“She earned everyone’s trust, did she?” John circled around his desk and sat down. He leaned forward and removed his spectacles. “Tell her I wish to see her at once, and warn her that her position is at risk if she does not earnmytrust. Go now. I do not wish to be kept waiting. There is a great deal of money at stake, not to mention the welfare of my dear cousin, Catherine. We must get her back. She has been through enough. She needs our protection.”
“Very good, my lord.” Smythe turned and left the library.
***
Smack!The sharp sting of the dowager’s hand across Mrs. Silver’s face caused both dogs to lift their chins from their slumber in front of the fire.
“You have betrayed me,” Eleanor said. “You wretched woman. You have behaved intolerably! I would shoot you dead if I could, but I will have to settle for ending your employment, and I promise you—no other decent family will ever accept you into service after this. You will soon find yourself destitute or scrubbing pots in some village alehouse. If you’re lucky.”
Mrs. Silver lifted her chin and glanced down at the growling dogs with a cool, derisive expression. “I’m afraid not, milady,” she said. “The earl has promised me employment here indefinitely, and he has rewarded me with a substantial increase in my wages.”
The dowager scoffed. “So your loyalty was bought for a better price? Is that it, Mrs. Silver?”
“Aye, milady. The earl was very kind, and concerned for Lady Catherine’s welfare. She was abducted by a Highlander. I could not, in good conscience, keep information from him which might result in her rescue.”
The dowager swung her cane through the air like a whip and knocked over a vase of fresh flowers. “He is concerned for her money, you fool! He doesn’t give a fig about her welfare! She has already been ruined in every way. What is the point in saving her now, except to hold on to her inheritance? And as for being concerned…” She paused and pulled her lips into a thin line. “I was concerned once before, and traveled all the way to Italy to bring her home, only to be disappointed by her yet again. She is a disloyal, ungrateful gel. This is the second time she has run off, and I am through with her. I am done with you, too, Mrs. Silver. Get out of my sight.”
The dowager whistled, and the dogs followed her into her dressing room, where she waited for the door to close behind the wretched, unfaithful housekeeper. For a long moment the dowager sat in silence.
Though the room was quiet, her heart was pounding in her ears like heavy claps of thunder. She could endure it no longer. She fell to her knees and collapsed into a fit of despair.
“Damn her!” she cried. “Damn that wayward child! How could she have left us like this?”
Chapter Twenty
“Tell me what I need to know about Murdoch and Raonaid,” Lachlan said to Angus as he tossed a loaded saddlebag over the back of Catherine’s horse. “Where are they living, and will he think I have come to seek vengeance for his invasion of this castle three years ago?”
“He is living outside Edinburgh,” Angus replied. “Directly south of the castle in a stone manor house called Blue Waters, which he has let from a sea captain. Murdoch will speak with you if you tell him you are there on behalf of his sister. We have agreed on a truce, he and I, since we cannot escape the fact that we are brothers by marriage.”
“What are the terms of this truce?” Lachlan asked.
Angus leaned a shoulder against the side of the stall. “Murdoch has agreed never to come within a ten-mile radius of Kinloch.”
“And what have you agreed to?” Lachlan asked as he buckled the saddlebags.
“I’ve agreed not to hunt him down and kill him like the dirty dog that he is. To this day I believe I got the lesser end of the bargain.”
Lachlan regarded him keenly. “Well, I suppose there must be sacrifices. You are married to his sister, after all, and I doubt she’d be pleased if you dirked her own brother. Even if he does deserve it.”
“Aye, and my wife’s pleasure has always been my primary concern.”
Lachlan nodded with a grin. “I remember. But are you sure you don’t want me to take care of him for you? I could make it look like an accident.”
The corner of Angus’s mouth curled up in the smallest hint of a smile. “Your offer is very tempting, Lachlan, but I’m a man of my word, so I will keep to the truce.”
“So will I, then,” he replied, “unless he pulls a dirk on me, or tries to put a musket ball in me, in which case I will consider the terms null and void. Anything else I should know?”
“Aye. There is the issue of Murdoch’s renewed interest in another rebellion. It might cause trouble for you.”
“How so?”
Angus glanced over his shoulder as if to ensure there was no one about. “Catherine’s father might have been a loyal Jacobite, but her cousin, the earl, is a stanch Hanoverian with no love for Highlanders.”
“You don’t have to tell me that. He shot me in the arm.”
“Did he, now? Well, you might want to keep that to yourself. It only serves to prove that Catherine may be an enemy. She certainly stands in the way of a great deal of money for the Jacobites. We all know what will happen to her inheritance if she does not live long enough to see her twenty-fifth birthday.”
“According to her father’s last will and testament, it will be forfeited to the rebellion.”
