Chapter 27
Cat’s words hit like bullets. Numb, Thane moved aside. Cat shoved past him, not willing to spend another second on him.
If only she knew he thought about that grave in France every day.
From the shadowy interior of the stable, he watched Cat ride off. Then he looked at one of the guards, who’d wandered close and was now leaning against the wall of the stable as if resting.
“Follow her,” he ordered.
“Aye, sir.” The man hurried to get the horse the boy had already saddled, anticipating the order.
Thane sighed. He’d never see Cat smile at him again, but he could still keep her alive.
With nothing else to do, Thane wandered around the grounds.
Thane found Struan at one side of the main house, not too far from the kitchens. Oddly enough, the man wasn’t alone. Two toddlers swarmed around him, and he was holding a sleeping baby. The scene brought Thane to a stop, since he’d never once seen Struan with children.
“You’re a nursemaid now?”
Struan grinned at him, his normally stern face alight. “Aye. For a little while. The woman who usually minds the wee ones got ill,” Struan explained. “I offered my services. Jack, don’t go so close to the mule. Remember about the kicking?”
The boy stopped, regarded the mule with serious eyes, and then crawled sideways, well out of range.
The other boy decided that it would be a good idea to climb Struan, a barely achievable goal, since the man was sitting down. Struan allowed it, but steered the boy to his left slope. “Mind your sister, now. She’s sleeping and she’s much quieter when she’s not awake, aye?”
“She’s horrible when she’s awake,” the boy agreed, tumbling off Mount Struan onto the ground.
Struan gently set the boy up on his feet again, and told him to play tag with his brother. He watched the children run off, a rapt expression on his face.
Then Thane remembered that he had in fact seen Struan with children before.
It was during the war. Their company had been given the task of going through a village to ensure that enemy forces weren’t using it as a hiding place to launch raids from.
The inhabitants had understandably assumed the worst, cursing and screaming at the soldiers as they looked into every building.
Thane, Brodie, and Struan had come upon a shabby house hiding soldiers within—except that the soldiers were four small children armed with a paring knife, a broom, a cooking ladle, and a rock.
Brodie took the lead, telling them fluently in his typically easygoing way that the men were no threat.
However, these children were still wary and edgy, having been tricked too many times in their short lives.
Thane was about to sweep them aside, but Struan instead shouldered his gun, and knelt down to the children’s level.
He explained in passable French that they weren’t here to hurt anyone but it was important to look in the house.
The eldest child, a girl, looked angry and accused them of coming to steal food, except it would do no good because they had no food on account of their mother not having money to buy any.
Struan instantly offered some rations from his pack, and within moments, the children were devouring chunks of dried sausages and inviting all three men inside (Brodie having also given up the bread he’d tucked away).
Over the next hour, the men learned the names of every child, met the sunken-eyed, too-slender mother (who’d been hiding behind the door with a butcher knife while the children stood guard outside).
Brodie even repaired a faulty stovepipe that had made the house too smoky to cook in.
During that time, the children freely shared information about other soldiers who were using a nearby abbey as a base, largely because the monks had a wine cellar.
“They’ve already taken all the food and beer here,” the eldest girl explained, her tone fierce with the anger that comes from hunger.
Struan promised to return the next day with more bread, and Thane saw when he slipped a few coins to the astonished mother. On their way back to camp, Thane chided his friend gently. “Those children could have been lying about everything.”
“They didn’t seem like liars to me,” Brodie interjected.
Struan added, “Most children tell the truth, and when there’s a group of them, no lie lasts very long.
They were hungry, and they did pay a lot of attention to troops moving through.
The mother told me her man was killed last year, so she’s on her own with the young ones.
She’s French, but she wants this war over more than anything.
Think it matters who wins when there’s no food to eat?
All these villagers would take peace in a heartbeat if it was offered.
Plus, now we know where the army’s hiding.
” He grinned. “Never underestimate a child.”
Andra’s arrival brought Thane back to the present moment. She neatly avoided being drawn into the game of tag, with a promise to the older boy, “I’m busy now, Ian, but I’ll read you both a story later.”
“The one with the giant who stomps all over England?”
“Again? Yes, if you like. Now play. I’ve got to speak to the boring old men.”
“Old?” Struan asked in mock offense. He shifted the baby in his arms. The infant looked ridiculously tiny lying next to Struan’s massive torso, but it was evidently quite content, opening its eyes slowly and gurgling as it smiled up at Struan.
“Ah, this bairn’s awake. I thought she might sleep all afternoon, till I have to pass her back. ”
Andra’s eyebrows rose. “You asked to mind the children?”
“Aye. I like children. I’d always hoped to have a family.” Struan kept his gaze on the baby in his arms.
He used the past tense, and Thane’s gut twisted for his friend. The war had taken too much from him.
“Struan, I wanted to talk to you about how to address Cat…triona’s problem.”
The big man looked up. “Aye. She should marry someone. Anyone. Not me,” he added. “Obviously.”
“I shouldn’t say it’s obvious at all,” Andra told him, rather saucily.
He looked away. “What’s on your mind, Thane?”
“So, our new theory is that someone views her continued existence as an obstacle to their own inheritance. Let us say Catriona won’t marry anyone to thwart her attacker. That only leaves one option.”
Struan grunted. “We identify the man and tell him to stop what he’s doing.”
“Tell him to stop? That’s supposed to have an effect?” Andra asked skeptically.
“Struan is a very persuasive man when he wants to be,” Thane said, not going into details. Then he turned back to Struan. “Do you think we can speed up the process of finding him?”
“Not without endangering Miss Ross,” Struan said.
“Who does appear to like being in danger, seeing as she won’t do the one thing that everyone else agrees is a simple solution.
To answer your question, I don’t see how we can speed up the process, short of hiring an army of solicitors.
Which would attract attention, which would make our man go to ground. It’s a delicate balance.”
Andra rolled her eyes. “You men! So roundabout when a simple approach will do.”
“What’s simpler than hunting the man down?”
“You don’t need to do that. Just take away his reasons for wanting to harm Catriona.”
“She won’t marry anyone,” Thane explained, again.
“She doesn’t have to. Just announce the wedding date as if it were going to happen. The miscreant will give up the moment that day comes.”
“I’m not sure he would stop at that. He might see through such a ruse, especially since there would be no proof of a marriage.” Thane would bet the attacker was paying close attention for news of Cat.
Andra, however, was fond of her idea. “You could post banns in the papers. Wouldn’t that work?”
“Who’s she marrying? Supposedly?”
“You, of course.”
“Cat hates me.”
“Did you have a fight?” she asked.
“Not exactly. I told her something she didn’t want to hear.”
“You should apologize.”
“I tried.” He took a breath. “It was…not something she’ll forgive. Ever.”
“She’ll come around,” Andra said.
“I assure you, she won’t.”
“Well, luckily you know how to spell her name. That’s all you need. You can have banns posted here to make it look proper, and then have this nice gentleman with the baby send a message to the city. I’ll wager he knows how to get the announcement in all the papers.”
Andra seemed quite impressed with Struan. Thane still thought the plan was daft. A fake marriage announcement? Would they need to host a fake wedding breakfast too?
But it was a plan that didn’t require Cat’s cooperation, and that was a strong point in its favor.
* * * *
Most of the way through her ride, Cat looked over her shoulder, and saw the rider perhaps a quarter mile behind her. God damn Thane, sending a guard to follow her, even when she made it clear that she meant alone.
Well, she’d anticipated this. She rode a little further, up to the circle of stones on the top of the hill.
For a few moments, she was hidden from the guard’s sightline, and that was when she dropped the small bundle she’d put in her saddle bag, making sure it was secure, hidden by the green leaves of some wild roses.
Then she rode onward, not even glancing back.
The next day, Cat avoided Thane, as usual. She ate her crowdie alone, took a walk around the grounds alone, and tried to write a new speech alone.
None of those things proved to be pleasant to do when she was such a quaking mess of rage. Thane’s betrayal flashed into her mind every few minutes, usually right after a too-vivid memory of him in bed. How could she have been so…persuadable? So willing to believe in a fantasy?
She was sitting on the lawn, alone, when Andra walked by and asked, “Have you seen the boys? Jack and Ian?”
“Not lately,” Cat said.
“They must be at hide and seek again. I shouldn’t have told them they were to have a bath today!” The redheaded beauty laughed at herself. “Ah, well, that’s my mistake. Congratulations, by the way.”
Cat was confused. “On what?”