Devil in Tartan (Highland Grooms #4)(74)

“I’m Lottie,” Lottie said, and tossed her trews and shirt onto the floor. “Lottie Livingstone. You resemble, him, you do,” she said, and stepped into the tub. She closed her eyes on a blissful sigh as she sank into the bath. It was pure luxury after the last week.

“Here.”

Lottie opened her eyes—Catriona was standing beside the tub, holding out a bar of soap. Lottie reluctantly took it, wondering why Aulay’s sister should linger.

Catriona strolled around the room as Lottie bathed. “There’s to be a meeting on the morrow. Two of my brothers and my father will determine what is to be done with you and your clan.” She glanced over her shoulder at Lottie. “Does it frighten you, then?”

Lottie remembered how fear had choked the breath from her in those moments she thought she would drown. She shook her head. “I’m a wee bit uneasy, I’ll no’ deny it. But no’ frightened.” She began to wash her hair.

“Funny, but I thought you’d say that.” Catriona stopped her wandering and turned around to face Lottie. “How did you do it?”

“Pardon?”

“How did you steal my brother’s ship? He’s one of the finest captains on the seas, and ’tis no’ only me who says it, aye? Everyone on Skye would say it as well, and the MacDonalds are no’ easy with their praise, they’re no’.”

“Ah...” Lottie still didn’t know how she’d managed it. “We, ah...we planned to do it.”

“It would no’ be so easy.”

“No,” Lottie said softly. “I, ah...I distracted them.”

“How?”

Lottie could feel her cheeks heating and averted her gaze, then gestured vaguely to her face.

“Pardon?” Catriona asked.

Lottie made a circular motion around her face again. “I distracted them.”

Catriona’s brows dipped. Lottie waited to be ridiculed, or worse, censured for it. But Catriona abruptly laughed. “Are gentleman no’ the most ridiculous creatures? Such slaves to beauty they are.”

The heat in Lottie’s cheeks intensified. “While I...distracted them, my brother struck him from behind. You might have noticed him—he’s rather big.”

“Oh, aye, he’s your brother, is he? What ails him?”

Catriona was very direct, which, in any other circumstance, Lottie would have very much admired. But at present, she wished Catriona would leave. “He was born with the cord about his neck. He’s never been right.”

Catriona sat on the end of the bed. “How tragic for your family. For your mother! Does she wait for your return?”

Lottie shook her head. “She died in the course of bearing my sister.”

“Oh,” Catriona said contritely, and glanced at her hands. “My condolences. Well! I donna know what will happen, but the ship is lost and the cargo we held was no’ ours, aye? We canna replace it and now we have a large debt we didna have before. Everyone is verra angry just now.”

“Aye,” Lottie said softly. “I understand.”

“Nevertheless, my father is quite fair.”

If he were a fair man, he’d see them hang for it, for that was the only fair thing. The only fair thing would be for the Livingstones to pay the Mackenzie debts, but that was as laughable as it was impossible.

Catriona leaned across the space between them and lifted a wet strand of Lottie’s hair. “I’ve never seen such a color, in all my days I’ve no’. No wonder Aulay was stricken.” She dropped Lottie’s hair and smiled.

“He was no’ stricken,” Lottie scoffed. “He was the only man on that ship who seemed suspicious of me.”

“That is what constitutes stricken for my brother. I’ve never known a lass to catch his eye. He’s had his courtships, aye, and I’ve heard from Rabbie—that’s another of my brothers—that he has no’ lacked for the attention of the fairer sex. But Aulay likes his solitary life, I think. He prefers to be free to sail the seas and return to us every now and again. The good Lord knows that when he’s here at Balhaire, he canna stay for long. He’s always been quite desperate to be out again.”

“He is married to the sea,” Lottie said, thinking back on their conversation.

“Pardon?”

“Nothing,” Lottie murmured. She thought of the seascapes he’d painted, of the places he’d been. She had taken that from him and she couldn’t bear that she’d hurt another person as she had clearly hurt him. She would give anything in her power to make it right.

Catriona tilted her head to one side. “You are a beauty, that you are. Pity,” she said.

Lottie flushed.

“I mean pity that you’ll no’ be at Balhaire for very long. I should like to learn how to steal a ship. It can be so tedious here.”

“Borrow,” Lottie said, and closed her eyes.

“Pardon?”

“I borrowed it,” she said.

“Hmm. My brother would disagree,” Catriona said. “He said you are the worst sort of thief, for you pray on the weakness of men.”

Lottie’s eyes flew open, but Catriona had moved to the door. “Sleep well, then.”

Did Aulay really believe that she’d prayed on his regard for her?