Devil in Tartan (Highland Grooms #4)(91)

“Well, we’ll find them, will we? From where do they hail? These thieves always return to their dens to hide like moles. It’s incumbent on us all to root them out and dispose of them if we’re to set Scotland to rights, aye? Where do they call home?”

“What do you mean, set Scotland to rights?” Rabbie asked.

“Well, it was the rebellion of Highlanders that put us back on our heels, was it no’? A lot of their sort still about.”

“Lismore Island,” Aulay’s father said.

“Pappa, it was Linsfare,” Catriona said, and looked desperately to Aulay. “I’m quite certain it was Linsfare.”

“The Highlands donna need to be set to rights,” Rabbie said. “And my sister is wrong as well. It was Lybster. I know verra well it was, as I have met many Leventons from Lybster.”

The justice of the peace looked around the room with disgust. “I donna have the men to go here and there on a wild hare’s chase!” he said. “Where do these...Leventons call home?”

“I would suggest you start in Lancashire,” Aulay’s mother said smoothly.

“England!”

“Yes, England. I personally conversed with the gentleman who fancied himself in charge, Mr. Charles Leventon, and he assured me they hailed from there. It’s close to the sea, you know.”

“For all that is holy,” Aulay’s father muttered, and sagged in his seat.

The justice of the peace’s face was turning red. “Shall I suggest that when you have determined precisely where these Leventons have gone, you inform me when I return to your part of the Highlands next spring? I’ve no’ the time for this confusion! If you’ve no complaint now, then donna waste my valuable time!” He stood to go, gesturing for his assistant.

“Spring!” Aulay’s father blustered, but the justice of the peace was already moving, barking at his assistant to come along. “We’ll be gone from here by spring, pushed out by poverty!” his father shouted after the man.

Not that it helped. The justice of the peace was gone.

Arran Mackenzie glared at his family. “I’ve been betrayed by my own blood,” he said. “I never thought I’d see it, that I did no’, but aye, you’ve all betrayed me.”

He pushed up, grabbed his cane, and stomped from the room.

None of them said a word for a long moment. None of them looked at each other until Aulay’s mother said, “I’ll go and soothe his ruffled feathers. He does hate to lose. Aulay, darling, you best think of what next.”

“What have we just done?” Rabbie asked of no one in particular when their parents had left the room.

“Enraged our father. Set free the verra people who ruined us. Lied to a justice of the peace,” said Catriona.

“Aye. And none of it will stop the Campbells,” Rabbie groused.

Aulay knew that, too. But Roy Campbell thought he was in pursuit of a man. Not a wisp of a lass with hair the color of pearls.





CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

THE LIVINGSTONES REACHED Lismore Island at dusk the next day and were greeted by a dozen rabbits hopping around on the little strip of sand as they made their way up from the beach. When they’d crested the dune, Old Donnie sounded the horn, startling Drustan and causing him to wail.

Very soon, Livingstones were coming down the path to greet them. People were laughing, throwing their arms around them, kissing their cheeks. The commotion unsettled Drustan even more. “I want to go home, Lottie. I want to go home,” he said, flapping his hands uncontrollably.

“Aye, we’re almost there,” she assured him.

“Where’s Bernt, then?” called out a woman. She was one of three widows in their clan. All three had been frequent visitors to Bernt’s salon, coming round with a pie, or to mend shirts that did not need mending. Lottie had hoped she’d not have to address her father’s absence so soon. She needed to think. She needed to plan. But she knew these people—they would not rest until they knew what had become of their chief. So she slowed her step and reluctantly turned around to look at the crowd behind her. Her heart crawled to her throat. For all his faults, her father was a beloved man. “Have you no’ heard from Norval and Mark, then?” she asked.

Everyone looked around them. “Norval and Mark were with you,” someone said.

“They’re probably hiding,” Mr. MacLean muttered.

“Where is Bernt?” someone called.

“My father...” Her throat tightened, and she cleared it. How did one announce that their chief had passed on? “He’s... Well, he’s dead.” Her inelegant announcement was met with gasps and soft cries of distress.

“Dead! But how?”

Lottie’s eyes began to burn with tears. “We met with a wee bit of trouble, we did. And we...we—”

“I’ll tell them,” Duff said firmly, and removed himself from the embrace of his wife and children and stepped before Lottie. “Allow me, Lottie.” He turned to the group. “It’s a tale as old as time.”

There were several stifled groans, but Lottie was grateful to Duff for sparing her the necessity of telling the story about their demise. Duff told it all right, on that grassy hill, with rabbits all around them. And when he was done, some were quietly weeping. Others were visibly angry. “’Tis no’ right,” said Gavin Livingstone. “’Tis no’ right at all.”