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“Tourists? Really?” Sabrina asked in a doubtful tone.
“Scotland is crawling withSassenachs, thanks to Walter Scott and that ridiculous spectacle with the king last year. Might as well make some blunt off it. God knows you two have certainly earned a slice of that particular pie.”
His sister-in-law had played an integral role in King George’s visit to Edinburgh, and she’d snagged Graeme as a result of it.
“What do you think, dearest?” she asked her husband.
Graeme flashed a smile at Grant. “Actually, I think it’s bloody brilliant. I always knew there was a reason I liked you.”
“I’m the smart twin, remember?” Grant said. “As well as the good-looking one.”
Graeme scoffed. “That’s debatable, but—”
The door was flung open and Magnus Barr stalked into the room, Angus on his heels.
Graeme frowned. “Grandda, what’s wrong?”
Sabrina hastened forward. “Is Gus all right?”
“Och, the wee lad’s fine. It’s other trouble we’ve got, ye ken.”
Magnus, a veritable giant of a man with the soul of a puppy, was looking mightily fashed.
“Aye, that,” he said in a grim tone. “At the mill. That’s why I popped over there.” He grimaced at Sabrina. “Sorry to interrupt yer visit with yer guests, my lady.”
“Don’t apologize,” said Sabrina. “Magnus, this is Miss Calvert and her sister Miss Jeannie.”
Magnus respectfully doffed his hat. “It’s my pleasure. I’m right sorry I weren’t here to show ye around.”
“Never mind that,” Graeme impatiently said. “What’s wrong at the mill?”
“Somebody broke into the storage room overnight. The blighters cut open the sacks of grist and dumped it all over the place. Some went out the back window. It’s a right mess.”
Graeme muttered a curse and threw a meaningful glance at Grant.
“I’ll go right over and look about,” Grant said, starting for the door.
Angus held up a hand. “That’s not all the trouble. A lad ran up from Dunlaggan. Yon kirk has been vandalized too, I’m afraid.”
“What?” Brown gasped.
Angus grimaced. “I’m sorry, Vicar, but it sounds like they mucked up a mess in there. Made off with the silver, too.”
Chapter Fifteen
Kathleen was on her knees repacking the dirt around the morning glories and trailing vines when a familiar masculine voice nearly startled her out of her wits.
“Miss Calvert, what are you doing out here alone?”
Resisting an impulse to press a gloved hand to her thumping heart, especially since that hand was covered in dirt, she twisted around to see an irate Highlander glowering down at her. For a man who prided himself on self-discipline, Grant had been bearish these last few days. Of course, it was in everyone’s best interest, as he and his equally overbearing twin had made abundantly clear.
“You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that,” she replied. “I didn’t even hear the garden gate open.”
A reasonable person would expect that Grant and his twin would thump about the place making a great deal of noise, as befitted any proper giant. But at least twice now, she and Sabrina had been discussing the Kendrick brothers when the subjects of their conversations all but popped out of the woodwork like ghosts.
Of course, that quiet quality didn’t hold when having an argument with a Kendrick male. In those circumstances, yelling tended to be the order of the day.
“That’s because I stepped over the gate,” Grant said, “which anyone could have done if they’d wanted to sneak up on you.”
