“I suppose I could have explained a bit better, but—”
Just then, the carriage lurched.
“Sir!” Tavish yelled. “Look behind!”
Niall leaned out one window, while Heather chose the other.
She peered out past the clouds of dust kicked up by the hooves and wheels, and saw a shape emerge out of it.
“It’s Brom!” she said in dismay.
“Damn the man. He’s more persistent than a flea.” Then Niall called up to Tavish, “Can you go faster?”
“Aye, if you want us all to die!”
“Never mind!” Niall returned to his seat and pulled Heather in as well. He asked, “This man Brom, is he greedy?”
“Well, he works for my uncle, who’s greedy. So Brom probably shares that trait. How will that help us, though?”
“We need to slow him down.” Niall dug into a bag he’d been carrying and then threw a handful of coins out the window. Heather caught a glimpse of shining silver spots before the carriage left them behind.
“How much money did you just throw away? I hope that was worth it,” she told him.
“It’s not the worst way I’ve wasted money,” Niall said. “If he’s like most men, he’ll stop to pick up every coin he can find.”
Heather twisted around again and peered out. Brom was bearing down on them, but then he did slow and stop, looking to the ground. He glared at the speeding carriage suspiciously, and started to urge his horse on. Then he stopped again, and dismounted.
“My word, he’s doing it. He’s going to hunt down each and every coin!” Heather sat back down. “But that only buys us a few minutes at most.”
“Maybe. He might feel the urge to spend his newfound wealth immediately. Men behave oddly when they’ve got a sudden windfall.”
“How would you know that?”
“Because I got a sudden windfall, and on the way home, I rescued a woman I didn’t even know.” He smiled at her.
“Is that why you’ve been so free with your coin since I met you?”
“Perhaps. I really should be more miserly with it,” he admitted.
“What was the windfall from?”
Niall only shook his head. “I’d rather not discuss it.”
“Excuse me, but as your fake fiancée, I think I have a right to know.”
He shrugged. “It’s not a very interesting tale. The MacNairs have fallen on hard times, and the road to better times is an expensive one. I went to London to attempt to raise a loan, or at minimum, secure some more ready cash so we can do what needs to be done on the estate. I was only marginally successful. Not many banks look at impoverished Scotsmen as a great investment opportunity. And while certain other…businessmen, let’s say…would have been happy to lend me money, I don’t particularly care for the terms, which include me losing limbs if I can’t pay.”
“So what did you do?”
“Sold some heirlooms,” he said. “Fortunately, I don’t wear diamonds or pearls, so it wasn’t as if I was giving much up.”
Heather could tell he was making light of it. “You had to sell your mother’s jewels?”
“Some were hers. She would have approved, if she were alive. The family comes first.”
Heather had not found that to be true in her own situation, so she said nothing, instead looking out the window at the blur of trees as Tavish raced along the byways at an alarming pace.
And then, the carriage came to a halt.
