Fallen Angel (13 page)

"Good grief. I think it's a dog," exclaimed Deveryn.

Maddie sank to her heels and embraced the shivering creature. "Kelpie!" she cried. "Kelpie! Where did you come from?" It was then that she observed that the animal at her feet, under the' coat of matted hair, was painfully emaciated.

Deveryn squatted beside Maddie and gently scratched Kelpie's ears. "Easy girl, I won't hurt you," he said in a low, soothing voice, and his fingers splayed out as he probed beneath the filth infested coat of hair. The animal whimpered, but the viscount did not halt his careful perusal. There was the shimmer of tears brightening Maddie's eyes as she watched Deveryn's sure hands.

"The poor beast has taken a whipping recently," said Deveryn shortly, "but fortunately there are no bones broken. She'll be as right as a trivet with a little coddling and a week of regular meals. Still, someone has a lot to answer for."

"Will Fraser!" ejaculated Maddie. "This is his doing! I'll horsewhip him for this piece of cruelty. There, there, darling. You're home now," she crooned and tried unsuccessfully to lift the exhausted animal into her arms. After a moment, she looked up at Deveryn. He saw the appeal in her wide eyes. He looked ruefully at his immaculate coat and pantaloons and gave a resigned sigh.

"Allow me," he said, and easily performed the service for Maddie. He settled the dog comfortably in his arms and asked mildly, "Who is Wilt Fraser?" and followed Maddie as she pushed into the back kitchen. Janet was at a long, scrubbed trestle table chopping vegetables. Behind her, on top of the black iron grate, a pot of boiling water hissed furiously as steam escaped the loose-fitting lid. When she saw the animal in Deveryn's arms, the housekeeper threw down the chopper, and her hands splayed out against her hips.

"Ye'll no take that beastie into the house, Miss Maddie!" she said, her voice rising querulously.

"Oh Janet, it's Kelpie, and she's hurt." Maddie's face was set in mutinous lines.

Janet's arms fell to her sides and she came forward to peer at the animal. "Kelpie? It canna be!"

Deveryn pushed past the two women and deposited the shivering animal on the stone hearth. He was rewarded for his thoughtfulness by a warm tongue licking his hands. He straightened and said in a calm, deliberate tone, "I want to know what's going on. Who is Will Fraser and whose dog is this?"

"It's my dog," said Maddie quickly.

Janet shook her head and gave the viscount a speaking look.

"Janet, whose dog is it?" he asked, ignoring Maddie's impassioned declaration.

Janet could not meet Maddie's eye. "It was Maddie's dog once, afore her father lost Kelpie to Will Fraser on the turn of a card."

"My father had no business to game away what did not belong to him!" Maddie burst out furiously. "Kelpie was mine! I trained her from a pup. Will Fraser tried to buy her from me, but I wouldn't sell her. What he couldn't get by honest means, he got by trickery!"

She brushed past Deveryn and went down on her knees at the hearth. It was obvious that Kelpie, no less than Maddie, regarded the reunion as a joyful homecoming.

"Who is Will Fraser?" Deveryn asked of Janet.

"He's the shepherd over at Cumbernauld," she answered, her troubled eyes still on the girl who was examining her pet closely. "The master was in his cups, so they say, when he met Will at the White Horse at Inverforth last summer. Kelpie was waiting for him outside the taproom door. It was a sorry business. The next morning, he tried to find Will to buy the dog back, but he and Kelpie had vanished into the hills."

Maddie's head came up. "With good reason! He knew that I would never give up my dog, especially to the likes of him."

She had risen to her feet and was busy about the kitchen opening doors and rattling crockery. Within moments, she had prepared a bowl of meal with scraps of mutton and dripping. It was obvious to Deveryn that the girl knew her way around the kitchen and he wondered idly if this was where she was to be found each afternoon when he had scoured the house for her in vain. He tried to recall how many servants he had observed and knew for a certainty that it had been no more than three.

He was aware, for the first time, of how much extra work he and Cynthia had imposed on the small household and resolved that the weight of that labour should no longer fall on Maddie's thin shoulders. His eyes followed her as she set the earthenware bowl before the ravenous dog.

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "Some shepherds train their dogs with kind words and rewards. Not Will Fraser! His dogs learn their lessons from kicks and blows. He's a sadistic master."

"But why would he go to so much trouble? Surely there are other dogs available, and much handsomer specimens, I shouldn't wonder," he said unthinkingly as he eyed the heap of scruff on the hearth.

Maddie shot Deveryn a look of withering contempt. "Handsome is as handsome does," she quoted, and her eyes insolently swept over the viscount's elegant figure. "One wants more than beauty in a work dog. A sheep dog must be intelligent, obedient, and easily trained. Kelpie is all of that. My mistake was in being gulled into letting Will Fraser put Kelpie through her paces."

"Aye, ye were showing off that day," said Janet with a sage nod of her grey head.

"I was proud of Kelpie," protested Maddie, "and it was Sam who bragged about her to Will Fraser."

A faint frown of puzzlement creased Deveryn's brow. "This matter is easily settled, surely? A guinea or two in the shepherd's pocket should smooth things over."

Maddie's hands gently stroked the matted hair of her pet. Kelpie, who had collapsed in mute contentment before the heat from the grate, began to purr remarkably like a kitten under the tender ministrations of her mistress. A smile lifted the corners of Deveryn's mouth.

"Will Fraser won't give Kelpie up for a few guineas," said Maddie. "It's not just another work dog he wants. His heart is set on winning the sheep trials next summer. Kelpie is his best hope of that ever happening. If he dares to show his face here," she went on in sudden heat, "I shall take my whip to him."

"Ye'll do no such thing, Miss Maddie," Janet cried out, her alarm at Maddie's threat demonstrating to the viscount that she knew it was not an idle one. "He'll have the
sherra
after ye in a jiffy. The wee dog belongs to Will now. Ye maun make up yer mind to it with good grace."

"Over my dead body!" retorted Maddie.

"Ladies, ladies!" Deveryn interposed. "May I prevail upon you both to leave this matter in my hands? This is men's business. I make no doubt that Will Fraser will think twice before he makes an enemy of me."

"He's not to be trusted," said Maddie with dogged persistence. "He'll take your money and he'll steal Kelpie from under our noses. I intend to keep her by me night and day until that snake follows his flock into the hills."

"Ye'll do no such thing." Janet glowered her displeasure at Maddie's intent. "That wee dog may be your darlin', but she could be mangy or flea infested for all we know. I'll no have her
biding
in my clean kitchen and I make no doubt that yer aunt will no
thole
her in the house. Duncan will look after her, and she'll make her home in the stables, where she belongs."

Maddie protested, but the most she could win from Janet was the favour of allowing the dog to be bathed and doctored before the kitchen fire, and with that Maddie had to be content.

She went upstairs to change out of her riding habit. When she came into the kitchen again, she was surprised to see that the viscount was there before her. He, too, had changed, but his elegantly tailored jacket of dark blue superfine was carelessly draped over the back of one of the kitchen chairs. The sleeves of his white linen shirt were rolled up to the elbows. Before the hearth was a small tin tub half filled with tepid water.

"Shall we begin?" he asked with a smile in his eyes.

Maddie could scarcely believe that he meant to help her in so menial a task. She nodded in mute astonishment and removed a voluminous bib fronted apron from a hook at the back of the kitchen door and quickly donned it. When her eyes dropped to the hearth, she saw Kelpie was no longer there.

"The victim is under the sideboard, I believe," Deveryn explained, and joined Maddie as she dropped to her hands and knees before the solid oak piece which had a scant foot of clearance from the stone floor. Underneath, in the dark cavernous depths, cowered Kelpie showing a perfectly healthy set of white fangs.

"She never did like bath night," said Maddie with a laugh. "But once she gets in the water, she really loves it."

"No doubt," responded Deveryn with an answering twinkle. "It's getting her there that's the problem."

"I've had practice," intoned Maddie confidently. She went to the larder and brought out a slab of cheese. She cut off a thick slice and kneeled down at the side of the tub extending her hand palm open. After a moment, Kelpie whined, then dropped to her stomach and crawled from her hiding place, her brown eyes warily watching the proffered hand. As soon as she took the tidbit from Maddie's palm, Deveryn swiftly lifted the black wriggling body and dumped it in the tub. Kelpie swallowed the cheese in one gulp and looked up at her captors with sad and sorrowful eyes.

"Is that how you plan to manage me when we are married?" asked Deveryn, flashing a wicked grin.

She turned her luminous brown eyes upon him and asked guilelessly, "With cheese?"

"Oh no," he answered, and playfully flicked her nose with a careless finger. "I meant with treats, of course," and he laughed at the sudden blush in Maddie's cheeks.

But Maddie found that it was impossible to sustain her displeasure against Deveryn. She was deeply sensible of the debt of gratitude she owed the viscount. For one thing, he had shown himself solicitous of Kelpie's welfare. And he had made the offer to intervene on her behalf with Will Fraser, useless as she thought the gesture to be. Furthermore, to maintain an icy dignity when the two of them were engaged in bathing an unwilling, squirming ball of misery into submission was beyond Maddie's power. Her laughter was as spontaneous as Deveryn's as Kelpie drenched them, time and time again, with the soapy spray from the churning bath water.

It was Deveryn who put the finishing touches to Kelpie's toilette. As Maddie held Kelpie's head in her lap, she watched his strong hands smooth a healing salve on the cuts and abrasions which covered the small body. Kelpie made no move to resist the viscount's capable touch, as if sensing that her destiny was secure in the powerful, masculine hands that tended her.

As Kelpie was led away by Duncan to a warm box which had been made ready for her in the stable, Maddie's smiling eyes came to rest upon Deveryn. He was vigorously brushing the lint and excess of dog hair from his skin tight beige pantaloons. The top two buttons of his shirt were undone and the sleeves rolled up at the elbows. The exertions of their labours with Kelpie had soaked the front of his shirt and it clung to his muscular frame like a second skin. At that moment, he caught Maddie's amused look. He answered with a disarming grin of his own, and one hand swept back the swath of wheat gold hair that had fallen across his forehead. At the unconsciously boyish gesture, a small pang twisted Maddie's heart.

"I haven't done this sort of thing since I was a boy," he said negligently.

"You look like a boy," she told him and swung away to pick up the heap of wet towels on the floor.

He bent down to help her and their hands touched. "Maddie, you're good for me, do you know that? I haven't felt this alive in years."

At his words, she felt the blooming of pleasure. They stared at each other, wordlessly. She knew that she swayed towards him. But the door opened to admit Janet, and the moment was lost.

The temperature had warmed and Deveryn was persuaded that it would not be long before the roads were passable once more. He had no intention of leaving Drumoak, however, until he had words with Donald Sinclair's solicitor. He was in a fever of impatience to discover who Maddie's guardian might be so that the matter of their marriage might be speedily settled.

He rode out over the links after lunch and reached Inverforth with little trouble. A small detour took him to the cottage of Will Fraser and his mother. It took him only a few minutes to complete his business. By a careful combination of blatant bribery and subtle threat, Deveryn soon convinced the young shepherd that it would be in his best interests to cut a wide swath around Miss Maddie Sinclair in future.

He returned to Drumoak in very fine fettle, determining that on the morrow, or on the next day, he would send his coachmen to Edinburgh to fetch the solicitor. Not finding Maddie, he wandered into the library, not very well stocked in his opinion, where he was joined by Cynthia, to his great dislike. With Cynthia, there could never be any comfortable silences, nor conversation which did not originate in the latest
on dits
about some member of the ton. Since they had been absent from town circles for a fortnight or more, conversation gradually flagged and soon died altogether.