The Rogues (23 page)

“Ye can hold yer head high in any company, Miss Josie. But I'll press yer case with the laird. I promise ye that.”

“Good. I'll attend him at seven o'clock, then.”

“I'll look forward to that, Miss Josie.”

He was about to say more, but Josie waved him away. “I need to grieve for my mother alone now.”

Nodding, he moved out of my sight, but I waited till I heard the front door close after him before I came out of hiding.

“Oh, Josie!” I gasped.

She put a finger to her mouth and locked the door.

I whispered, “Ye played him like a fiddle!”

She clapped a hand on my shoulder and smiled. “If fortune favors the brave, Roddy, we'll flush out your Blessing and have the best of both Willie Rood and Daniel McRoy this very night.”

24 A THIEF'S HONOR

All of a sudden there came four sharp raps at the window. I started in surprise and dove for cover behind a chair. I was afraid Rood had doubled back and caught a glimpse of me.

However, Josie, wasn't at all concerned and threw the window wide open.

A weathered, unshaven face appeared, one that was all too familiar.

“Alan Dunbar!” I whispered. At the sight of him I jumped out of hiding, amazed that Josie should be so careless of her own safety.

Without so much as asking leave, the Rogue stretched a lanky leg over the windowsill and climbed inside. Immediately, I placed myself between him and Josie, clenching my fists and ready to fight.

“Have ye come to commit more thievery?” I demanded. “If so, ye'll need to fight me first.” I couldn't help wishing my voice were deeper and more menacing.

Dunbar's musket was slung over his shoulder, but I was tensed and ready to leap on him should he make a move to use it.

“Ye mind yer tongue!” warned the Rogue, threatening me with an upraised hand. “I've good cause already to give ye a sound cuffing!”

“Hush, Alan, we'll have no talk of fighting here,” Josie chided him, then turned to me, a finger against her lips. “And both of you must be quiet. There are ears outside of every door in this house.” Then she smiled at me. “Roddy, that knock was Alan's signal so I'd know it was him.”

“Don't let the Rogue fool ye,” I warned her in a harsh whisper. “He's got a flock of tricks up his sleeves. They'll fly out without warning.”

“Tricks is it?” Dunbar exclaimed before Josie shushed him. He whispered, “Ye're a fine one to talk about tricks, ye treacherous pup! What's afoot here anyway? I saw Rood running like he'd just pocketed all the eggs in the henhouse.”

“I've sent him to do a favor for me,” Josie answered. She crossed her arms and smirked at him. “Much as I did with you.”

With a grunt the Rogue slid the musket off his shoulder and flung himself, sprawling, into an armchair. He plucked off his bonnet and used it to wipe some sweat from his brow.

“A gentleman wouldn't sit down before a lady invited him to,” Josie told him. She walked over to the window and eased it closed, tugging a lace curtain to cover it.

“It's a gentleman that's taking this bonnie house off ye,” Dunbar retorted. “It's me that's helping ye. Calculate that sum for yerself.”

“It's a queer kind of help to make off with a lady's goods,” I said.

“Shhhhh!” Josie waved him to be quiet and said to me, “You've seized the matter by the wrong end, Roddy. I
gave
Alan those things to sell for me.”

My jaw gaped. “Sell? For money?”

She nodded, a lock of her hair coming loose and dangling over one eye. “I need to raise as much as I can before my uncle takes possession of this house and everything in it. I can't leave the estate myself right now without being spied upon, so I needed an agent.”

I was flustered to find I'd so badly misunderstood but too stubborn to back down before Dunbar's insolent gaze. “But
him
?” I asked. “Of all the people to trust!”

“He's been doing me this favor for several weeks now,” said Josie, raising her finger and shaking it at me, like a mother with a naughty child. “And he's played me fair so far.”

Dunbar glowered. “I've had no chance to do yer business this time,” he said, stabbing an accusing finger in my direction, “on account of being
robbed
myself!”

It goaded me to have him make
me
out to be the villain, especially in front of Bonnie Josie. “I saw ye hide the goods sneaky as a common brigand,” I said hotly. “What else was I to think?”

Dunbar surged to his feet, and it took all my nerve not to back away from him. “My business is my own and none of yer affair, ye upstart!” he growled. “Has Miss Josie not told ye it was all to be done in secret?”

Groaning, Josie held the finger up to her lips. “Will the two of you cease your bickering for a minute? You'll have the whole house down around us. I am not alone here, you know. Uncle has spies everywhere. And my plan will not work if both of you are taken.” She lit a taper from the fire, then threw open the door, looking around carefully. There was not a sound anywhere, and she whispered back over her shoulder, “Come, now. Off to the cellar with both of you! I'll not risk somebody coming upon a pair of fugitives squatting in my parlor.”

“I'm not biding here,” Dunbar protested.

“You'll stay until I bid you go,” Josie told him firmly, as if she were a general and he a soldier. “It's dark and cold enough down there to cool even
your
blood.” She smiled at him in a way that was much too fond for my liking. “And afterward I will tell you my plan.”

She brought us quickly into the kitchen, which was strangely deserted. “They must all be over at the big house helping get ready for the party this evening,” she explained. Opening a door at the back, she pointed down the short flight of dark stairs. Then she lit an oil lamp and showed us the way with her hand.

Dunbar went first and had to duck under the lintel as we entered the windowless, low-raftered cellar. I came second and Josie last. The place was gloomy and seemed to swallow up the yellow light like a hungry beast. The only difference between it and a dungeon were the few dusty wine bottles sideways on a shelf and a pair of empty kegs squatting on the floor, their bungs wide open.

“You keep hidden here,” she said, “while I fetch some food. Then you'll not have hunger as an excuse for your rough tempers.”

The Rogue and I picked a keg each to sit on and stared at the floor in sullen silence, with only hooded, sideways looks passing between us. I could feel the heat of his anger even in the cool of the cellar, anger that I had accused him of a shameful deed in his own refuge. But I'd no intention of apologizing for that. He could have told me, after all.

The truth was, it galled me that Josie seemed to prefer Dunbar to me. Wasn't it I who'd fought Rood on her behalf? Wasn't I her little terrier?

After a few minutes Josie returned with some bread and cold meat, plus two cups of water to wash it all down.

“There's only one maid about, and I've sent her upstairs to sort through my clothes for tonight's party. But I cannot stay down here long lest someone find me with you,” she told us.

“Ye shouldn't be in this place at all,” I said. “It's no right.”

She laughed. “I used to hide here as a child, Roddy, and tell ghost tales to my dolls. You have such a strange opinion of me.”

I was glad it was too dark for her to see how red my face had turned.

Without waiting for any invitation, Dunbar helped himself to a slab of the meat. A shadow chewing a shadow.

“I'm glad you've left off being contentious for a while,” Josie said to him as he chewed in silence. “Eating is better than scolding.”

If she liked watching a man eat, I could do that. I tore off a chunk of the bread and nibbled at it. Then, emboldened, I made a small dig at Dunbar. “He's used to covering his secrets with silence.”

Dunbar rounded on me, his mouth still full of meat. “Ye're the one hiding secrets. Why not tell us why ye came sneaking back to Dunraw, abandoning yer own family to their fate? What were ye up to, laddie, getting the laird so riled up he wanted you dead? Ye've never answered any of
those
questions.”

“Leave the boy alone and let him eat, Alan,” Josie interceded. “I know he has good reason for all he's done.” She held the lantern between us.

Dunbar's lip curled. “I watched over him because ye asked it of me, Josie, but I warn ye now, he'll turn on ye quicker than a mad, slavering fox.”

“Mad, slavering fox am I?” I stood, dropped the bread, raised a fist and might have swung at the Rogue, but Josie grabbed me by the shoulder and held me firmly in place.

“No, Roddy, when he came to see me the other day and told me how he'd found you, I made him promise to care for you and keep you safe from my uncle. He's done that much, even if he is being ungracious about it now.”

“The lad's healthy enough now to need nobody's care,” said Dunbar. “Best send him on his way, but search his pockets before he leaves.” He took the lantern from her and started to guide her to the stairs.

“
Enough
, Alan!” Josie said sharply, laying a hand on his wrist. “There's been only one robbery here, and it's Roddy who's the victim.”

Dunbar turned and shoved the lantern in my face till I had to move back or be burned. “What have you been telling her?” he demanded.

Josie pushed the hand with the lantern away from me. “Nothing about you,” she said. “You're not the sole cause and center of everything, Alan Dunbar, though too often you act like it.” She looked at me as if asking permission to tell the tale.

I wasn't happy to be sharing my secret with him, but there seemed no way around it now. Reluctantly I nodded.

“It was my uncle took his prize off him,” said Josie.

The Rogue cocked an eyebrow. “Prize? Aye, that'll be what brought ye back to a burned-out ruin, then.” He paused, then continued to think aloud. “A secret store of money? But then why would yer father, canny soul that he is, ever leave without it? No, it must be something else, something worth tossing ye over a cliff for.”

“It was a keepsake left by his mother,” said Josie. “Does that explain it to you?”

Alan held the lamp over me again, though not so close as before. He leaned toward me and said quietly, “A right dear knickknack it must be to risk fire, rain and death for it.”

“And no one ye'll be getting
yer
hands on,” I told him.

“Oho!” Dunbar exclaimed. “Ye'd sooner Daniel McRoy sold it off to buy himself a new set of hounds and a fine suit of clothes.”

“A choice of robbers is no choice at all.” I stood up and put my hands on my hips, trying to look bigger and older. He hadn't expected that, pulled back, and the lantern sent shadows dancing around the cellar.

“And what if I took it, lad? Wouldna it be a fit reward for saving yer worthless life?”

“Och,” said Josie, “you're like a couple of cats squabbling over a fish in the water. You'll drown each other before you ever catch it.”

“We'll go to the magistrate,” I said, guessing that any mention of the law would scare Dunbar off. “I'll tell him my story and see Rood and the laird in gaol.”

“What dream are ye sleeping through?” Dunbar mocked me. “The magistrate would never arrest the laird. That would be taking gold out of his own pockets.”

Josie turned to me. “Alas, Roddy, Alan's right. The magistrate's one of the guests at my uncle's house tonight. He'd never believe a poor crofter could own something that a laird would stoop to steal.”

“So all that's left is to break in and steal the bauble back, then,” said Dunbar.

“That's what
I'd
thought of. At first,” I told him. “But Miss Josie has a better plan.”

Dunbar turned toward her and held the lantern high. I could see that he'd raised one eyebrow, waiting for her to speak.

Josie smiled slowly, the yellow lamplight sparkling mischievously in her eyes. “The house is too well guarded by servants to outright
steal
the bauble,” she said. “And I'll not have either of you getting caught or harming innocents to make your escape.”

Dunbar looked at her shrewdly, then laughed. “Ye're a bonnie lass after my own heart. Ye've charmed Rood into helping ye get the thing back somehow.”

Nodding at him, she clapped delightedly. “I'm to be a guest at the house tonight so my uncle can show me off as his latest piece of property.” She drew herself up as if doing the showing herself. In the lantern's light it was a right beautiful show too. “I've agreed to go only if Rood persuades Uncle to let me wear some bit of jewelry worthy of a lady. There's none in that house I can think of except what's been stolen from Roddy. He may have some bits and bobs from his mother, my aunt. But the real jewels were my own—and those I've sold off. He'll be forced to give me Roddy's Blessing.”

“So once ye have it, what will ye do?” asked Dunbar with a low chuckle. “Swallow it?”

“I'll throw it out the window for Roddy to catch, and when my uncle notices it's gone, I'll say I misplaced it.”

“
Misplaced
it?” Dunbar snorted. “Do ye take the man for a dunce? He'll have ye clapped in chains before ye've time to catch a breath.”

I was stunned. It had certainly sounded like a good plan to me. But what if Dunbar was right? He had more experience in roguery than either of us. “I'll not have that on my conscience, Miss Josie,” I said. “I'd sooner the laird kept the Blessing.”

“No need for such an extremity,” said Dunbar. He gave us both a wicked grin. “All ye need is a plan with a bit of craft to it. I'll tell ye what, Mistress Josephine McRoy, get yer wee treasure out of the house and I'll steal it off ye. As a favor.”