“Ciamar a tha thu?” he asked as he approached.
“Tha gu math.” Garth nodded. “Good, thanks.”
“Agus do bhean?”
“Me Mary is well, too.”
“Is she enjoying an afternoon off?”
“Aye. Lady Bute always gives the servants a half-day Sunday.”
That probably explained why they’d all gone calling on Mrs. Fitzroy. “I hope my sister and Miss Caldwell are nae too much trouble for ye?”
“They doona ask for much.”
“’Tis good to ken.” And it was. He’d have harsh words with Fiona if she tried acting like a demanding Sassenach, but it was good to know Lorelei wasn’t acting like one, either. “They do keep ye busy though? With all the errand-running and such?”
A wary look came into Garth’s eyes, but he merely shrugged. “’Tis nae more than usual.”
“They seem to do a lot of shopping.”
“Aye.”
“And ye have to follow them around?”
“Aye.”
“’Twould be boring, I would think.” Alasdair tried to look nonchalant. “How many stores do they go to in an afternoon?”
More wariness crossed Garth’s face. “I doona keep count.”
He gave him a conspiratorial grin. “I would probablylosecount, being out all afternoon like they are.”
He shrugged again. “Me job is to protect me mistress, nae tell her what to do.”
Alasdair sighed. He wasn’t going to get the information he wanted…which was disappointing but not unexpected. Scots were loyal beyond measure to someone who’d earned it and obviously, Lady Louisa had. Alasdair nodded. “’Tis good to ken ye are their protector.Feasgar math.”
“Aye. Good afternoon to ye as well.”
…
Alasdair felt a bit like a cad as he lurked behind the shrubbery in the small park across from the earl’s town house on Monday afternoon. Or perhaps a Bow Street runner would be a more accurate description, given that he was lying in wait for his sister and Lorelei to emerge from the house and his intention was to follow them. He hadn’t been able to get any meaningful answers from Garth, so what choice did he have?
That they always went “shopping” on Monday afternoons might not be that unusual, but he’d observed that several times they’d returned with hardly any packages for the amount of time they’d actually been shopping. The evasive answers and downright refusal to allow him to escort them also made him suspicious that they were doing more than just strolling along Bond Street. Besides, after Campbell and Westwood had been so attentive at the musicale on Saturday, Alasdair wanted to make sure his sister and Lorelei were not so foolish as to agree to meet with them somewhere. In Fiona’s case, it was a matter of brotherly concern and in Lorelei’s… Well, she was prone to head into danger without realizing the consequences. The idea that she might come to harm had him clenching his fists, ready to keep her safe. If she were hurt… Damnation. Sheneededprotection. Or so he told himself, choosing not to consider that Louisa and her two servants—one a strong Scotsman—would serve both as chaperones and guard. After all, he was honor bound to both Ian and Emily to keep a watchful eye. It wasn’t like he wasspying.
“Mr. MacGregor?”
He nearly jumped out of his skin and then cursed silently for not being aware of his surroundings and, especially, in not realizing a female had advanced on him. Rory and Devon would never let him live it down if they knew. He plastered a smile on his face and turned to face two of the young ladies who had performed at the musicale.
“Good afternoon.”
“Good afternoon,” the one who had spoken replied, an inquisitive look on her face. “Whatever are you doing half concealed in the shrubs?”
The other one tried to peer around him. Did she think he was having a tryst? Here, in Grosvenor Square? In the middle of the day? “I…ah…lost a cufflink yesterday and was searching for it.”
They both looked dubious, but there was probably some aristocratic rule about a debutante not questioning a man, that he should be grateful for. He made a pretense of searching the ground once more. “It doesna seem to be here.”
“We could help you look,” the second one said. “It would be a shame to lose it.”
