Page 64 of Keeping Kate
“Freedom? Aye,” she admitted. She sat on the bed while Jack had the single chair.
“I understand it.” He leaned back, stretching out his legs and crossing his feet and buckled shoes. She noticed his brown frock coat and breeches, the neatly patterned waistcoat and white neck stock, the pale stockings and sturdy shoes.
“You do not wear Highland gear,” she said.
“If I wore full Highland kit,” he said, “I might be spied for a Jacobite. This is safer. But for all my finery, lass, the linens and the silver buttons,” he said, flicking at his waistcoat, “I am Highland through to my soul.”
She nodded, smiling her own understanding. Jack MacDonald was not only a Highland man, but that rare thing, a sincerely beautiful man, with expressive hazel green eyes under straight dark brows, glossy black hair, a ready grin with a slight dimple. He looked more a gentleman laird than a Jacobite, to be sure. But he spoke rapid Gaelic, and showed the respectful if casual Highland manners that set her at immediate ease. She felt she had a trustworthy friend in him.
“If you know I need to be free, then let me out of here,” she murmured.
Jack waved fingers in dismissal. “I would if I could. But we will do as Alec Fraser wants.”
“Why? I must see my kinsmen, and return to my home. I must go west, not east and south.”
“I know. MacCarran. Alec told me.Tcha,” he said. “You could have trusted me with that. I am a Keppoch MacDonald. Our kin have always been allies.”
“If you are Jacobite, then why are you with Captain Fraser, a redcoat officer?”
“I am loyal to the cause, aye. But I am loyal to that cause, too.” He pointed a thumb toward Alec.
“Truly, Jack, I should not stay here, for my own safety,” she insisted.
“You are in no danger from that one. Others, perhaps.” Jack leaned his chair back until it thumped the wall so that he could rest his head there. “But think on it, lass. Who will benefit if you go? You? Your kin? Not Alec, there. And who will benefit if you stay?”
“The government,” she said sourly.
“Alec would benefit if you stay—but I think you might benefit too.”
“How, if he takes me to the courts and the judge?”
“You never know. I would not be surprised if you found that Captain Fraser has another plan in mind.” He closed his eyes.
“What plan? Only to be rid of me.”
Jack was silent, as if going to sleep. After a minute, Kate stood, eyeing him warily. Then his hand lashed out to grip her forearm and coax her down to her seat.
“I would not be doing that just now,” Jack murmured, opening one eye.
“You closed your eyes. I thought you were signaling that you would look the other way if I left.”
“I closed my eyes to keep from looking at you, lass. You have ablinding sort of beauty. Something about you makes a man lose his wit. I might indeed let you go. So I thought I had best not look upon you, with all your fairy magic.”
She touched the crystal at her throat. “My what?”
“I know the stories about the MacCarrans. I do not know how much Alec knows, but I am not ignorant of it. You and I both know that Jack MacDonald would fall at your feet like all the rest of them, servant to your fairy gift. So I will not look at you too often.” He closed his eyes again. “But know that I am listening. I hear your pretty feet moving.”
She laughed. “You have your own charm, Mr. MacDonald.”
“So I do. And also, I am not such a fool as to flirt or fiddle with the lass who has Alec Fraser’s heart.”
Her own heart beat very fast then. “I doubt he would give his heart to any lass.”
“Not many. And he has given it to you,” Jack murmured. “I see it. He might even realize it himself one day.” He opened his eyes to fix her with a piercing glance. “And when he does, you had best take care with his heart. That is no man to trifle with.”
“I know,” she said quietly.
“I am no man to trifle with, either. Listen well. My kinsman will not have his heart broken by a lass who does not even know her own power.”
