“I had gone out to the kennels one afternoon when I was supposed to be in my room and let loose my favorite hound— Rupert.”
“Ah. That explains a great deal about that smelly beast below that ye seem to have taken a fancy to.”
He was right of course.
“I suppose my father was concerned that I might be hurt, going off like that. The hounds were used for hunting, and far outweighed either Linnie or myself at the time. But Rupert wasspecial. I let him out then followed him on an adventure,” I continued.
“Not the first of many, most certainly.”
I ignored his sarcasm. “We were gone for some time, exploring the woods. I will admit that I became somewhat lost.”
“Somewhat? Either ye were lost or ye were not.”
I ignored that as well.
“However, I simply followed Rupert home. He knew precisely where he was going. My father was furious of course when we returned.” I frowned at the memory.
“He beat Rupert horribly, even though I attempted to explain that he had brought me home, he had done nothing wrong, but simply obeyed me and had then done exactly what he was trained to do…”
“Lily is not a hound,” Brodie pointed out. “She needs to know right from wrong.”
“The point is,” I continued, “that even though what she did might be seen as wrong, she did it for the right reason.”
“Somethin’ wrong fer the right reason?” Brodie took my hand and pressed it against his cheek.
“It amazes me the way yer thoughts work. A crime to undo a crime?” he suggested.
I was not about to let him get away with that.
“And you have done precisely the very same thing. Munro has told me…”
“I will have to speak with him about sharing stories with ye.” He turned my hand and kissed the palm.
“Enough of yer stories, Mikaela Forsythe. There is nothing more to be done tonight. Leave this,” he gestured toward the doctor’s book and notes, “until the mornin’.”
His hand then closed over mine and he led me to the adjacent bedroom.
We both undressed. I then turned off the electric and crawled between ice-cold bedcovers. And Brodie was there.
I moved toward his warmth, his arm going round my shoulders.
“Rupert, ye say? I should have known. Ye have a way of picking up stray things.”
I smiled against his shoulder.
Indeed.
Ten
“How didyou know where to go to find the office in Aldgate?” I asked, the doctor’s notes and his book spread across the desk in front of me.
Brodie did not immediately reply from the adjacent bedroom. He eventually appeared dressed in his preferred trousers and sweater, his hair damp from a turn at the wash bowl. His eye did look somewhat better, although there were tinges of blue and green about the edges.
“Ye still insist on being part of this?”
Ah, so that was what had that dark gaze meeting mine, briefly, then looking away with what I do believe was a softly muttered curse.
I set my pen down on the desk. I had been going over my notes with the purpose of then putting them on the chalkboard, including the copy of that intercepted note I had managed to persuade from Alex Sinclair.
