Focus, Alex.
Silence had its use. He saw it now with fresh edges. Words called people closer and gave shape to things that were better left simple. He would not lie to his house. He would not hand them a truth they could not carry yet. He would carry it and let them walk beside him until he chose the hour.
No one needed to know about his deal with Erica. At least not this early into the arrangement. When he was ready, he would tell them.
“Da,” Katie said. “If she is very nice, can she read to us?”
“Aye,” he said. “If she wishes to.”
“Does she ken stories?” Bettie said.
“I expect she does,” he said. “Anyone kens stories.”
Grandmamma tapped her cane once and cut the talk. “All right, children. It is time to finish yer food,” she said. “Remember, ye have lessons in a quarter hour.”
The girls rushed the last mouthfuls while a standby maid took their plates and wiped the board. The small but somewhat relaxing motions of the morning went on.
Hoofbeats sounded at the gate, breaking into the routine, and Alex exhaled. Erica was no longer coming up the hill, that was for sure. She was here. He reached for his cup and sipped as slowly as he could.
The maid who had announced her arrival earlier stepped back into the room, less breathless now, steady. She curtsied again.
“The lady is in the yard, me Laird. She says she is under MacMillan protection,” she said.
Grandmamma’s eyes went to Alex. The girls’ mouths fell open.
Alex kept his expression steady and set down his cup with care.
For the first time that morning, he understood that letting moments like this pass would be his greatest defense. He held it and let it do the work instead. For now, he needed to let it all play out.
Grandmamma stood with a scrape of her cane and a lift of her chin that gave the room its cue. “Well then,” she said briskly, clapping her hands. “That explains everything.”
It explained nothing, Alex knew that. He could see that his grandmother was dying for any piece of information that he wasn’t ready to give. She did not wait.
“Girls, tidy yerselves. We daenae want to meet our guests with sticky fingers now, do we?”
The girls ran, half tripping over each other in their hurry. Their chatter rose and scattered toward the corridor.
Grandmamma paused beside Alex’s chair and dropped her voice just enough to keep the room from catching it.
“Daenae think all of this doesnae make me suspicious,” she murmured. “I’m just pleased to have a guest.”
She lifted the smile back onto her face and turned to the hall with the bright ease of a hostess who had been born to it.
“See, all of ye,” she said. “It is a happy day.”
“She willnae be alone,” Alex said, before the motion could carry her out of reach.
She paused and turned back to him. “What?”
“Her maither is coming as well.”
Grandmamma’s delight sharpened. “Och, my,” she said. “I must inform the kitchens then.”
She swept away, calling names and orders with quick precision. He could hear some of her words and wondered if he had made a mistake telling her that.
It didn’t matter; she would see them soon anyway.
The presence of a mother turned a visit into a settlement as Alex watched his grandmother go and felt a slow pull in his chest. Theplan he had made at the fires was standing up in his hall and asking for its chair.
