Page 27 of The Lyon and the Lass

So this was what being in charge of a keep meant. Just like it was Kerrigan’s responsibility to see to the clan’s needs, as lady of the manor, she was the one responsible for seeing that food was provided for those who ate at the great hall.

“How many break their fast here?” She asked.

Isla shrugged. “I doona ken for sure, because it changes, but twenty or so seems right. We have a lot more for supper.”

Supper! Yes, that meal again.Once the morning meal was finished, she would make a trip into the village and make things right with the vendors and shop owners who were owed money so she could buy some supplies to make supper better than the evening before.

From what Edward had said, things had gotten so bad that more than the granary didn’t trust the laird. Well, she didn’t know how to run a keep, but she certainly knew how to charm people. Her training in that, along with the experience she’d had during her Seasons would not be wasted.

Two hours later,Christine sat fanning herself with a limp piece of linen, thinking of the lovely, well-decorated fans she’d owned in London. The kitchen looked like a battle had been fought, but there were other things to be done. Once all those who had arrived to break their fast had been fed and on their way to do their jobs, she looked at the servants in the kitchen whoappeared as weary as she felt. It had taken a great deal of scurrying around, shouting, and threats between Edward and his younger brother whom he’d brought back from his trip to his cottage to provide additional help.

Taking a deep breath, she said, “Our next matter is cleaning the bed chambers.”

Several loud groans reacted to her statement.

“Ye seem ina hurry to return home,” Neil said as they cantered along the turnpike that would bring him and Kerrigan close to Luffness Castle.

They had been gone five days, but during that time, they’d found a used, but very sturdy engine to replace the broken one, and arranged with a livestock agent to purchase more sheep as well as geese, rabbits, cows, pigs, and chickens. He’d also spent time with the bank in Edinburgh, setting up an account and withdrawing sufficient funds to pay for all the necessary daily expenses for several months.

“Aye. I’ve done enough traveling the past month to last me a long time. But his trip to Edinburgh was necessary and worthwhile.”

“And ye have a pretty wife waiting for ye.” Neil grinned.

Kerrigan smiled back. “’Tis true.”

Neil studied him for a minute. “Do ye really think Lady Lindsay is capable of managing the keep? From what ye’ve told me, she was raised in a much different way than our lasses are.”

He nodded. “Aye. The ladies in London are raised to ken how to run a household. ’Tis part of their upbringing.”

The other man frowned. “Kerrigan, this is no’ a rich man’s household. Luffness is a castle and keep. ’Tis different from one of those fancy London townhouses.”

Kerrigan studied him. “How do ye ken about fancy London townhouses?”

Neil grinned again. “I wasn’t always a smelly head shepherd in Scotland. My mam was a servant in one of those houses before she married my da and she told me many stories of how the ladies spent their time. They had someone waiting on them all day. My mam even had to bring chocolate e’ery morning to the lady of the house she worked in. They spend their time visiting each other for tea and gossip, buying clothes, and going to garden parties, the theater and balls. Any ‘managing’ they did was meeting with the housekeeper and letting her do all the work.”

The man gave him pause. Had he been too confident leaving Christine so soon after their arrival? He had left her with quite a mess. His concern grew as he realized that with Llioni dead, there really wasn’t anyone to take her in hand and help her learn what she needed to know. When he thought about how the keep looked when they’d returned from London, he frowned and urged Fergus to go faster.

“I don’t carewhere the bitch is. I want her found and her scheming and lovely arse brought back to London.” Carl Allenby waved the papers clutched in his hand as he dealt with the dimwit he’d hired to get his niece back. “I have documents here that would grant an annulment once she meets with the magistrate in Edinburgh. Then she will honor the betrothal I made with Lord Newton.”

Carl had spent money he didn’t have to hire someone to locate the whereabouts of the bloody woman. He didn’t care to know how the information was obtained, just that it was. He still found it hard to believe his niece had the nerve and intelligence to somehow find herself a Scottish Laird to marry her and sweep her off to Scotland.

Now he needed someone to fetch her. “Take her to Edinburgh, about twenty miles west of this blasted castle she’s living in. There is an inn there, the Gooseneck Ale House. I will meet you at the place with her betrothed. Do not harm her or touch her. She has a very large, brutal husband who you will have to avoid at all costs.” He stopped himself from reaching up to touch what was left of his poor nose. “However if you are given the chance to kill the bastard, do so. It will make it easier for me since my niece will be a widow and we won’t have to deal with the annulment. Pay someone who works in the bloody castle to find out how to get in and get her out.”

“I do not kill, my lord. If that is part of the job, you will need to find someone else.”

Carl waved him off. “I don’ t care. Just get my niece.” The man, Rupert Sanders he’d said his name was, nodded and slipped the information into his pocket and stuck out his hand. “I’ll have my money now, my lord. I understand you have debtors all over London.”

Carl stiffened at being spoken to that way from a man so far below him. “I will pay you half of what we agreed on, the rest when she is delivered.”

“Half now, plus travel expenses.”

Carl sighed. When this man returned Christine to him, he would have plenty of money. And this had to work. If not, he was most likely leaving the country. Blasted debtors.

He handed the last of his banknotes to him. The man counted them, tucked them into his pocket and nodded. With a grin and a salute, he turned and left the room.

Carl sat on one of the few chairs left in the drawing room. All the expensive paintings and furnishings had been sold. If only his luck would turn at the tables, but each time he went to the clubs, his money disappeared, and his debt grew. The last time he’d been to Brooks’s, he was told not to come back until he had the money to pay his debt with them. Imagine treating the new Lord Allenby that way!

Very few of his so-called friends would even buy him a whisky, and things were growing desperate. He had to get his niece back, marriage annulled, married to Newton, and money in his hands.