Page 35 of Laird of Secrets
Dougal laughed. “I doubt she would join us at midnight with a pistol and a pony.”
“He means a woman of the glen would not speak of the free trading,” Fergus said. “Not even to a brother who was a gauger.”
“But she is not a woman of the—oh, no,” Dougal said, raising a hand as he saw his uncles’ eyes brightening. “You want me to seduce the woman? I will not.”
“Seduce and then marry the lass,” Fergus said. “It would work.”
Ranald chuckled. “It is not a bad idea.”
“Marriage would be good for the lad, hey,” Fergus told his brothers.
“Would help you recover from the black lovesickness.” Ranald grinned.
“Enough, you auld rascals,” Dougal growled.
“The dominie has come to the glen at the wrong time,” Ranald said. “She is a stubborn one, and will not leave easily. Nor will you tolerate scaring her off. But if she was bound to the glen and its laird by loyalty, she would not talk.”
“A wife would be good for you,” Fergus said. “Hamish could use one too.”
“I had one. We did not suit,” Hamish growled.
“Lucy is growing fast, Kinloch,” Fergus said. “She needs a mother.”
“She has female relatives. And I do not need a wife just now. We are talking about managing this lady over two weeks, not a lifetime. All that need concern us is moving that cargo through the glen without being caught.”
Hamish clapped Dougal on the shoulder. “Gain the teacher’s loyalty and swear her to secrecy. Do it however you want.” The others chuckled. Dougal folded his arms, shook his head.
“She will fall for your charm,” Ranald said. “Like she did the other night.”
“Did she?” Dougal gave his uncle a sour look, and all three chortled. He did not know how the lady regarded him—all he knew was that he thought about her far too often.
“They do say in the glen that no lass can resist the bonny Laird of Kinloch, and that when that lad decides to take a wife, every girl in the glen will knock on his door to offer,” Ranald said. “Plenty of lasses pine for you.”
“I doubt it, and there is no point. I am not looking for a wife just now.”
Hamish frowned. “You should marry, and soon.”
“I would be a fool, with all the secrets in this glen, to marry yet.” Dougal shook his head. “As for the lassies in the glen, let them find husbands and happiness without me. I am content on my own, doing as I please.”
“If we wait, the Lowland teacher will soon be gone south again, and we need not worry about what she sees and knows,” Fergus conceded.
“We cannot wait until summer,” Hamish snapped. “We need to move the whisky cargo soon. We must make a profit quickly, and the buyers for our best stuff are ready. The land must be bought back, or we will all be forced to leave this glen. Besides, the schoolhouse and tower house, the bridges too, all need repairs.”
“We can tell the teacher that the schoolhouse is haunted by the ghost of a scholar who did not succeed. She might just pack for home.” Ranald nodded. “And we can fix the roof later.”
Dougal frowned. “Wait. The roof leaks, the walls are crumbling....”
“If we shut up the schoolhouse, the problem is solved,” Fergus said.
“Perhaps,” Dougal replied warily.
Hamish shrugged. “And we find another teacher for the glen later.”
Dougal nodded somewhat reluctantly, glancing toward the school, feeling the taint of guilt and regret. Behind those windows and that old door with its red, peeling paint, the teacher was doing her best to help the glen children. Those children included his own niece. He was a beast indeed, as Fiona MacCarran had called him once, to stand here scheming for her departure. But he had to consider his glen. He had no choice, though he did not like it at all.
“The children need the glen school and the teacher is willing to work with them,” he said. He did not add what else came to mind: he needed the teacher himself, with a strange, urgent impulse, as if his heart knew something he did not.
Despite the risk and the complications, he wanted her to stay. Dare he imagine that she would stay a lifetime? Some deeper instinct whispered that he would be a better, stronger, finer man if she did. But he would not allow himself that dream.
