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“Blast,” said Sabrina. “I’m sorry, dearest. I should have kept a better eye on her.”
“No, it’s my fault. I am an absolute idiot.”
“We can debate fault later,” said Grant. “There’s a storm coming, and it’s a bad one. If she’s caught in it—”
Kathleen didn’t let him finish. “I’m going to change into my riding habit. Sabrina, please have someone saddle my horse.”
She lifted her skirts and pelted down the hall, ignoring Grant’s calls to wait.
Chapter Twenty-One
Grant reined in his bay at the top of the gentle rise that overlooked the small loch and scanned the area below. Kathleen, atop her mare, came up beside him.
“We should have found Jeannie by now,” she said in a worried tone.
“Not if she’s hiding. And given the row you had this morning, that’s a distinct possibility. She probably needs a few hours to calm down and come back to her senses.”
“But she’s been gone for longer than a few hours, and dusk will be on us soon.” Kathleen grimaced. “I’m worried that she’s stumbled across that gang.”
When she tightened her grip on the reins, her horse shook its head in protest.
Grant shot out a restraining hand. “Careful, lass. We don’t want you getting tossed out here in the middle of nowhere.”
He’d already lived that nightmare, and he’d be damned if he went through it again.
“Sorry, I’m being an idiot. But those awful men—”
“Graeme and I have been all over these grounds, andwecan’t find the blasted thieves. Jeannie is not going to stumble upon them while walking across a field.”
“I suppose you’re right. Still, we should have come across her by now.”
“She might never have come this way in the first place. That crofter only saw her from a distance, remember—if it even was her.”
After their first hour of fruitless searching, they’d come across one of Graeme’s tenants, who claimed to have seen a girl on the path to the loch. At the time, the man had not thought anything of it.
Kathleen stripped off one of her gloves, stuck two fingers in her mouth, and blew out an ear-splitting whistle. In the distance, a dog responded with a mournful howl, while the horses waggled their heads.
Grant tugged on his ear. “Bloody hell, lass. A bit of warning might have been helpful.”
“Sorry, but I know Jeannie would recognize my whistle if she heard it.”
“I imagine they heard it all the way back in Dunlaggan. It’s quite impressive.”
“One of my few genuine talents,” she ruefully said.
“Och, sweetheart, you have many talents.”
“Finding my sister isn’t one of them.”
Grant again scanned the surrounding area. “I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that Jeannie didn’t come this way.”
Kathleen sighed. “I was so certain she had. Dickie told Jeannie about the smugglers’ hut a few days ago, and how they used it as their hideout. She thought it all sounded terribly exciting.”
Grant studied the simple hut, tucked up below on the shoreline. “Aye, it’s exactly the sort of place that would appeal to her.”
“Perhaps she’s hiding in it?”
Although it was obviously no longer used for smuggling purposes, Graeme had maintained the upkeep on both the hut and its long, sturdily built pier in the event that he expanded operations to this location. The lake eventually emptied out into Loch Laggan, which made it a prime route for shipping to Inverness and points beyond.
