“Aye, Captain—a good deal more. Roscraig hasn’t been properly occupied in years. I’ll be needing to outfit everything from the hall to the dairy.”
John Muir raised his eyebrows.
“And people,” Tavish continued. “Your men on leave are welcome here to work; their families to stay on in my employ in their absence.”
“It’s servants you’re needing as well, then?”
Tavish nodded. “Anyone suitable. Even if they’re not suitable.”
Captain Muir grinned. “I’m not a man to judge house servants, Tav.”
“Perhaps you would find reason to pay a call to Master Keane and relay to Audrey my sudden need for domestic assistance. I’m certain she would know exactly what I require.”
“And perhaps I could happen to mention, by the by, your inheritance?” Muir taunted.
Tavish felt his neck warm, but found he didn’t mind at all. “It’s no secret now, is it, John?”
“Nay, but I’ll warrant Audrey shall be cross that you didna tell her yourself. Quite.”
Tavish grinned. “I’m certain you can convince her to forgive me—she’s always listened to you above any other. Do you need my assistance in coming ashore?”
“Nay—we’ve hands aplenty this short trip. We’ll rebuild the dock straightaway.”
“Good. Send word ’round that half of them may stay when you return to Edinburgh. I’ll pay them their usual sailing stipend with a bonus. I’ve a roof that needs mending and some walls and paths rocked. Several cottages are in disrepair, and the fields need turned right away, should any have a yearning to play at farming.”
“My God,” Muir said. “Is it so bad?”
“Naught I can’t bring to heel,” Tavish repeated. “I’m off to tell Mam you’ve arrived—she’ll be anxious for her hoops and pots.” He offered Muir his hand once more. “Captain.”
Muir took Tavish’s hand but also touched his forehead with his left fingertips and gave Tavish a salty wink. “Laird.”
The dark clouds made good on their rainy promise as Tavish bounded up the three flights to the courtyard. He saw the smoke coming from the kitchen building and dashed toward it, knowing that’s where Mam would likely feel most at home in such a foreign place. He couldn’t wait to bring the news that Muir had arrived with their possessions.
Tavish grabbed onto the doorframe to slow himself as he ran beneath the lintel, feeling the wide smile on his face, the cold rain on his scalp.
“Mam! TheStygianis—”
The smile fell from his lips as he took in the scene before him: the previously dusty, abandoned room now scrubbed clean, its shelves set to rights with the small provisions they’d traveled with. A fire crackled merrily in the enormous hearth, encouraging the simmer of a pot of some delicious-smelling stuff that his mother was ladling into a wooden bowl.
“Ah, you reminded me of when you were a lad just now, Tav, dashing into the kitchen to tell me this or that,” Mam said with a delighted smile as she hung the ladle on a hook and turned toward the square table in the center of the room. “Warms my heart.”
She set the bowl down on the table before none other than Glenna Douglas, who was looking up at Tavish with her green eyes rounded, her hands clasped tightly on her lap.
The two stared at each other for several heartbeats, while Mam shook out a wide napkin and smoothed it over the blond woman’s legs, lifting and replacing Glenna Douglas’s clenched fists.
“There you are, milady. Careful now—’twill be hot. Come have a bite, Tavish—it’s just now ready.”
Milady?Milady?
“What are you doing here?” Tavish demanded in a low voice, ignoring his mother.
If she had been startled by his entrance, she recovered quickly. Her cat eyes narrowed. “Did you expect me to simply vanish upon your command?”
“Aye,” he said with a nod.
Mam tossed him a stern look as she set a wooden cup next to the bowl and filled it from a skin. “Now, let’s nae argue over the meal. Milady, here’s a good heel of bread.”
“Thank you, Harriet.”
