Page 40 of In Search of a Husband
He nodded, not saying a word as Kate rushed inside and found some rag from behind the bar top.
“Girls, find me a blanket.” They scattered, then returned a few moments later.
Gabriel set the dog down, and Kate gingerly tended to the animal,humming to herself as she fetched water and found scraps for him to eat.
The girls ran about as Finn began hammering and cursing to himself.
As she knelt beside the dog, she felt the weight of a warm wool coat being wrapped over her shoulders.
“Ye’ll catch yer death,” he muttered. “Givin’ yer shawl to that beast.”
“I think Oscar fits better than Beast.” She scratched behind his ear, and the dog lifted his head and placed it against her thigh.
“He won’t be sleepin’ in the castle. He can stay out in the stable.”
She heard his footsteps linger behind her for a moment. A shiver chased up her spine from the warmth radiating over her body off his jacket. The warm wool smelled of Gabriel, all oak moss and river. As if he were the beast born from the Highlands and not the animal resting against her.
Kate didn’t hide her smile, not even as she continued humming when the dog drifted off to sleep, and Gabriel and the girls laughed out in the tavern room.
Finn shuffled into the kitchen, sinking down into a chair by the fire, silent.
For a time, Kate left him alone and tended to the dog before rolling out pie. But his shoulders were hunched, and it was difficult not to feel as if everything was suddenly a burden. Finlay Wallace was a defeated man, and it seeped out around him like a poison.
But Kate wasn’t interested in that. After all, she knew better than to blindly believe what someone showed her.
She brought over a cup of tea and a biscuit, then sat down opposite of him.
“I remember runnin’ around this kitchen as a boy. My mother worked here, that’s how I became friends with Tavish. When we were older, after his da passed and his mother refused to leave the castle, we’d steal bottles from behind the bar and have bonfires out back by the river. We thought we were kings.”
He grabbed the cup of tea and dragged it closer. “I followed Tavish, thinkin’ it was the right thing to do. I trusted him. But it turns out…” Hespun the handle of the mug toward him. “He was a shite person. And I lost someone close to me because of him. She willna be back now.”
“But you miss him?”
“Archie is my cousin, but he’s young, ye ken? He’s always been smarter and better at nearly everything. I make a mess of things. Tavish was like my brother, and we learned this business ourselves when their da passed.”
He grabbed the biscuit on the table, his hands shaking. She could smell the whisky on his breath. “I dinna wish to be stuck living for someone who’s dead. But I dinna ken what to do.”
“I think Mr. MacInnes admires you.”
“Yer pure dafty,” he scoffed. “He believes the worst of me, and I only have myself to blame for that.”
“I am glad you’re here with us, Mr. Wallace.”
“Och, Finn is just fine.” He nodded over to the dog. “That beastie needs a lot of care.”
“Don’t we all?”
“Aye. Is that no’ the truth.” Finn broke a piece of the biscuit off and popped it into his mouth. “Is that why ye’ve come here to us, Katie?”
She wrinkled her nose. She didn’t much care for the name, but it was oddly endearing coming for a man nearly thirty-five and more than a little heartbroken.
“I make no promises. I think Mr. MacInnes intends to dismiss me.”
Finn set down his teacup and leaned closer, a slow, sad smile stretching onto his lips. “That man kens well enough ye’re the only thing that’ll save him now.”
She laughed at the absurdity of it all. “He thinks I’m a menace.”
“Aye, and ye are to be sure. Duty brought him back here, but it was fear that drove him away. If he stays, it’ll be because a lass like ye came to show he’s nothin’ to fear from himself.”
