Highland Heiress - By Margaret Moore Page 0,71
although he didn’t dare. “I hope you’re right and they’re far away,” she said. “I would rather those men never get caught and punished than think of them still lurking about.”
Servants be damned. He got up and went to her, taking her in his arms and holding her gently. “I don’t want to think of anyone like that anywhere near you.” He voiced something he’d been thinking about since their hasty breakfast. “Perhaps you should go to Glasgow today.”
“I don’t have anything ready. And the grooms and drivers are out looking for the dog. That’s more important, isn’t it?”
He kissed her tenderly, silently agreeing. “Tomorrow then.”
“I’d feel safer if you’d stay here with me and we both leave tomorrow. It’s too late for you to start now anyway. At the rate Dr. Campbell wants you to travel, you wouldn’t get farther than Dunbrachie.”
“I’d be happy to stay. More than happy.”
She leaned close and whispered, “I don’t want to sleep alone tonight.”
“You won’t,” he promised her, pulling her close to kiss.
A shot rang out in the distance.
Startled, wondering who or what had been the target, Gordon went to the window. Moira hurried to join him there.
“Can you see anything?” she asked anxiously.
“No. It came from over there,” he said, nodding at the yew hedge that bordered the wood at the south side of the property.
“What do you suppose it means?”
“Only one shot could mean they saw something but missed. Or perhaps they hit their target, whatever it was, with one shot. We’ll have to wait and see.”
Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long. A stable boy with bed-tousled hair and a short, patched woollen jacket and equally patched trousers came running from the direction of the wood. He dashed across the terrace and entered when Moira opened the door for him.
“Jem got him, my lady!” he cried, panting. “Big brute of thing it was, too. Charged right at him like a wild boar, so he didn’t have no choice.”
Perhaps the dog had been abandoned, then. If that was so, if it was frightened and desperate, he could only pity the poor creature.
“Was anyone seen with the dog?” Gordon asked. “Or was anybody seen who didn’t belong on the grounds?”
“No, sir, no. Just the dog.”
Moira took Gordon’s hand, and he could feel her trembling.
No, he wouldn’t leave her here, not while there was still a chance those men who attacked him and had been paid to harass her might be nearby, with or without their dog.
“They shot Dan. They shot Dan,” Charlie moaned, hugging his knees as he sat in the dim loft of the small outbuilding on the earl’s estate. “We should’ve stayed here, let you get your own rabbit.”
“Shut yer gob,” Red ordered through clenched teeth, huddling to keep warm against the chill of the damp day. “It was only a dog.”
Charlie glared at him. “He was smarter than you’ll ever be!”
“Not smart enough not to get himself killed! And it would ha’ been worse if they’d caught us.”
“We never should have come here at all,” Charlie muttered. “We should have stayed in the cave. Nay, stayed in Glasgow. I told you it was too risky, that we couldn’t trust ’im. Self-made men can be worse than crooks—do ya think it’s only luck? Half of ’em makes pirates look like gentlemen. But you said it’d be easy money. Like a fool I listened—and now my Dan is dead!”
“Quit yer whingin’! That wouldn’t have happened if you’d kept the damn dog tied, like I told you,” Red retorted.
“He wouldn’t have liked it.”
“He likes being dead better, I suppose.”
Charlie’s teeth drew back in a snarl. “He’s dead because o’ you and this stupid scheme that was supposed to make us rich. Well? Where’s the rest o’ the money? Rafe and my dog dead and we’re stuck here like rats in a hole!”
Charlie got to his feet, although he had to bend to keep his head from hitting what was left of the roof. “Well, I ain’t stayin’. I ain’t getting caught and strung up. Bad enough I lost my dog, I ain’t gonna lose my own life, too.”
Red likewise rose, blocking the way to the ladder that was missing three rungs and the only way down. “If that’s what you want, go ahead. More for me.”
“Then get out o’ my way!”
Red stepped to the side. Charlie turned to start down the ladder, his eyes looking down for the next rung.
Red stuck out his foot and shoved the ladder backward.
“Hey!” Charlie cried as