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Thank goodness the Sherborne staff was loyal.
Evening darkness arrived and Mandy gave up hope. He wasn’t coming.
She had so much to say to him, so of course, he had stayed away.
He had left her in such a flurry of emotions the night before, and she wanted, needed to see him.
She and Chauncey had set a table up for dinner and she found herself blurting out, “I have to tell you both something right now.”
“Aye then, go ahead,” Ned encouraged as he swallowed his food.
“I met with Sir Owen the other day.”
He turned on her, his expression one of total shock, “What? Good Lord, Mandy girl, are you daft? However came that about?”
“If you are going to take on so…”Mandy took affront as her nerves were on edge. “I won’t tell you what Sir Owen was decent enough to tell me.” She gave him a challenging look and waited.
Chauncey put up a hand to stall an argument between the twins and said somberly, “Listen here. I ain’t about to bicker with ye, missy,” he picked his teeth with a thin splint of wood and then gave her a broad smile. “I can see something is fretting ye and ye be looking for a fight. Don’t. We got enough on our plates.”
“I shall gladly tell you everything,” she said to Chauncey and had to stop herself from sticking her tongue out at her brother. Old habits had a way of creeping in when she was upset. She returned her attention to Chauncey and said, “Perhaps he should leave the room.”
“What the deuce? Why? What did I do?” Ned exclaimed.
“Very well,” she said, “You may stay if you don’t nip at me.” She gave him a hard look and satisfied that he only frowned but offered no retort, she proceeded. “Sir Owen was kind enough to offer his help…when I met him by accident a few days ago. I accepted. I took precautions, climbed a tree in fact, until I was certain he had not followed me and returned here. I met him again in the hopes that he might have more information for us. That is the long and the short of it.” She turned a smug look at her brother, “You should be grateful.”
“Mandy, I am grateful, grateful that you are my sister, but in this matter—just think that the duke is right about you gallivanting about, you shouldn’t. Never know who you might run into. The duke is a knowing sort of fellow and we don’t need Sir Owen sticking his nose into our business. The duke will handle it all right and tight,” Ned said unwisely and watched as his sister seemed to turn into a fury of movement.
She stomped her foot and paced in a circle. Hands went to her hips. “Will he? Will he indeed? And yet, where is he?”
“Probably chasing down a lead, I’d say,” put in Chauncey frowning thoughtfully as he looked at her. “Chaffed are ye that he isn’t here?” Chauncey and Mandy’s gaze met and she felt a blush heat up her cheeks. A knowing smile lifted his lips and he said, “Aye, so that is the way of it, is it? I wondered.”
“I am speaking of Sir Owen. Do you want to know what he had to tell me or not?” she returned.
“We do,” said Chauncey lifting his hand to stop her brother from speaking.
“He told me that he had received information that Elly Bonner had been seen in York, and that she is expected to return there.”
“York? Return? Why?” asked her brother.
“I’m not clear on that…wondered about it myself,” Mandy sighed. “But Sir Owen seemed to think that she would be returning for supplies.”
Ned jumped to his feet. “Come on Chauncey, if we head out now, we can reach York, put up somewhere where we wouldn’t be noticed and have a search ourselves first thing in the morning. Didn’t that friend of yours say something about Hawkins frequenting the Black Bull Tavern in York?”
Chauncey flicked his nose as he gave this some thought. He got to his feet and turned to Mandy, “His young lordship is right. If we head out now and put up at an inn, we’ll have the whole day to search tomorrow, unless ye be worried about being alone here at night?”
“No, no…go. I only wish I could go with you,” Mandy sighed.
“Aye, but no one would take ye for a boy by daylight, missy, ye must see that?” Chauncey said in way of apology.
She followed them outside and Chauncey cast his eyes upward. A bright full moon was glowing in the night sky and he grunted with approval. “MacFarlane’s Lantern,” he said, “It bodes well.”
“Eh?” Ned turned a puzzled look at him, “Whose lantern?”
“Macfarlane’s. Haven’t I never told ye about it?”
Both Ned and Mandy shook their heads and waited as Chauncey grinned wide and with his hands moving across the night air, lowered his voice, “’Twas the Clan MacFarlane that rode the Highlands. Aye, but ‘twas glorious. When the moon be so lit, ‘tis said they would ride on their excursions and at no other time…well after they were dead.”
Ned whistled low, Mandy chuckled, “Of course they did.”
