his ice-blue eyes watching her every move. Blast it all, but he was a handsome, dangerous devil—and it still rankled her something fierce that he’d been able to trick her. If she ever got her hands on him… Nay, when she got her hands on him, she was going to make him pay.
Was Toran going to be that one problem she envisioned?
At least with Hamish off kissing Sassenach arse they were safe for now. As long as he stayed away. She could never really be too sure about his movements since he rarely wrote home, save for when he was demanding supplies for his men. It had been two years since she’d last seen him, luckily, but the threat of his return was always hanging over her head.
They’d decided on the chamber in the highest part of the tower in case the tunnels were breached by the enemy, one that had been used as storage for old gowns, weapons, supplies, pieces of furniture. A place to keep things no one wanted and subsequently a place where no one went.
With the last of her satchels stored behind the slats of an ancient bed upstairs, Jenny collapsed into an old oak chair in the great hall, the same chair her grandfather used to sit in and hold her on his knee as he regaled her with stories of the first Jacobite uprising, when he’d been a young man.
“Ye shouldna have sneaked off like ye did,” Dirk said.
Jenny blinked at her cousin, so exhausted she’d not even noticed he’d entered. She was too tired to even roll her eyes at him.
“What are ye talking about?”
“This morning. Mac told me what happened. Are ye all right?”
Jenny tapped nervously on the arm of the chair. She’d hoped that he’d not have found out about Captain Boyd, but there was nothing for it now. “I’m fine. Besides, I’m glad I went out there, or our men and our hidden stores would have been depleted.”
Dirk grunted. “Ye know what I’m going to say.”
“Aye, and I’ll tell ye again that the cause is worth more than my life.”
“A point we will always disagree on.”
Jenny leaned forward and held out a folded piece of paper. “I need ye to get this to Fiona.”
Their dearest friend Fiona’s role in the rebellion was as a courier, delivering secret messages and packages between the clans. No one would ever suspect a lass of such a task, and so far she’d been able to get away with it. Of the three of them, Jenny often thought, Fiona’s choice of position was the most dangerous.
“She’ll pass on the message that we’ve…moved.”
Dirk took the piece of paper. “What does Lady Mackintosh say about all this?”
Jenny glanced up toward the rafters, imagining what her mother might be up to at that moment. “She’s asleep. Has no’ come down. But given she was devastated when Hamish left us, I dinna think she will object.”
Dirk raised a brow. “About which part?”
Jenny bristled at the implied threat of exposure to her mother of her position within the Jacobite army. “Leave off it, Cousin.”
“She will worry.”
“As would any mother, but what I’m doing is the right thing. The prince needs all the support he can get so future mothers dinna have to worry over their daughters.”
“I did no’ say otherwise.”
“Ye implied.”
Dirk held up his hands in resignation, the folded missive pressed to his palm by his thumb. “I imply nothing other than my admiration for ye.”
“Och, I dinna have time for your games, Dirk.” Jenny pushed out of her chair, prepared to stalk away from him, irritated more so than usual by her exhaustion.
He stopped her, his voice softening. “Answer me one more thing before I’m on my way.”
She waved her hand in permission, too tired to speak.
“We rounded up two new recruits the other day, but alas, there seems only to be one left.”
Jenny regarded Dirk, waiting for him to say more. When he didn’t, she found the energy to reply, “Is there a question in your comment?” She knew exactly what he was after, but at least she didn’t have to answer right away.
Dirk crossed his arms over his chest. “Where is he? Will he be a problem?”
Jenny stiffened, narrowing her gaze on her cousin. She loved the man dearly, but he was in a combative mood, and she needed to stand her ground. “I questioned Archie. He says Toran went to their uncle’s holding to get his siblings. That they’d be in danger after what happened at