Page 73 of Keeping Kate
Chapter 20
“Och, awake and alert he is! Greetings, sir.” Mary Murray smiled as she entered the room, holding a tray that she set down on the inlaid table beside his bed. A silver candlestick gave off a warm glow in the gloomy daylight. “You must be feeling better!”
Alec sat up against the pillows, smiling. “Very much. Thank you for helping me, Mrs. Murray. I know you have been here all the while I was taken badly. And I am also aware that I may not be welcome here, and so I appreciate it even more.”
“Highland hospitality is owed to whoever knocks at the door,” she said, “even red soldiers.”
“I am of a Highland company,” he said, hoping made a difference.
“I know, Captain Fraser. And oh, what a wicked wound you had!”
“Your son, I believe, was the one who dealt me a wicked blow. Quite an arm he has with a sword,” he drawled.
“And you gave my husband Neill a good strike as well. Hush now, no apologies from you. The man is fine. And all is forgiven among you. The lads only meant to defend our Kate.”
“Thank you, madam. That is a comfort to know.”
“Now sit up, do, Alexander Fraser, and have some soup.” She plumped the pillows behind him.
Alec smiled. She was an outspoken woman who brooked no refusal, and handsome as well, he could not help but notice—lush and round, with bright blue eyes and a kind smile, and dark curls threaded with gray under a lace-edged cap. She picked up a small china bowl filled with steaming dark liquid, its scent rich and familiar.
“Chocolate.” He nearly groaned.
“I hear your family makes the very cocoa powder we sometimes get here, and tea and coffee too! The Fraser’s Fancies tins are so pretty. I have always liked them.” She offered the bowl, which he accepted. “My Neill sometimes brings some to me from Perth or Callander when he goes to the cattle markets. I do love a wee sip o’ chocolate drink. Your cocoa wafers are such an indulgence.”
“I am glad you like it,” he said, sipping a little of the hot drink. “I shall send you some when I am in Edinburgh.”
“Och, do not go to such trouble for me.”
“No trouble at all.” He sipped again. The hot cocoa was good, hot and sweet, with a thick layer of foam on the top. “Excellent, Mistress. A deep froth, and quite hot. I like the extra sweetness you have added.” He had never liked chocolate drink much, but he found her concoction delicious.
“It is a bitter brew, so I crack extra pieces off the sugar loaf for it. And I use the best cream from the first milking and whip it up thoroughly. They have a fine silver chocolate pot here at Duncrieff, with a stirring stick—I forget what it is called.”
”Molinillo,” he answered, “or a moussoir.”
“Aye, that thing. At `home, I do not have a chocolate pot, so I pour it from one cup to another to give it a fine thick foam on top.”
“A reliable old method,” he agreed, sipping again. “So you use the cocoa wafers in the tin and add more sugar, and then cream? Interesting. The wafers are made from cocoa powder that is already mixed with sugar, then dried into the wafers and packed in tins. It only needs breaking off and mixing with a cup of boiling water.”
“Aye, but it is not sweet enough. City folk drink it very bitter, I am thinking.”
“This is excellent.” He would make sure to send Mary Murray not just a crate of cocoa tins, but a good silver chocolate pot and molinillo with it. “I shall tell my aunt and uncle in Edinburgh that the best chocolate drink I have ever had was in the Highlands.”
“Och, Captain Fraser,” she said, blushing. She took the bowl from him and handed him a large bowl filled with hot soup. “Sit higher, or you will spill it. This is a hearty beef broth with vegetables from my garden. They came dear this year, so you must eat it all and not waste it.”
Alec nodded obediently and dipped a spoon into the bowl. “I truly appreciate the kind hospitality, Mistress.”
“Not at all! You were weak as a bairn when they called me here to Duncrieff to help out. You will improve quickly, being such a braw man, but you must rest, and you must eat well to gain back your strength.”
He nodded. Glancing around at the damask hangings on the bed and the fine mahogany furnishings and Turkey carpets in the room, he lifted a brow.
“Duncrieff is a handsome place,” he said. “A fine home.”
“Aye so. Himself, the chief o’ Clan Carran, is not here at present, gone into the hills with Lord Kinnoull, who married Miss Kate’s sister, Sophie. You were on his lands when Neill and them caught you. He is a MacPherson, is Kinnoull.”
“I see. How did they find us, do you know?”
“Neill and the lads, our sons, were out in the hills, and heard you calling out for Kate. When they saw your uniform, they took you for a threat against her. All the lads have been searching for Kate ever since we had word of her arrest. It seems a miracle that she has come back to Duncrieff.”
