“I think he’s gone back to Invermackie,” Hamish said as if it didn’t matter.
Her heart, which had begun to dance with a mixture of excitement and hope, dipped into plodding despair again. She lurched to her feet. “He’s gone?”
“I think after what happened last night, he decided he was no longer welcome.”
“But it’s Christmas Eve.”
“I doubt he was feeling very festive.”
“Oh, no.” She had so much to make up for. “How long ago did you see him?”
Hamish shrugged, and she could tell that his tolerance for feminine ups and downs faded fast. “I don’t know. An hour maybe.”
“You didn’t try and hit him again?” she asked in horror.
“No, I bloody didn’t.” Hamish started to look seriously grumpy. “He had the grace to apologize for what happened last night.”
“He hadn’t done anything wrong.”
“He had, but he’d also done his best to fix it. Not that his chivalry did him an ounce of good. You refused him anyway.”
“I’m not refusing him now,” she said, clutching at her skirts. “If I run, I might catch him before he goes.”
“And what if you don’t?”
“If I don’t, I’m going to ride after him.” Determination rang in her voice. “All the way to Invermackie, if I have to.”
“What?” Hamish’s crankiness vanished in amazement—and displeasure. “Elspeth, what the hell has got into you? Come back here!”
But she’d rushed past him. Skirts flying, she dashed down the corridor toward the stables.
Chapter 16
Elspeth wasn’t dressed for the outdoors, but she couldn’t bear to wait to change into warmer clothes. Cold as well as desperation added speed to her mad skitter across the icy yard, swept clean of snow, to Fergus’s luxurious stables.
“Jock, have you seen Brody?” she asked the brawny Scotsman who was grooming Fergus’s gray mare Banshee.
The pause before the Highlander spoke threatened to split her heart in two. She braced to hear the news that Brody had already set out for home. “Aye, lassie. He’s in the back, getting ready to head off. Although I told him it’s daft to set out alone on a snowy day like this. And no Christian should leave his family on Christmas Eve.”
“I agree.” A dizzying wave of relief made her clutch at the edge of the stall. Thank heaven, she wasn’t too late to offer amends to Brody. Nor did she need to make good on her vow to Hamish to gallop over the wintry hills in pursuit of the man she loved.
“Brody!” she called, rushing along the aisle dividing the stables. “Brody, where are you?”
“Devil take ye, what’s the matter?” He stuck a tousled dark head out of the last stall. “Stop caterwauling, lassie. You’re frightening the horses.”
He wasn’t being funny. Nervous whinnies from high-bred stock marked her noisy, frantic progress. Because of the Christmas house party, the stables were packed with expensive horseflesh.
She’d pictured flinging herself into Brody’s arms and declaring without ceremony that she’d be his wife. But his bleak expression and unwelcoming tone had her stumbling to a halt outside the stall. This wasn’t the man who had swept her up to heaven in the library last night, but someone sterner and warier.
He’d hung his coat over the gate, leaving him free to work in his shirtsleeves. Her eyes drank in the sight of that large, powerful chest clad in loose white linen, while crippling shyness trapped her joyful acceptance unspoken in her throat.
“What are ye doing here, Elspeth?” he asked in a flat tone she’d never heard him use before.
She’d imagined he’d be pleased to see her, but the green eyes were flatter than his voice. She shivered and wrapped her arms around her torso, although a line of braziers kept the stables toasty warm.
“Hamish said you were leaving.” Elspeth despised her uncertain tone. She’d hoped that over the last few days, she’d developed a bit of backbone, but she was back to sounding like mousy Miss Douglas.
He shrugged and returned to strapping his baggage to the saddle. “There’s no point staying. And it’s pretty clear that most of the party would welcome my absence.”