Chapter 9 #2
So Thane sent word to the other men to come to the house for a meeting, and spent the next hour pacing in the parlor, waiting for news of Cat’s condition.
Then the doctor walked in. “You’re MacPhearson? The man who brought her back home?”
Thane snapped to attention and nodded. “Yes, sir.”
The doctor was a man of about sixty years of age, with silver hair and crow’s-feet at the corners of his pale blue eyes. He took one look at Thane and said, “France?”
Thane nodded. “And the peninsula, depending on the year.”
“I was over there too for a while, treating the wounded. I still wake up nights, remembering what I saw. Turns men’s minds, sometimes. Do you think that’s what happened today? Some discharged soldier in the park just…forgot where and when he was?”
Thane shook his head. The doctor’s question implied that Cat hadn’t confided the full truth to him, so Thane wouldn’t either. Aloud he said, “I’m afraid we don’t know. My friends and I intend to find him if we can.”
“Aye, I hope someone does. Absolute madness to fire upon innocent people in a park, of all places. It could have been fatal.”
“But Cat—Miss Ross will recover?”
“Oh, yes. She suffered a graze to her upper arm from the passing bullet. I cleaned it and bandaged it. She’ll be right as rain in no time. In less than a fortnight, only a scar will be left.”
“Thank God,” Thane muttered, though he was angry that she’d still have a scar to haunt her.
“Wise of you to call me round, in any case. I suggested a wee dram for medicinal purposes. She’s quite shaken.
Poor lass. I’ve been treating the whole family since she and her brother were babes.
Never imagined I’ve have to see her like that.
” The doctor looked more closely at Thane. “You’re her…intended?”
“Just a friend of the family,” Thane said hastily. “I served with Brodie.”
“Ah. So that’s it. Didn’t really think she’d get engaged again anyway.”
Thane’s head nearly snapped around. “Again?”
“Er, yes,” the doctor said, startled at the reaction. “Did you not know? Well, perhaps you wouldn’t. She had a young man, oh, a few years ago now. Broke it off and he took it rather badly. I had to come to the house to patch up Brodie’s nose—he and the other lad got into a fistfight about it.”
“Brodie never said.” And neither had Cat. Thane intended to question her about that as soon as he saw her.
The arrival of Calan and Kai gave him something to think about until he could talk to Cat. He gave the men all the information he had.
“Christ. I need a drink,” Calan said after hearing the news.
“Ask the footman. He can direct you. And get one for me and Kai as well. We’re going to need fortification.”
Calan left and Kai asked, “Why fortification? The worst is over, isn’t it?”
“The worst is never over, because the worst is Miss Ross herself.”
“That’s hardly complimentary.” Kai crossed his arms, frowning.
Thane snorted. “You don’t have to deal with her every day. She’s an extraordinarily horrible person.”
“She’s an ordinary person going through a horrible time,” said Kai. “It’s different. Would you judge a man based on how he behaved the night after a battle when he’d lost half his squadron?”
“No.” Thane sighed. “I hope I wouldn’t.”
“Besides, I can’t picture Catriona Ross being horrible. Brodie always spoke of her as the sweetest thing on earth.”
“He may have not been completely objective.”
“Not like you,” Kai said.
“I’m objective,” Thane objected. “It doesn’t matter to me if she’s the Devil. I’m just fulfilling a promise.”
“Oh, I see.” Kai nodded, and his expression was completely innocent. But Thane felt the weight of meaning in those few words.
“A promise to Brodie,” he clarified. “And once it’s done, I don’t need to or want to see Catriona Ross ever again.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“She’s a vexing person. Argumentative.”
“Indeed.”
“She always thinks she knows best.” Did Thane sound defensive? He felt defensive.
“Ah.”
“And she doesn’t listen. Or admit when she’s wrong. Which is practically always.”
“Sounds difficult to live with.”
Calan returned with small tray holding three glasses, which distracted Kai from saying anything more. The men each took theirs, and Calan then raised his to the other men and said, as if he’d asked himself this several times before, “Why the hell did she go today?”
“Because she said she would,” Kai replied.
Thane and Calan looked at him, Thane wondering if Kai had some insight to Cat’s behavior.
“Don’t look surprised,” Kai told them. “Brodie was the same, and you both know it. If he said he’d do a thing, by God, he did it, even if he could have begged off with some excuse. Or even a good reason.”
“That’s true enough,” Calan agreed. “Remember the whole Christmas pig fiasco?”
Thane laughed and groaned in equal measure. “I still cannot believe he did that. The company will be telling tales about that night for decades.”
Kai was laughing too. “That poor pig. Brodie never should have been let near a farmyard. Anyway, my point is that he wanted people to rely on him. So it’s no surprise his twin believes that as well.”
A knock at the front door signaled Duncan’s arrival. The men quickly told him the latest developments.
“Ought to lock her in a tower,” Duncan said. “I mean, if any of us had the authority to do so, which we don’t.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Thane said then. “I learned a fact from the family doctor, who just happened to mention it, even though Miss Ross didn’t bother. She’s got a jilted suitor.”
“What?” Calan looked surprised, deservedly so.
“A few years ago, she was engaged and broke it off, and the man was so angry that Brodie got into a fight with him. It may possibly be relevant.”
“Who’s the man?” Kai asked, ready to write it down.
“Patrick Melrose,” Thane said. “I found that out from the footman, after the doctor left. Apparently, his family lives not far from here. Would be good for someone to look him up.”
Kai gave him a nod, accepting the order. “I’ll find him.”
“I’ll come too,” Calan added. “Just in case.”
“Duncan’s idea of locking her in a tower is perhaps a bit direct,” Thane said, “but we do need to do something different to what we’ve been trying so far. Even if Miss Ross actually stayed in this house, there are too many ways to get to her. If they poisoned a dog, they can poison a person.”
“Not to mention they could put a shot through a window at an opportune moment,” Calan grunted. “It would be best to get her out of the city altogether.”