“Mr. Wheeler.” The man touched his cap. “I be the coachman and look after the captain’s stables.” He nodded his head toward the row of buildings Leah could see through an archway leading out of the forecourt.
“Please return once you’ve seen the horses settled and have unloaded my trunks.” She gathered up her skirts. “I will ensure there is some supper for ye.”
“Thank ye kindly, Mrs. Carnegie.”
Mrs. Carnegie.
How long would it take before those words did not render Leah breathless?
She stepped into the wee entrance hall and then followed voices up a flight of spiral steps—the wider stairs, she heard Mrs. Buchan’s voice say in her head—which lead to the great hall.
The cavernous room was rather threadbare. A large table and a pair of wooden chairs sat before the enormous fireplace, all well-worn, dark with age, and appearing to hail from when the castle was built. Faded tapestries hung on the walls, adding to the air of a time forgotten. A tattered hemp rug covered the floor.
Three maids and two footmen stood before the table, talking with Fox about Madeline.
Her husband no longer appeared weary orfou. No. He had acquired the mien of a general marshaling troops and plotting strategy.
“I last saw her playing in the nursery,” a freckle-faced maid was saying. “She was excited tae meet the new mistress, but I ordered Miss Madeline tae stay put. We wanted tae await your orders, Captain.”
“Shehasbeen begging me tae explore the south wing with her,” another maid said. “I told her it was locked up, but she was most insistent.”
Leah opened her mouth, intending to offer her help, but Fox was already speaking.
“We will divide and conquer.” He directed the servants to search different sections of the castle, his voice crackling with the military authority.
The servants scattered.
Fox exited through a door to the left of the enormous hearth.
Leah remained standing in the doorway to the great hall, mouth still agape, words of help crowded and unsaid upon her tongue.
She stared around the dim room, voices retreating.
Removing her bonnet, she walked forward and set it atop the ancient table.
Movement to the right caught her eye.
An enormous cat strolled through the door. A magnificent feline with long white fur, steely blue eyes, and an impressively bushy tail. The animal leapt onto the seat of one of the old chairs and studied her with haughty disdain, tail swishing.
“Mr. Dandy, I presume.”
Like the rest of the castle’s inhabitants, Mr. Dandy appeared unmindful of her presence. Instead, he lifted a paw and began grooming himself.
Leah caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Aileen’s sixpence was a leaden weight in her shoe, a portent perhaps of—
She stopped her morose thoughts right there.
“Ye knew what ye were getting into, Leah,” she reminded herself.
She didn’t know the castle well enough to go searching for Madeline.
But she was quite confident in her abilities to locate the kitchens and cook something palatable for dinner.
In the end, Fox was the one to find Madeline.
He pulled the giggling girl from a wardrobe in the shuttered south wing.
Scooping her up in his arms, he hugged her tight, letting her sunshine scent soothe the panicked hammer of his heart. Why must loving a child involve so much terror?
