, so we may find a use for her in the end. She does not like our Mary. Said she wanted to meet me to tell me that, and so she fixed it with the maid. Promised to keep a still tongue in her head, too, but we won’t trust her for that. Hurry, man!”

“We’ll never get near that castle again,” Ewan protested, puffing.

“Don’t despair. We’ll take shelter at the cottage for a few days more, and set men to keep watch from the hillsides around here. We may yet get our chance.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Grief seems to stir that gift of hers a bit. We’ll just make her a widow.”

Taking Patrick inside with him to join the others in the yellow saloon, Duncan found his father absent and his mother making a valiant effort to play hostess despite a red nose, watery eyes, and every sign of an incipient fever.

“Faith, ma’am,” he said, “are you ailing now, too?”

“I’m afraid so,” she said hoarsely. “Serena’s maid seems to have passed her illness on to a number of people. It happens every winter, of course. How splendid to have more visitors, though,” she added, smiling at Patrick. “I was just telling Sir Neil that I should not have recognized him, for I believe I have not seen him since last May—the Beltane festival, you know—and he has changed a good deal, I believe. Why, you were quite young then, Sir Neil, and not nearly so … so—”

“So old,” Duncan interjected as Neil, visibly struggling with acute embarrassment, tried to think of a polite reply.

Mary chuckled, but Serena said, “Don’t be rude, Duncan. That is not what your mama meant, and well do you know it. I might add, sir, that no one has yet presented Sir Neil or this other man to me. Must I beg them to present themselves?”

Annoyed by the knowledge that he ought to have presented Neil to her at once, in the hall, Duncan introduced both gentlemen rather curtly.

Patrick bowed politely, but Neil made a profound leg, saying in dulcet tones, “Lady Serena, I have heard of you, I believe.”

“My father is the Earl of Caddell,” Serena informed him complacently.

“Ah, yes,” Neil murmured, adding shrewdly, “Do you, perhaps, know of any
other
female here who would have the temerity to wear my cousin’s cloak?”

Serena gasped, and Mary exclaimed, “Neil!”

“I was watching her in the hall, lass,” he said. “She stood there with a little smile on her face, enjoying the fact that Black Duncan was angry with you.”

“How dare you!” Serena’s hands clenched, her cheeks grew fiery, and her dark blue eyes flashed sparks of anger.

Neil returned the look, his own eyes smoldering. “I think you tried to make it look like Mary had a clandestine meeting with Breck. I saw that meeting myself, and while I cannot swear it was he, I cannot swear it wasn’t, either. In any event, no servant would have taken Mary’s cloak, and I have heard no mention of any other gentlewoman in the castle. If you did take it, it was an unspeakable thing to do. You must have run up to the ramparts to wave, just hoping someone would report it to Duncan. It can only have been by the greatest mischance that he saw you himself.”

Mary said, “Serena would not do such a thing, Neil. You must be wrong.”

Stifling a cough, Lady Balcardane agreed. “I am persuaded that Serena would never borrow someone else’s cloak, you know. She has any number of quite lovely ones of her own, so she has no need to do such a thing.”

Duncan was watching Serena, and when he saw her relax, his own suspicions stirred to life. She glanced at him and stiffened again, raising her chin defiantly.

Neil said, “If I am wrong, ma’am, I will apologize; but, Mary, before you hand me my head on a platter, tell me who else could have taken your cloak.”

Lady Balcardane tried unsuccessfully to smother another coughing fit.

Serena snapped, “If anyone took Mary’s cloak, it must have been a servant.”

“Oh, no, my dear, not our servants,” Lady Balcardane said, emerging from her handkerchief. “They are all quite honest and loyal, I promise you. Balcardane would not keep one who wasn’t.”

“No, he would not,” Duncan said, still watching Serena. He was certain now that Neil was right, and Serena had tried to make trouble. He said grimly, “Who was the man with you, Serena? One of our own? Does he know he might have been shot, or did you even bother to tell him why he was meeting you?”

Serena glowered. “I’m sure I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“It might really have been Allan,” Neil said. “I’ve heard rumors ever since I entered Argyll again that he’s somewhere in the area. Does she know him?”

“I do not,” Serena said indignantly. “Nor do I care who he is or where he is. If my father knew how you have been treating me, Duncan, he would be furious.”

“What’s Duncan done now?” Balcardane demanded from the doorway.

Serena pouted. “Not only does he not want me himself, my lord, but now he is determined to poison these gentlemen’s minds against me. He has led poor Sir Neil into making the most absurd accusation against me, and out of no more than wicked speculation. It is too bad, too,” she added with a long-suffering sigh, “because Sir Neil is quite the handsomest young man I have met in many a long month.”

Lady Balcardane gasped, “Serena! You mustn’t say such things.”

“What did he accuse you of?” Balcardane demanded.

“Oh, pray, sir, don’t ask,” she begged, turning swiftly to Lady Balcardane to add, “I know I should not have said that, ma’am. Sometimes, my tongue just goes like a fiddlestick. Young ladies are supposed to be as meek as nun’s hens, and never say what they think, but I have always spoken my mind, I’m afraid.”

“That’s true enough,” Balcardane said, chuckling indulgently.

“Come and sit by me, Serena, and behave yourself,” Lady Balcardane said, glancing uncertainly at Duncan. “I am sure you have done nothing to harm anyone. Oh, good,” she added with relief when a lackey entered with a decanter and glasses.

Balcardane said, “You will take a glass of claret, Neil—you, too, Patrick—although, come to think of it, since we dine in an hour, perhaps you’d rather repair to your bedchambers for a change of clothing. We will certainly excuse you.”

“You will excuse me, as well, I trust,” Duncan said. “The legs of these breeches are still damp and beginning to steam, as you can see. Come along, you two,” he added to Neil and Patrick. “I’ll show you where they’ve put you, and you can have your wine later. You come, too, Mary. I still want a word with you.”

She got up at once and excused herself to Lady Balcardane.

“Oh, yes, my dear, you run along. I daresay you and Duncan have much to say to each other after being apart for so many days. We’ll dine in the parlor tonight, but everyone else will just wait here until you are ready to join us.” Hastily clasping her handkerchief to her face, she sneezed again, then coughed.

When she raised her head again, her brow wrinkled with obvious pain, Mary said anxiously, “You should go to bed, ma’am. I can fix you a tisane, if you like.”

“No, no, my dear. Thank you all the same, but not with visitors here.”

Mary hesitated while Duncan held the door for her patiently. Glancing at him, she gave it up. When he and Neil followed her from the room, they found Chuff waiting just outside in the hall. “What is it, my dear?” Mary asked him.

Looking important, Chuff said, “Hardwick said I was tae tell Himself that Captain Campbell should stay in his usual room, and Sir Neil in the chamber just doon frae yours, Miss Mary. Not Master Ian’s room, he said, but on the other side.”

Duncan opened his mouth to tell the lad that he should not call her Miss Mary, but he shut it again. He would have something to say to her about the fact that she clearly had not moved yet, but she would tell the boy how he should address her. There was no reason to correct him in front of Neil and Patrick.

Instead he said, “Thank you, Chuff. I wager you have chores to do.”

“Aye, master, I’m off.”

The boy took to his heels, and Patrick said, “I must see to my men before I change my clothes, if you will excuse me.”

As he left, Neil said with a chuckle to Mary, “Who is your latest conquest?”

“That was Chuff,” she said. “He helped me escape from Ewan.” She glanced up at Duncan. “Neil and I have agreed that he will not tease me to death about my stupidity in falling under Ewan’s spell, sir, and I will not scold him for risking his neck, riding here in such treacherous weather.”

“How was your journey?” Duncan asked him, wondering if Mary hoped her husband would not do any scolding, either.

Neil grinned. “Exhilarating. We had the devil’s own time in some places, I can tell you, and the snow caught us more than once, but I’d do it again in a trice. There is just something about fighting nature that makes a man feel alive.”

“Take care that you haven’t overestimated your capabilities,” Duncan said. “Nature wins such battles more times than she loses them.”

“Aye, but it was not so bad, and Mary’s letters had put my mother in such a dither that it was either come and find out whether the lass had taken leave of her senses or stay and listen to Mam and Diana worrying about what she had done.”

“By marrying me, you mean,” Duncan said evenly.

Neil chuckled again. “You needn’t look so black. Lord, I can see how you got your name, despite Ian’s always saying it was only because of the color of your hair and eyes. It was not just you,” he added hastily. “At least, not entirely.”

“It was my fault,” Mary said before Duncan could demand a clearer explanation. “I’d written two letters to them, you see. The first was to tell them I had decided to marry Ewan straightaway and not wait until spring as we had planned. He urged me to do it almost the minute they had gone.”

“Then you had a letter saying she was going to marry MacCrichton followed by one a few days later saying she was going to marry me,” Duncan said. With a touch of mockery, he added, “I wonder which one caused the most consternation.”

“I’ve brought you a letter from your cousin, Rory,” Neil said, grinning again. “Before you spill that sarcasm all over me, you might just read what he has to say to you. He does not believe that marrying you was any notion of Mary’s, I’m afraid.”