Devil in Tartan (Highland Grooms #4)(44)

“Why no’?”

How did one explain a sailor’s intuition? “It doesna seem right,” he said with a shrug.

She nodded, then abruptly took Duff’s elbow and pulled him aside. Aulay watched as the two of them carried on an animated conversation until Lottie turned about, and announced, “We’ve no time to waste.” She hesitated, then said, “We’ve decided, Drustan, that you will carry on with Duff. You’re to go to the hospital and find help for our father.” She smiled.

Maybe the giant wasn’t as addled as Aulay had thought, because he was not fooled by that smile. “No, Lottie! I remain with you!”

“No’ this time, Dru,” she said firmly, and withdrew a watch from her pocket, and pressed it carefully into the actor’s palm. She turned to her brother again. “Duff needs you. A physician might need a wee bit of persuasion to row out to our ship, aye? If Duff tells you to pick someone up, you must do it.”

Aulay recoiled. “You’re no’ suggesting he force a man against his—”

“I am suggesting he help Duff,” Lottie said curtly.

“But I should no’ like to leave you with him,” the actor said, and jerked his chin in the direction of Aulay, as if he was the cause of the debacle in which they’d put themselves. “I know you believe you can do all, Lottie, and Diah, you have, we’d be at a great loss without you, we would. But you’re a wee thing, and he might try and...and well, strangle you, aye? He might attempt to throw you in the ocean and leave you there to drown!”

“No!” the giant said angrily, and turned with fury toward Aulay.

Aulay straightened up with mild alarm.

“Duff doesna mean that, Dru—”

“I certainly do mean it—”

“Duff!” She gestured to her brother, who was growing more agitated. “Think! If the captain returns to the ship without me, a battle will be waged, will it no’? He canna have his ship back without me. The man is no fool—he’ll no’ risk damage to his ship or the loss of his own crew.”

The actor looked at Aulay, assessing him. “If you dare lay as much as a finger on her—”

“I beg your pardon,” Aulay said evenly, “but you seem to have confused who has laid hands on whom.”

“Duff...we’ve no time to debate it,” Lottie said urgently.

The giant began to flap his hands and mewl.

Lottie caught her brother’s face in her hands and forced him to look at her. “Calm yourself, Dru,” she said. “You know that Duff will care for you as Mats does, aye? I need you to be strong. Fader needs your help.”

At the mention of the old man, the giant seemed to rethink his anguish. “Fader needs me help,” he repeated. “Fader needs me help.”

“I’ll see you verra soon,” she said, and shifted her gaze to the actor. “Go,” she said softly.

“Aye, come then, lad,” the actor said, and put his hand on the giant’s shoulder. He eyed Aulay darkly as they moved on in the direction of the town, the giant lumbering after him.

Lottie watched them go, her arms wrapped tightly around her, the lines of concern evident around her eyes. When the two of them had turned into an alley and she could no longer see them, she glanced warily at Aulay.

He shook his head. “You’re a rare one, Lottie Livingstone. But bloody well foolish. If this man conducts his business in an inn—”

“I’ve no choice,” she snapped, and turned about, facing the squat building the actor had indicated was the Kajen Inn. “I’m no’ afraid, if that’s what you think. No sir, I’m livid. I will abide many things, but dishonesty is no’ one of them!”

“Pardon?”

“Mr. Iversen is no’ in the post he claimed. Nor does the trading company of which he was so inordinately proud seem to exist. And I have chased across the North Sea because I believed him!” She glanced at him sidelong. “Donna fear, Captain—I’ve my pistol.”

“I donna fear, Lottie. And what you have is a wee dueling pistol that would no’ stop a man who means to do you harm.”

Her eyes glittered with ire. She took a breath that lifted her shoulders and released it, and said, “Captain Mackenzie, I have a matter of hours—hours—to save our clan and my father. I mean to go to that inn and speak to Mr. Ingoff Holm, because I’ve no other option, and now I’ve promised no’ one, but two crews payment. You may come with me, or you may return to the ship, I donna care.”

Well, then. She was lovely when her anger was aroused. A fine wisp of her snowy white hair had come down from the hat, and quite unable to stop himself, he tucked it behind her ear, trailed his finger along the bottom of her lobe and down her neck before he dropped his hand. “Aye, a rare one, you are,” he muttered.

“Will you come with me?”

God help him, but the sea in him was beginning to turn. The things he could see, the things he could count on, knew like the back of his hand, were disappearing, and parts of him that were new, raw and unused, were coming to light. Of course he was going with her. He gestured to the street before them. “After you, then.”

“You do know that if you say a single word to hinder me, I’ll shoot you, and I’ll no’ miss.”