Chapter 4 #2
“Allow us to escort the ladies out,” Thane said, seeing how busy their hostess was. Then he added in a lower tone to Catriona, “After all, the sooner you get to your carriage, the sooner you’ll be gone.”
Catriona shot him a poisonous sideways glance, which he rather enjoyed.
She wasn’t nearly as aloof as she pretended.
She slid her hand over the crook of his offered arm with the absolute minimum of contact, which had the unanticipated effect of making the light touch of her gloved fingertips more noticeable than otherwise.
Duncan led Mrs Murray out, and the two other men formed a sort of honor guard ahead of them.
Passing him, Calan murmured, “Strategic move, using the ladies to cover our own escape. Well done.” Thane didn’t crack a smile—so he wasn’t the only one who’d been unnerved by this storm of social danger.
Even Calan the inveterate flirt knew it was best to flee from all these matrimonially minded women.
Well, excepting Catriona, who seemed to disdain the notion of marriage.
The front hall was cooler and quieter than the ballroom…which was like saying it was cooler and quieter than Hell. Kai approached a footman and instructed him to summon a carriage for the two ladies.
The footman warned that it would take quite a while. “There are three parties happening in the street now, thanks to the neighbors not coordinating dates.”
Kai gave him a commiserating grin. “Ach, isn’t that always the way? Nip out to the side lane and flag down a hired carriage leaving one of the other parties. The ladies can walk to the corner and get in there.”
As the footman darted outside to fulfill the request, Thane smiled to himself.
Kai always seemed to have a workaround to any obstacle, whether back in the army or here in the city.
As quartermaster, he’d shown extraordinary aptitude in procuring virtually anything their company needed, even when others couldn’t get the same supplies.
Meanwhile, Catriona and Tacita retrieved their cloaks from a maid and put them on, since the early spring nights were still chilly in Edinburgh.
Thane looked around the foyer, noticing the flow of people to and fro.
He caught a glimpse of Miss Fairchild, evidently on her way up the stairs to the retiring room, her green gown bright against the shadowed walls.
There were also two gentlemen standing in a corner, both wearing dark jackets, gesturing at Catriona, probably discussing her choice of attire.
Odd, Thane thought, that men wear black all the time and it means almost nothing.
But a woman in black generates all kinds of comments.
Kai had been keeping an eye out the open front doors, and he suddenly nodded. “Carriage is ready. Ladies, if you don’t mind a short walk to the corner?”
“Of course not,” Catriona said, bestowing a smile on Kai that was warmer than any expression Thane had seen on her all evening. “So thoughtful of you, Mr Buchanan, to find a way to keep our waiting to a minimum.”
“No problem at all, Miss Ross.” Kai actually blushed at her compliment.
She can be charming when she wants to be, Thane thought, once again offering his arm.
Catriona took it, this time with a slight smile.
He was struck by just how much she resembled her brother for a moment.
Not that they’d been identical twins, obviously.
But the tilt of her head, and that wry twist of the lips…
he’d seen that same expression on Brodie’s face dozens of times, usually right after he’d won some argument or dropped the punchline of a joke.
“Your ordeal is nearly done, Mr MacPhearson,” she said softly, pulling him out of the past. “To the street corner, and then we’ll never have to see each other again.”
“I’d offer to race you, but I expect your shoes are not meant for running,” he returned.
Her laugh was as rich as it was surprising. He could not get used to Catriona’s reactions to anything.
They did not run. (For one thing, Tacita Murray was walking ahead of them next to Duncan, and she moved at a measured pace.)
So Catriona and Thane paused for a moment at the top of the steps, waiting politely for her aunt to proceed. Kai remained standing in the doorway, his eyes locked on the carriage at the corner.
Was it the unexpected hesitation that gave Thane the slightest warning of what was to happen? Or did some minute telltale sound alert him?
But before he even knew what he was doing, Thane was already moving, pushing Catriona to the side and away from the doorway, back toward the brick wall of the house, putting one hand behind her head to protect it from impacting against the hard surface.
Instinctively, he covered her, using his own body to block hers from view.
A sharp crack shattered the night air. Several feet away, Duncan uttered a curse, and Calan echoed it.
But Thane noticed only Catriona’s hushed gasp, and the way her body was fully eclipsed by his own.
She opened her mouth to speak, to scold or yell, but then came another crack.
“Don’t say anything, and don’t move,” Thane ordered, pressing himself against her, lest even the smallest part of her be exposed. Another crack. Behind their heads, window glass shattered, and Cat gave a little shriek of alarm.
He felt her heart pounding in her rib cage, and heard her breath grow fast.
“Stay still,” he hissed, ready to haul her back inside if necessary, to use the house as a fortress.
Because someone had just taken two shots at Catriona Ross.