“Good riddance!” Will Todd murmured to Adali, coming from the shadows.
“A fool, ‘tis true,” Adali said, “but a dangerous fool, Will. What report do you have of Kipp St.Denis? Is he long gone?”
“He is riding like the devil himself is after him,” the old man said. “The watch upon the heights have all reported back. He was off Leslie lands by late yesterday. I believe he will be in Edinburgh wi’in a few days. Master Adam’s pigeon will inform us when he reaches the city, and he will see that young St.Denis gets safely over the border into England. Where is the earl now?”
“At Dun Broc visiting his in-laws for a brief time,” Adali replied. “Where he goes next will depend upon our marquis and his patience. If he is clever, he will send parties of men out to check at all the places I have said the earl might be. It would save him time. By denying him his brother, we have removed his only real ally. Those alley rats of his look neither loyal nor resourceful, just greedy.”
“Our clansmen will be watching them every step of the way, Adali. We’ll be ahead of them, I promise ye. When do you think we will hear from Jamie Stuart himself?”
“Our messenger must have surely reached the king by now,” Adali said. “And when Kipp St.Denis arrives, the king, who is prone to indecision, will finally, it is hoped, have to do something, Will. Then his decision must be made known in Scotland, and St.Denis caught and held for king’s justice.”
“So ‘tis cat and mouse until then,” Will noted.
“Aye,” Adali agreed.
“Ahh, ‘tis guid to have the earl home again,” Will replied. “‘Twas verra boring at Glenkirk while he was gone.”
“‘Tisnaeboring now,” Adali chuckled.
“Aye,” Will said, his weathered face wreathed in smiles. “‘Tis just like the old days.”
“The old days?” Adali looked puzzled.
“Aye,” Will replied. “When the current earl was but a bairn, and his mother, Mistress Catriona, was loved by her husband, and the earl of Bothwell, and lusted after by the same Jamie Stuart now on the throne. Ahh, what a time we have then, although we clansmen folk weren’t meant to know it, but we did. There was comings and goings, and the king wanted the current earl’s mother for his mistress, and her husband was lost at sea, and she, so in love wi the earl of Bothwell, who was the king’s cousin. They called him theUncrowned King of Scotland,and Jamie Stuart was so afraid of him that he had him put to thehorn and accused of witchcraft; but it dinna get him Mistress Cat. She did her duty by the clan, matching her children up, and then she fled to her true love. Those were the days, Adali! These would seem to be verra much like them. The Leslies of Glenkirk are nae a quiet clan.”
Adali laughed. “So it would seem, Will Todd, but then my mistress has never been what one would call abiddable lass.I would say the earl and his wife are more than well matched where trouble is concerned.”
“Aye, which is all the more reason we’ll keep them safe from this Englishman. We have lost one Leslie countess to perfidy, but we will nae lose another, Adali. We’ll nae lose another!”
Chapter Seventeen
Adali had not given the marquis of Hartsfield a straight routing. While Sithean lay near to Glenkirk, his next destination of Greyhaven would take him to a distant point, and then back again, and then to another distant point. Not being familiar with the countryside, however, Piers St.Denis did not realize the deception. He missed his brother’s company and felt unsafe with these Edinburgh cutthroats. Now he had to deal with them. There was no Kipp to stand between them. Where had he gone?He should be here looking after me as he promised our father, dammit,the marquis thought angrily, not considering the possibility his brother was gone for good.
At Sithean he was again greeted with cordiality by the old earl and his wife. He was well fed and comfortably housed, and his men and horses were nicely cared for, but James Leslie and his wife were not at Sithean. Had they been?
“Oh, aye,” the old earl replied. “‘Twas several weeks ago now, it was, my lord. Was it nae, my dear?” He turned to his wife.
“Aye,” she replied, dourly.
“A loovely lass, the new countess. Are ye acquainted wi her?” Sithean smiled pleasantly at Piers St.Denis.
“I have a royal warrant for your nephew’s arrest, and his wife’s as well,” the marquis of Hartsfield said irritably. “Do you not understand that I am on the king’s business?”
“Oh, aye, aye,” the old earl said. “How is Jamie Stuart, my lord? He is always getting in some sort of fret and ordering arrests. He was such an unruly and nervous bairn. He doesna love his homeland.”
There is obviously nothing here,the marquis thought peevishly. “I will be leaving in the morning,” he told his hosts.
James and Jasmine Leslie watched their enemy as he departed Sithean. They had come up into the hills above Sithean to A-Cuil. They had traveled without the trappings of their station. Adali had remained to watch over Glenkirk and coordinate their stream of information. Rohana was at the abbey with Mary Todd, Charlie-boy, and wee Patrick. Toramalli had gone with Skye and the children to Dun Broc. Only Fergus More and Red Hugh remained with them, which was providential, as Jasmine did not cook. Fortunately Red Hugh did.
A-Cuil was not a large lodge. Set in the hills above Loch Sithean, it had been constructed of stone, with a slate roof. Its first floor consisted of a tiny parlor and a kitchen. There was a single bedroom beneath the eaves on the second floor. Surrounded by a pine forest and set upon a cliff, A-Cuil had a panoramic view of Glenkirk, Sithean, and the countryside surrounding them. The lodge itself, however, blended into the landscape, and was rarely seen by passersby below. Jasmine liked it here, and even with the presence of Red Hugh and Fergus More, she found it romantic. The valet and the man-at-arms slept in two small loft rooms in the little stable belonging to A-Cuil.
“I could live here forever,” Jasmine told Jemmie.
He laughed. “Where would we put the children, not to mention Adali and the twins, madame?”
“If we lived here we wouldn’t have children, or servants,” she replied with what she believed was perfect logic.
“You would learn to cook?”he teased her. “These dainty beringed fingers would knead bread and peel carrots?” He caught her hands in his and kissed them, nibbling playfully upon her fingertips.
