Graham certainly believed it. “It’s best we don’t go there, Cait.”
“Because it’s dangerous what ye’re doing. Ye pretend to side with the English. Ye dine with them. Ye befriend the officers and learn what ye can so ye can report against them. It’s brilliant but deadly at the same time. And ye thinkI’mthe one in danger?”
Damn, but he needed to get out of there and stay away from her. She was far too astute. “You best not be repeating that.”
“I would never reveal yer secrets.”
“There are no secrets to reveal.” He was beginning to sound desperate, he knew. The knowledge she’d gleaned from him could get them both killed. Palmer and the rest of his so-called friends wouldn’t take it lightly that they were being played as fools.
“How many Scotsmen have ye saved by doing this?”
“Not enough.”
“The dead soldiers? Was that yer doing?”
“No. I don’t know who killed them, and it worries me.”
“Is someone trying to blame ye for it?”
“Not yet.”
“Ye think they might?”
“I don’t know. I think they would have already if that was their plan, but I just don’t know.”
“The fire?”
“Another thing I don’t know.”
“The ship ye lost?”
He shook his head because he didn’t know that, either.
“I asked Sutherland if he had information on the fire.”
God almighty, but she would be his undoing in more ways than one. “When did you see Sutherland?”
“He stops by periodically.”
“Why?” He didn’t like the thought of Sutherland coming by the cottage. Sutherland was newlywed and in love with his wife, so Iain dismissed the thought almost immediately, but Sutherland was up to his eyes in things that Cait had no business being involved in.But you know she is. You knew that the first night you spent here, up in the hayloft.You’ve refused to admit it to yourself.“Please don’t tell me ye’re aiding Sutherland.”
She stood and took the empty plate to the counter, where she fiddled with the knife and the loaf of bread. Iain got up and held her wrist to still her. She looked up at him, her lips parted, her green eyes wide.
“Damn it, Cait. Tell me you’re not involved in Sutherland’sStaran.”
“I have no idea what ye’re talking about.” Her gaze slid away.
“I saw you. The night I slept in your barn, I saw you meet someone, and then half a dozen people left your home. Where were you hiding them?”
She yanked her wrist from his hold and stepped back. “Ye don’t have the right to demand answers from me.”
“If you’re involved in something that could get you in trouble with the English, I have every right. I’m your clan leader, and this is my land.”
Her face paled and her lips thinned in anger. “Don’t push me,” she said. “I will move off this land if I have to.”
It shouldn’t matter to him if she left, but it did matter, and he told himself it was because John had been his best friend, his commander, and his only confidant. But he knew all of that to be a lie. He didn’t want her leaving for personal reasons, reasons he was not quite able to admit to himself.
“I don’t want you to leave,” he said softly.
