As he accepted the two envelopes from Lady Clare this morning, he was certain there had never been two more pigheaded while intelligent people than these two. And, somehow both he and his half-brother ended up working for them. They must have offended the fates to end up on opposite sides of this business.
He made his way to Leith, deciding to take the long walk downhill and try to clear his head from everything. It would take more than an hour, but it would settle his nerves before he saw his brother and turned over the deed in his bag to Cairns’ employer.
Oh, the deed was bad enough—the spoils of war between the knight and the lady that Sir Iain did not deserve. But the sealed packet bothered him, and he did not know why. Other than his brother’s writing on the outside, the lady’s name written in Cairns’ recognizable script, Chalmers had no idea what was inside. From the size of it, it was multiple pages, very like the reports he prepared for the lady and his other clients. The lady asked for it to be returned to Buchanan and so he took it along.
The sun hid for most of his walk down and Chalmers was glad he’d reached the pub before the rains began. Taking a seat in the shadowed corner, he sent a lad over to Buchanan’s offices with word to Cairns. This place was far enough away from the polite world and the pubs they patronized that he used it as a meeting place on those occasions when he needed to meet with people with whom he did not wish to be associated. He’d just finished his first ale and pie when Cairns entered, his gaze immediately seeking out the darker places in the low-ceiled establishment. Cairns told the barmaid to send two more and sat down opposite him.
“This is a bloody mess,” Cairns said, removing his hat and shaking off the rain from it. The floor would never mind the water.
“You have no idea,” Chalmers said. “The kidney pie is good if you are hungry.” The maid dipped low as she placed two mugs of ale between them on the table. Her own lovely wares jiggled and threatened to fall out as she bent over and shifted the mugs.
“A pie for my friend, lass,” Chalmers said, tossing a couple of coins to her. “And bring another one and a pint for me.”
Her hopeful expression soon gave way to the acceptance that they would be sampling the pub’s wares and not hers and she walked off, hips swaying, to get the food. Once she left, Chalmers opened his satchel and took out the two packets. Sliding the deed across the table, he watched Cairns’ face as his half-brother realized what it was.
“The lady is going through with it then?” he asked as he pulled the packet to him.
“She is a lady and honors her debts,” Chalmers said with a bit of brass in his voice. “Worse, she’s a good one and didn’t deserve to be caught up in Buchanan’s nets.” Cairns’ brows raised and he cleared his throat. “No offense meant, of course.”
“None taken. He’s worse than bees with a honeypot when he decides to pursue something. Once he sets his sights on it, it’s better to take his money and walk away.” Cairns lifted the mug and almost drained it, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Fair warning would have been nice. You were involved before I knew you were working for him.”
Cairns tilted his head in acceptance. “True. But I expected it to be quick and over. For the lady to fold her hand when he made the offers. He didn’t shortchange her on the amount he was willing to pay.”
“Nay, most generous of many I’ve seen offered. But then it got personal,” Chalmers said. His search of Iain Buchanan’s background had uncovered a number of discoveries best left buried. “Tess cannot be happy.”
Cairns had tipped the mug up to get the last of it and choked at his mention of the woman Buchanan kept at The Cock’s Spur. Good. His brother needed to understand that Chalmers had discovered some of the lesser-known details of his employer’s life. It took several hacking coughs before Cairns could breathe once more.
Taking advantage of his brother’s surprise, Chalmers lifted the other packet and slid it across the table. The maid returned with the pies and mugs, and it took several minutes to get it all settled before them. He noticed that Cairns was staring at the new envelope with a puzzled glint in his eyes.
“So, what did you send the lady?” Chalmers asked before biting into the pie. He waited to learn if Cairns would ignore the question or lie in answering it.
“Reports Buchanan asked me to send her.” Cairns let out a breath before continuing. “Men her father wants her to consider for marriage.”
Now he understood why she’d not asked him for such reports—she’d gotten them from Buchanan... and Cairns.
“Anything of interest?” This time Cairns did the delaying tactic of biting into his pie and chewing it slowly.
Cairns shrugged. “Some better than others.”
“Financial or otherwise?”
“Whatever I found that might be interesting.”
Chalmers leaned over and flipped the packet, showing the still-intact seal on it. “When did you deliver it to her? I never saw it until this morn.”
Cairns wiped his mouth, drank the last of his ale and stood. Without a word, he took the packet and nodded.
“My thanks for the meal. The pie was good.”
He watched his brother walk out, but Chalmers remained at the table. He could have lifted the seal with no difficulty if she’d given him warning and time enough. That seal had given Cairns pause and Chalmers suspected the reason for it.
Lady Clare had never opened it.
Knowing Buchanan’s ways, Chalmers understood that some deal was made. And, from the events of the last month or so, he suspected there had been more than this one. The lady’s problem was that she thought that others conducted business as she did rather than as Buchanan did. In the five years he’d been employed by her, more so in the last two years since Jonathan Logan’s death, he tried to give her balance. To watch out for the seedier elements and guide her decisions since she was a woman, a lady, in a world that did not believe women should be involved in business and in one where others thought it their due to take advantage of her.
But Buchanan had slipped under his guard while Chalmers thought he was watching. The rogue appealed to the lady and that was a strange development in her life of correct behavior and society upbringing. Neither Logan nor his wife had ever strayed as far as Chalmers could find and the lady had ignored every effort to gain her attention and favor since her husband’s death. They were having a rough patch when the man died, he knew that much, but what marriage did not go through one here and there?
