Page 15 of Keeping Kate
“Exactly.” Alec looked around as voices rumbled out in the corridor. A rapping sounded on the door, and then it opened.
A sentry peered inside. “Sir, Colonel Grant.”
“Tell him to wait,” Wade said curtly. The sentry shut the door, but it was pushed open again as Grant stepped inside.
“General, I must speak with you,” the colonel said. “Fraser! Blast it, man, I shall have your head for what you have done!”
“Get out, Colonel,” Wade snapped. Blowing out an exasperated breath, Grant retreated and the sentry closed the door. Wade turned to Alec. “What is this about?”
“I was about to explain,” Alec said. He had been looking for the moment. “Colonel Grant may have discovered that I ordered an end to the girl’s punishment. She fainted and could have died. I told the guard to unlock the chains and to find someone to tend to her health.”
“That was out of line. But humane.” Wade frowned, picking up a folded letter. “We should not keep her here, I think. The place lacks accommodations for female prisoners, and there is a bad lot in that jail just now. That Highland rascal Cameron, for one. But he will be transferred soon. Read this.”
Alec accepted the creased page, read it, glanced up. “The Lord Advocate of Edinburgh wants her brought to him?”
Wade nodded. “I sent a courier to Lord Hume the day she came here, knowing she would need to be interrogated, likely charged and tried at the Court of Justiciary. Hume sent a messenger with this reply. She is to appear before him in the first week of November. Three weeks from now. We could keep her here until then—or send her to his custody now and have done with it. I could send her south to Edinburgh with that Cameron fellow. But it is not worthy of any of us, especially now, to send a Scotswoman in an open cart with a male prisoner and male guards.”
Suddenly Aleck saw an opening. His heart quickened. “Sir, the Lord Advocate is my kinsman. My family lives in Edinburgh as well. I am familiar with the courts. Allow me to escort her there and turn her over to custody.”
“Good. Do that,” Wade said brusquely. “Glad for an end to this. Let the garrison commander know what you will need.”
“Thank you, sir.” Alec glanced around as knocking resumed at the door.
“Damn that pestering little man,” Wade said. “Fraser, when you take her south, find out who the devil this girl is and what she knows. The Justiciary Court will need that information, and so do we. Get all you can from her, else we all look like buffoons.”
“Aye, sir.”
“I will write out the order. Take her tomorrow. Give this to the garrison commander. You are to have a closed vehicle.” Wade took up a pen, dipped it, began to write. “Also, you need to find out what she knows about the Spanish weapons that went missing after the rebellion of the ‘Nineteen, up at Eilean Donan Castle, when the Jacobites had help from a shipload of Spaniards. She may have heard something.”
“Those weapons have never been found,” Alec pointed out. “Presumably, the Spaniards took them over the sea when most of them fled after the insurgence failed.”
“So we thought, but rumors persist. Recently muskets of Spanish make turned up. Two Highlanders were killed in a skirmish in the Great Glen not long ago. Their pistols were Spanish make, the sort said to have been brought to Scotland for that uprising.”
“It is possible to acquire Spanish-made pistols without a secret shipment.”
“Not marked with the initials of the ship that brought them, as these were. This fellow Cameron was caught with the rascals who had those pistols. He had two himself.”
“I am sure you have asked him about those.”
“We tried. Stubborn Highland breeding. Like the girl, he will not say a word. He was nearly beaten to death, but I put a stop to it. We will send him to Edinburgh, and now we will send the girl too. Let the courts deal with these Jacobites. They both know something, I suspect.”
“If she is this Katie Hell,” Alec said, wanting to appear skeptical as yet. “Though if those weapons exist and come into Jacobite hands, the rebels could arm themselves.”
“Just so. Over a thousand Spanish weapons are hidden away, so rumor says. But where in blazes are they? That is the question. We have worked for years to confiscate Highland weapons and to build military roads to allow us to move troops and supplies more efficiently. And the Highlanders trick and unsettle us at every turn. Our troops are nowhere safe if Highland men can shoot at them from the hills, all unseen.”
Alec nodded. “I will take the girl to the Lord Advocate and do what I can to find out the truth.”
“Make her trust you. She is a charming chit, but most pretty young women are, eh?” Wade glanced up with a gleam in his eye. “Do what you want with her, but get her to the Lord Advocate soon. Then she is his problem, not ours.” He handed the hastily scribbled order to Alec.
Alec saluted and turned, just as the door burst open and Grant rushed inside.
“Colonel, what is this!” Wade thundered.
“General, I must report Captain Fraser as insubordinate! He changed my orders regarding the female prisoner.“
“He has the right,” Wade said calmly. “I have given him custody of the girl. He will escort her to Edinburgh for trial. We can wash our hands of her.”
“But she is in my keeping!”
