Page 87 of Taming the Heiress
"And he makes all my travel arrangements. We'll need a carriage brought round, too," Meg called over her shoulder as Dougal pulled her toward the door.
"We can take your carriage from here, but I have already hired a carriage from Glasgow to Oban, and all the rest. You'll have to travel with me—as my wife, I suppose," he said.
"I suppose that would be fine." She glanced up at him.
"Good. Here comes Mrs. Shaw," he said, as the young woman ran down the steps with a tapestry satchel in one hand, something cotton and lacy spilling from it. Dougal rushed over, grabbed it from her while thanking her, and ran back to the door where Meg waited.
The butler appeared from the shadows to open the door for them, and Guy rushed out of the library with a wallet in his hand, which he pressed into Meg's hands. "I think this will be sufficient for the trip, madam," he said. "If you need more—"
"I will take care of her expenses," Dougal said. "Thank you, and good day."
Meg embraced Mrs. Shaw, who then draped a black half cape on Meg's shoulders and helped her fasten a little black bonnet on her head and pull on gray kid gloves.
"Madam, you will need an escort," Mrs. Shaw said. "I'll gather my things."
"I have an escort. Mr. Stewart... is my husband."
"He's what?" Hamilton and Mrs. Shaw stared at her. "When?"
"We're married," Meg said, her cheeks flushed, "and we've been so for a very long time." She looked up at Dougal, who smiled. "It was a well-kept secret."
"Very well kept," Hamilton said, frowning.
"We'll renew our vows with a ceremony," Dougal added, "just as soon as we return from the Isles."
"Farewell," Meg said, and Dougal pulled her out the front door while her assistants and her butler gaped after them.
As they hastened through the yard toward the stables, Dougal took her arm. "I'm glad you're going with me after all."
"I want to be there when you confront Sir Frederick about the evil rumors he plans to spread."
"I'm referring to the hours of travel time we have ahead of us, when you will tell me all about the past seven years," he answered as they rushed along. "I want to know about Iain's birth. I want to hear everything—what he was like as an infant and as a smaller boy. What he said, what he did. I want to know what I've missed as our son was growing."
Meg slipped her arm around his waist, and he encircled her shoulders and hugged her to him.
"Now let's hurry," he said as the driver brought the carriage out of the coach house, "and find our son."
Chapter 22
"Out to the hard place, you say," Norrie said, "and you just coming in from Tobermory the now?" He worked the rudder as he spoke, with full sail unfurled on his fishing boat while a fast streaming wind moved them toward the Caran Reef.
"Aye, Norrie MacNeill, out to the hard place straightaway," Dougal answered. "I need to go to the sea rock immediately, but I want you to take Meg back to Caransay with you."
"I am going with you," Meg protested. She leaned toward him as she insisted, clutching her half cape at its buttoned collar. The journey to the Western Isles by train and carriage had taken so long that the day had grown dark, and she and Dougal had spent the night at the resort hotel in Tighnabruaich—as Mr. and Mrs. Stewart—and while the sweet joy of those hours with him lingered in her body and her heart, the urgency of traveling to the Isles as quickly as possible had not changed.
"You are not coming with me," Dougal said.
Norrie lifted a brow. "I am thinking that everyone is wanting to go out to the hard place today," he muttered.
Meg exchanged glances with Dougal. "Everyone?"
"Who else went out there?" Dougal asked sharply.
"A steamer came to Mull yesterday," he said, "with a group of men dressed all in black. They were wearing tall hats—like ravens, they looked, and ready to feast on your lighthouse, I am thinking."
"Quite possibly," Dougal said.
"They stayed the night in Tobermory and sailed out to the rock this morning. I saw them when I was there. The fellow who owns Guga was with them, the one who has come to see you, Margaret."
