Highland Rogue by Deborah Hale Read Free Book Online Page B

jest about Lady Lydiard?
    Footsteps sounded behind her and a familiar masculine voice spoke. “Pardon me for interrupting, Miss Brancaster Talbot. I was told to bring you this.”
    Claire spun around, barely resisting the urge to throw her arms around her secretary. She was so grateful for his well-timed interruption that she did not even remind him to call her by a single surname.
    “Mr. Catchpole, what brings you here?” She took the paper he held out to her, as if she had no idea what message it might contain. “Some problem at Brancasters?”
    She handed Catchpole her parasol to hold, so she would have both hands free to open the letter. “I told you, while I am on holiday in Scotland, Mr. Adams and Mr. Monteith will be in charge. If you encounter any serious difficulty … oh, dear!”
    * * *
    “What’s wrong, then?” Ewan leaned closer to read the note over Claire’s shoulder. Whatever it was, he didn’t much care for the sound of it.
    When she glanced up at him, he backed away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to look at your note.”
    What must she think of him? First that thoughtless remark about her stepmother, now trying to read her private mail. In the past five minutes, he’d done precious little to dispel the doubts she must have about him as a potential member of her family. He must do better if he hoped to enlist her as an ally in his fight to wed Tessa.
    To his surprise, she did not look the least offended. She held out the paper to him. “This concerns you, too. By all means read it.”
    If the note concerned him, it could only be about one thing. In his haste to read the message, Ewan fairly tore the paper out of Claire Talbot’s hand. Manners and a good impression be hanged!
    He scarcely needed to glance at the closing salutation to know the message had come from Tessa’s mother. The florid, swooping script was everything he would have expected from Lady Lydiard.
    “ ‘My dear Claire …’ ” He muttered the words under his breath as he read, squinting to decipher the words. “ ‘I fear Tessa and I will not be able to join you and Mr. Geddes on the voyage to Strathandrew, after all.’ ”
    In his mind, he could hear her ladyship speaking those words in a tone of cool, malicious triumph. Gritting his teeth, Ewan struggled through the rest of the note.
    “It says Tessa’s ill.” He crumpled the paper in his fist, no longer caring what sort of impression he made on Claire Talbot. “I have to go to her!”
    For a moment, Miss Talbot looked as though she meant to prevent him. Something must have changed her mind, though.
    “If you feel you must.” She shrugged. “Then by all means, fly to her side.”
    For some reason, her willingness to let him go, and her tone of wry amusement, calmed his sense of urgency. “Ye think I shouldn’t?”
    “That is for you to decide, of course.” Miss Talbot retrieved her parasol from the fussy-looking middle-aged man who had brought the note. “Thank you for delivering her ladyship’s message, Mr. Catchpole. We will not detain you any longer.”
    “Always happy to oblige, miss.” Catchpole regarded his employer with a look that bordered on reverence. “If I may be so bold, I do hope you will enjoy your holiday in the north. You have driven yourself so hard these past three years. It’s about time you had a proper rest.”
    Ewan’s clerk had said much the same thing to him on the day he’d made his whirlwind departure for London.
    Claire Talbot acknowledged the good wishes with a warm smile. “I do feel the need for a change of scenery. I know I can count on you to keep Mr. Adams and Mr. Monteith up to scratch for me.”
    Her shoulders slumped, just a trifle. Beneath her well turned out facade, Ewan thought he could make out subtle signs of fatigue.
    Once Mr. Catchpole had departed, she turned to Ewan again. “The note does not say Tessa is deathly ill, only indisposed.” She lowered her voice. “A
feminine
indisposition, perhaps. I fear