Highland Secrets by Amanda Scott

Author:Amanda Scott
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

THE GOLDEN GLOW OF candlelight spilled into the yard through the open doorway of Glen Drumin House when they arrived. Men called to one another in the stable yard, and Dugald shouted to someone named Geordie that he had another task for him after they had put the laird’s horse away.

Diana, waiting impatiently for her host to move toward the house, watched the doorway expectantly. She did not have to wait long before a familiar figure appeared there and a familiar voice exclaimed tartly, “Is that you at last, Andrew? We had begun to think you must have fallen off a mountain. Do you consider no one’s wishes but your own, sir?”

“Mam!”

“Diana? Bless me, child, is that really you?”

A moment later, Diana was in her mother’s arms, hugging her tightly. “Oh, Mam, I think I’ve missed you even more these past weeks than when you were in prison. How can that be?”

“Don’t be absurd, child,” Lady Maclean said, hugging her back. “I am far happier here than I was in Edinburgh, I promise you.”

“I’ll warrant you are,” Neil said with a laugh, coming up to them.

“Neil, you too? But how so? Is aught amiss at home?”

“That’s why we’ve come,” Neil said. “Diana thinks—”

Cutting him off without hesitation, Diana said, “This is not the time or place to discuss our reason for coming. Wait until we can be private with her.”

“Oh, aye, if you like, but Calder’s gone somewhere with MacDrumin.”

Lady Maclean said, “We ought not to stand in the doorway, at all events. Come in, children, and have something to eat. Kate, my dear, tell them to bring more food. We have guests!”

A smiling young woman came forward to greet them when they entered the cavernous, candlelit great hall. Her hair was pale blonde and fine, her features small and neatly etched. She went on smiling politely as Lady Maclean made the introductions, and Diana found it hard to believe that this was Dugald’s cousin Kate, who had grown from a barefoot girl of the glen to become sister-in-law to a powerful English earl. It was even harder to imagine that this dainty, well-mannered creature had once been known as Mad Kate MacCain, but so Dugald had told her.

“How do you do, ma’am,” Diana said.

“Very well, thank you,” Kate replied with a twinkle.

Lady Maclean said, “Kate’s husband is presently somewhere in the northern Highlands, tending the sick. He is quite skilled with his remedies, I’m told, though I have not been privileged to see him at work. I have told him and Kate about our Mary, however. I do trust she is well.”

They reassured her, taking seats near a fireplace large enough for six grown men to stand upright and abreast. A medium-sized fire blazed there now, and they warmed their hands and talked of domestic matters until the other men came inside. Then there were more introductions.

Upon hearing his name again, Lady Maclean eyed his lordship askance. “Calder? That would be the Cawdor branch of the Campbells, would it not?”

“It would, ma’am,” he said.

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