Page 60 of Keeping Kate
“You should eat some supper, Mistress,” he said. “You look pale. The food is good. I had a bit of the mutton pie before I came up here.”
Smiling, she sat on the bed, the only seat in the room besides the wooden chair. Uncovering the dish, she broke off a bit of the steaming pie with her fingers and ate it quickly, dipped her fingers for a little more, then licked her fingertips and looked at him. He watched her with a strange expression, as if he had turned to a half-wit.
“It is very good,” she said, “but this is too much for me. Will you finish the rest?”
“I canna. I must go.” He stepped toward the door.
“Davey, I so enjoy your company.” She sighed. “I could use some fresh air. Will you walk outside with me? You would of course be my guard.”
“Captain Fraser would have my head if ye left this room, Mistress.”
“He won’t be angry by the time he returns, I am sure. And I want to apologize as soon as I see him. I would like to wait for him outside.”
“He might like that. Any man might,” Davey said, watching as Kate dabbed her lips with the linen napkin he had brought with the dish.
She stood. “You should go downstairs, Davey. I do not want to get you into trouble. I will remember you for a kind friend.”
He hesitated. “I could finish the pie if you are done.” He was eyeing the dish.
“Of course!” She handed him the dish, and he began to scoop his way eagerly through the remaining food. One glance through the window showed her that the hour was late now, darkening twilight. There was not much time before Alec would return.
“Oh!” She saw something moving in the distance and turned away from the window. “I just saw my husband!” If the rider far off was indeed Alec Fraser, she had to get away—and she felt a mounting desperation to be free and to warn her kinsmen of what she had learned.
“He did say he would try to return by end o’ day. I had better go.” Davey paused. “Though if ye want to greet him, I suppose we could walk out, if he is there on the road.”
“You are so kind.” Picking up her plaid shawl, she wrapped it around her shoulders, and went to the door, rising on tiptoe to kiss the tall lad’s cheek. “You are a true friend. And I do mean that.”
“Aye?” He opened the door as Kate hurried past him and down the stairs. “Mistress—wait!”
Slowinghis horse along the road, Alec stared in disbelief. Despite some distance, that was clearly Kate he saw crossing the road away from the inn. She went boldly and openly, not even waiting for cover of darkness. Stunned, he watched her head off in the same direction as the night before. The little vixen was not even bothering to vary her route. How had she wriggled free this time?
Shaking his head, he lifted the reins, urging the mare to a fast canter. He would have to go after Kate—and yet the temptation to just let her go flashed through his mind. But he had to find out what she knew about those Spanish weapons, and soon.
At least if he lost track of her this time, he would know where to find her—with the MacCarrans at Duncrieff, more than likely. A simple inquiry at the inn would lead him straight to the glen and castle where her kinsmen would no doubt welcome her.
He rode forward, though every fiber in his being wanted to stop and rest. In the past several hours, he had ridden far and wide looking for some trace of Jack, asking about recent arrests, learning what he could. In one tavern, he had heard of the arrest of two Highlanders who been whisked off to Edinburgh and the Castle. One was a MacCarran, they said, or perhaps it was both. That did not surprise him.
Finally, on his way back to MacLennan’s change-house, he had stopped to inquire at a manor house but a half-hour away and found Jack MacDonald himself. Relieved, he had only greeted the lad and asked what had kept him from returning to MacLennan’s.
The chaise, Jack said, had rolled into a ditch and he had taken a bad knock to the head. A groomsman from the fine household near the site of the mishap, discovering him, had brought him there for help and hospitality from the laird and lady of the house.
“I am sorry, Alec, but the coach needed repair, and I had such a thump to the head that I forgot to send word to you at the inn,” Jack had apologized. “Though I was thinking of it today.”
“Were you,” Alec had drawled, looking about at the well-appointed house, Jack’s excellent accommodations of bed and board, and the laird’s lovely wife; he suspected that Jack was in no particular hurry. “Well, and now I am here.”
Treated to high tea and the hearty supper that came with it, Alec enjoyed a discussion with the laird, who as it turned out was a distant cousin of the Lovat Frasers. The laird spoke glowingly of Wade’s roads and shook his head over the foolishness of the Jacobite cause, and Alec nodded in neutral agreement. Promising to send a box of Fraser’s Fancies in return for their care of his cousin, Alec had left, securing Jack’s promise to follow as soon as the coach was deemed ready.
He had ridden back to the inn, concerned that he had left Kate too long with only a makeshift guard. Now, riding toward the inn yard, he saw Davey MacLennan, looking baffled, turning this way and that. Alec waved a hand.
“Hello, Davey,” he said calmly. “Did she get away?”
“Och, Captain! Aye, I am sorry, sir, I know ye wanted Mistress Fraser to stay here and wait nicely for ye. But she came outside to greet you—and seems to have vanished.”
“I see. Did she say where she might go?” Impatient to be off, he waited for the story, seeing how miserable the lad felt over it.
“My grannies grew weary of watching her, and so I offered instead. Your wife is a fine lass and I enjoyed visiting with her. But she ran out, seeing you approach. She was that eager to give you a sweet apology.”
“Was she indeed,” Alec said. “Do not fret, lad. You did well keeping her here for most of the day. She does like to wander. I will find her. Go inside, and thank you.” He tossed Davey a guinea for his trouble, then chucked to the horse and cantered across the road toward the moor.
