Once Upon a Tartan

owed one another, and Hester dreaded to think of the hurt Tiberius would suffer when he learned of it.

If he learned of it. Hester forced herself to spend long, long minutes pacing the library and thinking through the ramifications of what she’d read. She should not be the one to tell Tiberius what his father had done. She’d take Fiona home, and that would be the end of it. Based on what she’d learned of the marquess—and of the pertinent legalities—this sojourn in the south was over: for her, and for Fiona.

There was no need to write to Aunt Ree or Ian. Hester would have Fiona home before the letters arrived, leaving Tiberius Flynn the rest of his days to be a good son to a miserable father, a protective brother to three adult sisters, and a dutiful son to a mother who would be otherwise homeless.

The library door banged open, and Joan appeared, hectic color in her pale cheeks. “Hester, you must come! Fiona’s down at the stables, and Papa is yelling at her, and there’s a fox—”

“I’m coming.” Fiona would not deal well with an upset, ill-humored marquess, and the marquess would not deal with an exhibition of Fiona’s stubbornness and homesickness now.

But when she got to the stables, what Hester found was worse—far worse—than simple upset or stubbornness.

Ten

Hester was leaving, and there wasn’t a damned thing Tye could do to prevent it. He brought Rowan down to the walk and considered kicking the marchioness out of the Edinburgh properties so Tye might take up residence in Scotland.

Or he might not kick her out. He might give his mother an opportunity to compete with his father as the primary justification—in a long list of justifications—for why an otherwise well-blessed man might take up drinking with intent to obliterate his reason.

“And you’d come with me.” He ran a gloved hand down the horse’s crest, feeling that today, for the first time in weeks, Rowan had been truly settled and relaxed. As if even the horse knew things weren’t going to change.

Tye was composing a letter to his mother in his head when a groom came tearing down the lane hotfoot from the stable yard.

“Beg pardon, your lordship, but best come quick! I’ll take the beast, for you mustn’t let him add to the riot.”

“Herriot, what are you going on about?” Tye kept his voice calm as he swung down and handed off Rowan’s reins.

“The marquess is taking the young miss to task, and God help us but the girl’s got a fox and she’s not having any of his lordship’s nonsense, not none a’tall.”

“A fox?”

“Please make haste, your lordship. The fox looks sickly to me.”

Not good. Not good at all. Tye loped off in the direction of raised voices, and found a tableau portending multiple tragedies.

“You put the damned, rotten little blighter down this instant, young lady, because I tell you to.”

The Marquess of Quinworth was standing some four yards away from Fiona, holding an enormous old horse pistol, muzzle pointed downward. Fiona held her ground, a half-grown fox kit in her arms, her chin jutting, her posture radiating defiance.

“If I put him down, you’ll kill him, you awful man. You go away!”

“Good morning, Fiona.” Tye forced himself to speak calmly. “Have you made a new friend?”

Her shoulders relaxed a fraction. “I found him, and I’m going to keep him. His name is Frederick.”

“Like Frederick the Great?” Tye sidled closer, while dread coiled tightly in his belly. The animal was ill—its eyes were clouded, its coat matted, and in Fiona’s embrace, it stirred weakly, head lolling as if the beast were drunk.

“Stand aside, Spathfoy!” The marquess bellowed this command, and even his roaring did not appear to affect the fox. “If that thing should bite you, you’re doomed.”

Fiona peered around Tye at the marquess. “Make Grandpapa be quiet, please. Frederick doesn’t feel well, and yelling doesn’t help anything.”

“I quite agree with you. Quinworth”—Tye did not raise his voice—“desist.” He got close enough to see that Fiona wasn’t being defiant so much as protective. “I don’t think Frederick is feeling quite the thing, Fiona.”

“He’s sick. We can help him get better so he can find his way home.”

Tye went down on his haunches and reached out to stroke a gloved finger down the animal’s ratty fur. “You think he’s homesick?”

She nodded and took a shuddery breath. “He was in the petunias, falling over and crying. I think he’s crying for his m-mama.”

Tye fished out a handkerchief. “Compose yourself, Fiona, and let me hold him for a bit.”

“Spathfoy, for God’s sake!” the marquess hissed from several yards off. “The thing’s rabid. I’ll not bury another son of mine for some stupid—”

He fell silent while Tye gently disentangled the fox from Fiona’s embrace.

“You promise you won’t set him down?”

“I will not set him down without your permission. Wipe your tears.”

She honked loudly into his handkerchief and sat right in the dirt of the stable yard beside Tye. “I hate it here. I miss home, and I feel sick all the time, inside.”

Tye regarded the creature in his arms—there was no intelligence in the clouded eyes. Beneath the matted fur, the animal was nothing but skin and bones. It hadn’t been crying for its mother; it had been crying for death to end its pain and misery.

He glanced up to see his father looking thunderous a few yards off, and felt something shift in his chest. The way became clear between one heartbeat and the next, regardless of the consequences to him or to whatever plans the marquess was hatching.

“I don’t want you to feel that way anymore, Fee. If I promise to take Frederick out to the covert near the millpond, will you find your aunt Hester and ask her to help you pack?”

“You mean I can go home? I can really go home?”

“It might take us a day or two to make the arrangements, and Albert probably would not enjoy the journey, but yes, you can go home.”

Tye looked over Fiona’s head to catch his father’s eye. The marquess was standing very still, for once silent and not arguing.

“Fee.” Hester spoke softly from behind the marquess. “I’d like nothing better in the world than to help you pack. Let your uncle Tye take the fox back to his family, and you come with me.”

Fiona cast a last look at the beast lying passively in Tye’s grasp. “You promise?”

She was asking if he’d keep his word about the fox, not about her journey home.

“I have given my word, Fiona. I would not break it.”

She got up. “Good-bye, Frederick. Someday I’ll see you again, like Androcles.”

“Fee.” Hester held out her hand, barely suppressed fear in her voice. And the fear was justified. Every adult watching this tableau knew that one bite, one scratch, and the girl might have been consigned to a miserable death.

Tye stroked a hand over the fox’s matted pelt. “I do wonder how you’ll transport that rabbit clear back to Aberdeenshire.”

“I can take Harold?”

Now Tye rose with the fox in his arms. “You can if you can figure out a way to safely transport him. I’m sure your aunts will help you think of something.”

When Hester and Joan had led Fiona safely toward the house, Quinworth holstered his gun. “For God’s sake, some one of you lot get Spathfoy a pair of stout sacks.” He stomped off, leaving Tye to keep his promise to