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He turned in the direction of his rooms without another word, leaving her to wonder again if she would ever quite understand the workings of Benneit Lochmore’s mind.
Chapter Eleven
‘Where are they, Angus?’
Angus poked his head out of Benneit’s dressing room, a stack of starched cravats over his arm.
‘They?’
‘Where is Jamie? I just went by the nursery. He’s not there.’
‘I don’t know for certain, lad. They’ve been all around. Took her to the stream this morning right after you left for The House. They sent leaf and stick boats over the waterfall to the Amazon in the north bay.’
Benneit tugged at his cravat and tossed it on the bed. He was exhausted and worried and the carefree image Angus’s words evoked didn’t have the expected uplifting effect on his spirits.
‘It is afternoon now and it’s raining. I presume they returned safely from Brazil?’
‘Of course, Your Grace. They went to mark where those boats are likely to sail in the Map Room. Then they had nuncheon and went to the schoolroom to read and then the sun came out and they went to the copse to see how the birdhouse we finished building yesterday is faring and then they came back for Mrs Merry’s scones and then...’
‘Are you annoyed at me, Angus? Have I ruined too many cravats? Evicted too many tenants? Sold your unborn child to a lowlander?’
Again Angus’s face poked out of the dressing room, this time scars first.
‘Ye sound a tad annoyed yerself, Your Grace.’
‘Since you only call me “Your Grace” when we’re in public or when you wish to goad me, you shouldn’t be surprised.’
‘Mayhap that’s because this is the umpteenth time in the past three days you’ve asked me where they are. She’s a grown woman and responsible; she’ll not let Jamie stray. If ye dinna trust her, tell her to stay within the walls and be done with it. Or better yet, spend some time with them so you can see for yourself if she is trustworthy. Your Grace.’
Benneit counted to ten. Then to twenty. Then he gave up and left the room.
It was perhaps not provident that the first person he saw as he stalked downstairs was Mrs Langdale with Flops trailing in her wake.
‘Mrs Langdale!’
She turned and Flops obediently flattened himself at her feet like a dropped muff, only his pink tongue visible through the mop of hair. In her grey frock and her hands clasped in front of her she looked even more like a demure nun. Two weeks ago he would likely have accepted that meekness at face value. Now he no longer was certain what she was. Misleading, certainly. A sham, most definitely.
Perhaps he had miscalculated asking her to stay a whole month. She was taking up entirely too much space in the castle. Even though he had been absent most of the last three days, from the moment he returned in the afternoons it was evident she had infiltrated the workings of the castle as effectively as weevils burrowed into hardtack.
‘Yes, Your Grace?’ she prompted as he stood and seethed.
‘Where is Jamie?’
‘In the nursery, Your Grace.’ Her brows rose, fixing him with her Great Grey-Eyed Stare. Instead of disconcerting him this time, it added to his aggravation and he latched on to the only grievance he could reasonably find.
‘I hear you have been to the north bay.’
‘Did you, Your Grace?’
‘I believe I told you that was one place you were not to take Jamie, did I not?’
‘You did, Your Grace.’
He clawed together the scraps of his control.
‘Then why, pray tell, did you take him there?’
‘I did not, Your Grace.’
‘Stop calling me...’ He dragged in an audible breath. ‘You just said you did take him there.’
‘No, Your Grace. You said you heard I took him there.’
‘Are you saying you did not take him there?’
‘I am saying as little as humanly possible at the moment, Your Grace.’
Benneit pressed his hand to his brow. He felt physically hot with frustration and fury. He had been utterly right about this woman. She was a menace, a bane, one of those Highland curses that clung as stubbornly as a good Scottish feud. Centuries ago he could have sent her to plague the McCrieffs and they probably would have settled their feud just for the price of taking her back, saving the two clans generations of grief.
