“Nay, but they are short of money.” Glynis gripped his arm and looked up at him in a most appealing way. “I’d rather be unhappy at home than unhappy here. Please, Alex, don’t leave me in this city.”
“Get your things,” he said.
“Thank ye.” Glynis threw her arms around his neck. Too soon, she released him.
“Best not tell your relatives,” he said, catching her arm before she could fly up the stairs. “We don’t want an argument.”
He and Glynis both turned to look at the maid, who was still standing behind Glynis.
“I’ll tell ye the same as I told your mother,” the woman said. “You’ll find no happiness in this house, so go with your handsome Highlander as quick as ye can.”
“Bless ye, Bessie,” Glynis said, picking up her skirts and heading toward the stairs.
“But take me with ye, mistress,” the maid said.
The two women turned pleading eyes on Alex.
“Can Bessie come? Please?” Glynis asked. “It won’t be proper if I don’t have a maid with me when I arrive home. We can tell my father that she traveled with us both going and coming.”
“Aye.” God help him, he’d be traveling with three females now. He did not point out that a serving woman was what he’d asked for in the first place.
As Alex watched the two women disappear up the stairs, he felt an unfamiliar tug on his hand and looked down. By the saints, he had forgotten his wee daughter already. What kind of a father was he going to make?
Sorcha gave his hand another tug and pointed at the stairs, as if asking for an explanation.
“Mistress Glynis is coming with us,” he said. “She’ll take care of ye.”
His daughter gave him the faintest of smiles—her first—and it made his heart go all soft like butter on a hot day.
“So ye like Mistress Glynis?” he asked her.
Sorcha put her thumb in her mouth and gave him a solemn nod.
Alex sighed. “I do as well.”
CHAPTER 25
Alex was in the stable behind the tavern getting the horses when he heard running footsteps behind him. But it was only the tavern keeper’s daughter, so he put away his dirk. She was a stout lass of seventeen or so, and it took her a moment to get her breath.
“Were ye able to find a clean gown for the wee lass with that coin I gave ye?” he asked.
Alex was relieved that Glynis had insisted on giving the child a bath at the tavern because he never would have attempted it himself. Sorcha was so filthy, however, that he had planned to dunk her in the first loch they came to.
“I found a gown, but that’s not what I’ve come to tell ye,” the young woman said between gasps. “There are royal guards inside asking for ye. I told them we hadn’t seen ye since yesterday, but they won’t leave, and they’re watching the door.”
Damn, they’d come early. The regent was anxious to lock him away again.
“Can ye bring my friends out the back without the guards seeing ye?” he asked. When the young woman gave him an earnest nod, he took her by the shoulders and kissed her cheek. “Thank ye. This is kind of ye.”
The lass blushed almost purple and hurried back inside.
A short time later, Alex and his three female charges rode out the back with the guards none the wiser.
“See how well Sorcha sits on a horse,” Alex said, as he held his daughter in front of him on Rosebud. “She must get that from me—’tis in the blood, ye know.”
Glynis gave him an indulgent smile. She was looking as pretty as could be on Buttercup.
“Relax, Bessie,” Alex told the maid because she was sitting as stiff as poker behind Glynis and holding her in a death grip.
“Ye call this enormous beast with the devil eyes Buttercup?” Bessie asked. “It tried to bite me!”
“Ach, ye are upsetting her.” He reached over and patted Buttercup.
Glynis covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.
“Those are D’Arcy’s men,” Alex said, pointing at the group gathered in front of the palace gate. He wished they were meeting anywhere but here, but he didn’t think the regent’s men would try to take him in front of D’Arcy.
D’Arcy spotted him and rode toward them, his white scarf blowing in the breeze.
“I feared you would not be joining us.” D’Arcy flashed a white-toothed smile at Glynis and Sorcha. “Are these lovely ladies here to see us off?”
“They are traveling with me,” Alex said.
“What a delightful surprise,” D’Arcy said, his gaze lingering on Glynis.
Alex turned to Glynis. “I apologize for speaking in French, but I don’t know if my friend here speaks anything else.”
“Is that Gaelic you are speaking to this lovely lady?” D’Arcy said. “I can’t speak Gaelic, but I know a bit of Scots.”
