Page 38 of Keeping Kate
“These will do, if it has been only Jack or myself,” he said. “Can you provide supper for us up here? I know it is past nine, but my—wife is famished.” Kate needed a decent meal, he was sure, and he could do with something himself.
“My father would tell you to take bread and cheese tonight, and wait for bacon to be thrown on the griddle at dawn. I cannot bring a tray up so late, he would frown at that, but we have mutton stew still hot in the kettle, and a loaf of brown bread, if you would care to come down for it.”
“Thank you.” Alec fished a few coins from his pocket.
“Will Jack MacDonald want a meal and bed too when he arrives?”
“I am sure of it, if he comes tonight.”
“I will keep watch for him. I am often up the night with the bairn. Sir, we also have new casks of ale and a good Spanish rum if you would like some. Captain, and Mistress Fraser,” she added as she turned to go.
“We will be down directly.” He steered Kate into the room and slipped Jean the coins, which she dropped into a pocket.
When he turned and shut the door, Kate stood staring at the bed. “I am not sleeping there.”
Two steps took him to the bed, where he sat on the mattress, which sagged beneath him. He patted the lumpy surface. “It is comfortable. I have slept here often.”
“So I gather.” She folded her arms.
“If you are thinking I will take advantage of you while we are alone, I promise you that you are safe in my company.” Though he felt a quick craving surge through him, he would not dare allow such an encounter. “You have my word.”
She frowned, brows snugged tight, gray eyes like captured moonlight. Then she lifted her chin. “You can hire another room.”
“I am too frugal. We can share this one. I will sleep on the floor.”
“I will sleep there. The bed linens are used.”
“As Jeanie said, I am the only one who has slept here. Perhaps Jack as well.”
“But who knows who else.” She wrinkled her nose.
“I hire the room out for a month at a time, since I travel back and forth to Fort William rather frequently.”
“You paid the lass and could have asked fresh linens and another blanket.”
“I gave her the coin to keep for herself, not for services, since every penny for the inn goes to her father. Nor will I ask her to do extra work for one night here. You have just come from a prison cell. This would seem a Pasha’s paradise after that.”
“I—have certain standards.”
“A genteel upbringing, then? And where was it you were you raised?”
“You will not trick me, sir. I was raised at home, with clean linens on my own bed.” She glowered at him. “May I have a bath? A private one?”
He stood. “You can be a fine spoiled wee thing when you get a notion in your head. So the mysterious Miss Hell comes from a privileged upbringing.”
“I just want a bath and a good bed, not an interrogation. I am tired.”
“I know. But you will have to make do. I will not ask Jean to heat water and climb the stairs to fill a hip-tub for you. She has enough to do, and a small babe to care for, and no husband to help. Her father runs her ragged as it is. He has been no less demanding of her since the babe’s birth.”
“Is she not wed? Whose babe is it—yours? Perhaps you could sleep with her and the child, and leave me here.”
“The babe is not mine. It is Jack’s.” He set his hat on the bed, ruffled a hand through his hair, rubbed his eyes. God, he thought, he was more weary than he had thought. He just wanted to take off his jacket and boots and fall to the bed to sleep. But the thought of resting in that bed with Kate gave him genuine pause. This could be a potentially dangerous night, he realized.
“So Jack MacDonald is the father? Will he not marry her?”
“I think he would marry her if she pressed the matter, but she has not. He is very fond of the lass, but not inclined to settle down. I do not condone it and have told him so, but I cannot force the lad. And Jeanie is too gentle a girl. She allows his behavior.”
“She loves him that much,” Kate said quietly. “Enough to give him his freedom.”
