“So, Magret? Will ye hide her?” Erskine pushed her, desperate to hear the words. It would buy him a little time to find a way to secure Laura’s freedom.
“Aye,” Magret turned back sharply, “but just for a little while, and ye’ll make yerself useful, lassie.”
“I will, I promise.” The relief on Laura’s face made something crack in Erskine’s chest. It was plain to see how much this simple act meant to her.
“Ye cannae tell anyone who she really is, Magret,” Erskine warned, earning a scoff from the elderly woman in reply.
“What kind of bampot do ye think I am? Aye, I ken ye will be Laird someday, but I’ll still speak to ye how I like.”
“I wouldnae have it any other way,” he smiled at her.
“Right,” she turned her eyes back to Laura. “We best get ye freshened up then and give ye some chores to do. We’ll need a story too as to why ye’re stayin’ with me.”
“Waif and stray I asked ye to look after? That should do the job,” Erskine said as he turned toward the door, ready to take his leave. “Ye best get into the habit of callin’ her Billie too.”
“Billie?” Magret repeated as she stepped closer to Laura again, squinting as she stared at her face. “Laura suits ye better.”
“I best be goin’,” Erskine moved out of the sitting room and toward the front door, with the two women following him. “I’ll be back tomorrow.” As he hovered in the doorway, his eyes slid back to Laura. She was standing there with a rather muddled expression on her features, torn between happiness and a kind of sadness.
“Thank you,” she said eventually, trying to offer him a quick smile, though it looked difficult to do. “For helping me.”
“Best nae thank me yet,” he sighed as he reached for the door handle. “This willnae be easy to avoid people discoverin’ ye.”
“I fooled all of you!” She pointed out with a genuine smile this time that he happily returned.
“Well, I discovered the truth, dinnae I? Speakin’ of which,” he turned his eyes back to Magret, who still had some wariness in her expression. “English soldiers are searchin’ for her. If any turn up in this town, hide her.”
“Ye daenae ask for much, do ye?” she said with feeling, but she nodded, nevertheless.
“Thank ye, Magret.”
“Aye, now be off with ye,” she waved a hand at him. “Yer faither will be wantin’ to see ye.”
There was more Erskine wanted to say to Laura, but with Magret watching them, there was nothing he could say. So, he just offered a smile instead, somehow hoping that with that simple action, he could convey all that he was feeling for her. Then he left, but he kept glancing back to the house windows as he mounted the horse and hurried off again, hoping for another glimpse of her. He thought he saw her pass the window just once, tracing the cap she wore as she went.
He had an idea. A way to perhaps ensure Laura’s freedom and protect her from a marriage to Earl Moore, but it was a risk. He had not wanted to tell it to her in case he raised her hopes too much. After all, it would be asking a lot of his father and expecting a Scottish Laird to go out of his way for a young London lass; well, Erskine was not sure he should be holding out much hope.
I’ll think of somethin’, Laura. I promise.
Chapter Fourteen
Erskine was glad to be home again, despite the turmoil that was going on in his mind. As he reached his chamber, he bathed and changed quickly before making his way through the corridors, with his hair still damp, searching for his father.
He found Laird Alistair MacCallum in the dining room set high within the castle. The great arching windows, furnished with glass, held a grand view of the town below, the valley, and the sea that rolled into the nearby beach. Through the windows, light flooded the room, illuminating the place of his father. The Laird was standing by the head of the table, preparing to take his seat.
Possessing the same freckles that Dearg had, the Laird was a proper mix of the two brothers, with Erskine’s hair color and blue eyes. For an older man, he still possessed a grand presence in any room, a presence Erskine hoped he could someday replicate when he became Laird.
“Erskine!” His father’s head flicked toward him in the doorway, his lips parting in a great smile. “Well, arenae ye a sight for sore eyes. Ye look as tired as yer brother does.”
Erskine crossed the distance quickly, mirroring his father’s smile and stretching his hand out for a firm shake.
“I hear yer journey wasnae without its obstacles,” the Laird gestured across the room, and Erskine looked over his shoulder to see Dearg was sat on a windowsill on the far side of the room with a proud smile upon his face. That smile made Erskine falter…Dearg was clearly up to some kind of mischief.
“It was certainly an interestin’ journey,” Erskine accepted, “but a successful one.” Erskine knew his father would want a detailed description of all the business dealings they had discussed with the members of parliament, but first, there would be dinner.
“Aye, excellent news, then come, ye must both eat well and sleep well tonight,” the Laird clapped Erskine on the back and urged him to take a seat at the table as he took his own seat at the head.
Erskine glanced between the Laird and Dearg with trepidation. The plan he had been forming on route to the castle now seemed not so good a plan at all. He intended to ask his father to offer protection and sanctuary for Laura. He had been confident when hearing of what Laura had escaped that the Laird’s heart would go out to her. Why wouldn’t he offer a woman fleeing such a life a home? Yet this was not a conversation Erskine wanted to have in front of Dearg. It was private, and now, personal. What he felt for Laura made it an incredibly intimate conversation to be had, and he didn’t doubt there would be some degree of him pleading on Laura’s behalf to their father. She was a London lass after all…there was a great obstacle there indeed for the Laird to surpass in order to offer his help.
