Passion and Plaid - Her Highland Hero (Scottish Historical Romance) (10 page)

“Don’t you think it’s a bit late to be having a
dinner party? Probably two hours past midnight by now,” Rodrigo said. “The mayor,
who I assume that was, doesn’t seem the sort to have long, drawn out
conversations. Or any conversations at all, actually.”

“Aye,” Gavin said. “That’s along the lines of what
I was thinking.” He stole another glance at Kenna, who just happened to be
looking out the window at that very moment.

The instant his eyes fell upon hers, he felt his
chest flutter, and his breath quicken.

“Ach, the love birds seem to have found one
another.” John spoke with feigned irritation, but the grin he held gave him
away.

Gavin didn’t hear him. Nothing else in the world
existed right then except himself and Kenna. His sweet, sweet, beautiful Kenna.
Her hair was pulled back, as tame as he’d ever seen it, and she had a touch of
something on her lips that made them even more red and wonderful. Her hips, her
curves, and her face, so delicate and dream-like, it all pushed Gavin into a
sort of lover’s trance. Finally when she smiled for only a half-second, so as
to make sure no one saw, his heart melted for her.

He wanted to put his hand to the window and call
out her name, but he knew he must not. Gavin longed to burst through the
window, grab Kenna, and then steal one of the Company men’s carriages and ride
for Fort Mary. Just he and Kenna and their friends, going north, that’s all he
wanted.

Their friends would be in a different carriage.

The thought made him grin, and when he grinned,
showing Kenna the dimple on his left cheek, she couldn’t help smile again. He
looked at her sweetly pursed lips and imagined kissing them, imagined her hands
on his back and his on hers, pulling his love close and holding her against his
chest as their breath went together, the gentle rise and fall of their chests
in time with one another.

“I think we’ve lost him, Rod,” John said, snapping
Gavin out of his stupor and making Rodrigo chuckle out loud. “Oh there he is.
Is she alright, or do we need to start planning a daring escape?”

Gavin mouthed to Kenna asking if everything was
right. She nodded so slightly that her gesture could easily have been a glance
at the table.

“She says she’s fine,” he said turning back to the
men. “Something still bothers me, though I can’t say what it is.”

“If she says everything is okay, you should trust
her. She’s proven herself more than capable of a great deal, yes?” Rodrigo
asked.

“No, you’re right, of course.”

He poked his head back up, took one last look
around the room and watched a toast. Strangely, the mayor did not participate,
though he was smiling a grim, awful kind of smile. Kenna took the smallest sip
of wine that ever had been taken before looking back to Gavin. He mouthed ‘inn’
and she again gave him a slight nod. Ducking down again, he crept along the
wall, summoning his friends to follow. From his sporran he retrieved one of his
many short knives, and stood up with his back against the wall.

“Ach, well, she doesn’t seem to be in any trouble.
I think maybe she really is just here for a dinner party.”

“Dinna the innkeeper say she’d gotten a formal
invitation earlier in the day?” John asked.

“Aye, that he did. But still, I canna figure on
why
she did. Why would the mayor invite Kenna to a dinner party? She’s not of this
place, and unless something has happened in my absence, he has no reason to
believe she’s anything other than a traveler. And if he’s having some kind of
business meeting with the India Company, then having her here makes even less
sense.”

John shrugged. Rodrigo cocked an eyebrow. “Hard to
say, for a certainty,” the big Spaniard said. “But if she seems safe, and she
said she wasn’t in any danger, then why worry about it? She certainly will be
back by tomorrow morning. I’m sure she’ll be able to clarify whatever was
happening then.”

“It makes me nervous, that’s no’ a secret, but
you’re right. After you, gentlemen?” Gavin pushed off the wall and made to
leave.

“Aye, I’m famished,” John said. “Do you think
there’s any of those sausages left?”

Rodrigo shook his head. “One of you is love sick and
the other one a glutton. How is it I fell in with you lot?”

Gavin grinned and as they reached the edge of Mayor
Willard’s estate and hopped the wall, broke into laughter. “Ach, that’s good!
The pirate captain is calling me lovesick!”

“Now look,” Rodrigo said, “I was no captain. I
only worked the sails.”

The joking and the chatter on the way back to the
inn was enough to loosen Gavin’s spirit so that he was able to sleep that
night, but only just. As he lay down and closed his eyes, the phantom scent of
Kenna’s hair floated through him. When he was just on the verge of sleep, the
sounds in the inn caught his attention and kept him from drifting off for just
a moment longer.

John was snoring in the next room, and Lynne was
whisper-yelling at him to stop.

Rodrigo and Elena were silent, though Gavin was
sure they were as happy as they could be in each other’s arms and he again thought
of Kenna being with him.

And then from downstairs, just as he was being
enveloped by sleep, he heard Olga.

“Are you sure there’s no more sausages? No more
beer? What sort of an inn is this?” She said with a little bit of a slur. “How
can we drink more if you won’t get another barrel?”

The three lodgers who remained in the inn’s common
area grumbled their assent.

“One with an innkeep whose tired and is wantin’ to
sleep a’least a wink afore the sun comes up, you wicked woman! There’s plenty
more barrels, but if I were to appease you I think I’d have none left for
anyone to drink the rest of the week.” Duggan let out a loud, leathery laugh
that came from deep inside his belly. “I like you, woman. Can  I keep ya?”

“You can do whatever you like with me as long as
your arms stay that big. Oh, listen to these manners.”

Gavin wasn’t quite certain, but he thought that
right as he fell asleep, he heard the sound of two chairs scraping across the
wooden floor of the Mornay’s Cleft Inn. He hoped he did anyway. Olga deserved
someone who could match her.

And Gavin’s arms needed a break.
Best someone
else get the rubbing for a time
.

M
ornay’s Cleft

August 18, Morning

––––––––

K
enna remained at the mayor’s party until two hours
before sunup, and she was almost certain that the discussion, which had gotten
quite heated after Gavin disappeared from the window the final time, had
dragged on for hours after she left.  At the time she excused herself, she’d tried
in vain to get the mayor to allow Rollo to take her back to the inn, but he
refused, insisting that she stay. Instead, he summoned the fellow to show her
to her quarters at his estate, much to Kenna’s chagrin.

He’d escorted her to a rather lavish bedchamber on
the second story of the house, and presented her with a closet full of
nightclothes, then bid her good night and remarked that no matter what time she
should arise, she would almost certainly be up before the mayor. By the time
Rollo led her through the corridors to her quarters though, she was so
exhausted that she barely listened to anything he said.

Stretching her arms above her head, Kenna
instinctively touched her thistle pendant and looked over at her evening gown
which was still rumpled in the chair near the massive east-facing window where
she’d left it. She’d had no dreams, or if she had, they had vanished from her
memory by the time she rose.

The morning was clear, with no sign of the burning
wood – neither the smoke, nor the smell – to which Kenna had become so
accustomed. Otherwise, everything was as she remembered. Her clothes on the
chair, the small glass of water she’d poured from the pitcher that Rollo
brought with him to her room. It was all the same.

She thought back to her brief imprisonment in the
house of Laird Macdonald before Olga helped her escape and remembered with
horror how every time she slept, she’d wake and something would have been moved
or tampered with or taken in the night. She told herself this was a different
place, a different circumstance. She’d never be back there again, and neither
would anyone else.

Gavin and John and everyone else had made sure of
that.

She’d made sure of that.

Gavin
, she thought, remembering the way
he’d looked at her through the window the previous night.
How did you find
me? Did Duggan tell you? He must’ve, there’s no other way. I wonder if he
brought the others back with him? That would be too much to ask
.

She plucked her notebook from underneath her dress
and sat down to write. A moment later, after she’d recorded everything she
could remember from the night before that had anything to do with either the
Company, or Mayor Willard’s business, Kenna stuck her stubby pencil in her
mouth.

“But if he’s
selling
lumber to the East
India Company for the building of ships, then why would he be
burning
things? Why burn the woods instead of cutting them down?”

She scribbled some circles in her book and labeled
them “EIC” and “WILLARD” and then another one for the townspeople and then
another one for the King, though she couldn’t figure out any reason George
would be involved.

I dinna even know what could be involved in his
scheme or even what the scheme is! What if there isn’t one? What if he’s just
an angry man who blames the town for what happened to his daughter and so he’s
taking it out on them and he’s burning the wood that wouldn’t be of any use to
the Company, but keeping the rest? That would be the most obvious answer.

Somehow though, it just didn’t quite satisfy.

Too many coincidences – the taxes and the land
grab at the same time? The deal with the Company right when he’s planning to
build a plantation on the backs of the townspeople? There’s just too much that
fits together for it not to fit.

Scratching her chin with the end of her pencil,
she fetched the tiny knife she kept in her sash and used it to hone the point.
Before long her stomach set to rumbling, and she remembered how very little
she’d eaten at the party. It didn’t take long before Kenna stood up, stretched
again, and wandered over to the closet. Rollo told her it was full of clothes,
some of which should fit, and all of which she should feel free to use.

She selected a remarkably comfortable looking gown
with a short shrift. It had a soft green hue to it, almost exactly like her
dress from the night before. As soon as she was dressed and out of her chamber,
she saw Rollo coming toward her.

“Oh Miss Kenna, so good to see you. You’re hungry,
I expect? I couldn’t have eaten last night either, with all that shouting and
hooting that those men were doing.”

Instantly, she liked him even more than she had
before. As he spoke, she felt warmth from him that was completely unlike
everything else in the estate. She gave him a sweet smile and thanked him for
all he’d done, which the short man met with a polite nod and a slight bow.

“I am, after all, a servant,” he said in his
fascinating accent. “This way please, you can wait in the drawing room while I
make your breakfast. Eggs and porridge to your liking?”

“Aye,” she said, “but would it be alright if I
went with you? I dinna like being alone in places like this. It...takes me back
to a place I’d rather not go.”

“Oh, of course. I hadn’t thought of that. Right
this way.” He swept his arm and led her to a small kitchen off the foyer. “You’re
sure you’d rather not wait?”

“Yes, quite. I enjoy cooking as well, so you may
put me to work if you like.”

“I just may. And in truth, I enjoy company too. It
gets lonely when you’re the only one working for most of the day and your only
companion is, well, a somnolent conversationalist at best.”

The two of them shared a quiet laugh, and then
prepared a light breakfast, which they ate, also together. After quite a long
and pleasant exchange, Kenna asked Rollo to tell her about his past and how
he’d come here from Algeria. A faint smile crossed his lips, the sort one has
when thinking about a pleasant memory.

“It’s...a long story,” he said. “Probably one best
saved for another time. Unfortunately, as much as I’ve enjoyed our chat, I have
to get to work on some other of the house business. I hope you’ll excuse me?”

“Oh,” she answered, “of course I’ll excuse you.
Although I canna think of anything to do while I’m here. And if I’m honest, I’d
rather like to leave.”

Rollo pursed his lips, obviously wanting to say
one thing but having to say another. “I...understand. Mayor Willard has asked
me to keep you here until he awakes. There’s something he wants to discuss with
you, but what that is exactly, I’m not privy to knowing. I hate to ask, but
would it be possible for you to wait in your quarters until such a time as I
come get you? Attached to the bedroom you stayed in, you’ll find a study with a
number of books – many current ones. History, metaphysics, and even something
new from Voltaire, if that sort of business is to your liking.”

Kenna knew there was no reason to argue, and
further, knew that what was happening wasn’t Rollo’s fault, so she just tacitly
agreed.

“Again, I’m very sorry to inconvenience you like
this.”

“It’sna a worry. I’ve nothing to do at the inn
either.”
Except see the man who I love more than anything in the entire
world
. “I’ll see you shortly?”

“Yes, you will. And again, thank you.”

The little man nodded and went about his business,
waddling through the foyer and through a door that he closed behind him. Kenna
went up the stairs and looked down the hall to the right, toward the door of
her chamber.

She looked about and saw no one. Rollo had
mentioned he worked alone most of the day, so that wasn’t a surprise.

After another quick glance, she pulled out her
notebook, untied it, and began to sketch a rough map of the house.

Since I already know what that end looks like,
she
thought with an impish grin,
I do believe I’ll go the other way.

––––––––

“N
ow Gavin, isn’t any reason to think anything
terrible has happened to Kenna just yet. And damned if these aren’t the best
sausages I’ve ever had,” Lynne said around a mouthful of apple-stuffed sausage.
“Is there apple in this?”

“Aye,” Duggan said. “Apple, and herbs. Secret
recipe, that. D’ya like it?”

“Delicious. Dinna know if ever I’ve had better.”

“
Mein Gott
,” Olga said as she wandered down
the stairs a half hour after everyone else had come down. “I can’t look at a
sausage or a mug of beer.”

“How about just a roll, help settle the stomach?”
Duggan laughed as he broke off a hunk of bread and buttered it before handing
it to the woman who took it and looked at him with glazed-over, but obviously
starry eyes.

“I just canna help it,” Gavin said. “I canna shake
the feeling that when we left Kenna last night, something bad was about to
happen.”

“Look lad, I know it willna be much help in easin’
your troubled mind, but for all his recent cruelty, Willard’s never just
outright kidnapped anyone. He’s a very different sort of character than is that
thing what’s living in my stable presently.” Duggan took a rag from his water
basin and wiped out a mug from the night before.

“The sheriff?”

“Aye, Kenna told me about him, and then when I
made my way out there with the sun risin’ I had the pleasure of talking with
him for a time. He’s certainly an opinionated man. He doesn’t seem to hold you
in very high regard.”

Gavin had to laugh. “No I expect not. He hasn’t
been abusing that stable boy has he?”

“Ach, he did, but even if he tried, Rory’s not
interested in buying what the sheriff’s selling. Not anymore anyway. Learned
his lesson.”

“As soon as we can get to Glasgow, Alan’s promised
that he’ll make good on what he told the boy he’d get him – the hundred crowns
or whatever absurd amount it was.”

“Oh he has, has he? How did you manage that one?”

John finished chewing a mouthful, swallowed and
said: “we told him if he didn’t that we’d take him all the way to Inverness and
then just let him go. I think that just might be so far into the Highlands that
he’d really enjoy the walk home.”

“Ha! You lot are a cruel gang, are you not?”

“We only do the things we do when people deserve
it.” Rodrigo’s face was grey and grim. Gavin expected to find at least a shred
of the man’s normal good humor, but there was none. “The man presently warming
hay in your stable caused more suffering to many more people that you can
possibly know. This mayor, he may be more sophisticated in his evil, but do not
underestimate Alan’s ability to be cunning and nasty.”

Duggan raised his hands and shook his head. “Ach,
no, I dinna mean it that way. I know what evil he’s done. I just find that the
best cure to a morning full of the remnants of last night’s drink is levity.”

Rodrigo tightened his mouth and stared at his
uneaten food.

“Is something wrong?” Gavin turned to his friend
and put his hand on his shoulder. Looking to Elena, he saw that her face too
was not happy.

“He...when he see Kenna last night, he say that he
no want her to suffer any more, under any other cruel people,” she said. “He
say he just tired of suffering all around. This has been...bother? Bother him
for a few days. I think that seeing her uncomfortable and not where she belongs
– not with you – it made him take on a bad mood.”

“Is that it, friend? If it is, rest assured, we’ll
not let her stay there any longer than need be. We could be talking at a
useless end though, as she may be on her way presently. There’s just no way to
know. I would be happier too if we knew what her disposition was, but the best
we can do is figure out a plan and get at it, aye?”

Rodrigo did not speak, but he did nod in agreement.

Duggan frowned. “I hope you’re not meaning to
simply break into the mayor’s estate and steal her away, are you? That’s more
dangerous than you’d think.”

“No,” Rodrigo said. “I’ve seen his guards – or
rather the guards who are presently about him. I’ve come across the vileness of
the East India Company mercenaries before. Do not worry about my
underestimating them. They’re trained men, and there are a great number of them
waiting for some sort of trespass with which to visit violence.”

“Not only can he thread a needle at fifty paces,
not only is he the greatest fencer I’ve ever seen, not only can he sword fight
with both hands equally well, but the man is also a poet. Close your ears,
Lynne,” John said with a grin, “for if you don’t, I might find myself with a
heart full of unrequited love.”

The clouds finally parted from Rodrigo’s face and
he let a hint of a smile cross his lips. “Well then to keep me from both
stealing my friend’s love and then being murdered subsequently by my wife, what
shall we do until we hear from –”

Just at that moment, the inn’s door burst open and
the stable boy Rory stumbled in. Heavily favoring his right leg, and bracing
himself against the table, the teenager propped himself up with a hand on the
table nearest the large fireplace at the far end of the inn.

“Kenna?” Rodrigo finished his sentence with a
dumbfounded look on his face as Lynne and Elena both sprang to their feet to
help the boy.

“Ach! By the beard of Robert the Bruce, what
happened to you?” Lynne asked as she and Elena got an arm under each of the
boy’s arms and his legs went weak, collapsing out from under him.

“He’s hurt! He’s hurt!” Olga cried, gathering her
skirts up in one of her hands and shuffling across the room to the boy. She
pinched his cheeks gave him a little clap with both her hands, then ordered
John to fetch hot water, Rodrigo to get cold water, Gavin to get a pile of
rags, Duggan to gather something upon which to lie the boy, and concluded her
commands by telling Lynne and Elena to wait until there was a place to put him.