“For not asking me to verify that you were telling the truth.”
“Would you have?” he asked softly.
She wished he wouldn’t use that tone. It made her feel all mushy inside. But as for his question, she couldn’t admit that yes, she wouldn’t have let them cart him off to the magistrate, if it came to that. He might get the wrong impression, that she cared about him, when she didn’t, she really didn’t.
So she steeled herself to say, “Of course not. That would be throwing my reputation away, and I have too much sense to do that. Besides, I’ve already helped you more than you deserve. I even went so far as to tell the duchess that I’d heard you in your room last night, that you woke me a number of times.”
She could tell he was disappointed in her answer, but still he asked, “Did she believe you?”
“Yes, certainly—but the duke pointed out that it could have been one of your kinsmen, there to make methinkit was you.”
“Aye, he’d think o’ that, so sure he is that I’m guilty,” he grumbled.
“Well, I won’t admit I spent the night in your room to prove you innocent,” she reiterated stonily. “You’ll have to find another way.”
“That was my intention. I’d no’ ask you tae ruin your reputation on my account.”
“Then you think youcanfind the horses?” she ventured, then groaned inwardly when she heard the hopeful note in her voice.
But he didn’t seem to have noticed. “’Tis no’ a matter of ’can,’ darlin’, ’tis a matter of ’have to.’”
She nodded in complete agreement. And she was about to leave, when he sat down on the edge of the bed and she saw him wince. She had to bite back her concern. Yes, he was in pain, he had to be, but he was a big man and he could get through it well enough without any more assistance from her.
But he looked so pathetic she reconsidered the uncaring facade. “I’d like to help—that is, if you need help in your search. I don’t like it, that you’re being blamed for this, when I know you didn’t do it.”
He chuckled softly. Those last few words of hers had really brightened his mood. Actually, she felt a little lighter in the chest herself for having owned up to what she really felt.
“No more than I, darlin’,” he said. “But I have tae allow my past deeds did make me a likely suspect. In that I canna really blame St. James. But he’ll be eating his words in the end, or I dinna deserve tae be Laird of Clan MacGregor.”
Put that way, she didn’t doubt him at all.
28
“His name is Will Ables,” Gilleonan was saying. “And I’ve a strong feelin’ he’s no’ just confused on the matter, he’s lyin’ for some reason.”
“Why?” Lachlan asked.
It was the next morning. Gilleonan had shown up bright and early at Lachlan’s door to report on what he and Ranald had found out yesterday about the missing horses.
St. James might have given Lachlan a week to prove himself, but it was going to take him longer than that just to recover from the beating. So he was going to have to depend on his cousins to do most of the investigating, at least to begin with, and in all haste. The most he could do right now was give them direction.
“He’s tae defensive,” Gilleonan answered. “And tae insistent that ’twas yer voice he heard. No’ just a Scot, mind ye, but ye in particular. Now I’m askin’ ye, where would he even ha’ heard yer voice ’afore, when he doesna work in the common stable, but in the breedin’ ones?”
“I was wondering that myself, when the closest I’ve gotten tae the fancy stock here was the other morning when we wandered over tae the training yard.”
“Aye, the mornin’ ye socked that viscount for no good reason. Or is there a reason ye’d care tae be sharin’ wi’ us less discernin’ Scots now?”
Lachlan gave a mental sigh. He knew his cousin was feeling excluded, but he couldn’t very well explain what had prompted his attack on Howard Canston, when he didn’t understand it himself. To call it jealousy, a logical excuse, was absurd, so he’d as soon not discuss it at all.
In answer, Lachlan said, “Dinna fash yourself about that, Gill. I’ve already forgotten it myself. Drunk it out o’ my system, so tae speak.”
That got the expected chuckle he was hoping for. Anything else on the subject could wait until Lachlan figured it out for himself, if he ever did. But for now, he got back to the matter at hand.
“As for this groom, keep your eye on him, wi’out him knowing it, if you can. Take note of who he talks tae, where he goes, what he does when he’s no’ working. Also, talk tae everyone who works wi’ him. Find out if anyone—unusual—has been around tae see him in the last weeks.”
“What is it ye be thinkin’?”
“I’m no’ sure, but the possibilities are many. Young Will could be the thief himself. Those who live in the stable would know when no one else would be around tae take note o’ what they’re up tae.”
