“When can we go there?” Mary asked anxiously. “Not to say I am not happy to be here and have Laird Robasdan’s hospitality, but I do have to see Tina’s aunt.”
“How about we stay until a few more hours here just to make sure ye have recovered,” Leith said cautiously. “I dinnae want to take ye away and have ye fall ill again.”
Agreeing with him by nodding, Mary reached for the cup and took it to sip again, “Can you get me a knife?”
“A knife?” Leith asked askance. “For what?”
Mary lifted the hem of her cloak and held it up to him. She pressed the section into his hand and there he felt a hardness inside it. He pressed his thumb on it and felt the roundness of a coin, and he could bet it was a gold coin. Why else would she have sewn a coin into her clothes if it was not gold?
“A gold guinea?”
“One of three,” Mary replied. “You can have all.”
“I will nea take any payment from ye lass,” Leigh said as he dropped the hem of the cloak. “Me forefaithers would roll in their hallowed graves if I ever did such a thing.”
“But I still don’t feel right,” Mary lamented.
Reaching up, Leith fingered her hair. It was unkempt but was still soft like threaded silk, “Yer company during the journey will be enough payment, agreed?”
“Is that your last offer?” She asked.
“It is,” Leith stated.
“Then if there is nothing else, we are agreed,” Mary said with a sigh. “I still don’t feel comfortable, though.”
Reaching out to rest a hand on her knee, Leith smiled. “We will see about that. Just rest and take it as easy as ye can. We’ll set out when the healers can assure me that ye are well enough to stand the journey. We, well, I will have to get a horse for ye, seeing as yers is at the bottom a ravine.”
Mary reached out and took his hand while a softness mellowed the tension lines in her face. “Thank you.”
“Me pleasure,” Leith bowed over her hand and kissed it. “Rest ye.”
Pulling away, he went to speak to a head healer. He told her that if and only if she found Mary safe for travel, then they would leave out that evening, but if not, they would stay. The healer nodded in agreement. Satisfied, he went to find Tarrant and speak with him.
* * *
He found the man in his meeting room but he was not alone. With him, were his wife, Lady Robasdan, and his twin sons. One of the bairns was pulling on his beard, and though Tarrant winced, he did not pull the bairn’s hand away.
“Never kent I’d see the day,” Leith teased. “Finally, ye’ve been put under subjection, Robasdan.”
“Och, go boil yer head,” Tarrant snapped. “Ye’ll be even worse than I when ye have yer own wife and bairns.”
“That is a long way in coming,” Leith said as he went to Lady Robasdan and took her hand to kiss it. The lady’s light-brown eyes were merry as he leaned in and loudly whispered. “If ye need a rescue from yer barbarian of a husband, just brush yer nose twice. I’ll come chargin’.”
Snickering, the lady tugged her hand away. “I will nay fall for yer insidious charms, Lenichton. ‘Twas nay too long when ye had a reputation of hoarding a pile of women’s underthings a mile high.”
“I?” Leith gasped. “A mile high? Surely, surely ye jest, me lady.”
“I dinnae,” she said unrepentantly.
Chuckling, Leith nodded to the boys, “Can ye tell me who these sturdy boys are?”
“Cailbhin and Camran Allanach,” Lady Robasdan said while scooping one of the boys from their father, the same one that was pulling Tarrant’s beard. “This is Camran, too innocent and adventurous for his own good.”
Looking into the babe’s dark-green eyes, mirrors of his father’s, but instead of the wisdom and slyness Tarrant’s held, these were wide and innocent. “Keep him that way as much as possible, me lady.”
Taking the other boy onto her hip, Lady Robasdan smiled, “I’ll leave ye boys to yer business. Good day, Young Lenichton.”
“Me lady,” he bowed.
As she left, Leith found a seat and slumped into it, “Ye have a lovely family, Robasdan. I’ll give ye that.”
While massaging his face, the laird said, “So what decision have ye came to with the Sassenach?”
Frowning, Leigh grunted, “Would ye refrain from calling her that? Yes, the poor woman is an outsider, but the way ye say if sounds as if she’s scum under yer boots.”
“I never had much love for the English, ‘tis true,” Tarrant shrugged. “I’ve found them to be a tiring, contemptuous race, with nay solid reason for their pride.” He plucked up a quill and twirled it between his fingers, “Mayhap ye and this lass can change me mind.”
Eyeing his friend with narrowed eyes, Leith said, “There is nay a thing between me and the lass. Aye, she’s lovely but I told ye, she’s young, inexperienced, and I dinnae bed virgins.”
“With ye around her for enough time, I ken she won’t be a virgin for much longer,” Tarrant grinned craftily. “But to other business, I’ve sent out the search for yer healer. No word yet but in a day or two I expect to hear something.”
“The lass has asked me to carry her to a place near the Ettrick Waters,” Leith said. “From here, it would be less than half a day’s ride. If the woman she wants to meet is there, it will be our parting. I’ll come back to ye and then we can go on about me issue.”
“Yer going to be so cavalier about letting her go even when ye a—”
“If ye dare say I’m taken with her again, I’ll happily lay me fist in yer face,” Leith huffed. “I’m just doing what any gentleman would do. If ye remember what being one would entail anyway.”
“Watch yer manners,” Tarrant warned
