Page 31 of Taken By the Savage Highlander

“Lady MacLeod!” the head cook said, stepping away from his counter when he saw Margo enter. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“I was looking for a lost kitten and could not help but notice how heavenly it smells,” she said, giving him a soft smile.

She could feel everyone’s eyes on her. Slowly, she was learning that their gazes didn’t mean hostility; rather, curiosity. As if to prove they meant her no harm, one of the women approached her and offered her a fresh roll.

“Thank you,” Margo smiled, accepting the soft, warm bread as if it were an object of reverence.

“Of course, me Lady,” she said brightly. “We were worried about ye after that beam collapsed. Ye dinnae need to help us, but ye did. We appreciate that more than ye ken.”

“I thought that it was only right,” Margo murmured, feeling her face flush at the compliment. “You all take incredibly good care of me and my sister. It was the least I could do, even if it did get a bit scary for a moment.”

“Ye nearly gave Laird MacLeod a heart attack,” the cook said with a booming laugh. “I cannae remember the last time he looked like that.”

A boy, the child of one of the maids, stopped what he was doing to scurry over to the cook. His voice barely loud enough to carry over the rhythmic sound of kitchen work, he said, “If ye thought that was strange, ye should have seen him this mornin’ when we dropped off his meal. There was a wee kitten followin’ him around.”

“A kitten?” the cook asked. When the boy nodded his head, he looked over at Margo and said, “Ye were lookin’ for a kitten, aye?”

“Yes!” Margo said, taking a few steps toward the two of them. She tried not to get her hopes up, but this was the first clue she’d received since her search started. “The gray kitten is the one that got loose. What color was the one you saw?”

“It was gray, me Lady!” the boy said, straightening his posture as though he were a tiny warrior giving a field report. “The Laird fed it some milk, and when the kitten stumbled over his boots, he cursed at it, but he didn’t seem all that angry.”

“He is truly letting a kitten follow him around?” Margo asked incredulously. “You saw it?”

“With me own two eyes, me Lady!” the boy confirmed. “I wouldnae have believed it otherwise.”

Margo laughed, her cheeks hurting with the force of her joy. She struggled to conjure the image in her mind. A big, fearsome, Highland Laird allowing himself to be shadowed by a kitten? It seemed unreal, yet the boy had no reason to lie.

Who is this man?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“She still isnae back?” Margo asked, cupping Eleanor’s cheeks between her palms.

“No,” Eleanor said, sniffling. It had taken Margo nearly five minutes to calm her sister down enough to get her to speak. “I thought she would after I went to have supper, especially after you told me that she was seen following around Laird MacLeod.”

“We will find her,” Margo said, swallowing down the frustration that had begun to build in her chest. She turned and caught Tilly’s eye. “Could you have the servants begin the search?”

“Aye, me Lady,” Tilly said, glancing toward the window. “I will tell them it is of utmost importance that we find the wee thing before the sun sets.”

“It looks like it is going to storm again,” Eleanor whimpered, her eyes closing as tears tracked down her cheeks.

“We willnae let her be caught in the storm,” Tilly promised before she turned and rushed out of Margo’s quarters.

“We will find her,” Margo said again, the despair on her sister’s face only twisting her frustration further.

She had been willing to deal with Cameron’s confusing behavior when it only affected her, but now that Eleanor was crying, she felt herself getting angry. While he hadn’t abducted the kitten, he’d known that she was following him around. When she’d gone looking for him earlier, she’d been unable to find him. It had been wrong of her to assume that he was keeping an eye on the tiny creature.

Instead, he’d lost her and did not seem to care one bit.

“You stay here,” Margo instructed Eleanor, using the sleeve of her gown to dry her sister’s cheeks. “I am going to speak with Laird MacLeod. Perhaps he can tell me the place that he saw her last, and I can start my search there.”

“I’ll come with you,” Eleanor said, trying to stand up when Margo stepped away.

“We still do not know how she escaped,” Margo said as she gently pushed Eleanor back into her seat. “You should stay here and make sure we do not lose another. Once we find the missing kitten, we’ll work on a solution to keep them in place now that they’re moving around more.”

Eleanor nodded, shifting her attention to the kittens that were sleeping after their evening meal. She kept her mouth stubbornly closed, and it tore at Margo’s heart. Her sister was trying to keep herself from crying.

And this is all because Cameron MacLeod didn’t pay enough attention to the kitten following him.