A Very Highland Holiday - Kathryn Le Veque Page 0,18

candor and leave just as fast as he could. Only a madwoman would declare her love for a man she’d only come to know through letters.

But something strange happened.

Suddenly, he was sitting next to her and his fingers were under her chin, lifting her face to his. Gaira found herself looking into eyes the color of the sky, the slightly-bearded face creased into a smile. For a moment, he simply looked at her before kissing her gently on the cheek.

“L-Lady Gaira,” he addressed her formally, as would have been her right as an heiress. “T-The fact that the letters between my brother and me mean so much to you tells me that you are a woman of great depth and understanding. You knew what I needed when I did not even know. I feel that it would only be right to allow me to come to know you as you have come to know me. My brother said that he prayed for a guardian angel to watch over me. Do you think he meant you?”

She flushed a dull red, her heart thumping so forcefully against her chest that she could hardly breath. “Probably not,” she said, fighting off a grin. “I’ve never been called an angel before. A devil, perhaps, but not an angel.”

He smiled because she was. “I-I will call you an angel,” he said softly. “Y-You have become mine by reuniting me with my brother’s belongings.”

“But… but I should have done it sooner.”

“I-If you had simply sent them to me, I would not have had the honor of meeting you.”

There was that sweet man, the one she’d come to know in the letters. As she had told him, he had a tender side.

“Then perhaps everything happens for a reason,” she said. “Perhaps the reason was so we could speak.”

“I-I believe so,” he said. “A-And I believe something else.”

“What?”

“T-That you should come to Inverness with me,” he said. “A-After all, it seems to me that you have almost as much invested in this situation as I do. You read Johnny’s letters and you know the man, as you’ve said. Would you like to see this through? I am going to find the man in those letters you so carefully kept.”

Gaira was nodding her head before he even finished. “I would,” she said, incredulous that he should even ask. “Oh, I would!”

James took his hand off her chin, his eyes glimmering with mirth. “I-I am assuming that your mother would not be too keen on you accompanying me to Inverness, unchaperoned,” he said. “I-I would, of course, give you my word that I will behave respectfully and politely, but I would hazard to guess that your mother might not believe the word of a Sassenach.”

He said it with the perfect Gaelic inflection and Gaira grinned. “I’m a wicked lass for saying this, but she doesna have tae know.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Y-You would lie to her?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes, I sleep at the tavern, in Carrie’s chamber,” she said. “Especially when it’s cold and we have an early morning the next day. My home is across the road, so ’tis not far, but sometimes it’s easier – and warmer – tae sleep in Carrie’s chamber. There have been times when I’ve not been home for a week.”

“A-And your mother does not miss you?”

The warm inflection on her face faded. “My mother and I dunna have a close relationship,” she said. “She goes about her business and I go about mine, although she does clean at the tavern once in a while. I’ll simply tell her she’s not needed and tell Balthazar she canna come, so she willna know I’m not there.”

She sounded confident, but James was still dubious. “I-It is at least two days to Inverness and two days back,” he said. “And the weather is snowy. Are you certain you can do this?”

The warmth was back as she looked at him. “’Tis for Laird Johnathan, after all,” she said quietly. “I wouldna miss this for the world.”

Within the hour, James and Gaira were heading north, along the road to Culloden.

Part Six

INVERNESS

The Old High Church

James looked at the man in shock.

“Y-You?” he said. “I-I was wondering what happened to you, but now I find you here? In Inverness?”

Rafe had been standing at the entry to the Old High Church that had stood for centuries. The brown stones and high tower faced out over the River Ness, guarding the city both literally and figuratively. It was the spiritual center of the town,