“We shall,” Marcus breathed. He had a feral gleam in his eye that surprised Finn. He usually seemed like such a laid-back young man. So proper and responsible.
Finn and Robin entered through the front door, each of them moving off in different directions. Finn took the stairs, Robin went toward the kitchen, and Marcus skirted around the back of the house from the outside.
Finn lit a taper on the table in the landing at the top of the stairs and lifted it high in the air. He slowly pushed open the master bedchamber door and stopped when he saw two lumps beneath the counterpane. “Please tell me Katherine didn’t take him into her bed,” he murmured to himself as he crossed the room.
With a jerk, he pulled the counter pane from the bed and tossed it to the floor. Katherine, with all her dark hair tumbling around her, jumped up and covered her breasts. She was completely naked. The man beside her took a little longer to react, and she had to punch him twice.
He looked around frantic. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
The man was blond. It wasn’t Mayden. Finn lifted the taper higher in the air. “Are you the only two here?”
“Yes, my lord,” the man said, getting to his feet to pull on his pants. He scrambled like a kid caught with his hand in the biscuit jar.
“Richard?” Finn asked. He tossed the man his shirt.
“Did you find anything up here?” Robin asked from the doorway.
“I paid you to protect her, you numbskull.”
“I did,” he floundered. “I am.”
“By sleeping with her?” Finn cried.
He turned to Katherine, who’d had the good grace to wrap herself in the counterpane. “Where’s Mayden?”
“How am I supposed to know?” she cried.
“He hasn’t been here?”
“Not that I know of.”
Finn turned to Robin. “Did you find anything downstairs?”
“Nothing but Mrs. Ross. She threw a skillet at me.” He rubbed absently at his head.
“Sorry about that,” Finn murmured.
Marcus poked his head around the corner of the door.
“What did you find?”
“No one is here but them. There’s a young man asleep in the barn. But he said no one has been here. The only horses here apparently belong to him.” He moved his chin toward Richard.
“No one has been here,” Richard confirmed. “What’s this about?”
“Mayden sent a note that said he was here. With Katherine.”
“Over my dead body,” the man grunted.
“That’s probably what would have happened if he’d shown up the way I did. You were like a sitting goose, you idiot.”
“Well, he’s not here,” the man said petulantly.
“I can see that.”
“Where is he, Finn?” Katherine asked.
Marcus, Finn, and Robin all spoke at the same time. “It was a trick.”