“Are we done?” he snapped. “I’ve his lordship’s dinner to see to.”
“One more question,” Gage replied calmly. “I’ve been told that Lord Dalmay likes to take walks down by the firth.”
Mac’s face stiffened. “Aye. He needs the light and fresh air.”
“I can understand that. The view is quite spectacular.”
I studied Gage out of the corner of my eye, wondering where these questions were leading.
“Miss Remmington admitted she likes to stroll there as well. Have you and Lord Dalmay ever encountered her there?”
Mac’s expression was stony again, but this time it was fueled far less by anger than by some other emotion. “Aye,” he bit out.
“I believe she meets her friend Miss Wallace down there.” Gage paused, letting that knowledge sink in. My stomach clenched, suddenly seeing what he was hinting at. I had to resist the urge to reach out and smack him. I knew we were supposed to be proving either Will’s innocence or his culpability in the girl’s disappearance, but I had been hoping it was the former. If Gage was able to establish that Will had known her . . . That certainly would not prove his guilt, but it would put a large dent in his defense.
“Did you by chance have the pleasure of making her acquaintance?” Gage finished asking Mac.
“Nay. I’m afraid no’.”
He answered with a convincing amount of indifference, but rather than sounding truthful it had the opposite effect. My heart sank.
“She’s the missing girl, no?” he surprised me by asking.
“Yes.” Gage’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How did you know about her?”
Mac glowered at him. “Servants do talk. Everyone kens aboot her.”
He rose to his feet, signaling it was time for us to leave. I was reluctant to depart without seeing Will, especially in light of this most recent worrying discovery.
“Could I just look in on him?” I asked.
Mac scowled down at me.
“I promise not to wake him. I just . . . want to see for myself he’s well.”
Something in my voice or my expression must have won him over, for he reluctantly nodded, leading me to the door. He eased it open and I peered through the gap.
William lay on his back in the middle of the bed. His face was turned to the firelight, which limned the eyelashes resting against his cheeks in gold. One leg was bent beneath the covers and his left hand lay draped over his middle. My heart warmed at the sight of him like this—so peaceful, his face unlined by trouble. A soft smile curled my lips as I silently wished him sweet dreams.
I glanced up to thank Mac, only to discover he had been watching me the entire time. A strange expression marred his brow and, unable to decipher it, I was about to simply turn away when he spoke.
“I remember you,” he murmured softly. “You’re the lass he tutored, who lived o’er the Tweed.”
I nodded.
His face cleared of the remaining hostility that had been stamped there since our return to Will’s chamber, and he bobbed his head in respect—his version of a tug to his forelock, I suspected.
I dipped my chin in acknowledgment, glad to know the gruff man now understood I truly was a friend to Will, and then turned to go.
Gage was waiting for me by the outer door, his back turned to me. I preceded him through the door, feeling my ire rise with each step down the corridor, but I waited until we were almost to the end of the hall before I turned on him.
“What was that?” I demanded.
I was surprised by the answering anger that flashed in his eyes. “Just following a hunch,” he responded in clipped tones. His long stride swiftly outdistanced me, and I had to struggle to keep up.
Suddenly unwilling to do so, I halted in midstride. If we were going to have an argument, I would rather it be here in this deserted corridor than in one of the more public parts of the house. “When did you realize what Donovan had been hinting at?”
Gage whirled around. He stared at me for a moment, his gaze difficult to read in the flickering light of the wall sconces, before marching back to me. “As we were speaking with Mac.”
“And you couldn’t have waited to ask him?” My voice rose with my anger.
He frowned and stepped toward me, crowding me closer to the wall. “Why? Why should I have waited, Kiera?”
“S-so that we could have discussed it first,” I stammered out. I lifted my chin, determined to show him I was not intimidated.
“The truth is the truth, is it not? And that is why we took up this investigation, isn’t it? To discover the truth about this missing girl, and whether Lord Dalmay was involved in her disappearance?”
“Yes, but . . .”