But Kimberly frowned to herself as they left the breeding stable to walk to the common one down by the house, where she could get a gentle mare for riding. If he had been looking for her, as he claimed, why then had he seemed so surprised when he found her?
30
A small table with several chairs had been brought into Lachlan’s room for him to take his meals at, since he wasn’t up to venturing downstairs to join the other guests. Gilleonan plopped down in one of the chairs now and lifted the cover off of the meal that had been delivered before he arrived, but hadn’t been touched yet.
“They’re feedin’ ye well, at least,” he said, sniffing at the baked salmon and creamed potatoes, the huge slab of fresh baked bread smothered in soft butter.
Lachlan turned away from the window where he’d been staring thoughtfully at his own reflection in the glass. “Did you think they were starving me?”
“’Twas a possibility.”
“Rest easy then, I’ve got maids showing up throughout the day wi’ tarts and cakes and full-course meals. They mun think I’m starving, too. That’s my second dinner there, so help yourself.”
Gilleonan grinned. “I dinna mind if I do,” he said, and pulled the tray over to himself. But after a few bites, he glanced up at Lachlan to make his report. “That Lady Kimberly showed up tae talk to Ables today. She really despises ye, dinna she?”
Lachlan stiffened. “Why d’you say so?”
“She was after agreein’ wi’ the mon, sayin’s how ye got thrashed and deserved it, callin’ ye an audacious thief.” Then Gilleonan frowned as he remembered something else. “’Course she did get him tae state that ye had a thick brogue, when she and I both ken that isna so.”
Lachlan looked confused for only a moment. Then he laughed. “I do believe she was there tae help, Gill. Consider this…if he thought the lady sympathized wi’ him and didna suspect a thing, he might be telling her things he wouldna tell you.”
“Hmmm, now ye mention it, I suppose that could’ve been what she was doin’. Actually, she tried tae have a look at the bump on his head also, but he was havin’ none o’ that, nearly fell on his arse tae avoid her touchin’ him.”
“No lump then,” Lachlan said.
“I’d suspected as much,” Gilleonan agreed, adding, “Then I almost got discovered, hidin’ ’round the corner from them, when that viscount showed up lookin’ for the lady. I only had seconds to dive out o’ sight.”
“Lord Canston?”
“Aye, tae take her ridin’.”
“Did he?”
Gilleonan shrugged. “I didna follow them tae see. I stayed close tae Ables, though no one else showed up tae see him today.”
It was hard to take his mind off of Kimberly and Canston going off together, but Lachlan finally managed, “What of Ranald? Did he have any luck?”
“Nay, though he did say he thinks the official search has been called off.”
“Why?”
“His guess is the horses have been found, but no one’s lettin’ on aboot it.”
“Blast, I was hoping we’d have a place tae set up watch, tae catch the thief when he shows up tae feed the animals or move them…wait a minute. If no one’s letting on—then the horses havena been returned here. So St. James has set up a watch for himself, has he?”
“Ye think so?”
“Aye, ’tis what I’d do. But he’s hoping tae catch you or Ranald, I dinna doubt. And I’m hoping he doesna botch it. But call off Ranald’s hunt. I dinna want him walking in on this place by accident in his own search.”
“Och, that’d be the worst luck, and no one would believe he was innocent.”
“No more’n they did me,” Lachlan said bitterly.
“Nay.” Gilleonan chuckled, stuffing another bite of tender salmon into his mouth before he added, “I’d say all the lassies around here had more’n a wee bit o’ faith in ye, or ye’d no’ be eatin’ so well.”
Kimberly had wanted to ride toward a desolate glade she’d spotted that afternoon, with what appeared to be an old woodcutter’s hut in the center of it, seemingly abandoned. It had occurred to her when she saw it that the hut was large enough to fit three horses, and she’d wondered if anyone had investigated it yet.
But as soon as she pointed it out to Howard, he had insisted they turn around, that he had an appointment he had forgotten about and would be late for if they didn’t head back immediately. She didn’t doubt him. He had certainly appeared agitated. He even whipped his horse unnecessarily for extra speed, at least until they cleared the woods, and the poor animal showed signs that it wasn’t the first time he’d been so misused. But when she had suggested he return without her, he wouldn’t hear of it.
So she hadn’t been in the best of moods when they’d returned to Sherring Cross, and what was worse was she wasn’t sure if she could even find her way back to where she’d seen that woodcutter’s hut that she still wanted to investigate. Then she’d gotten even more frustrated when she tried to find Megan and couldn’t.
Not until dinner was served that night did Megan make an appearance, and alone. The duke wasn’t with her, nor would he be joining them that evening, she announced. That was fine with Kimberly, since she was still infuriated with him for convicting Lachlan out of hand.
But she had to wait until the meal was over to find a chance to draw Megan away for a private word. And when they finally slipped into the library together, Megan had some of her own news to impart.
“The horses have been found.”
Kimberly blinked. “They have?”
“Yes, in an old hut on the west side of the woods,” Megan said.
“Amazing,” Kimberly replied, shaking her head in bemusement at the irony. “I think I came across that place just today. I wanted to go and check it out, but I was with Viscount Canston at the time, and he had some kind of appointment he was late for, so we returned here. But I was going to try and find it again tomorrow.”
“No, no, don’t do that. Devlin is there now, with a dozen or so men, just waiting for someone to show up. And he’s even more furious than he was before, because whoever put the horses there, left them there together. Two mares and a stallion, without anything to separate them…it’s a wonder that old building is still standing.”
Kimberly blushed. This was not a subject for a lady’s ears.
“I assume, since His Grace is still there, that the thief wasn’t. But was there no clue left behind as to who he really is?” Kimberly asked.
“M’dear, I know you think Lachlan is innocent—” Megan began gently.
“I don’t just think it, I—”
Kimberly hesitated. Now was the time for the truth, the real truth, that was. And she was reasonably sure that if she told Megan, it wouldn’t go any further—well, only a bit further, since the duke would also have to be told. And there is where she balked.
St. James, stuffy duke that he was, would feel obliged to tell her father. A matter of responsibility and such. He would also feel it his duty to ask her if anything untoward had happened during that night she spent with Lachlan. She could honestly say nothing did—that night. But her guilt from that other night might show through and then…no, she still couldn’t do it, especially after what she had discovered about Will Ables today.
So she began again, saying instead, “Let me ask you something, Megan. Would you say Lachlan’s Scots brogue was thick?”
“No, actually, it’s very light, sometimes not even noticeable, now you mention it. I have a footman whose brogue is so heavy, I can barely understand him, yet MacGregor’s burr is quite lyrical.”
Kimberly nodded, continuing confidently now, “I always thought so myself, but did you know that your groom, Will Ables, thinks otherwise?”
“He does?”
“Doesn’t that make you wonder?”
“Yes, actually—but how do you know this?”
“I went to see him today,” Kimberly admitted. “Did you also know that Mr. Ables refused
to have a doctor look at his head injury? It wouldn’t have cost him anything, so why would he refuse?”
“It does sound strange, doesn’t it,” the duchess agreed, frowning.
While the duchess was digesting this, Kimberly said, “Megan, he was lying about Lachlan, I know he was, and it would be so easy to prove.”
“How?”
“You mentioned your footman is Scottish, and there are others here, including Lachlan’s clansmen. If you gathered them all together with Lachlan, and had them each say something identical, with your groom able to hear them, but unable to see them, he wouldn’t be able to say which was Lachlan, and that would prove he was lying.”
Megan grinned. “That’s rather clever, but what if he picks one of Lachlan’s kin? That would still indicate Lachlan, albeit indirectly.”
Kimberly sighed. “You’re right. Lachlan’s kin shouldn’t be used a’tall. I don’t suppose you have a few more Scotsmen working for you?”
“One that I know of, yes, and another that can be fetched. He doesn’t work for us, but he lives just north of here and I’m sure he’d be willing to participate.”
“Wonderful!”
“I’d say we could try this tomorrow, at the latest, the next day. But I should still point out, Kimberly, that if as you say, Ables was lying, then he’ll be guessing when asked to pick out Lachlan’s voice, and there is still that possibility that he just might guess accurately.”
“There is that,” Kimberly allowed. “But if I’m right, then he wasn’t really injured, it was just a ruse, and that makes him involved in this thing. So I’m hoping the very situation will so fluster him that he might just do something stupid.”
“Like confess?”
Kimberly grinned. “That would be nice. You—ah—won’t tell your husband about this, will you? At least until after we’ve tried it?”
Megan chuckled. “I imagine Devlin will be spending the next few days out in the woods, he’s so bloody determined to catch the chap red-handed. Don’t worry, m’dear, he can find out the good news—or bad, after he returns.”
31
After her talk with Megan, Kimberly was finally feeling a bit more optimistic. Their plan was going to work, it had to. The alternative was—unacceptable. And once this was behind them, she could get back to concentrating completely on what she was here for—a husband.
As a matter of fact, James Travers had leaned forward to whisper to her, when he held her chair for her at dinner, that he wanted to have a private word with her sometime tomorrow. She had little doubt that he was going to ask her to marry him. Just the thought should have thrilled her. Instead she had still been engrossed in the meeting she’d had with Ables and how she was going to put her suggestion to Megan.
But now, with that done, she had time to consider James—and she wondered why the thought of marrying him still didn’t thrill her. They were ideally suited. She knew he could make her happy—well, she was reasonably certain that he could. And her father would be extremely pleased, could find no fault with him whatsoever.
There was still Howard Canston, of course, who had apparently cooled on his former flirtation and had been showing much more interest in her just lately. He was younger than James, even more handsome, was also going to be a marquis when his father passed on, and was certainly just as wealthy as James.
A prime consideration, that last, for her anyway. At least with both James and Howard, she had no fear that they were solely interested in her for the money that would come to them from her father. They wouldn’t even know, until after the marriage when she chose to mention it, just how wealthy she really was. When they learned of the inheritance she had from her mother, it would merely be a nice surprise.
Returning to her room that evening after her talk with Megan, she was still wondering what she was going to say to James tomorrow when…
“You’re keeping late hours, Kimber.”
“Good God!” She gasped. “Frighten me to death, why don’t you!”
A chuckle came from the dark. “Och, I’d no’ be wanting tae do that.”
“You could have fooled me,” she mumbled as she moved to fetch a twig from the fireplace to light the lamps. “And what, may I ask, are you doing lurking in my room, Lachlan?”
She, at least, had no trouble identifying his voice in the dark. No one could, really, who’d actually heard him speak before. His voice was distinctive.
“Lurking? Nay, merely waiting,” he said, explaining, “I didna want tae miss seeing you and have you return tae your room and slip into bed wi’out my hearing it. So I came here to await you.”
“Seeing me?” she said just as the first lamp was turned up. She glanced around the room then, until she found him in the comfortable reading chair by her window. “Well, you can see me now, so…?”
“Aye, and a pleasure it is, as usual,” he replied, his green eyes moving slowly over her.
The compliment, so unexpected, made her blush. But his eyes, in their slow perusal, ignited a warmth.
Kimberly was suddenly too flustered to continue to upbraid him. And besides, he needed to be informed about the little experiment they had planned with Ables, among other things. In fact, she had intended to stop by his room in the morning to do just that. So it was just as well that he was there. Highly inappropriate, but well, that seemed to always be the case with this man.
So as she headed for the next lamp, she started with, “They found the horses.”
“I know.”
She raised a brow at his tone. “You don’t sound too happy about it.”
He shrugged before leaning forward in the chair, his elbows on his knees. “Because I wanted tae find them—and sit on them, till the thief showed himself.”
“I believe the duke is doing that.”
“But I dinna trust him tae do it right. He’ll have tae many men in there, and in the surrounding woods, I dinna doubt. They’ll be giving themselves away and our thief will be gone for good.”
Put that way, it didn’t sound at all encouraging, so she told him her other news. “Well, I’ve come up with another way to end the thing.”
Now he raised a questioning brow. She noticed that his face was looking better, some of the bruises already faded and the lump on his forehead gone. Even his lips had returned to their normal size, though several scabs remained. But with only the one lamp going, and that not very bright for such a large room, he was looking too damn handsome again by half.
When she realized she was still staring at his lips, Kimberly blushed again and blurted out, “The duchess is going to arrange it, for tomorrow or the next day at the latest, an experiment.”
She finished quickly with the lamp on her vanity, then moved to toss the twig back in the fireplace. But turning back to face him, she found that the extra light didn’t help. He was still so mesmerizing with his dark auburn hair lying against the white shirt he wore, the light catching the seldom seen reddish tints, his light green eyes watching her intently…
“What experiment?” he had to prompt.
She actually had to think for a moment, to remember what they were talking about. That produced still another blush that she could only hope he didn’t notice.
“I paid Ables a visit today,” she said. “And proved, to my satisfaction at least, that he doesn’t know your voice a’tall. So we’re going to have him listen to you and a few other Scotsmen, and he’ll have to point out which is you. He won’t be able to do it. He’ll have to guess.”
Lachlan was silent for a moment, mulling that over, before he pointed out the same thing Megan had earlier: “He could get lucky.”
“Yes, and that’d be rotten luck—for us.” She sighed. “If it doesn’t work and if…well, if the time runs out without the thief being apprehended, I’ll own up to where I was that night.”
She’d managed to surprise him. He stood up, reached her in seconds, surprising her now, and causing her a great deal of internal alarm with his nearness.
And rightly so, she quickly found, because he grasped her face gently in his hands to ask her, “You’d do that for me, darlin’?”
His gaze was too intense, forcing her to lower her eyes. And his touch, dear Lord…
“I’d have to,” she confessed in a whisper. “I’d have no choice. I couldn’t let you be sent to prison for this, when my being with you at the time proves—”
His kiss cut her off before she got any further. And somehow she’d known it was going to happen. She could have prevented it, moved away—maybe. But now, now it was much too late. Now she had the taste of him again, the roughness of his scabs, the softness of his tongue, the scent of him intoxicating her senses.
His lips moved carefully over hers at first, almost hesitantly, yet there was a firmness now in his hands to keep her captive for the moment, in case she thought to end the kiss. She had no such thought, none at all. She knew she ought to, but…“ought to” never did seem to work when she was around Lachlan MacGregor.
Her senses were alive again, wildly alive, rippling with exciting anticipation. From the heat on her lips, the fluttering in her belly, the tingling in her breasts, and his body wasn’t even touching her yet, just his mouth, just his palms on her cheeks.
She sighed into his mouth, put her hands against his chest, not to push, to touch, and it seemed it was a sign he’d been waiting for, because he then gathered her fully in his arms, fitting her curves to his hollows. His tongue thrust more sensually now, deeply invading her privacy. His hands roamed her back and hips, pressing her closer to his hardness, closer to his heat, then finally lifting her, carrying her, laying her carefully on the bed.
She knew what he was going to do. Somewhere in the deepest recesses of her mind, she knew that what shouldn’t have happened before was going to happen again. But she was bedazzled by the pleasure he’d created and continued to lavish on her, the heat of his large body surrounding her now, the gentle caresses of his hands upon each bit of skin he uncovered as he slowly undressed her. She knew…and there was no part of her willing to stop him. If anything, she wanted him to hurry.