“They will be suspicious, just the same.”
“Do you think they will follow us?”
“They might.” He lifted the reins, signaling the horse to walk. “Damnation. We doona need anyone remembering us.”
“Bloody hell.”
For a moment he was nonplussed, not sure he’d heard correctly. “Did ye just saybloodyhell?”
“Yes.” Juliana shrugged. “It is somewhat the English equivalent to your cursing.”
“I…I ken that. I just thought…” He let his voice trail off.
“That ladies did not use such language?” Juliana finished for him. “You are quite right. Emily would be appalled, and Lorelei would probably swoon.”
She didn’t seem particularly worried about those facts, but why should she? There wasn’t anyone around to hear her except himself. He would have laughed, except their situation was too dire for humor. “Let’s just hope the Camerons doona run into the dragoons or there will bebloody hellto pay.” He found he rather liked the word “bloody.” It was easy to say and summed up the situation quite nicely.
“I have an idea,” she said after a moment’s silence.
He looked at the back of her head warily, wishing he could see her face. He remembered all too well when her sister Emily had had an idea. It had involved using herself as bait to catch their madman uncle as he’d attempted to murder her.
“What is it?” he asked cautiously.
She turned in the saddle again. “Since we have obviously been seen, it will not hurt to stop at Fort William.”
“What? I am nae about to become a sitting target for dragoons to question us.” He frowned at her. “Or Camerons to find us.”
“Precisely,” she said as if he would understand.
He muttered another Gaelic curse, making sure to do it silently this time. “Ye are making nae sense.”
She gave him a look as thoughhewere the daft one.
“Well, ye aren’t.”
Juliana sighed, as if willing herself to have patience with a halfwit. He started to open his mouth to defend himself, then snapped it closed and waited.
“As I said, we have already been seen.Ifthe Camerons come to Fort William andifthey happened to see these dragoons, the soldiers need to tell them it was not us whom they saw.”
He felt the beginning of a headache. “Has all this jostling in the saddle rattled your brain? Ye are making nae sense.At all,” he added just to make sure she understood.
She simply looked heavenward as if for guidance. “Let me explain then. We stop at a merchant’s to purchase a new dress for me—”
“Ye want to shop?Now?Ye can do so when we get to Spean—”
“Yes,” she said in the same tone one would use with a small bairn. “But if we stop here, we can introduce ourselves to the merchant by some other name and come up with a story that we were returning from a feast from somewhere and our carriage was waylaid by highwaymen and we only managed to escape by untying the horse we had behind the carriage and that we are heading home to wherever we are not going. That way, if the Camerons do start asking questions, they will not be getting the right answers.” She smiled at Rory as if all that were perfectly clear.
He stared at her, sure his head would start pounding any minute. How she’d manage to put all that together in one sentence without stopping for breath was a truly amazing feat. He was still processing the whole of it when she spoke again.
“It is a good idea.”
“It doesna make sense.”
“You would think so if it wereyouridea.” She gave him a reproachful look. “Go on, admit it. You just do not like it because I thought of it.”
“That isna true.”
“No? Then can you come up with something better?”
