A Very Highland Holiday - Kathryn Le Veque Page 0,159
with the younger set. Trust me.”
The lass held her hands to her chest, a beaming smile cutting across her face. “Oh, thank ye, Father Christmas. Ye’ve given me a great gift.”
She hugged him tightly, her little arms barely reaching around his middle, and Thane awkwardly patted her back.
“Go on now, afore ye’re missed.”
She skipped off, and again he felt that perhaps his plan had been misguided. The wee lass missed Thea.
God, he missed his amazing sister too.
And that was why he needed to avenge her death. He was not the only one suffering from Thea’s loss—the people were missing their mistress, their healer.
A tap on his shoulder had him startling once more. He turned around a bit more carefully to avoid knocking down someone else. Only this time, he found himself staring into a pair of inquisitive brown eyes, with an equally inquisitive pair of red arched brows.
“A word, Father Christmas?” Her voice was low and silky as she made her request.
Finding Lady Sarah Campbell had been a lot simpler than he thought, for she had been the one to locate him.
Sarah held her shock in well by masking it with curiosity.
Just what was Thane Shaw doing here, and dressed as Father Christmas of all things?
The man had a death wish to be certain, for why else would he appear here, apparently unarmed and unaided? She glanced around surreptitiously. No one seemed to recognize him just yet, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t soon. His face was quite distinctive. Blue eyes that were flickering in the bonfire light, the same shade as Thea’s. His golden locks were hidden beneath the decrepit wig, but she’d bet all the grain in the storehouse that it was him.
“Is that your wish, my lady? I’m only giving away one to each soul.”
She rolled her eyes. “Ye dinna seem to grasp just what your position here is, sir.”
“Father Christmas,” he insisted.
“As ye say.” Miraculously, she kept from rolling her eyes at him.
“Is over there fine?” He indicated the barn. “Ye can tell me what ye would rather see as my position.”
He handed her a sweet from his satchel, but she pushed it back. “Nay, thank ye.”
Thane held out his arm to her. She considered arguing about going toward the barn with the man, but then she realized perhaps now was the exact moment she needed to make her move. No one would care if they saw her walking about with Father Christmas. She might easily be able to slip away with him as a distraction.
Besides, she had to find out just what the devil he was doing here.
The soft velvet of the red coat was straining from the breadth of his muscular arms, and she wouldn’t be surprised if, at any moment, there was a tearing sound as his body gained its freedom from the restrictive garment. Normally a red coat would scare the devil out of everyone, fearing for their lives that the dragoons were back and ready to murder them all. Father Christmas was the only one who could get away with it. But Thane Shaw was not the man she’d hired to play the part.
At the barn, she let her hand drop, and when he faced her fully, his thoughts shuttered from his face.
“I am ready for my lesson.” There was a teasing note to his words that she found surprising, given the intensity of how much she knew he disliked her family. That had been evident at Thea and Jon’s wedding, and even more so after her death.
“Father Christmas doesna grant wishes to souls,” Sarah mused. “Ye’re confusing too many ideologies.”
Thane wiped his hand down the neck of a sleek black horse that did not belong to the Campbell clan. She guessed it was his, judging from the familiar way he stroked the mane.
“He’s a beauty,” she said, adding her hand to the mix. “My brother had one just like it. Though truth be told the horse preferred his wife.”
He stiffened beside her, catching on that she spoke of Thea. Oh, how she missed her. Wanted to talk to Thane about his sister, but knew that broaching the subject now when he was trying for anonymity would likely be the wrong course of action. Then again, if she was going to get what she wanted, there was no time like the present.
“What is it ye wished to speak to me about?” he asked.