‘Are you sure you’re all right about doing this?’ Lachlan went on. ‘I’d like to say you don’t have to, but I really can’t see what other options we’ve got.’
‘It’s not dangerous,’ I said, sipping at the watery warmth. It was comforting on the stomach, that was about all you could say for it. ‘He can’t exactly throw me out of the window.’
‘What if this goes the same way as with the other one?’ Lachlan asked. ‘You could be invisible to this bloke too, after all.’
‘He’ll be able to see me. He just will, I know it.’
Lachlan stroked his beard again. ‘You seem very sure.’
‘I am. I can’t explain it. Like when I saw him, Iknewwho he was. As though we’ve got a connection of some kind.’
Now I got raised eyebrows. ‘Should I be worried?’
‘Don’t be daft. He’s three hundred years too old for me for a start.’
‘Right, right.’ More chin stroking. ‘Pax, I?—’
‘Let’s not talk about this now, all right? I’ve got to do this and find out for certain and then we’re a step closer to getting home.’
He gave me a grin. ‘You don’t know what I was going to say.’
‘It doesn’t really matter. Let’s do this, before the earl starts mingling with everyone else. I stand a better chance if he’s alone in his room.’
Kaylinn sighed. ‘I sure wish he could seeme. I kinda like older men.’
‘Little bittoomuch older,’ Mal said. ‘Not exactly a sugar daddy, more like a quietly rotting corpse.’
‘Right.’ I stood up now. ‘Let’s wake David up and get to the castle.’
The doors were thrown wide this morning and there was much coming and going. Cellar Dog detached himself from the milling pack of hounds and followed us up the inner stair, passing Jeannie on her way down with an empty bowl. She was smiling to herself as she swept past us and I hoped the earl hadn’t been importuning her, even though I had only a vague idea what importuning was. My imagination could fill in any gaps in my vocabulary.
He was alone when we arrived, sitting at the desk and leafing through papers. There was a mug of something that smelled like spiced wine beside him and he was in his shirt and breeches with no sign of the sweaty coat he’d arrived in.
We peeped from behind the tapestry. Now it came down to it I could feel my back prickling with nerves and my stomach was resenting that cup of warm gravy. What if he couldn’t see me? What if this was all a huge bust?
‘Go,’ Lachlan whispered. We still couldn’t stop ourselves from whispering. It was a hard habit to break.
I eased aside the fabric and tiptoed into the room. The earl stayed bent over his paperwork, his long hair brushing his shoulders. He must have had it tied back yesterday, I thought, getting closer. He had the same straight nose and angular cheekbones as Lenny, but a squarer chin and, from the dark stubble that ornamented his lower face, he’d obviously not shaved in a day or so.
He pulled out a sheet of thick paper covered in, as Mal would have said, ‘ADHD Spider’ writing and scrutinised it closely. I crept a bit closer but there wasn’t a single movement of acknowledgement and I found myself burning with annoyance and anger. Ifhecouldn’t sense me, then why was I evenhere?
I was about to reach out a hand and give him the same poke in the head as I’d given Ratface, when he said, ‘Well?’
I had that horrible feeling of embarrassment when you aren’t sure whether someone is talking to you or someone else and so any reply is going to look awkward. I didn’t say anything, but I did jump back a few steps. The earl sighed and now his eyes came up, raked over me and finally settled on my face.
‘You’re not fooling anyone, lass,’ he said, not unkindly. ‘If you want to go as a soldier you need to do more than put on your brother’s clothes and cut your hair.’
His accent wasn’t as broadly Scots as most of the others, but had a soft burr to it. This was not at all the ‘screaming, yelling about ghosts and trying to run away’ that I had expected, and I couldn’t think of a reply.
‘You’ll either be coming to fight or you’ll be wanting your young man released to go away with you,’ the earl went on, conversationally. ‘So, which is it? I have to tell you that I’ll no’ have young ladies in the battle that’s coming, however well they think they can hold a sword.’
My mouth still flapped. I heard a ‘Tell him!’ muttered at me from behind the tapestry and pulled myself together. ‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m… I’m a spirit. Sent from another world.’
It sounded stupid even as I said it and I wasn’t totally surprised when he burst out laughing. ‘Well, that’s a new one!’
‘I am!’ I said indignantly.
‘All right, you’re a bonny lass, I’ll humour you.’ Those brown eyes were very twinkly. ‘Why were you sent here? And if you’re a succubus after seducing me then you’re wasting your time. I’ve left my wife and the wee bairns away down in Edinburgh and I’ll not betray her.’
