Page 54 of Highland Crown
Cinaed didn’t want to know what Searc was getting in return for such intervention. He doubted he was doing it for any noble reason.
“You don’t need me or Isabella for this dinner.”
Searc’s dark visage became as fierce as Cinaed had ever seen it. The look had been fairly intimidating when he was a boy, but it had no effect on him now.
Cinaed returned the look. “I’m still waiting to hearabout this money you stole from me, but I’m not about to become your dancing bear to get it back. You’ll give me what’s mine.”
Searc huffed and stormed back to his desk again. Yanking the folded paper from the ledger, he stalked back and tossed it to him. “That ledger accounts for every ha’penny, but you need to look at this first.”
Cinaed opened the sheet of paper and stared at it for a moment. It was a flyer, advertising the sale of a ship, a cargo-carrying schooner of 280 tons. Apply to Captain P. Kenedy, Citadel Quay, New Harbour.
“Two hundred eighty tons at £25 per ton. The seller wants £6800. I can get him down to £4000.”
Cinaed waited, assuming the negotiated price was what he could afford.
“Captain Kenedy will be dining here tonight with his wife.”
“I don’t know him.”
“Well, I do,” Searc scoffed. “The man’s a bloody bore, but he owns that ship and a dozen others. Wants to ‘slow down,’ he says. After me, Kenedy is the richest man in Inverness, and I’ve done him a few favors over the years.”
Cinaed didn’t care to know any more details about how the man madehisfortune.
Searc snapped the paper out of his hand. “You and your wife will come down to dinner.”
He didn’t know how he was going to convince Isabella to show her face at a dinner hosting the leadership of the local weavers. She’d probably suggest inviting Hudson and his men and let them fight it out for her head right here.
So far as he could tell, the people she knew were inEdinburgh. Inverness was a long way from there. The chance of anyone recognizing her was almost naught. She was also being presented as his wife, an added layer of concealment. Still, the decision was hers to make.
“While we’re making deals and calling in favors,” Cinaed stated, knowing he needed to get everything on the table before Searc decided they were somehow even after his deviousness. “I’ll be needing the assistance of your men next week for a private matter of my own.”
Searc stuffed the flyer back into the ledger. “Getting shot twice in one day wasn’t enough for you?”
“I tried to do it alone last time. This time I’ll have your help.”
“What needs doing?”
Cinaed was going after John Gordon, but there was no reason Searc had to know. “Perhaps, if you’re hesitant, we should take a look at that ledger you’ve been waving about like Moses and his tablets. I have a notion there’s not a deuced word or number written in that book.”
As he pushed to his feet, Searc waved him off. “When do you need them?”
“One day next week. I’ll let you know exactly which day.”
CHAPTER16
So wondrous wild, the whole might seem
the scenery of a fairy dream.
—Sir Walter Scott, “Lady of the Lake,” Canto I, stanza 12
The dress of yellow-gold brocade, with its short, puffed sleeves and its patterned satin shawl, was more elegant than any gown she would have thought to order or wear in Edinburgh.
Isabella stood in front of the mirror as the early evening sunlight played over the subtle shades and contours of the material. She pulled up the top of the bosom gently, without success. It was far more revealing than she would have wanted, but it was truly a beautiful dress.
Since their arrival, no one had thought for a moment that Jean might be a servant. So, to get ready for this evening’s dinner, a seamstress was brought in by the housekeeper to help fit and dress her. As it turned out, the garment fit her almost perfectly, and the few required tucks were dispensed with in no time.
Isabella didn’t ask where the dress came from or to whom it belonged. She definitely had no interest infinding out more about Searc’s business dealings than she needed to.
