Page 35 of Tangled in a Highland Conspiracy
“Careful!” Ailsa called. “Hold onto the rail, Katie. These stairs are old and dangerous. I slipped on them once when I was your age.”
“What happened to you?” Katie asked curiously.
“I nearly broke my leg,” Ailsa replied, shuddering at the memory. “Mammy said I was very lucky. All I got was this scar on my leg. See?” She pulled her skirt up so that Katrina could see the white jagged mark on the skin of her knee.
Katrina’s mouth described a perfect ‘o’ as she looked at the mark on Ailsa’s perfect skin. “That must have been sore,” she said, wincing.
“It was,” Ailsa replied, nodding. She dropped her skirt again and opened her mouth to say something when she looked up and her gaze locked on a pair of deep, dark brown eyes under fierce red brows.
Kenneth Anderson was watching her from the landing one floor down, and judging by the expression on his face he had seen her exposed flesh and enjoyed the sight very much.
Ailsa felt her face going crimson, both with rage and embarrassment. Of all the people to whom she could have exposed her legs, Kenneth Anderson was the very last one she would have chosen. She straightened her skirt and smoothed it down, then took Katrina’s hand and smiled at her. “I can taste that clootie dumpling already.”
When they reached the landing where Kenneth was standing, Ailsa turned to Katrina and said, “I forgot, Katie. I have to fetch something in my bedroom. Can you go to the kitchen and ask the cook to heat the clootie dumpling up for me, please? I will only be a moment.”
Katrina nodded, then dashed off towards the kitchen, and Ailsa turned to meet the dark eyes of the man who repulsed and scared her in equal measure.
15
For a moment, Ailsa looked after her sister to make sure that she was out of sight before she turned to the guard. He regarded her with unwavering intensity as he moved slowly towards her.
Finally, when he was only a few yards away from her, he stopped. His gaze had never shifted from her since the moment Ailsa had first seen him, and she was thoroughly unnerved while trying not to show it. Her insides were quivering. If he tried to assault her here in this isolated place she would be able to do nothing about it. She thought of what Molly had said about Kenneth having a soft spot for her and realised that he had always been near her, hovering about in her general vicinity as though he was her personal bodyguard.
He had come to the castle when she was about sixteen, she remembered, and since then she had noticed him in the vague kind of way she knew all the other guards. Some of them were friends in a fatherly or brotherly way, but not one of them had ever expressed any sort of romantic interest in her. Accordingly, she had found Molly’s observation a little hard to believe. However, as she looked at him, she realised that the look in his dark eyes was very definitely not the kind of look a man would bestow on his sister or daughter.
Then she considered that this might be the ideal time to find the answers she had been seeking about John’s murder. She could use the best tool she had; her charm, since Kenneth seemed very susceptible to it. In fact, he was exactly the kind of man she had been describing to Katrina; he could not bear to be seen at anything less than his best by an attractive woman.
Ailsa smiled at him and he returned the smile, an expression which reminded her of the puppy she had owned during her childhood. She kept her smile pinned to her face as long as she could, then dropped her gaze to the floor, assuming an expression of coy modesty.
“Can you please stop staring at me like that?” she asked softly. “You are making me nervous.”
Kenneth cleared his throat self-consciously. “I am sorry, Mistress,” he said, with an attempt at tenderness in his voice. “Ever since I came here I have thought ye were the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, and as ye grow older ye get bonnier an’ bonnier. I am sorry if I embarrassed ye.”
Ailsa nodded slowly and lifted her face to look at Kenneth again, but this time it was he who lowered his head and seemed to be studying the flagstones intently.
“Thank you for the compliments,” she said in a soft, beguiling voice. Kenneth was behaving like a little boy who had just been reprimanded in front of his favourite little girlfriend. Ailsa was laughing inwardly. Men were such simple creatures.
She decided to dance around the subject she wanted to ask him about for a while since she wanted Kenneth to relax and let her lull him into a false sense of security.
Consequently, she began to make small talk about the happenings in the village of Mulrigg and found out that the owner of the tavern there had been hauled before the justices for the heinous crime of watering down his beer.
“That is truly wicked,” she exclaimed, pretending to be shocked.
One of the milkmaids at the Masterton’s farm had fallen and broken her leg, and there was a new healer in the village.
“Interesting,” Ailsa mused. “Perhaps my mother would like to meet her.”
Kenneth also gave her the scandal from inside the castle. The housekeeper had found one of the manservants and one of the maidservants kissing in a store cupboard. “They are married, of course,” Kenneth informed her. “Just no’ tae each other!”
Ailsa drew in a shocked breath and began to laugh heartily. She gave Kenneth a playful push on the shoulder and he returned the gesture. Gradually, their laughter died down, and Ailsa decided that it was time to strike.
“I have to be going for my clootie dumpling,” she informed him, “or my wee sister will never forgive me, but first I would like to ask you something.”
Kenneth smiled. “Ask me anything ye like, Mistress,” he said, almost dreamily. He was thoroughly under her spell. “I will answer ye truthfully.”
Ailsa’s stomach was full of butterflies as she said calmly, “Why did you lie about Ramsay killing John? I know he did no such thing.”
Kenneth was standing stock still and seemed unable to answer her for a moment. His face was a mixture of astonishment and horror.
