refrained from comment. She had no desire for him to discover that she had already learned something of his past from her aunt. If he wished to confide in her he would do so, she decided, asking instead if they were close to any towns or villages.
‘There’s a sizeable habitation about three miles away, where I’m certain we’ll have no trouble in acquiring a mount. We’ll be able to get something to eat there, if nothing else.’
She cast him an impatient glance. ‘If you possess any sensibility at all, Major Ross, you will kindly not mention food to me, especially after what I’ve suffered.’
His shout of laughter might have held a callous ring, but his voice did not lack sympathy. ‘I can understand your sentiments, my little love, but food is precisely what you do need, if only to maintain your strength. I’m determined to complete the last leg of our journey, for I have every intention of sleeping in my own bed tonight!’
Chapter Twelve
Rosslair was bathed in warm afternoon sunshine when Katherine caught her first glimpse of the greystone manor house, set in the gently rolling countryside she well remembered. It was a truly handsome building, not large by some standards, but undeniably the home of a gentleman of comfortable means.
As Daniel urged the weary mount into the courtyard at the back of the house, the sound of hooves on cobblestones brought a stocky individual of average height from one of the numerous outbuildings, which lined the yard on three of its sides. His craggy features were instantly softened by a broad smile of welcome, as his clear blue gaze rested upon the man about whose waist Katherine had clung for the past few hours, and a moment later her ears were assailed by an unmistakable accent.
‘To be sure now, I were only saying to Janet this very morn she were worrying herself to no purpose, and that you’d return safe and sound in your own good time. And that happy I am to be proved—’
He checked as his gaze fell upon the delicately featured face peering at him round one broad shoulder. ‘Now what have we here, Major, sir? Not another lad to help about the place, I’m thinking.’ He peered more closely as Daniel assisted the slender figure behind him to the ground before dismounting himself. “Tis not a lad at all, I’m thinking.’
‘There’s no fooling you, Sean McGann,’ Daniel announced, before making Katherine known to the man who had served him loyally throughout the hard-fought campaign in the Peninsula.
‘O’Malley?’ Positively beaming with delight, the exsergeant grasped the slender fingers held out to him. ‘Now, there’s a fine Irish name for you!’
‘And with a fine Irish temper to match,’ Daniel assured him, much to his loyal henchman’s intense amusement. ‘Come into the house when you’ve taken care of the horse, McGann,’ he added before leading the way into his home by way of the rear entrance.
In the large farmhouse-style kitchen he discovered his elderly housekeeper, seated at the table, busily occupied in repairing a rent in a sheet. After one brief glance to see who had entered her private domain, she rose to her feet and came rushing forward, with quite amazing speed for someone of her advanced years, to clasp as much of Daniel as she could encompass in her arms.
There was clearly a bond of affection between them that put Katherine in mind of her own relationship with Bridie. It was not unusual for loyal, elderly retainers to be given far more licence, so it came as no surprise to hear the housekeeper administer a scold when Daniel lifted her quite off her feet a moment later in order to plant a smacking kiss on one lined cheek.
Katherine’s only partially suppressed chuckle instantly alerted the housekeeper to her presence. She glanced enquiringly up at her master, before subjecting the stranger to a rather prolonged stare which grew increasingly disapproving.
Daniel immediately relinquished his hold, before reaching out one hand to remove the floppy, misshapen hat, and allow those gorgeous auburn locks to fall about slender shoulders. If anything his housekeeper’s expression became even more dour and she sniffed quite pointedly.
‘You can take that disapproving look off your face, Janet Browning!’ he ordered sternly.
Her only response was to sniff again.
‘It might interest you to know that it was none other than Miss O’Malley who was responsible for my recent absence from home.’
‘Ha!’ Grey eyes subjected the figure indecently clad in masculine attire to a further reproachful glare. ‘I don’t doubt it!’
‘I do not think your position is improving, Daniel,’ Katherine remarked, sotto voce, disposed to be more amused than anything else by the servant’s quite evident misconceptions.
He was inclined to agree, although he wasn’t slow to note his housekeeper’s faintly puzzled expression at the unmistakable refinement in Katherine’s voice. ‘Yes, Janet. Miss O’Malley is unquestionably a lady of virtue. And it is for this very reason that you are to take very good care of her. I shall explain everything more fully to you presently. In the meantime, I want you to find her something suitable to wear.’
‘Well, that I don’t object to doing,’ she didn’t hesitate to assure him, ‘though why a lady should be parading round in breeches, I cannot imagine!’
‘Because, you inquisitive old besom, for her own safety she has been masquerading as my nephew for the last couple of days.’
Janet tutted. ‘It appears to me, Master Daniel, that you’ve been indulging in mischief again. You always were one for getting into scrapes.’
Katherine couldn’t help laughing softly at Daniel’s look of exasperation. It seemed that they both suffered the same problems—servants who persisted in treating them as though they were still irresponsible, mischievous children who should be kept in leading-strings.
‘Oh, that is nothing, Mrs Browning. I’ve figured as his wife and his sister,’ she enlightened her. ‘In fact, I’ve reached the point where I’ve forgotten just who I really am.’
‘But I haven’t, Katherine,’ Daniel assured her gently, and with such a wealth of tenderness in his eyes that Janet hardly recognised the being whom she had known from the day of his birth. ‘Tomorrow you must swiftly accustom yourself to yet another role—that of my cousin, Louise Durand, whom I have brought over from France, and to whom Janet shall act as chaperon.’
‘In that case, sir,’ his loyal servant announced, ‘I’ll begin my duties at once by ensuring the young lady is made comfortable in your grandmother’s old room.’
Having her hand captured in a surprisingly firm grasp, Katherine had little choice but to accompany the housekeeper up a rather handsome wooden staircase to the upper floor. If the servant still retained doubts about her respectability she certainly kept these reservations to herself, and by the time Katherine had helped to put clean sheets on the bed, and had returned to the kitchen to fill a pitcher with hot water herself, the housekeeper was positively beaming with approval and evincing every sign of being very pleased at having another female residing under the roof.
Once Katherine had returned to the bedchamber, she took stock of her surroundings, while making herself appear more respectable by donning clothes which, she suspected, had once belonged to Daniel’s mother. The furniture, elegant and well made, was undoubtedly French in design, and had more than likely belonged to the former occupant of the room. Although the primrose bed-hangings
