It was easier to study the spectacles than to look up at him, although she wasn’t reallyseeingthem.
“What are the odds both lads were taken?” she murmured.
“I wondered if they were together when it happened?”
But… She took a deep breath and held it. “Cash, these are women’s spectacles.” Slowly, she switched her gaze to him. “I think they are Olive’s.”
He frowned. “Your brother’s new wife? Why wouldshetake Matthew?”
“Nay!” She placed the spectacles on a nearby table, then whirled back to Cash, latching onto his arm in an attempt to get him to understand. “Callan has been filching little things lately, including a pair of Olive’s spectacles.”
When he still didn’t seem to understand, she shook him slightly, feeling the strength in the coiled muscles of his forearms.
“Do ye no’ see? If Olive’s glasses—which Callan stole weeks ago—were outside Matthew’s rooms…”
“Then Callan must be at Dumpkins Manor,” he finished in a whisper, his gaze on her lips.
“Aye, or somehow he has been passing his treasures to Matthew. The lads may be working together on this for some reason!”
“Is it possible?” he murmured, then shook his head. “Matthew said something to me recently about a fort?—”
“Oh!” she interrupted excitedly, remembering a conversation with her son weeks ago. “Callan said something similar. Is it possible they have been sneaking away to collude without either of us kenning?”
Heaven knew it wouldn’t be the first time Callan had escaped her care and his nurse’s attention by making each think he was with the other.
She watched Cash’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed once, then twice. Finally, he nodded.
“Matthew has been heartbroken at the thought of not being allowed to see Callan. I suspect you are correct, Lady Athena.”
Lady Athena.
There’d been a time when he’d called her by her given name, and she’d called him Cash. But this was a reminder of what they were to one another now.
Just two concerned parents.
“Come along,” she said softly. “Let us return to Dumpkins. I have set the servants to searching for Callan here?—”
“And I for Matthew at Dumpkins,” he interrupted.
“Aye, but we ken Callan’s treasures are there, and if the two have been meeting behind our backs, it is likely they are together.”
He nodded, a harsh jerk of his head, and swallowed again as he pulled away from her touch. “Then let us hurry,” he called as he trotted down the stairs toward the front door.
CHAPTER 9
His ride to Newfincy Castle had been frantic and heart-pounding. Part of him hadknownMatthew had been taken, and the rest of him had been trying to drown out that certainty with the hope that his son had merely run away to be with his closest friend.
Now it appeared as if neither of those scenarios was true, and while he still didn’t have answers, at least he was feeling calmer.
And that was completely due to the woman who currently had her arms wrapped around him.
His gelding had been waiting patiently for him beside Newfincy Castle’s front steps, and as he’d hurried out with Athena at his side, she’d surprised him by heading for the animal instead of for the stables, or ordering a carriage to be brought around. When Cash had hesitated, she’d cocked her head at him.
“This laddie looks strong enough to carry us both swiftly,aye? Unless ye want to waste the time waiting for another to be saddled for me?”
It was the hint of challenge in her voice which convinced him. If she was going to doubt him—or his horse—then, by God, he’d show her!
But when he offered her his hand, and she swung up behind him and settled against him, her breasts pressed against his back and her arms looping around him, he wondered who the loser was in this scenario.
