Seduced by a Rogue (25 page)

“What is it?” he demanded. “Damnation, talk to me! What has happened?”

“Nowt, laird,” the elder of the two said hastily. “Leastways, we hope ’tis nowt. Just only that ye be in a gey grand hurry
for a man wha’ ha’ left the lady Mairi behind ye to look after herself in this pelter o’ rain.”

Stabbing fear replaced his unease. “What the devil do you mean?”

“She doesna be in her chamber, laird, and them inside were a-thinking she must be wi’ ye. Did ye no take her wi’ ye when ye
left?”

“I did not,” he said. “I left her safely here. Where is Annie?”

“Sakes, laird, she be safe in her own bed, a-sleeping.”

“Have someone fetch her,
now
.”

He wasted no time asking how Mairi could have escaped the tower, let alone got outside the wall. He would deal with those
questions when he was sure she had succeeded in either endeavor. Curtly, he said, “How long has she been gone, and are you
certain she did
not
leave by this gate?”

The spokesman said, “Nay, sir, she didna go by us. They did come and ask did we see her, but nae one here did. Nor did anyone
pass through this gate till ye came. In troth, though, we dinna ken when she went missing. Annie’s mam be sick, and the lady
Mairi gave Annie leave yestereve to stay home wi’ her. But, sithee, wee Gib has disappeared, too. Mayhap he kens what became
o’ her ladyship.”

When the second guard nodded, Rob said, “Gib
was
with me. He and the others are close behind me. So stand by to open the gate when they get here.”

Without another word, he hurried inside.

R
ob tried to think. Where would she go?
How
could she go? What dangers might she face? Was she daft enough to think she could escape from Trailinghail?

If he roused everyone in the castle at such an hour and began questioning them, he would create the very stir he had worked
to avoid and would learn no more than that they all thought she had gone with him.

When he looked into her room—as if she might magically have reappeared there—he saw from its extreme tidiness why Fin Walters
or others who had looked in had assumed that she was with him. Especially as Annie had apparently not come that day. Had Mairi
purposely told her to stay with her mother?

Only as he was about to return to the gate to question the guards again did he recall bringing her in through the cave entrance.

Chills swept through him at the thought. If she had remembered how to find the cave door and managed to get outside the cavern,
could she have been mad enough to try to swim or otherwise try to reach Kirkcudbright?

On that thought, he lit another lantern in the kitchen and hurried down to the storage chamber, finding it as he had left
it. Or so he thought until he noticed the pool of wax on the floor. Realizing that she must have put it there herself to hold
a candle so she could use both hands to open the door, he noted with a new surge of fear that the latch chain still hung inside.

Did she not know to put a latchstring through its hole before shutting a door?

Sakes, as small as she was, had she even seen the hole?

Unlatching the door, he ripped it open and caught her as she slumped across the threshold. Lifting her into his arms, he failed
to see the kitten until it hissed indignantly at him, jumped to the floor, and darted out of the chamber.

She felt icy cold, and her head fell back limply against his shoulder.

Quickly shifting her weight in his arms to hold her closer, he saw her eyelids flutter, and breathed more easily.

“You’re back,” she murmured with a soft sigh as he kicked the door shut and strode with her into the main part of the cellar,
leaving his lantern behind.

“Aye, I’m back,” he growled, heading for the stairway.

“Put me down,” she said before he got to the steps. Her voice sounded hoarse, and her teeth were chattering, although they
had not been before. “It will be safer for us
b-both, going up the stairs, and I’ll w-warm quicker, I think, if I m-move.”

He doubted she would warm quickly. But as wet as he was himself from the rain, he did not argue. Setting her on her feet,
he gestured toward the stairway.

She took a step but lost her balance, stumbling and nearly falling.

Rob quickly slipped an arm around her to support her.

She clutched him, swaying. “My legs went to sleep,” she said. “Curse them!”

Holding her close again, he could feel her shivering, or himself trembling. In the dim glow from the lantern back in the storage
cell he could not tell which it was.

“I’ll d-do now,” she said after what seemed to be both too long and too short a silence. She let go of him and stood a moment
uncertainly, as if she were testing her balance, before she said, “Thank you.”

But when she took another wobbly step only to sway, he picked her up again. “You’ll do as I bid you,” he said sternly. “It
will be gey easier for me to carry you than to catch you when you fall on those steep stairs.”

He went carefully until he could see that the door at the top remained open. Light from the kitchen spilled down the steps,
showing the way clearly and telling him the cooks were there, stirring up the fire and the bake ovens.

He went quickly past the kitchen to the great hall, knowing that the kitchen servants would need its fire. They’d be preparing
food for his supper and that of his returning men. The baker would also begin baking his bread for the morning.

But the hall fire would be blazing now, too.

Skirting men who slept on pallets in the hall, he carried Mairi to a wooden settle by the fire. As he set her on it, he could
hear her teeth still chattering, and he saw that her lips were blue.

His still smoldering temper ignited. “What the devil were you thinking?” he demanded, managing only with effort to keep his
voice low. “By heaven, lass, you deserve… Sakes, I don’t know what you deserve for doing such a daft thing!”

Her voice still raspy, she said wearily, “Are you consigning me to the devil or to heaven, sir? You should make up your mind.
I did not know that door would shut. It was so heavy, I thought it would stay put. But a demon draft drew it shut.”

A nearly overwhelming urge to tell her exactly what he thought of reckless women who took daft notions into their foolish
heads brought the words right to the tip of his tongue. But before he could utter even one, her eyes shut.

“Find Annie,” he shouted when Gib looked anxiously into the hall from the stairwell. “Go, lad, run! Tell someone to bring
blankets to me here and dry clothing for her ladyship. Then fetch me some bricks to warm by the fire.”

The lad hesitated. “Be the lady Mairi a-dyin’ then, laird?”

“Go!” Rob roared.

Gibby fled.

Annie came running minutes later with a screen that Gibby, following her, helped her set up. Thus Mairi had privacy and warmth.
With Gibby guarding the screen, Annie shooed Rob outside it, saying, “Get ye hence now, laird. Her ladyship will be more comfortable
a-changing down here without ye hovering over her.”

“She does not deserve comfort,” Rob muttered. But he obeyed Annie, pacing back and forth outside the screen until she announced
that Mairi wore dry clothing.

“Her hair do still be damp, laird,” Annie said. “I’ll just go and fetch her comb and brush if I may.” She eyed him speculatively
before she added, “Nae doots, she’ll talk more sensibly after she has some supper.”

“If you are daring to suggest that I am not to talk to her until then, you are wasting your breath,” Rob said.

“Aye, well, ye’ll no be taking her ladyship to task here in the hall afore all these rough men,” Annie said stoutly. “I ken
ye better nor that, laird.”

“Do you?” He glowered at her. “Tend to your other duties now, Annie. I’ll look after her ladyship.”

“Aye, sir,” Annie said. With a sympathetic look for Mairi, and her own dignity perfectly intact, Annie left the hall, sweeping
young Gib before her.

Rob shifted his gaze back to Mairi and saw that she was watching him. As had happened far too often with the lass, he could
not quite read her expression. But her lips twitched as if she might dare any moment to smile.

Rob still looked so angry that Mairi was tempted to thank the Fates that he had not found her until she must have looked as
if she were teetering on death’s doorstep. The cave’s chilly dampness had penetrated bone-deep, making her fear for a time
that she would never get warm again even if someone did find her.

But despite Rob’s own wet clothing, her body had begun to take warmth from his much larger one as he had carried her up the
stairs. Now that her feet were dry and she wore fur-lined slippers, a warm silk shift, and a woolen kirtle in place of her
damp clothing and boots, she felt warm enough that she would have liked to take off the thick shawl Annie had wrapped around
her.

Common sense warned her, however, to remain at least a bit feeble looking until after Rob had had his supper. She had learned
long since that a well-fed man was less likely than a hungry one to erupt in fury.

The stern, speculative expression that had made him look as if he were trying to decide how best to punish her had changed
to a worried look that for some inexplicable reason made her lips twitch as if they wanted to smile.

However, his deepening frown banished that sensation.

She said, “You must be tired after such a long journey, sir. Surely, you also want to change to dry clothing before we sup.”

“Aye, I do,” he agreed. He looked around the hall, which was beginning to fill with more hungry men than just the soggy-looking
ones who had traveled with him. “When Annie comes back, I will,” he added.

She let herself smile then. “I ken fine that you are angry with me, and I deserve that you should be,” she said. “But before
you say all that you want to say, I must tell you that I have never been so happy to see anyone as I was to see you when you
opened that wretched, contrary door.”

He grimaced, and she knew he was struggling again to keep his temper. But then Annie returned with a hairbrush in hand, as
if he had never told her to tend to other duties. Instead of objecting, he visibly relaxed when he saw her.

Even so, he shifted his gaze back to Mairi and said in a calm tone more alarming than she had thought such a tone could be,
“You and I will talk later.”

Annie bobbed a curtsy and said, “Shall I see to her hair afore ye sup, sir?”

“Aye, and stay with her until I return.”

Mairi watched him stride away. It was a pleasure to watch the man move. His damp leather breeks hugged his thighs and buttocks
so that if one watched only those parts, one could imagine him as a rather magnificent beast of the forest—a very strong beast,
capable of making one feel warm and cosseted even when it snarled.

Annie cleared her throat loudly.

Startled, Mairi felt heat flood her cheeks as she met her gaze. Sure that she must have missed something Annie had said, she
said, “Did you speak to me?”

Eyes atwinkle, Annie replied, “Will ye be wanting me to sit beside ye to do me brushing, m’lady? Or will ye turn so I can
get to them tangles more easily?”

“Fetch that stool yonder,” Mairi said, gesturing toward one standing near the wall on the opposite side of the fireplace.
“I should sit nearer the fire so my hair can dry as you brush it, but I shall grow too hot if I do not take off this shawl.”

“Aye, m’lady, your cheeks look gey hot now,” Annie said with a grin.

Men still slept, but those who did not were sitting at their own tables when Rob returned. Mairi and Annie sat at one end
of the high table, the latter looking uncertain to be there. She eyed him warily as he strode to the dais to take his place.

After speaking the grace before meat, he sat down and riveted his attention to his food. Nevertheless, he could hear every
movement Mairi made, every breath and swallow. Her silence seemed contagious, too, because the usual bustle and chatter died
away. It was, he thought, as if every man there were watching her and wondering about him and what he meant to do.