Passion and Plaid - Her Highland Hero (Scottish Historical Romance) (3 page)

“Duggan! So good to see you this morning. Nice
one, isn’t it?” The voice that came from the man matched his appearance. Slick,
dangerously smooth and disarming but with a very plain hint of malice behind
every word he spoke.

“Look, mayor, I only got the regular amount. If
you try to get more out of me, I –”

“You’ll what? The rate went up. I can’t help it.”

Gavin started to stand up, but Kenna grabbed him
by the pants waist and held him in his chair, shaking her head. “Just listen,”
she said under her breath. “Don’t do anything foolish.”

He clenched his hand so hard his knuckles went
white until she stroked his forearm, calming him just enough to open his fist
and lay it flat on the table.

“Well,” Willard sighed heavily, “I suppose it
can’t be helped. What
do
you have for me?”

“What I paid last week.” Duggan dropped a leather
sack of coins on the top of his bar. “Business is slow. Ach, except for these
two, shop may as well be closed.”

“What’s he owe? We haven’t paid yet, so I can
cover it.”

“Sit down, laddie!” Duggan said. “This isn’t your
concern.”

“No,” Gavin said. “I insist. What is it?”

“Hmm.” The mayor searched Gavin up and down.
“You’re new here. Traveler?”

“Aye and –”

“What’s this?” He moved past Gavin, throwing his
eyes to Kenna. “You can’t be a Scot. They’re never quite so delicate.”

“Ach, I’ll show you delicate!” Kenna stood up,
surprising everyone.

Gavin put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

“You’ll watch how you speak to her. She’s my
wife,” he said.

“I see no rings. Married? Are you sure about that?
At any rate, Duggan’s right, this isn’t your concern. His taxes are his.”

“So my money’s no good then?”

“I never said that, young man. But I would warn
against you being quite so forward. Sit. Keep your woman calm. She seems hysterical,
or almost so.” He turned back to Duggan.

“This is all I got this week. There’s no two ways
about it, I can’t give you what I dinna have.”

“Of course,” Willard said with a curling sneer,
“this means your payment will be higher still next week. We understand each
other, yes?”

“Aye, we do,” Duggan said, wiping down his bar
with a cloth for something to do with his hands. The mayor snatched the coin
purse by a string off the bar, tossed it into the air and caught it as it fell.

With a stiff nod to Gavin and a sweep of his hat
to Kenna, he turned on his boot heel and strolled out, shouting to someone in
his carriage, and leaving the door wide open.

“That’s it,” Gavin said. “I’m going to Edinburgh.”

“What? Why?” Kenna held onto his hand. “What for?”

“We can’t let this happen, and I have to find
Alan, wherever that greasy creature has gone. I expect he’ll go crawling back
to Laird Macdonald to see if they can share in their shame. It’s only a day’s
ride. We’re going to need help if we’re to get to the bottom of whatever this mayor
is trying to pull over on these people.”

“Now wait a minute lad, I canna ask you to –”

“You didn’t ask me for anything. I won’t be gone
for more than a couple of days. Can she stay here until I return?”

The innkeeper looked at Kenna with soft eyes. “Of
course, but-”

“Good.”

“Ke...uh...Mary,” he said holding her hands. “I
love you, I always have.”

She swallowed hard and nodded. “Don’t be gone
long?”

“And be away from you? Not a chance. I’ll see you
soon, dearest. I’ll just take one horse and leave the supplies.”

He tried to step back and away but Kenna held him
tight. “Promise me you’ll be safe,” she said.

Instead of answering with words, he pulled her
close, held her to his chest and kissed her so achingly, sweetly deep that she
felt it in her toes. His lips were just a little rough but warm and sweet and
wet. Slowly he pulled her lip inside his mouth, and ran his hands up her back
to the nape of her neck where Gavin curled his fingers.

Kenna felt the breath leak out of her as he held
her there against his chest. She closed her eyes, letting the feeling of her
lover, her safety wash over her. He embraced her whole being, body and soul. A
tear ran down her cheek that she whisked away with a flick of her wrist, and
then another one came that she ignored.

She felt Gavin’s eyes on her and opened hers to
see his deep blues, so soft and gentle and strong. He swept one tear off her
cheek with his thumb and kissed another away.

“Dinna move,” he said. “I’m going to remember
every freckle. Every single one.”

“That’s a lot of freckles to remember,” Kenna
said, smiling in spite of herself as another tear ran down her cheek.

After another long, beautiful moment with his eyes
caressing her face, Gavin kissed Kenna’s cheek, then her forehead, then her
eyes when she closed them to blink.

“As to what you said before. I promise I won’t be
gone a second longer than I must. Don’t forget me, aye?”

Pulling away, he held her face still between his
gentle hands.

“Aye,” she whispered in his ear, smiling through
the tears. “I’ll try not to forget you.”

As soon as he went through the doors and she heard
his horse’s feet hit the packed dirt, a sinking feeling took Kenna.

“He’ll be fine, lass,” Duggan said from behind
her. She was so wrapped up in Gavin she'd hardly remembered he was there.

Red-faced and just a little puffy, she turned to
the gruff old man and found a little bit of comfort in his kind eyes. “Are you
sure?”

“Aye, as sure as I’ve been of anything. There are
some men you just don’t doubt will do what they say. That one right there? He’s
not telling a lie when he says what he did. Hell or Heaven either one wouldn’t
stop him from coming back to you. I’d know the look in his eyes anywhere.”

“You would? Why?”

“Ach, he reminds me of someone, that’s all.”

“Who?”

“Reminds me of me about twenty years past. That’s
the way I looked at my wife, when I left to fight in the Bonnie Prince’s first
war.”

“Did you see her again? After the war, I mean.”
Kenna sat down at the bar and fiddled with her fingers.

“Aye, I did. I came back after a year of war and
she was still here, right here, sitting about where you are now. Thinking of
it, she even looked a little bit like you. Bigger hair though, and darker. But
when I saw her, she was every bit as beautiful as she was when I left. Probably
more.”

She saw a little twinkle in Duggan’s eye and asked
him what happened then.

“Ach, well, I canna say. Wouldn’t be proper. But,
our first little one didn’t come along too long after that, I’ll say that
much.”

Both of them laughed, and he poured a wee dram for
the both of them. “Sure as I’m here, he’ll be fine. Don’t you worry.”

“Duggan, there’s something I need to tell you. I’m
sorry I dinna do it before.”

“What is it Ke...er...Mary?” He grinned.

“How did you know?”

“An innkeeper learns to listen to the goings on in
his establishment without appearing to be listening. I dinna blame you though.
These are dangerous times.”

“Well there’s no harm in it then. I’m Kenna Moore,
and I’m sure you’ve figured on Hamish actually being Gavin Macgregor.”

Duggan patted Kenna’s hand gently. “Aye, lass, I
might just have. Dinna worry. You two are safe with me. One thing has me a wee
bit confused though. In the posters, and the papers, your hair was never quite
so exciting.”

E
dinburgh

August 16, Late Evening

––––––––

“A
ch! John Two-fingers, you’ve got elbows so sharp
they could blind Polyphemus hisself!” Lynne Stevenson hissed and punched John
on the arm playfully. The bed they awoke in was a tiny thing, one of three that
lay hidden in the secret upstairs loft of the Lion’s Mane Tavern, right in the
middle of Old Edinburgh. It was here that Gavin and John began their life of honorable
crime, or as John called it, “the most fun I’ve ever had.”

John yawned wide, stretching his arms above his
head and rolling to look out of the tiny boarded-up window. “Still dark,” he
said. “And what was that about my elbows? You’re not terribly plump yourself.”

“You jabbed me in the ribs you right bastard.”
Lynne punched him again, a little harder this time.

“Well then I suppose we could make different
arrangements. I’m sure a place as fine as the Lion’s Mane has any number of
grand accommodations available for-”

“Oh shut up, you,” Lynne said, quieting him with a
snuck kiss. “I didn’t say I minded so much, just that I don’t enjoy to be woke
up of a morning with your pointy little elbow in my side.”

Laughing softly, John slid his hand underneath
Lynne as she lay on her side, and yanked her up on top of him. Her legs fell
gently on either side and she kissed him once on the chest, and then nuzzled
his neck.

“I canna believe I’ve barely known you a week and
a half, milady,” John said as he looked down at the top of Lynne’s tousled
hair. “Seems just three or four days ago that you suckered me into an empty
house and almost got me killed before having my best friend arrested.”

“Seems so,” she said. “I’m sorry about that, and
I’ll stay that way until the day I die.”

“Ach, woman, if I wanted to blame you, I could
have killed you back then.”

“Oh you coulda? I seem to remember it a mite
differently. Way I remember was that you and Gavin were both quite at my mercy
because the two of you bumbled into a house you didn’t bother to clear first
before settling in to steal everything what wasn’t nailed down.”

John couldn’t help but chuckle. “So
that’s
what happened. I knew there was something amiss with my memory. It all worked
out though, aye? Gavin and Kenna off on a grand adventure to Fort Mary, the two
of us inseparable and in love, two shortbreads in a tin.”

“Who’re you calling short?” She couldn’t help but
smile. It was true what he said, though. Ever since that first night she saw
John, his dashing grin, and gentle eyes intoxicated her. It all came together
so quickly that it was a little surprising, but for the first time in her life,
Lynne Stevenson looked forward to waking up.

“Ach, well, you
are
shorter than I am,” he
said and slid his hand underneath the soft cotton of Lynne’s sleeping tunic.
Her skin prickled as his fingertips danced a little circle on the small of her
back and she let her breathing fall in time with his. She drew a deep breath,
held it for a moment and then let it trickle out of her lips.

“How do you do these things to me, John?” She
whispered. “I’m usually rather a grouch in the morning.”

A soft knock on the door interrupted John’s
response, so instead he just kissed Lynne’s forehead and asked who was
knocking.

“Rodrigo,” was the answer from the proud Spaniard
who managed to best John in a knife fight – no easy feat – and then helped
John, Lynne and the others not only escape from the dungeon where Gavin was
held, but also to nab the awful Sheriff Alan.

“What is it? Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to hear
from you, but I’m half nude and the sun hasn’t come up yet.”

“Get dressed,” he said. “Things to do.”

“Ach, not one to mince words, are you?” John
struggled to roll a softly chuckling Lynne off him and stand up. Once he
managed, he pulled on his trousers and went to the door.

“What is it, friend? Something wrong?”

“No. Well, in a way. Can I come in?”

“Of course!” Lynne said from across the room,
pulling a blanket around her shoulders more to ward off the early morning chill
than out of modesty.

Rodrigo thanked her, and smiled at John as he
pushed the black-haired Scot out of the way.

“What is it, Rodrigo? Trouble?” John pulled up a
chair and turned it for Rodrigo to sit in, but the big Spaniard remained
standing.

“It is... my wife’s friend, Olga. She was...she
taught Elena to speak English at Laird Macdonald’s house. Now that he’s lost
face from all that happened, he’s threatened to stop paying the house help.”

“You can’t be serious,” John said. “That’s what
got us all interested in his business in the first place.”

“Well that and a certain flame-headed lass,” Lynne
added.

“That too. But without Red Ben Black’s wife
wanting us to break into the Laird’s mansion to collect payment he promised but
never delivered, we would never have known about her at all.”

“He’s down stairs, too.”

“Laird Macdonald?” John’s eyes got wide.

Lynne pursed her lips and sighed. “I’m guessing he
means Ben.”

“Right
,
Ben. He and Alice are downstairs.
So is Elena.”

“Wait, wait, wait, what time is it? Why are all of
you here so early?”

“Early?” Rodrigo laughed. “It’s an hour to
midnight still.”

“Oh. So that explains the levity of your mood,”
John said to Lynne.

“Come on, get up. We have to move fast.”

“Of course we do. Fast this, fast that. Why can’t
things ever go at a nice, slow pace around here?”

“You’ll have to forgive him, Rodrigo. John’s not
yet had his full eleven hours’ sleep.” She and Rodrigo laughed. “Get up, grandfather
John. Let’s go. I’ve been wondering when we’d have some more fun.”

“What? We haven’t been having fun?” By the time he
answered, Lynne and Rodrigo were both halfway down the hall.

“Hey! Wait for me! I thought we’d
been having
fun!”

“John Two-fingers! Get down here and drink,” a
big, loud, smiling voice said from somewhere he couldn’t see. “We’ve got things
to discuss!”

John smiled to himself as he traded trousers for
kilt and tucked his baggy white tunic into the top. He missed Gavin and Kenna,
but they were gone north. Their lives were elsewhere. His loud, burly, red-bearded
friend Ben, though, was right down the stairs.

“Coming!” he shouted from the doorway. “Get me a
mug and a dram!”

Only moments later, Red Ben Black, John, Lynne,
Alice Black, Rodrigo and Elena were back together warming seats with a bottle
open between them. Every time Ben took a swallow, Alice glared at him playfully
and asked if he was going to stop before he fell asleep.

“So what you’re telling me,” John said, “is that
we have to get
back
into Ramsay Macdonald’s house and spirit off one of
his maids?” The whisky was good going down.

“Aye, but not just any maid,” said Ben. “Here,
Elena will tell it better. I knew the woman but these two damn near lived on
top of one another.”

“Olga a very good woman, but do not want to leave.
When moved to here, she...um...Olga she took me under her care and teach me how
to do everything I need. She help Kenna get out of Macdonald’s house. She help
everybody but won’t help herself.”

“Why not?” John asked. “Is she scared something
will happen?”

“I think she am – is – I think she just want to
see the best in everyone. She don’t hate Macdonald for keeping Kenna and all
that things. But he not going to pay her. Not right. And I want her safe.”

For a second, John and Red Ben looked at each
other, both trying to think of something to say. It was Rodrigo who broke the
silence.

“Then we go. We go tonight – go now – and get her.
She deserves better than Macdonald’s abuse.”

“I’ll need my key,” Red Ben said. “I left it at
home.”

“Well then, that solves the next question I was
going to ask, which was ‘how are we going to get in this time?’ But it doesn’t
solve another problem. Are there guards? Even broke, the Laird canna be so
ruined he has no guards.”

Elena shook her head. “Olga, she say the guards
all leave. He won’t pay, they won’t work.”

“They’ve got some sense at least.” John looked
back and forth between the two men. “Right, so we go to the Black’s house, get
the key, and then what? Just ride to the house and walk in the back door?”

“Well, aye, that’s about the short of it.” Ben
said with a huge grin spreading across his lips, underneath his enormous red
beard. “Though I don’t think it will be as entertaining as last time. No masquerade
ball at which to pull a knife on someone.”

John squinted and grinned. “Watch yourself, or
next time might be you with the knife pulled on him.”

“You’d best be quite accurate with it,” Red Ben
said loudly, slapping his belly. “Most places you stab wouldn’t hurt me very
much!” A roar of laughter spread across the table from one person to the next.
Before long, they’d finished their drinks, Red Ben ate a bowl of stew, horses
were collected and they were on the road.

––––––––

“W
e need some kind of name,” John said. “You know,
for the gang. When it was just Gavin and meself wandering the streets that was
one thing. But now we’re...one, two, three, eight...nine? Nine of us? Got to
have a name for a gang of nine. Huh. That’s a good one, don’t you think?”

“Ach, I’m not one of you,” Alice said. “I’m a
proper lady with seven little ones scampering about.”

“And how do you count nine, John?” Lynne grabbed
his hand. “Hard to count when you’re missing three fingers?”

“Aye it – wait a tick, what a cruel woman to make
fun of my brave injury.”

Lynne pursed her lips to squelch a laugh. “By my
count there’re seven, dear John, eight if we count Alice, because even if she
doesn’t want to be counted, she seems to be right here with us.”

“Seven, nine what’s the difference.”

A moment later, a shriek from down the way caught
their attention.

“The Hell is that?” John said to Ben.

“Seems to be just some rowdy drunk. But that
voice...”

Slumped over on a horse, hat in hand, was a short,
round figure who had obviously had plenty in the eyes of the pub’s owner, but
not in his own.

“Is my money no good here?” the little man
shouted. “Do you not know who I am?”

“Ach, I know well and good who ya are, you foul
little beast. I know what you did and I know I dinna have to listen to anything
you say. Now go on with you. Not welcome here.” The tavern keeper spat on the
ground beside his feet, turned, and went back inside.

John, Ben, Lynne and the rest halted in the middle
of the dirt road, not quite able to believe what they were seeing.

“Isn’t...isn’t he supposed to be in the back of a
wagon on the way to Glasgow?” Ben asked John. “You don’t think...?”

“Ach, nay, I dinna think anything happened to
Gavin. This wretched creature musta got away somehow.”

“But,” Lynne said, “if there weren’t any problems,
how did he get away?”

John just shook his head in response. “No,” he
said. “Canna think like that. I’m sure he’s fine. But still, it does worry me
some. Ben, can you go with Rodrigo and Elena to get Olga? I think I want to go
north. I want to make sure nothing’s happened on the road.”

“Aye,” Ben said as he stroked his beard. “I can
understand that. You go. We’ll get Olga. Should we meet back at the house?”

“Nay,” John shook his head. “No time for that. I’m
to head –”

“We,” Lynne cut in. “We’re to head north.”

For a moment the two of them looked at one
another, but then John nodded and agreed. “We’re going. And I know this is
going to sound wild, but will you come to meet us? The next town up is Mornay’s
Cleft. They’ve only been gone a day so I canna imagine they’ve gone farther
than that.”

“Two days now, lad, but aye, we can do that,” Ben
said.

“You’re the best friend I could ask for. We’ll
ride north now, and stop when the moon is at its height and camp just off the road.
We’ll go the rest of the way in the morning.”

Ben nodded. “We’ll meet you on the road. Or at
least I will. The rest will have to make up their minds for themselves.”

Rodrigo’s expression was suddenly stern, “We too
will come. I owe you my life.”

Elena, too, nodded. “Olga will want to see Kenna.”

“Alright, then. It’s decided. We ride north, you
will meet us.”

“Except me,” Alice said. “I’ve sprouts to look
after.”

“Of course,” John said, leaning over and giving
Alice Black a kiss on the cheek. “See you all soon?”

Ben patted him on the back with his usual
disregard for his own strength. “Aye, willna take long at all.”

And with that, they split company for the first
time that night. As Ben and Rodrigo and Elena went one direction, and Alice
went in the other, John watched them all until they disappeared into the
darkness.

“Well,” he said, turning to Lynne and holding onto
her hand like he needed her for an anchor. “I dinna know why, but I’ve got a
strange feeling about this.”

“About them going to Laird Macdonald’s?”

“Nay, not that. About Gavin and Kenna and why
Sheriff Alan is back. Something just feels wrong.”

“That’s not helping me understand what you mean,”
she said, squeezing his hand back. “But you’ve a face drowned in worry. What’s
bothering you?”

“Ach, I’ve just never known Gavin to be careless
like that, letting the Sheriff go.”

“He’s distracted. Think about it. Gavin’s
wandering about, holding someone captive who he plans to deliver to Glasgow,
and all the while, he’s got the woman he’s loved for his whole life right in
front of him.” She moved close and wrapped her arms around John’s waist.

“Hey!” John cried out when Lynne slid her hands
down to the top of his legs and gave him a squeeze.