Page 29 of Laird of Secrets
Dougal was distracted as he watched her cross the hill toward Kinloch House and the school. “I will go greet her. Open the door of the school, if you will.”
“She is a bonny lass,” Fergus mused again as she came closer. “Perhaps you are right. We might let her enjoy our pretty glen for a bit before we send her away.”
“Just do not scare her,” Dougal muttered.
* * *
“I am sure you will enjoy being in Glen Kinloch,” Reverend MacIan was saying as he walked beside Fiona. “We are so delighted that you came up from Edinburgh.”
“Thank you again,” she said. “Though I suspect not everyone is glad I am here.” She glanced across the hill, seeing the glen’s laird standing on the ridge, arms folded, watching the stream of people heading for the school.
“Kinloch? He has pressing matters on his mind, I imagine.”
“So I gather. Mr. MacIan, let me thank you and your grandmother again for such a nice welcome.” She lifted her face to the sunshine and cool breeze. “It is a lovely morning, and I am looking forward to working with the students. So the school is near the castle. I did not realize. Is that Kinloch House?”
“Aye. It is an old tower house. A small castle. The schoolhouse is just there.” He pointed toward a whitewashed building with a thatched roof a little distance past the stone tower. Both were nestled in the lee of a broad hillside, where the slope flattened out, protected at the back by a high sweep of forested hillside. Beyond the sandstone tower, the schoolyard was filling with people.
Now the laird of Kinloch was striding toward the yard. Earlier, she had seen him standing apart with an older man. Even from a distance, she had sensed MacGregor’s gaze so keenly that she had stopped, transfixed, distracted. Seeing him now, she clutched the packet of papers and books close as if to remind herself why she was here and what she should be doing, rather than let this man’s mere presence make her heart tumble so.
“There’s Kinloch, and one of his uncles,” MacIan said.
“Another one?”
“They all live in the tower house, have done since the laird was a boy and inherited the estate after his father’s passing. Your class is gathering. Come and meet your students. In Glen Kinloch, the school session begins when a teacher comes to the glen, and ends the day the teacher leaves.” He smiled.
That would be tomorrow if Kinloch had his way, Fiona thought. “I understand most Highland schools are only in session six months out of the year.”
“The students must take time off seasonally to help their families with planting and harvesting, and to help take the cattle into the hills in summer to graze. We cannot afford the yearly fee to retain a dominie permanently, so we must rely on the Highland societies to send teachers for a few months at a time.”
“The last lady who came from the Edinburgh charity stayed only a few weeks, I understand.”
“She changed her mind. The glen was, ah, too remote for her taste.”
“Too much smuggling going on?” She glanced at him.
He shrugged. “I heard she had a terror of ghosts and fairies.”
“I am intrigued by such things myself, and would not run from them.”
“Then this is the place for you. We are just happy to have a teacher again. For a long while, the laird’s sister was our dominie.”
She blinked in surprise. “His sister?”
“She died of a sudden fever a few years ago. A dreadful thing, that was. The laird has the guardianship of his niece, and so he takes more interest in the school now that she is of learning age.”
“His niece will be in my class?”
“Aye. Kinloch, good morning!” he called.
Fiona turned to see Dougal MacGregor coming toward them, his stride setting his kilt to swinging, and his dark hair wafting in the breeze. He scowled as he neared them, and turned it on her. She returned a smile.
“Miss MacCarran. Reverend,” he said. “I see you are ready to begin this morning.”
“Despite attempts to the contrary.” She smiled even more brightly. His frown deepened.
“Luck to you, then,” he said. “You have several scholars for your classroom.”
“So I see.” She turned to walk between the two men. “It is a pretty day. I had a nice walk across the glen with Mr. MacIan, who was kind enough to escort me.”
