"Wait here, Jamie, until I talk toMorna." She drew the nursemaid ten feet away, then pulled a sealed missive from the hidden pocket in her bodice. She'd scribed it the night before.'Twasher only guarantee that Claybourne would keep his word. "If I don't return here to the castle by the last day of the month, haveGlenhavensend this missive to Laird and LadyDraughon," she whispered.
"Very well."Mornanodded, her sincere brown gaze held Calla's. The nursemaid was one of the few peopleCallatrusted.
"Tell no one you have it.'Tisto remain our secret, unless you have to send it. Once I return, you can give it back to me." The missive revealed where Calla would be, and if Claybourne kept her beyond a fortnight, hopefully Angelique would send Lachlan and his men to rescue her.
"Aye."
"I thank you." Calla was gladMornadidn't question the instructions. She had always been loyal to a fault and meticulous in her duties.
Calla took Jamie's hand and they continued up the drive.
"I didn't want to come back here," Jamie muttered, stamping his feet on the wet cobblestones.
"Why not?" Calla asked. "I thought you liked it here."
"I wanted to stay with you. And my new friends."
"I know, my love. I wanted to keep you with me, too. But I must work to pay your father's debt. He did not save any money for us."
"That was mean that he spent all the money."
Indeed it was, but Calla refrained from disparaging the man Jamie believed was his father. She didn't want her son to think she was a bitter woman.
"Rebbie promised me a ride on Devil." Jamie peered up at her with those dark, pleading eyes so likeRebbie's, he near broke her heart.
"I know, sweeting."
"I didn't even get to say goodbye to him." Jamie kicked a small rock lying on the drive and sent it flying.
"I'm sorry." Her own goodbye to him was too excruciating to remember.
"Do you think he will come visit me?"
She shook her head, her throat tightening. "I don't think so." She should not be surprised that Jamie had taken an instant liking to Rebbie. They had the same blood running through their veins, after all.
"But he was kind and funny… and I thought he liked me."
Calla's eyes burned. "He does like you, my darling. But he is a very busy man."
"When will you come to see me again?"
"In a little over a fortnight." If Claybourne kept his word and released her from his "employ" by then.Nay, do not think of it.She must enjoy Jamie's company as long as possible before she had to leave him and endure hell on earth.
After speaking toGlenhavenand his wife about her fabricated "new employment in Angus" she knelt and hugged Jamie tightly to her, then placed kisses all over his face.
"I will be back before you know it," she promised, though she remembered how slowly time crawled by for children and he would no doubt be miserable for days. She knew he could endure it; he was a strong lad.
After walking to the nearbyGlenhavenVillage and feeling more alone than she had in her life, Calla used what little money she possessed to hire a coach to pick up her trunk at the gate house and take her toBonnyridge, some three miles away. If indeed Claybourne would clear her of the debt, not reveal her secret about Jamie, and return her dower property to her, any torture she might endure at his hand would be worth it. Of course, he was a criminal and completely untrustworthy.
***
The evening before, Rebbie had ridden Devil north as if the hounds of hell snapped at his heels. He'd arrived at the castle ruin just as darkness descended upon the land.
He'd been dog-tired, all the pent up rage having evaporated with each mile that passed. As he'd lain on the dirt floor of the ruin's kitchen last night, the only way to stop the thoughts spinning through his head was to drink more whisky. Once it was gone, he'd slept, not caring if the wolves discovered him. Devil would wake him, he knew, and he had two loaded pistols.
The next morn, he awoke to a splitting headache. He forced himself to stumble out to the stream.
Dropping to his knees, he washed his face in the icy water, dunked his whole head in, then arose and flung his hair back.'Twasa shock to his system that brought him fully awake.
