Page 12 of Saved by the Cruel Highlander (Lairds of the Loch Alliance #1)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

H olly woke up with a start. She put her hand on her head to check that everything she remembered had happened. The bandage was still there.

That happened, but did the kiss happen? Did he come into me room last night and make me feel happy and free, and then dashed it all by leavin’?

“Meow.”

Holly glanced toward the foot of the bed, where Ollie was waking up against her legs.

“Ye are right, Ollie,” she told him. “If ye are back in bed with me, then it must have all happened as I remember it. Ye are a clever cat for sayin’ that.”

She sat up in bed and stretched her arms above her head. She was still wearing the clothes from the previous day, and they were uncomfortable now. She got out of bed and went to the window to look out. The sun was rising high in the sky—it was late morning already. Ollie padded in a figure of eight in and out of her legs, rubbing against her.

“Ye’re bein’ friendly, but I ken it’s because ye want some food, do ye nae?”

A meow in response.

“Give me a minute,” Holly said. “If only everyone was as easily pleased as ye. Some food and a scratch behind yer ears, and ye are as happy as can be. I dinnae think the Laird will be as easily charmed.”

Ollie mewed as she smoothed down her clothes before the mirror. She still didn’t have all her things, and it would take some time for the dressmaker to sew the dresses. She couldn’t remember if the woman had taken all her measurements the previous day.

“What do ye mean?” Holly asked the cat. “I didnae mean it like that. I dinnae want to charm the Laird. I was only makin’ an observation. Ye are a silly cat at times. I dinnae want to scratch the Laird behind the ears or anythin’. Ye are the one thinkin’ such things, nae me.”

She looked at herself in the mirror. It would have to do for now.

“Come on, ye rogue. Let’s see if the kitchens have a fishbone for ye.”

Holly left the room and looked left and right. She hadn’t had a lot of time to explore the castle. She would do that another time. For now, she knew she needed to head down. The kitchens were somewhere downstairs.

She found the stairs, the cat following a couple of feet behind at all times, and made it to the ground level.

She heard voices and headed in that direction. When she turned the corner, she was almost knocked over by Eliza, who was carrying an armful of linens.

“Och, look at—” Eliza started as she bounced back a little. She caught sight of Holly. “Me Lady, I didnae mean to bump into ye like that.”

“Dinnae worry, I wasnae lookin’ where I was goin’.”

“Me goodness, yer head,” Eliza said.

She scooped the linens into one arm and reached out as if to touch the bandage before taking her hand back.

“It’s worse than it looks,” Holly told her.

“There’s blood,” Eliza said.

“Only a wee bit that seeped through. Cassandra took good care of me.”

Two maids hurried past them, carrying bundles of silver—cutlery, urns, plates, jugs, and a tangled assortment of other items.

“What’s goin’ on?” Holly asked. “Why’s everyone in such a haste this mornin’.”

Eliza suddenly looked flabbergasted. “Ye dinnae ken?”

“I—” Holly racked her brain, trying to think, knowing that she knew.

“The weddin’,” Eliza stated. “Ye’re to be wed in a month, and there’s a lot to do. It sounds like a long time, but it really isnae.”

Holly looked around and saw maids and footmen, and even some guards, moving about at speed. Part of her wondered why they would go to such trouble, and the other part of her swelled with pride at such a fuss being made.

“Did the Laird order ye to do all this?” she asked.

“Aye, of course,” Eliza replied. “He wants everythin’ to be perfect. He always says that if ye are to do somethin’, ye might as well do it as best ye can.”

“Aye,” Holly agreed.

She tried not to smile. Between the kiss and the wedding preparations, the Laird acted in unexpected ways.

“Where is Laird McAllister?” she asked.

Eliza gripped the linens a little tighter. “Have ye been lookin’ for him?”

Holly watched as Ollie lifted his nose, as if he were smelling something, before he trotted off. It was as if he was in a rush to get somewhere but was holding back so as not to seem too eager.

“Nay, I was on me way to the kitchens to get food for Ollie, but he must have other plans,” Holly replied.

“Och, aye,” Eliza said. “He might be on his way to get some food. He probably heard a mouse skittering about. There are a fair few of them in the castle.”

“Hmm,” Holly murmured.

“I should get goin’ afore the housekeeper chastises me for nae doin’ me job,” Eliza said.

Holly took the opportunity to discover what the young maid was hiding. She stood as straight as possible. “Is the Laird still in the castle, or did he go out?”

“Aye, he went out. Likely to the cabin,” Eliza said.

“The cabin?” Holly furrowed her brow.

“Och, I shouldnae have said that.”

“What’s the cabin for?” Holly asked.

“It’s… it’s nae really me place to say.” Eliza squirmed.

“Then tell me where it is, and I’ll find out for meself.”

“I dinnae ken if I should,” Eliza replied.

Holly folded her arms across her chest. “Eliza, I’m to be Lady McAllister soon. I have the right to ken what’s goin’ on here. Will ye just tell me where the cabin is, and I willnae tell anyone ye told me.”

“Och, ye have me by the long and short of it,” Eliza said. “Ye are a wily one. Please dinnae tell anyone.”

“I willnae,” Holly assured her.

“Take the west exit and go to the woods. There’s a small deer path. Follow it for a mile, and ye’ll come to a fork. Dinnae take either path. Instead, turn right and go through the Rhododendron bushes. Ye’ll find it soon after.”

“Thank ye,” Holly said, patting the woman’s arm.

Eliza hurried off, lest she said something else she shouldn’t. Ollie was nowhere to be seen, off chasing mice somewhere.

“Eat yer fill, Ollie.”

The fewer mice in the castle, the better.

Holly thought about searching for fresh clothes to change into, but the cabin was too intriguing. She exited into the central courtyard, observing more business around her. Most people walked straight past, not knowing who she was. That suited her just fine. She liked that the Laird had requested the marriage ceremony be perfect, but she didn’t want any attention.

She slowly strolled through the courtyard, wanting to find the path the maid had spoken of but also interested in what people carried. Mostly, it was furniture, flags, and banners in the clan colors—blue, green, and yellow.

She finally disengaged herself from the castle’s bustle and slipped out of the west exit. It was exactly as Eliza had said. Deer had trampled a small path. She followed it through the trees, the light filtered by the thin branches and heart-shaped leaves above. She didn’t have a shawl to put on, but she didn’t need one, with the sun beating down on her.

There was a small scurry to her right, and she looked in time to see a white hare bound through the undergrowth. Silver birch trees surrounded her, and taller oaks grew by the castle walls, but she had passed them long ago.

“Ye were right, Eliza.”

She stood at the fork in the road, two paths extending from the one she stood on. To her right, Rhododendron bushes were in full bloom. She smiled, knowing that she had followed the instructions to the tee, but as she stepped toward the bushes to pass between them, her happiness melted like ice in a summer stream.

She had been so caught up in getting to the cabin where the Laird was that she hadn’t stopped to think about what it meant. Eliza hadn’t wanted to tell her about the cabin, so it could only be bad.

Is that where he takes his mistresses? If so, I willnae let that upset me.

Yet, as much as she tried to tell herself that it did not upset her, it did. He was the Laird of the castle and clan, and he could do as he pleased, even after they were wed. Holly was under no illusion why they were marrying, and it was certainly not love. Yet, as much as she wanted to accept the situation that currently resided in her head, it gnawed at her like a dog with a bone.

It wasn’t that he had a mistress or that he might lie with her—it was that he might kiss a mistress the way he had kissed Holly the previous night. The kiss was a secret she wanted to keep all to herself. The Laird had made her feel something she didn’t know she could feel, and she greedily wanted it all to herself. For him to share that with someone else would dilute the feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Och, blast it all! Why am I so caught up in where he is? What business is it of mine?

Holly marched through the bushes like a soldier marching into war, her heart providing the drum beat. She couldn’t stop him, but she wanted to let him know that she knew his secrets. She would hold her head high and tell him that she oddly tolerated it, but she wouldn’t have him go behind her back. She would?—

Holly stopped dead when she came upon a sight she hadn’t expected.

“The cabin?” she whispered.

The cabin was not before her, only part of it was. The cabin would have stood there, but it had been razed to the ground, leaving a blackened rectangle on the forest floor. Wooden foundations rose from the ashes, but they were almost ashes themselves. The wood was blacker than the night, some walls standing taller than her but ravaged and cut through like a small child hungrily eating a slice of bread.

“What is this?” she muttered.

She couldn’t understand the situation. What had happened to the cabin?

She stepped forward.

Did he ken I was comin’? Did he burn it down so I wouldnae ken his secrets?

Holly reached out and touched the burnt wood, expecting it to still be warm. It wasn’t. In fact, it felt cold to the touch. However, the cold didn’t come from the temperature of the wood, but from what it had once held. She shivered, feeling something long dead in the area.

A crack of wood sounded behind her as someone stepped on a dead branch.

What am I doin’ out here by meself!