“To the library.” Teague led the way, charging from the room.
*
As soon asTeague stepped into the library, he knew things were not right. Treachery filled the air like the stench of a rotting corpse. The doors to the garden stood partially ajar, as though whoever passed through hadn’t taken the time to close them properly. He stared at them, clenching his teeth until his jaws ached. “Those doors were locked.”
“Only to those trying to get in from outside,” Calder said.
“Is anything missing?” Mila circled around to the back of his desk. Worry creased her brow as she bent and eyed the drawers. “This one wasna closed all the way.” She pulled it open, then lifted her gaze to his. “But it doesna seem to be empty.”
He joined her and stared down at the disarray inside the drawer. Without even looking, he knew the compartment hidden beneath the false bottom would be empty. The tip of his dagger triggered the mechanism and popped it open. Just as he feared. Everything was gone.
“It is empty, my dove,” he quietly corrected her. “Dangerously empty.”
“All of it?” Calder asked.
Teague nodded, too enraged to speak.
“All of what?” Mila looked back and forth between them. “All of what?” she repeated a little louder.
“Journals. Ledgers. Ship’s logs. Damning things that pave a way straight to the gallows.” He dropped into his chair, as shook as if punched in the gut. “Seal the wall,” he ordered Calder. “Drop the portcullis and close the gate.” He stared off into space, slowly pinching his bottom lip as he replayed everything that had happened until the lairds and Master Cranson disappeared. “One by one, I want every individual brought to me. I dinna care if it takes all feckin’ night; I will speak to each servant and member of this clan who stepped inside the skirting wall since late this afternoon, ye ken?”
Calder jerked a nod and left without another word.
“After all I have done for this clan,” Teague muttered. The thief’s betrayal ached like a gaping wound that drove through his core.
“How many know about that drawer and the way to open it?” Mila drew closer and gave his shoulder a consoling squeeze.
He stared down at the feckin’ thing that was supposed to safeguard his most secretive documents. “Only Calder.” Then he eyed the garden doors. “But if someone hid among those bushes and watched long enough, they might discover my desk’s secrets.”
“Calder would never betray ye.” She nudged between him and the desk and sat on his lap. “And besides, he was in the hall the entire evening.” But she frowned down at the drawer and then back up at the garden doors.
“What? Ye might as well say whatever it is ye are thinking.”
She rubbed the spot between her eyebrows as if trying to massage her thoughts away. “When did ye last see the contents of that drawer? When do ye know for certain everything was there?”
“Why?”
With a sad shake of her head, she tapped on the desk. “Both the garden doors and the drawer could have been staged to look as if the robbery happened this evening. The thief could be trying to make ye think it was one of our disappearing guests who did it.” She thumped the desktop again. “Were ye in that drawer earlier today? Was everything there at that time?”
“I made a note in my journal before going upstairs to dress and speak with ye.”
“And everything was here then?”
“Aye, as far as I could tell. Everything looked the same.” At this point, he doubted everything.
“Were ye alone?”
He gritted his teeth, refusing to answer. What she suggested could not be possible.
A heavy sigh escaped her. “Was there anyone else here besides yerself and Calder?”
He looked aside to avoid her gaze. “Ye know me too well, my precious dove.”
“I am not saying Calder is the culprit. Just because he was here, it does not mean he is guilty.” She pressed a lingering kiss to his forehead. The kiss a mother would use to soothe her troubled child. “It could be someone attempting to cast doubt between the two of ye while they got away with this terrible deed.” She offered him a hopeful smile. “Divide and conquer, ye ken? If they set ye against each other, that leaves them free to cause even more discord.”
“He is my brother. Maybe not by blood, but by years of trust and loyalty. It canna be him.”
“I never thought it was,” she said. “But what concerns me more than who did this is, what do they intend to do with what they stole?” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “And more importantly, how long do we have before the rest of their plot unfolds?”
