“Oh!” Una said, obviously surprised, and looked at Rodina.
“She did?” Rodina asked with a bit of a squeal.
“She did indeed.” The two women grinned at one another. “If ye ladies would be so kind as to pardon me, I’d have a word with Miss Lockhart.”
“Oh, indeed, milord!” Una said, linking arms with Rodina, and the two housemaids walked away and up the drive, whispering and laughing as they stole a glimpse over their shoulder at Payton.
Mared watched them walk, and when they were out of hearing distance, she smiled slyly at Payton. “Thank ye.”
“It is I who should be thanking ye,” he said. “How very kind of ye to give them those gowns when ye are obviously in need of them yerself.”
She laughed fully. “Honestly, sir, surely ye deduced by now that I’d die before I’d accept charity from a Douglas.”
“On that I may depend as fiercely as the sunrise.”
Mared laughed again and glanced at Rodina and Una walking up the drive. “Will ye attend kirk services today?”
“Aye. In Aberfoyle.”
“Ooh, I see,” she said, giving him a sidelong look.
“Ach, ye donna see at all,” he said with a grin. “And before ye attempt to convince me that ye do, I’d request a favor of ye.”
“A favor of me? I suppose ye wish me to speak with Miss Crowley, then? Attempt to convince her that ye’re no’ as obstinate or hardheaded as she might fear?”
He chuckled. “No, no’ that. I’d ask that ye call on Mr. Craig,” he said, withdrawing the pouch of gold coins from his pocket. “I had meant to come round yesterday, but I was detained in Aberfoyle, and regrettably, I must be to Aberfoyle again today. Might I impose on ye to take this to him on yer way to Talla Dileas?”
“Of course,” she said, and looked curiously at the bag. He took her hand, turned it palm up, and deposited the bag in it. “’Tis coin,” she said uncertainly, feeling the weight of it, and squinted up at him, assessing him with a lopsided smile. “Gambling debt, I’d wager. I’ve always heard a Douglas canna hold as much as a shilling when he gambles.”
“Interesting. I’d always heard the same of the Lockharts.”
“Wicked lies and mean conjecture.” She winked as she slipped the pouch into her pocket.
“Thank ye kindly. Now ye best run along and catch them,” he said, nodding to Rodina and Una. “Ye’d no’ want to startle the poor vicar by stepping into the kirk alone and risk bringing the whole of the heavens down on yer heathen head and his congregation.”
Mared laughed, a gloriously warm laugh. “And ye’d not want to keep Miss Crowley waiting for yer odious company. But before I go,” she said, “I’ll thank ye for coming to my aid last night.”
He considered that progress of a sort, for there had been a time Mared Lockhart would not thank him for anything but perhaps his own death. Impulsively, he touched her hand. “’Twas trifling,” he said, repeating her words. He nodded in the direction of the two chambermaids. “Ye best go, then.”
“I’m going.” And she stepped away, walked down the drive, her step light, her braid bobbing behind her. Payton watched her, ignoring the peculiar ache in his chest, smiling when she paused at the end of the drive and turned around to see him once more.
“Aye, go on, then,” he muttered quietly. “Go now before I fetch ye back to me.”
Fifteen
L iam was waiting for her where the kirk road joined the main one, as he had every Sunday since her enslavement. Mared’s heart filled with joy at the sight of him, and she ran. Liam caught her up in his big arms, holding her tightly to him. “What has kept ye? We expected ye a half hour ago!”
“I stopped to pay a call to Mr. Craig. He’s alone with his grandson now.”
Liam grunted and set her down, held her at arm’s length to peer closely at her. “Has he harmed ye, lass? Has he laid as much as a finger on ye?”
He asked the same questions each week. “No!” At Liam’s skeptical look, she laughed. “I’ve hardly seen him at all, Liam.”
It was a slight alteration of the truth, and still, Liam frowned. “Aye, then what is this mark on yer neck?” he growled.
“A rather unfortunate accident with an apparatus in the washroom,” she said lightly, and reached up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. “Where is Duncan?” she asked. “I’ve so longed to hold him!”
Liam grinned irrepressibly at the mention of his young son, wrapped his arm around Mared’s shoulder, and together, they walked to where the rest of the Lockharts awaited her in the kirk yard.
It was later that afternoon, at Talla Dileas, that Grif announced they had a new plan to free her. “’Tis rather brilliant, in our estimation,” he said, and the six of them nodded in almost perfect unison.