Page 176 of The Highlander's Irish Bride

“Yer both lookin’ as queer as Dick’s hatband, lassies. What’s amiss?”

Kathleen wrenched her gaze up to see Angus in the doorway.

“Do you know where Grant is?” she hoarsely asked. “Or Graeme and Sabrina?”

“Grant’s out searchin’ again with a few of the grooms. Graeme’s at the distillery, and Sabrina went down to the village to see some of the shopkeepers.”

“I have to find Jeannie,” Kathleen said, starting for the door.

“She’s not upstairs,” Hannah said. “I think she’s gone, too.”

“What’s amiss?” Angus repeated in a louder voice.

Kathleen thrust the notes at him. “Captain Brown has been using my sister to steal for him. It appears she’s taken Sabrina’s pearls.” She turned to Hannah. “Can you make sure she’s not here? Get help from Davey and come find me when you know. I’ll check the kitchen garden and stables.”

Hannah rushed from the room.

As Angus read the notes, his scowl transformed from angry to ferocious. “Scaly, nasty-faced bastard. Do ye think yon vicar is involved?”

“No, but the captain told Jeannie that David is nursing a secret affection for her, and has been held back by his scruples over their difference in station and wealth.”

As she headed out to the hall, Angus kept pace with her. “So, if the vicar only had enough money, he’d offer for our Jeannie. Is that the story?”

“Yes, and Captain Brown would sell the pearls and give the money to David, so David could then ask Jeannie to marry him.”

“Without tellin’ the vicar it was money from stolen goods? How would that work?” Angus skeptically asked. “Yer sister’s no cakedoodle, Kathleen. She’d nae fall for such nonsense.”

“I’m sure the captain had some ready explanation, and Jeannie is naïve enough to believe a cunning cheat like him. Shewantsto believe it, because she still thinks she’s in love with David.”

“Aye, butstealin’Sabrina’s pearls, lass.”

“I know. It’s beyond dreadful.”

She felt sick over her sister’s actions. In retrospect, Jeannie’s troubling behavior these past days now made sense. Kathleen hadn’t wanted to push her, but it had been yet another capital error on her part.

Panic threatened to overwhelm her. One of the notes alluded to Jeannie meeting up with the captain at some point today. The thought of her little sister in that man’s clutches ...

“I swear, if Brown hurts Jeannie, I will throttle him with my bare hands,” she gritted out.

Angus opened the door to the kitchen garden. “Aye, that. But how did the bastard get to our Jeannie in the first place?”

“It probably happened that day he found her in the rain. God only knows what stories he put into her head during their ride back to Lochnagar. What I cannot understand is how he delivered all those notes. The first one, yes. That was in the book he gave her. But the others?”

“All questions that need answerin’.”

“Including one about his ultimate game,” she said as they strode between the vegetable beds. “Is the captain simply a common thief and Jeannie a convenient mark?”

“Probably got something to do with his land scheme. Grant got a letter from Nick just this mornin’ with none too good a report on the captain’s investors. There’s no proof they even exist.”

Clarity struck Kathleen with the force of a slap to the cheek, bringing her to a halt.

Angus stopped mid-stride. “Lass?”

“The gang of thieves,” she whispered.

He looked blank for a moment before shaking his head. “But they were thievin’ a good three weeks afore Brown showed up.”

“That would provide him the perfect cover. He wasn’t even in Dunlaggan when the thieving and vandalism began. Plus, no one would suspect him because the blasted vicar is his brother.”

---