He grimaced and pushed the balance of his food from him. “’Tis pouring rain out there still, as I am sure ye can hear. Most o’ those I had searching ha’ returned. I am awaiting guests—if they are no’ delayed because o’ the weather.” He drew a breath and concluded, “We will suspend the search for the day.”
Annista stared at him. “Nay ye canna. He is dangerous.”
“Hush, Daughter.”
It was the first time he had called her that. To be sure, something in their relationship had altered. Still, the term did nothing to calm her.
Before she could speak, he went on in a fierce, low tone. “The men I expect today are very important. Vital to events that concern our country most deeply. They canna be allowed to know our affairs here are in disarray, or that—” He paused abruptly.
“That your heir—and the heir to your estates—is a madman?” Annista finished for him.
Lady MacKallan gasped. The footman standing by to serve pretended he could not hear.
Earl MacKallan fixed his gaze upon Annista. “I will tak’ care o’ what business I must before I resume the search for Evan.”
“And should he return here during your grand visit?”
“I shall trust the household to care for him.”
“Care for?”
“My son is troubled. We shall deal wi’ his state o’ mind.”
“Troubled?” Annista repeated the word incredulously. “He thrashed his good horse. Attacked my maid. Drew a weapon and used it on his brother—”
Earl MacKallan rose to his feet. “I said, we shall deal wi’ him when this other matter is settled. Alan!” He switched his gaze to his son. “Curb your wife!”
The order fair stole Annista’s breath. No man should curb her, not even one with whom she’d shared sweet kisses. And by any road, she did not consider herself in need of curbing.
She was the one in the right, here. Evan represented a danger. Had they all gone mad?
Alan rose also, even as Lady MacKallan directed a look of deep distress at Annista.
“Please, my dear,” she said. “The meeting today is o’ great importance to our family—and your own.”
“Aye, so.” Annista sputtered. “Matters o’ state, I understand.”
“Just so.”
“More important than your family?”
“Planning for and preserving this estate is caring for my family. Ye would no’ understand this, but as the country changes, so do our means of survival.”
They are plotting against the Queen. The thought appeared clear in Annista’s mind.And against Catholics. Like her.
“Come, wife,” Earl MacKallan said shortly, and drew Lady MacKallan up from her seat, leaving Annista and Alan alone.
Annista caught the footman—Jock—looking at them from the corner of his eye.
“Sit down,” Alan bade her. “Ye had better eat.”
“I do no’ want—”
He leaned toward her, his gaze searing hers, almost as fierce as his father’s had been. In a voice too low for Jock to catch, he said, “Tak’ your breakfast. Ye will need the fortification when we go out searching.”
****
“Is it no’ terrible unwise for ye to be out in the rain?” Annista asked in a tone of voice that argued to Alan she very much wanted him to say no. She wanted to be doing exactly what they were—riding out on the back of Chieftain despite the downpour.
