The Devil Wears Kilts Read Free Page B

shoving away the dogs when they crowded in, yipping nervously. He’d seen true chaos before, and this looked a mite too orderly. Old clothes thrown about, but nothing that she truly liked to wear. Bed unmade, but she hadn’t been in it for hours and hours. He lifted up one of the larger pieces. The words “lue shoes” were just visible, with something directly below that looked like “hairbrush.”
    “What’ve you got, Ran?” Munro asked, crouching beside him. His brother’s jaw was tight, his fists clenched. There was a reason they’d nicknamed Munro the Bear, and it wasn’t because he enjoyed logical discussion. “We’re wasting time.”
    “It’s a list,” Ranulf returned, straightening. “Or part of one. No one took her anywhere. She took herself, her and Mitchell. To London.”
    “In the phaeton?” Cooper broke in.
    “No doubt we’ll find it at the nearest coaching inn. That’s how they’ll travel.”
    “To L— By herself?” Arran slammed a fist into a bedpost. “She’s daft.”
    “What she is,” Ranulf returned slowly, digging out another piece of paper with a singed bit of address on it, “is in a great deal of trouble.”
    Lachlan stirred. “Ye three get packed. I’ll have Debny saddle the horses.”
    “Nae, Lachlan. Have Debny ready the heavy coach.” He looked up to see Cooper lurking in the doorway. “Cooper, have Peter and Owen pack their things. And send Mr. Cameron up here.”
    “The coach?” Arran repeated as the butler hurried downstairs. “Ye’ll never catch up with a mail coach in that beast.”
    “They have nearly ten hours head start, and a plan which no doubt includes a false identity,” Ranulf said, the deepening fury in his chest mixing with a fair amount of worry. “At least it had better.”
    “What are ye talking aboot, Ran?”
    “What I’m talking aboot, Bear, is that she’d best know by now that she has more to avoid than just us. And I’ll nae be seen by the Gerdenses and their lot screeching like a banshee as I race across the countryside. I’ll follow close enough to make certain no one stops her, and I’ll catch her up in London.” He glanced down at the half-burned scrap again. “At Hanover House, evidently. And then I’ll drag her arse back home.”
    “And us? Ye expect us to sit on our hands?”
    Ranulf looked over at Arran. “I do, indeed. Ye know that we need to have a MacLawry here at Glengask. And two sets of eyes’ll do ye both better. Word will get oot that I’ve gone. I dunnae want anyone to see that as an invitation to come and make trouble. Or that I’ve abandoned our people.”
    “The Gerdenses and Campbells’ll more likely see it as a chance to waylay ye on the highway,” Munro growled. “Ye can’t go with naught but two footmen for protection, Ran.”
    “I’ll go,” Lachlan put in.
    “No, ye willnae. I’ll nae have Rowena doing something even more foolish to try t’make ye jealous or someaught.”
    “But she’s … she’s like my sister, Ran. I would never—”
    Ranulf lowered his brow. “Even more reason for ye to stay behind.” Whatever it was Rowena thought she was up to, he wasn’t about to muddle the stew any further. Not even with the man for whom she’d set her cap. “I’ll have the dogs with me. And both of those footmen, as ye call ’em, fought on the Peninsula with Wellington just as ye did, Arran. They’ll do fer me.”
    “Aye, but—”
    “No more arguments. Any of ye. I’m leaving for London in an hour. Stay here and make certain Rowena and I have a home to come back to. Ye’ll see us within a fortnight, even if I have to tie her up and throw her over a horse.”
    London. Damnation. Rowena would be lucky if his throwing her over a horse was the worst that happened to her. To both of them.

 
    Chapter One
    “There’s no need to worry on that account; Jane welcomes any excuse to shop.” With a grin, Lady Charlotte Hanover kissed her sister on the nose, then stood.
    “I’ve no wish