The Scot and I by Elizabeth Thornton Page B

castle and tell them some story or other that will convince them to let Hepburn go. I’ll tell them we had a lovers’ tryst, and he was with me when the other man was killed.” She shook her head. “I’ll think of something.”
    “It’s not as easy as you think.” His eyes flicked to the policeman he’d spoken to earlier. “From what I heard, Hepburn has made a powerful enemy at the castle, someone in command who has been waiting for his chance to discredit him.”
    She added glumly, “And Ramsey has powerful friends in the area. Oh, Dugald, what are we going to do?”
    “We’re going to eat our dinner, then we’ll talk.”
    Mahri looked down at her plate. The succulent meat pie did not begin to tempt her, but to please Dugald, she speared a morsel and popped it into her mouth.

Seven

    There were dungeons in the original castle but none in the brand-new edifice that Prince Albert had built for his queen only thirty years before. Alex came to himself in a cellar that had been converted to a cell. There was a barred window high in the wall. The light was fading, and he wondered how long he had been drifting in and out of consciousness.
    “Alex?”
    The hoarse voice came from a cot on the other side of the cell, Gavin’s voice, weak and wavering. The sound of it had Alex dragging himself off the floor and stumbling toward the noise. There was only one cot in the cell.
    He could barely make out his brother’s face. “What happened to you, Gavin?”
    Gavin let out a shaky laugh. “I didn’t know your job was so dangerous,” he said. “There was I at our hunting lodge, waiting for you to turn up, when some red-faced villain tried to arrest me for murder. I resisted, and he took a shot at me.”
    “He shot you?”
    “Don’t worry. He didn’t hit me, but he ruined my coat and trousers. The bullet, luckily for me, went right through my pocket. An inch to two to the right, and he would have unmanned me.”
    Relief flooded through Alex, not because Gavin was still the same playful gallant but because no one who was seriously injured could have strung so many sentences together.
    “The thing is,” Gavin went on, “your colonel didn’t like the answers I gave when they brought me in for questioning. I tried to tell him about the woman we were pursuing, and he wouldn’t listen. He accused me of trying to kill the queen.” His voice changed color, gentled, and he said, “You know that Dickens was stabbed in the back?”
    “I know,” Alex replied.
    “I’m sorry. I know how much you liked and trusted him.” He shifted his position and groaned. “Nothing to worry about,” he said. “The colonel had his soldiers beat me, rather badly. I think they may have cracked one of my ribs.”
    “Let me take a look.”
    Gavin sucked in a breath when Alex gingerly pressed a hand to his side. “You’re bleeding,” Alex said.
    “The bullet may have nicked me in passing, but no harm done. One of the orderlies tended to the wound, a very nice fellow by the name of Wilson. I don’t think Foster is very popular in the castle.”
    Alex’s tone was savage. “What you need is a doctor!”
    Gavin chuckled. “I’m a prisoner, Alex, not a guest. I was lucky to have an orderly take a look at me. I’m fine, really.”
    Alex could hardly control his anger or his frustration. One way or another, they were going to get out of here, even if he had to carry his brother on his back. Then he’d take care of the colonel.
    Gavin said, “What are you thinking?”
    Alex shook his head. “None of it makes sense. Dickens wasn’t attached to Special Branch or the Secret Service. He was in charge of security at the castle. He was a policeman. Why would anyone want to kill him?”
    “I have no idea.”
    “How did it happen? Do you know?”
    “All they’ve told me is that Dickens was in his office when he was stabbed.”
    “But we weren’t anywhere near there.”
    Alex tried to visualize how the drama had played out. They’d