“It’s been almost two hours since you fell asleep,” he said. “We’ll be arriving in Aberdeen soon. There’s a great deal still to be settled between us.”
“Why don’t you tell me what you’ve decided? I know my opinions count for nothing.”
He was silent a moment. Heaving a sigh, he said, “We shall need a convincing story to explain why we are always in each other’s company.”
“And?”
He shrugged. “We’re eloping because your family doesn’t approve of me.”
She laughed. “That’s not very convincing.” Her family would move heaven and earth to see her married, and Gavin Hepburn was definitely a catch.
“It’s the best I can come up with, unless you have something to offer.”
She shook her head. It hardly mattered what story he invented, because the first chance she got, she would be on her way home.
“One thing I’d like to mention,” he said. “No flirting with other men. You may get more than you’ve bargained for with Massey, but I don’t want Dalziel’s heart to be broken, and I have no wish to fight a duel over your honor.”
Sometimes, like the present moment, it was hard to remember that this man had saved her life, and she should feel grateful. “I don’t flirt,” she said with as much restraint as she could manage. “I wouldn’t know how.”
He laughed. “Kate, you flirt with Macduff. You can’t help yourself.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to mention Janet Mayberry, but that would only invite a war of words, and she wasn’t as clever with words as he. All the same, it rankled. First Janet Mayberry, then her. Some stalwart defender he was turning out to be.
“What did I say, Kate?”
“The same as you always say.” Her voice was laced with sarcasm. “Nothing of any significance. Where is Dalziel, by the way?”
“I sent him with your maid to answer any questions that your family might raise about our trip to Aberdeen. He’ll be on the next train.”
She shouldn’t have been surprised. Gavin Hepburn seemed to relish disposing of everyone’s life. She’d wager that he was a master at chess. They were all pawns in his capable hands, or so he liked to think. He’d learn his mistake soon enough.
“You trust Dalziel implicitly, don’t you?” she asked, still thinking of pawns and chess.
He nodded. “I believe I do, firstly because he has been with Will for a number of years, long before our villain came on the scene, and secondly, because no one could manufacture the grief he feels for Will. It’s real.”
Macduff chose that moment to creep from the corridor and settle at her feet. She didn’t want to pet him. In fact, she was sorely tempted to kick him, she, Kate Cameron, who had never met a dog or cat she did not like.
She wanted badly to kick something, but she also wanted to maintain her dignity, so she made do by staring out the window in frigid silence.
Ten
Flanked by Gavin and Mrs. Cardno, Kate stood on the front steps and gazed at the granite mansion where they were to stay for the duration of their visit to Aberdeen.
“It doesn’t look like a hotel,” she said. “Where are the carriages? Where are the people coming and going?”
“It’s a private hotel,” Mrs. Cardno replied, “and my good friend Miss Hunter owns the place. It has been in the family for years and years. Too big for one person, so she had the idea of making it over into a sort of guesthouse. It’s
very
comfortable. I know you will love it.”
“And,” Gavin interjected, “it’s for ladies only. For propriety’s sake, Dalziel and I have been domiciled in the gatehouse, but one or both of us will always be close by. Macduff and Mrs. Cardno will be at the house, keeping an eye on you.”
Kate ignored the warning behind his teasing grin. Though her temper had cooled considerably since she’d realized that he was abducting her, she was still a long way from being won over by his cozening smiles and asides. As much as possible, she addressed all her remarks to Mrs. Cardno.
“It’s a lovely house,” she said.
Inwardly, she was sizing up its proximity to other buildings in the area in this cul-de-sac off King Street. The house was in its own grounds but not far from the new Town House on the corner of Union Street, and within easy walking distance of the docks where the clinic was situated. Another point in its favor was that Sally Anderson’s house was only a five-minute walk away.
The thought of making a run for it was only a passing fancy, something the heroine in a gothic novel might attempt. She didn’t know how long Gavin intended to stay in Aberdeen, but she was sure that her parents would want to attend Dr. Rankin’s funeral. So in three or four days, she would see them again, and they could all return to Braemar together.
Heaving a sigh, she climbed the granite stairs and entered the hall. There were, she noticed, no stags’ heads or paintings of hunting scenes on these walls, but portraits of men in uniform that obviously catalogued the long line of Hunters who had served in the military. The silver-haired lady who came forward to greet them looked as though she had stepped out of a page of Jane Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice
. She wore a high-waisted gown of diaphanous muslin and had a paisley shawl draped artfully around her arms.
“Jessica,” Mrs. Cardno trilled, propelling Kate forward. “How lovely to see you again. Allow me to present Miss Kate Cameron, my nephew’s fiancée.”
Kate threw a scorching look at Gavin, who lifted his shoulders in a negligent shrug. Miss Hunter did not stand on ceremony but put her hands on Kate’s shoulders and kissed her on both cheeks.
“It’s about time,” she said, “that this wandering gypsy settled down. I couldn’t be happier, my dear.” She linked her arm through Kate’s. “Come along, Kate, and I’ll show you to your room. You must wonder at my Regency getup, but after dinner, the Jane Austen Club meets, and I’m to read from
Emma
. Now, we have a few rules you should know about . . .”
As she was swept up the stairs, Kate threw Gavin a beseeching look. His response was to wiggle his fingers in a gesture of farewell.
Thirty minutes later, Kate was pacing in her room as Gavin looked on with a bemused smile. He was lounging in a chair, watching her from below his dark lashes.
“What I don’t understand,” she said, “is how Miss Hunter knew that I would be arriving at her door. She was expecting us. When was this arranged?”
“When we arrived at the station,” he replied easily. “Mrs. Cardno telephoned Miss Hunter, and it was all settled.”
She stopped pacing. “Miss Hunter has a telephone?” she asked, diverted.
He was watching her intently, but there was a trace of humor in his eyes, too. “Telephones are becoming all the rage in Aberdeen. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ll have them all through the Highlands in another year or so.”
She sank down on the bed. “Why didn’t you tell me on the train about Miss Hunter and her boardinghouse? Why have I been kept in the dark?”
“Don’t let Miss Hunter hear you call this house a boardinghouse. She prefers the term
guesthouse
. And the reason I didn’t mention it was that you were giving me the cold shoulder. You wouldn’t even look at me.”
Something else occurred to her, another grievance to lay at his door. “Do you know how many rules the inmates here have to obey?” She ticked them off on her fingers. “No gentlemen callers unless a chaperone is present. No late-night parties; no wine or strong spirits. The doors are locked at nine o’clock. I could go on and on. This isn’t a guesthouse. It’s a prison.” She clenched her hands into fists. “What I’d like to know is why Miss Hunter has made an exception in your case. Why aren’t we chaperoned?”
He scratched the bridge of his nose. “She’s very romantic,” he said and paused.
“And?”
He shrugged. “I had to tell her the sad story of our elopement, you know, that your family does not approve of me. So she knows that you are in hiding.”
Her brow creased. “I wouldn’t have thought that she would have approved of an elopement. She’s a stickler for rules.”
“Oh, she has been known to make exceptions. You see, she trusts me. I’ve known Miss Hunter since I was a babe. She and my mother were close friends. That allows me a certain latitude. All the same, we’ve only been granted five minutes alone in your room; then I have to go.”
She was aghast. “You’re not going to leave me here to fend for myself?”
“Certainly not. If you look out the window, you’ll see the gatehouse. That’s where I’ll be staying, and when I’m not here, Mrs. Cardno will be your constant companion. Then there’s Dalziel. There’s a telephone at the gatehouse, so if you need him for anything, anything at all, give him a call. And, of course, there’s Macduff.”
“And where will you be when you’re not here?”
“I’ll see Will’s solicitor first, to make arrangements for the funeral. Then, if I have time, I’ll go to the clinic and have a word with Dr. Taggart. I’m hoping he can tell me about those accidents that worried Will.” He cocked his head to the side, studying her. “Stay close to the house, Kate. If you want to walk in the grounds, make sure someone is with you.”
So much vigilance to keep her, and only her, safe made her wonder. She stared at him in silence, then slowly shook her head. “You know something I don’t know. That’s it, isn’t it?”
His eyes went suspiciously flat. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you’re acting as if you know . . . as if you’re
certain
that I’m to be the next victim.”
The velvet in his voice turned to steel. “What else should I think? Will was murdered, and then his killer came after you. I know that Will would want me to do everything in my power to protect you.”
His words brought to mind the mad chase across the moor, and she shivered. Gavin was beginning to make sense. The killer hadn’t given up easily. He’d taken a big chance following her into the snowstorm. Why had he bothered? That was the question that gripped her mind. She didn’t know anything that could provoke someone to go to such lengths. She was nobody.
He left his chair and sat beside her on the bed. She didn’t resist when he took her hands in his. “Trust me, Kate. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She lifted her head to look at him, but she didn’t say anything.
“I promise you,” he went on formally, “as long as I’m alive, you’ll be safe, and I intend to live for a very long time.” He got up. “I’ll look in on you later. Remember what I said about Macduff and Mrs. Cardno.”
After he left, she got up and went to look out the window. The gatehouse was beyond the lawns but half-hidden behind a clump of rhododendrons and other shrubbery. Gavin appeared and strode purposefully across the lawn.
Her intuition had absorbed more than his words told her. His determination to protect her wasn’t about Will Rankin as she’d thought. There was more to it than that.
Or was she just havering?
Macduff nosed her hand. “Let’s see,” she said, “my intuition is telling me that you want to go for a walk or eat your dinner. Well, dinner is out. You already . . .” She stopped. Why was she speaking to a dog? She must be more lonely than she realized.
“Let’s see if Mrs. Cardno is free,” she said, “and we’ll go for a little walk.”
Dinner was a nerve-racking affair. There were a dozen elderly ladies, much like Miss Hunter and Mrs. Cardno, whose names Kate forgot almost as soon as she heard them, ladies who were avidly curious about the fledgling who had flown into their coop. She left Mrs. Cardno to field their questions, since she had only a vague idea of what story Gavin had concocted to explain their situation.
At first, she was amused by Mrs. Cardno’s embellishments, but her amusement soon turned to horror. Her family wasn’t as bad as all that! In an effort to change the subject, she complimented her hostess on the succulent steamed sole that Cook had prepared for their enjoyment. She wasn’t exaggerating. It made a pleasant change from the salmon that was so plentiful on Deeside.
After that, her mind wandered, and she came to herself with a start when she realized that the table had gone quiet and all eyes were on her.
Miss Hunter answered the question in Kate’s eyes. “Alice’s death was tragic, of course, but it’s more than time for Gavin to put the past behind him. We are so happy for both of you, my dear.”
Kate looked at the faces staring at her. Mrs. Cardno, she noted, was tying knots in her handkerchief. She’d get no help there. What had she missed when she was woolgathering?
Who was Alice?
Why had everyone’s expression turned somber? Apart from Mrs. Cardno, they seemed to think that she would know.
Sighing softly, she murmured, “Yes, poor Alice.” She chanced a quick peek through her lashes, wondering if she was overdoing it. It wasn’t fair to Gavin, it wasn’t right, but her curiosity was at boiling point. “I never really did understand what happened there.”
“No one does,” said one of the ladies. “All anyone knows is that Alice and Gavin went out on a boat. Alice jumped into the water as a lark and drowned. They weren’t engaged or anything like that. He didn’t go into a decline or drink himself to death, as far as I know.”