Page 39 of In Search of a Husband
“Wait!” Gabriel ordered from behind her.
“Now you wish to protect me?” she shot back over her shoulder.
“No.” His hand reached out and steadied her as she slipped in the long, wet grass sloping down toward the riverbank. “But if ye die now, the girls will most definitely kill me.”
“I suppose that was meant to be endearing.”
“It sure as hell wasn’t meant as anything beyond I didna wish to watch ye break yer neck.”
She slapped away his hand and rushed forward to a large, gray beast nestled between two large stones by the river’s edge.
“He’s hurt,” she said, moving her hands over the animal without touching it. She didn’t know where to begin.
“Mind yerself now for he could bite.”
“You’ve done a fine enough job of that this morning as it is.”
“Yer mouth,” he mumbled. He crouched down beside her and lifted the dog’s paw that was licked raw. “Seems he’s a thorn in the underside of his paw.”
“Who does he belong to? Someone must be looking for him. He’s not exactly hard to miss.”
“I dinna recognize him.”
Gabriel ran his hand over the dark gray wiry coat. “Steady now, we’ve no aim at hurtin’ ye.”
Kate unwrapped the shawl from her shoulders. “Here, help me bring him up to the inn.”
“Ye’ll be cold.”
“Not more so than this poor thing. I’ll manage.”
Gabriel mumbled under his breath, but he did as told and wrapped the beast in the shawl and lifted him up.
The dog was truly a giant. She had never seen one so large.
“The fella’s a Scottish deerhound. Must be a year or so.”
Once settled in Gabriel’s arms, she scratched the top of the dog’s head. “You’re safe now, you understand? That paw will be healed in no time.”
She felt Gabriel’s gaze on her before she glanced up.
“We canna be keepin’ him, now.”
“Of course not,” Kate said, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
He snickered. “First a bumblebee, now this beast.”
“Marcel is hardly an imposition.”
“Miss Bancroft!” Lorna burst out of the inn waving a broom around, then halted, her eyes wide. “Uncle, you found us a dog! I’ve always wanted a dog.”
“A dog!” Maisie yelled, shoving her sister out of the way to run to Kate and Gabriel as they entered the stable yard.
“That’s no’ dog, that’s a hellhound,” Finn said, standing on the stairs with his arms akimbo.
“We’re no’ keeping him,” Gabriel grumbled, stepping between the girls as they danced and shouted, and Kate grinned at his fruitless determination. “Move on, I need to carry him inside.”
“By the hearth,” Kate ordered.
