Page 2 of Promises to Keep

We were conversing, trying to solve the problem — we just had to think of how.

We had decided to sleep on it, yet here we were... unable to sleep, thoughtful, occasionally asking each other questions, like, “...so the red seal was her seal?”

“It looked much like it, but I canna be sure…”

“...so it was a note from Lady Mairead, right? But then placed into Lady Mairead’s safe, but she is asking for help…?”

“Aye.”

“How do you think it got there…?”

There was a long pause as he considered, so long that I thought he might have fallen asleep again. Then, “I think perhaps they hae overpowered the butler, gotten the safe’s combination from m’mother, and put the note in her safe for me tae find...”

“Then the party is a trap.”

“Aye, from top tae bottom, the whole thing is a trap—”

One side of the tall, ornately carved double door, creaked open. Magnus tensed. “Och!”

I sat up with a start.

But it was Haggis, padding into the room. I fell back onto Magnus’s chest.

He laughed, “Twas startling, Haggis, ye ought tae knock and announce yerself.”

Haggis put his head on the mattress and looked at Magnus woefully, with his tail swinging back and forth, hypnotically.

Magnus said, “I canna argue with ye, ye can come up.”

Haggis jumped up, circled, and finally plopped down and put his chin on Magnus’s stomach, almost nose to nose with me. His look said, as if to rub it in, “I was invited.”

“Your mother, Magnus, is going to be furious that there is dog fur on the bed.”

“There is going tae be dog fur upon every piece of furniture. If she survives the drama of her meeting with Agnie, she might never recover from the shock of my insult tae her furnishings.”

“If she survives the drama.”

“Aye, Agnie is likely feeling verra murderous since I hae killed her sons.”

I drew my fingertips around another lackadaisical spin on Magnus’s chest, but then Haggis whimpered so I scratched the dog under his ear.

Magnus said, “Och nae, Haggis, are ye takin’ m’strokin’? Tis nae fair.”

I joked, “You got plenty earlier, I gave youallthe stroking.”

He laughed, “Twas a great deal of proper strokin’, aye, ye are correct Madame Campbell, I hae had m’share, ye may pet the dog now. I will be a grownup about it.”

Haggis slunk over Magnus to get closer to me, rolled over on his back between us, presenting his stomach for more petting, and then enjoying himself, rolled back and forth to get comfortable, shoving Magnus away.

Magnus said, “Haggis, ye canna push me aside, what are ye about? Are ye the same dog from the battlefield of yore? Or are ye now such a modern dog ye are rolling around on the silk bedding acting as if ye are the king? Off. Off.”

Haggis slowly stood and dropped off the bed, sulkily. He lay down with an exhale, his chin on his paws, a look of recrimination on his face.

Magnus sighed. “Och, Haggis, ye can come back.”

Haggis jumped up, licked Magnus’s chin, and curled up taking just a small part of the bed.

I put my chin on Magnus’s chest and looked up at him. “So if the party is a trap, what does she want —you?”

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