“Baird!”
He looked up at once. Davina stood in the doorway, with her eyes bright with a purpose that did not bode for the orderly completion of his correspondence. Her cloak hung half-fastened, as though she had forgotten it entirely in her haste.
He set down his quill. “Is something the matter?”
“Nay,” she said quickly, crossing the room and seizing his hand. “Everything is perfect.”
His brow furrowed. “Those two statements rarely appear together.”
She smiled, looking mischievously unapologetic. “Ye cannae work any longer.”
“I beg yer pardon?”
“Ye have been working since dawn,” she continued briskly. “Ye have ignored two meals and frightened at least one steward. It is time ye came with me.”
Baird leaned back in his chair, studying her with narrowed eyes. “And where, precisely, am I being abducted?”
“That,” she said, “is the surprise.”
He sighed theatrically. “Davina, if the keep collapses while I am gone?—”
“It willnae,” she assured him. “I have something tae show ye.”
He tilted his head. “Could ye nae show me here? After all, ye’ve already shown me quite a number of things I find highly distracting.”
She laughed playfully. “If ye are very good,” she said, tugging his hand again, “I might show yethatlater.”
Baird rose at last, surrendering with exaggerated reluctance. “Very well,” he said. “Lead on. But if this surprise involves fresh air or cheerfulness, I will hold ye personally responsible.”
She did not answer him at once. Instead, she dragged him with surprising determination through the corridor and out into the cooling air of early evening, only slowing when the scent of hay and leather announced the stables.
It was there that Baird noticed it. The sight stopped him short.
Davina turned curiously. “What is it?”
He looked at her properly then, as though seeing her for the first time that day and perhaps for the first time at all. The dress was unfamiliar: dark green, deep as pine needles after rain, cut simply but with an elegance that seemed to belong entirely to her. The color set off her eyes, her hair and that quiet confidence with which she stood before him.
“Well,” he said slowly, “that answers a question I had nae yet thought tae ask.”
She lifted a brow. “Which is?”
“Why ye look unusually lovely this evening,” he replied. “Even by yer own dangerous standards.”
She laughed, a little breathless now. “Dae I?”
“Ye dae,” he said firmly. “And I am reasonably certain I would remember such a dress.”
“It is a special night,” she said, smoothing the skirt as though the explanation were sufficient.
His brow furrowed. “Why?”
She stepped closer, placed a hand on his chest, and smiled with maddening mystery. “Just ride with me.”
He studied her a moment longer, weighing curiosity against common sense. Curiosity won.
“Very well,” he said. “But if this is an ambush of any sort, romantic or otherwise, I reserve the right tae complain later.”
Her smile widened. “Agreed.”
