Susana and the Scot (36 page)

“I'm aware of that.”

Hannah patted her hand. “For that, I owe you a debt of gratitude.”

“You are happy with him?”

Hannah turned to her husband. A soft sheen filled her eyes. “Verra.”

Lana shook her head. “I still canna believe you dinna know who he was. I mean, after…”

Thank the lord she trailed off. The last thing Susana wanted was to air her dirty laundry in front of a duke.

“As though you dinna know,” Susana said beneath her breath. “
You
could have warned me.” With Lana's second sight, it was simply rude that she had not warned Susana that Andrew was coming back into her life. It would have helped to be prepared.

“I doona know everything.” Lana's gaze flicked to Hannah's belly, and then to Susana's. “Although I do know some things.” Her smile was mysterious.

“Come.” Susana hooked arms with Hannah and Lana and led them to the divan. “I want to hear everything that has happened since you left for Dunnet.”

“Surely not everything,” Hannah laughed.

“I want to hear what's been happening here.” Lana said.

Susana snorted. “Surely not everything…”

The sisters shared a grin.

They all took their seats. For some reason, when Hamish greeted Lana effusively and sat next to her, it made the duke scowl.

“Lachlan,” Dunnet said once they'd all settled. “Do you no' have an announcement you'd like to make?”

The Duke of Caithness cleared his throat and Susana stiffened. Here it was. The news they'd been dreading—the duke's formal request that they clear the land and import sheep. Susana's fingers tightened into a fist. She hid them in her skirts as she stared at the duke, waiting for him to speak. Why Hannah and Lana fixed smiles on their faces at this moment of doom was a mystery.

“I, ah, yes. I do have an announcement.” He glanced around the assemblage; his gaze seemed to linger on Lana. She, in turn, flushed. “I have decided against Improvements for the time being.”

Susana stilled as a trill of excitement and relief washed through her. “What?”

Caithness nodded. “Alexander and Hannah have convinced me that there are other options to clearing the land. Options that are far better for the people in the county.”

“That is excellent,” Papa gusted, clapping his hands together. “I think this calls for a drink.” Susana rolled her eyes but didn't protest as Tamhas rounded the room, presenting a tumbler to each of the men. The ladies, of course, took tea, though in truth Susana would have much preferred something stronger. This had been a trying few weeks. Thank God it was all over and everyone was safe and together again.

On that note she gave Hannah's shoulder a quick squeeze. Hannah beamed back at her.

They chatted for a while about Hannah and Lana's adventures in Dunnet, and then the conversation turned to recent events. As Andrew and Hamish sketched out the details of the kidnapping, along with their suspicion that Scrabster's plans ran far deeper than they'd thought, the duke's frown darkened. “I am stunned,” he said when they finished. “While I met Scrabster, and did not like him in the slightest, I would not have suspected him of such vile acts.”

“He's a verra bad man,” Isobel said.

The duke fixed his attention on her, nestled in Andrew's lap as she was. “I can see that.”

Isobel paused in the licking of her cake. Her nose wrinkled. “He called me a fiend.”

“I do apologize for that. I am certain you are not a fiend.”

She tipped her head to the side. “Why would you apologize? It wasna you who called me that.”

“As duke it is my responsibility to protect you. To keep bad men from bothering you.”

She peeped up at Andrew. “I thought it was your job.”

He patted her shoulder. “It is his job, too. If a man threatens Dounreay, he threatens Caithness as well.”

“Exactly.” Caithness nodded. “As duke it is my responsibility to keep bad men from bothering you. And I failed you in that.”

Isobel considered this for a moment and then nodded. Her estimation of the duke warmed.

As did Susana's. She appreciated that he was speaking to Isobel as though she were an equal. Most men would have ignored her completely and directed their comments only to the other men.

“I hope you will accept my most sincere apologies for being absent and not providing you the protection you required.” Though he spoke to Isobel, the words were directed to them all. That he was man enough to admit he'd made mistakes, and man enough to fix them where he could, spoke volumes about his character.

Susana decided she liked him very much indeed.

Except, of course, for the hungry looks he kept sending in Lana's direction.

Isobel surveyed the duke solemnly, nibbling her lip and considering his words. And then she nodded. “Aye. I accept your 'pology. But it doesna matter anymore.”

The duke's brow quirked. “Does it not?”

“Scrabster doesna matter anymore, at least,” she said, bringing down disaster as only an innocent child could. “Because my mama shot him.”

Oh, dear.
Perhaps he should have directed his comments to the men.

The duke's head whipped around and his sharp gaze landed on her, causing heat to prickle on her neck. “You … shot him?”

“Good show.” Papa lifted his glass.

Susana set her teeth and forced herself to stare the duke down. “He had a pistol pointed at my daughter.”

“Doona forget, he'd kidnapped Isobel to force Susana to marry him,” Andrew added. It sounded like a complaint.

“Aye.” She nodded crisply. “There was that, too.”

“Never forget, he planned to murder us all. And then turn his attentions to Lana,” Hamish said.

This caused the duke's brows to bristle and Lana to pale. “Me?” she squeaked. She glanced at Susana and made a face. “I think I may be ill.”

“You are the next in line for the lands he wanted,” Hamish explained.

Dunnet bristled. “But those are Hannah's lands…”

“Exactly.” Andrew's brow darkened. “We believe his plan was to take out everyone and anyone who stood in his way. Hence the attempt on Magnus.”

“What is
take out
?” Isobel asked.

Andrew petted her hair. “He wanted to kill everyone.”

Isobel's face scrunched into a furious moue. She glared at the duke. “See. I told you he was a bad man.” Then with the quixotic moods of the very young, her features shifted into a blindingly ingenuous mien. She smiled sweetly and batted her lashes. “It's not my fault his castle blew up. Really. It's not.”

“His … castle blew up?” Dunnet squeaked.

Andrew widened his eyes and nodded, nibbling away an inappropriate smirk.

Papa's guffaw rounded the room.

As for Lana, Hannah, and the duke, they merely gaped.

Isobel, sensing no impending scold, shrugged. “It was his own fault.”

Caithness's brow rippled. “How so?”

Isobel blinked. “He locked me in the wrong room.” She leaned closer and whispered, “There might have been a fire.”

“I … see.” The duke tried to hide his smile but could not.

No doubt Isobel took it as encouragement. She leaped down from Andrew's lap and crawled onto his instead. He seemed surprised but set his teacup on the small table at his side to hold her.

It amused Susana that Andrew seemed put out.

Isobel stared up at the duke, her eyes alight. She was thrilled with the attention. “It was a verra exciting adventure.”

“I am certain it was.”

“Look.”

The duke blanched as Isobel reached into the pocket of her gown and pulled out a very long blade. Susana flinched. Why hadn't she
known
Isobel had a knife?

“Where did you get that?” she and Andrew squawked at the same time. They shared a horrified glance.

“Hamish gave it to me.”

Susana glared at the miscreant and he shrugged.

“It was in his boot. I used it to unlock the doors.” Isobel waved the knife around until the duke took it from her under the pretense of studying it. Then he set it very carefully on the table next to his teacup. “It was verra handy. I used it to open his chest, too.”

The duke's nostrils flared. “I … ah … his chest? Whose chest?”

“Scrabster's.”

Caithness turned to Susana. “I thought you said you shot him.” Clearly he was of the opinion that all the Dounreay women were deranged.

Isobel trilled a laugh as though the duke had told a joke. “Not that kind of chest. It was a treasure chest.” She put out a lip. “Although there wasn't much treasure in it. Just these stupid letters.” She pulled a sheaf of papers from her pocket and waved them around until the duke confiscated them as well. As there was no more room on the little table, he handed them to Alexander, who began flipping through them. “Oh, and this.” She reached in and pulled out a gold trinket.

“What else do you have in that pocket?” Andrew asked.

Isobel grinned. “That's all. I was hoping for treasure but he didn't have any. He did have papers, though. Lots and lots of papers.” She beamed at Caithness, who appeared to be in a befuddled trance. Then again, Susana was rather befuddled as well. “Papers burn verra well,” Isobel confided.

“I'm sure they do,” Andrew said. “It's probably best if we doona start any fires here. What do you think, Isobel?”

She appeared to think this over. For far too long.

“Isobel—” Susana said warningly.

Andrew sent her a speaking look and she swallowed her scold.

“Just think of what it did to Scrabster's castle,” Andrew said in a calm tone. Isobel grinned. “Would you want that to happen here?”

The grin faded. She nibbled her lip and shook her head.

“So, no fires?”

“Oh, all right.”

“A wise decision.” He smiled at her and she smiled back. Astonishingly, Susana had the sense there would, indeed, be no fires.

It was practically a miracle.

Aye, he would make a wonderful father. Exactly what Isobel needed, to be sure.

The duke, who had been silent throughout this exchange, silent and staring at the hunk of gold Isobel held in her hand, cleared his throat. “Do you mind if I look at this?” he asked, his hand hovering over the trinket.

Isobel handed it to him and he studied it at length, turning it this way and that.

His scrutiny was intense. Susana didn't understand the sudden tension in the room.

“Lachlan?” Lana said, and Susana's head whipped around. She gaped at her sister. The tone in which she had addressed the duke was unlike any she'd heard from Lana before. It was far too familiar. And she'd used his given name. “Is it…?”

He glanced up at her with an odd expression on his face. “It is.”

“It is what?” Isobel asked, taking the precaution of snatching it back and dropping it into her pocket.

The duke drew in a breath. “It is a treasure, Isobel. One I've been searching for a long time. You say you found it in Scrabster's castle?”

“Aye.”

Lana's eyes glowed. “That makes sense. Both Dounreay and Scrabster are along the coast.”

How on earth did that signify?

But the duke nodded. “Aye. No doubt, sometime during the past five centuries, they washed up on shore or were caught in nets.”

Lana nodded. “Likely, the people who found them dinna realize what they'd really discovered.”

“Would someone like to explain what you are all talking about?” Hamish asked peevishly. Though to be honest, there had been a peevish expression on his face since Lana had called the duke
Lachlan
.

“Och, it's a wonderful story,” Lana said. “Involving a curse and a magic relic and the future of all Scotland.”

Isobel's eyes went wide. “Really?”

“Come here and I'll tell you.”

Isobel loved Lana's stories, so she hopped down from Caithness's lap and made her way to Lana's. Stopping, of course, for another cake. When she was settled in—between Lana and Hamish, much to Hamish's chagrin—Lana began.

“Long long ago there was a verra greedy man. He wanted more power than he had, so he betrayed his kin to the evil king Edward Longshanks. Do you remember him from your lessons, Isobel?”

“Of course.”

“Verra good, my darling. You're so clever.” Lana kissed her brow. “In those days, England and Scotland were at war because Edward wanted to take all our lands for himself.”

“That wasn't verra nice.”

“Nae. It wasna. There were many bluidy battles. Treachery and betrayal abounded.”

Isobel's eyes glittered. She leaned closer.

“Now, the greedy man, the Baron of Rosslyn, wanted more wealth and power, so he aligned with Longshanks, the enemy of all Scots and betrayed his kin. Legend has it, the baron gave the English king the MacAlpin Cross, the magical talisman that has protected Scotland through the ages.”

“Why did he do that?”

“Because he wasna happy being a baron, my darling. He wanted to be a duke.”

Isobel frowned at Caithness, who shifted in his seat.

“The brutal English king smashed the relic, the heart of all that is Scotland, and tossed it into the sea, ushering in centuries of poverty, torment, and strife for all clans.”

Isobel toyed with the twill on Lana's traveling gown. “I doona like that king.”

“No one did,” Dunnet snorted. Hannah shushed him.

Even Lana frowned at him. “Anyway, the Keeper of the Cross—some say she was a witch—”

“You dinna mention a witch.”

“I'm verra sure she was a witch, and with her dying breath, she levied a deadly curse on the new duke and all his descendants.”

Isobel put out a lip. “Well, good.”

“But it's not so good, darling. Because, according to the curse, none of them will live past their twenty-ninth year.”