Page 94 of Stealing Sophie

Chapter 26

“Ach,you won again! I have corrupted you now, lass, and Conn will have my head for it.” Roderick threw his cards down. “You are thoroughly ruined now.”

“I believe I am.” Sophie patted the cards she had laid neatly on the table.

“You are a natural for winning.” Roderick shook his head. “Trounced me soundly three games in a row at Ombre and twice at Primero.”

“Three times at Primero,” she said. “But Connor will not be upset. He might not care. He is hardly ever here.”

“He would care, though serves him right for not coming home again this night. We were forced to amuse ourselves with the cards.”

Laughing, Sophie glanced past him toward the door of the great hall where they sat playing cards by candlelight. She had glanced up repeatedly all evening, hoping Connor would appear. An uneasy feeling had pecked at her all night. She could not shake the sense that he was not safe, that he might have come to harm.

“I thought Connor would return by now,” she said. “Do you think something has happened? Did he go to meet Neill?”

“Conn is always fine,” Roderick said. “He will be here when he’s here.”

“Did he go raiding or hunting?” she asked, but Roderick shrugged evasively. She frowned. Perhaps her uneasy feeling was ungrounded, but she could not lose it.

Roderick shuffled the cards. “Have you truly never played cards before?”

“We were not allowed playing cards at the convent. My parents sometimes played with card sets, but they never taught their children. They said it was not seemly unless we were older. Though I did enjoy it. Thank you for teaching me.”

“What else could I do—I was told to guard you, and it is miserable standing by the front gate all the while, making sure you do not go near it.” He waggled his eyebrows.

Sophie swept a little pile of small stones toward her. “I have a wealth of pebbles now. What shall I do with them?”

“Patch one of the drafty holes in this castle. Or make a garden path.”

“I shall save them for our next lesson in corruption and unseemliness.”

“The laird can teach you that far better than I can,” Roderick said with a wicked twinkle in his blue eyes. “I would be glad to play cards with you, but if we had used coins, you would have emptied my pockets. I will be more careful next time. How did you win so often?”

“Fairy blood,” she said lightly.

“Ah, they do say the MacCarrans have fairy blood in their line. So that is why you have such winning luck! I can well believe it.” He winked. “You look like a fairy queen. Delicate, like.”

“Thank you.” She touched her crystal necklace out of habit.

“Did you inherit the MacCarran magic? I have heard some stories about it.”

“I might have a touch of it,” she said.

“They say each MacCarran who inherits it has a special magic. Yours is card games, I will wager. I should take you to London to make my fortune.”

“Nothing so grand. Sometimes I can make things grow.”

“Oh aye, I believe that. Can you make me taller and more handsome for the sake of the lassies?” He grinned mischievously.

“You need no help with that, sir.” She chuckled. Roderick reminded her of her brother, she realized with a quick twist of sadness, even as she smiled. “It is just flowers, plants, vegetables, that sort of thing.” She shrugged. “Nature grows anyway, so it is not much magic, is it, as I told Kinnoull.”

“He is not much for fairies and ghosties and such.”

“He has seen the one that’s here. And I have heard the ghostly music.”

“Ghostly—oh, that one, aye.” He laughed. “So this is why you want to go digging in the dirt. We have all tried to tell you, not much grows here at Glendoon.”

“So I have heard. Why?”