Read Online And the Bride Wore Plaid by Karen Hawkins - Free Book Online Page B

gaze shot to the door and back as if she were considering running for her life. “I seed him, I did. And his arse, too!”
    “I don’t know who you ‘seed’ or whose arse, but it wasn’t St. John’s,” Kat said. “He was in the blue room because none of the others were ready.”
    “There!” Annie eyed Mary with disgust. “Isn’t it time ye returned to Kilkairn? I daresay they’ve more dirty pots fer ye to scrub.”
    Mary stiffened, her plump shoulders rising almost to her ears. “I was just tellin‘ ye what I seed, was all.”
    “What you
wished
you’d seed,” Annie amended. Though a good head shorter than any other woman in the room, she managed to maintain control of every conversation, simply through sheer force of her character. Even now, her hair tucked beneath a cap, her whip-cord thin body covered with a gray gown, and solid, plain shoes on her feet, she was plainly in command. “Off with ye. Mary, ye know where ye’re wanted ... and where ye’re not. I’ll have yer cart brought around. Lucy, thank ye fer the jelly. Tell yer mum we’re grateful.”
    Kat watched while Annie bustled her guests out to their cart and waved them on their way. Then, wiping her hands on her apron, Annie returned and pulled out a wooden bowl and a sack of potatoes and began peeling them.
    Kat found another knife and joined in. “I’m sorry your visit turned out so unpleasantly.”
    “Och, don’t think on it. Fat Mary is as Fat Mary is. By this time tomorrow, neither of us will remember who was mad aboot what.” Annie finished off a peeling with an expert twist of her wrist.
    “She’s a braggart, all right,” Kat agreed.
    “Indeed. Actin‘ as if she was the only one who saw him in the castle.” Annie turned to Kat and eyed her up and down. “Well?”
    “Well what?” Kat asked uneasily. She kept her gaze on the potato she was peeling so she wouldn’t have to meet Annie’s gaze.
    “What do
you
have to say aboot the stranger at the castle?”
    “I know his name is St. John.” And that he had a mouth made for kissing. Kat cut the potato with more force than was necessary, the knife thunking soundly on the cutting board.
    Annie eyed the flashing knife with some misgiving. “Indeed?”
    “Aye. If I remember what Malcolm told me a while ago, I believe they met whilst the two were down at Eton.” Or so she thought.
    “Indeed?” Annie said. “Is that all ye know?”
    “Aye,” Kat said.
    “Hm. I suppose I’ll have to wait until my cousin Jane gets a look at him. She’s ever had an eye for a handsome man.”
    Kat didn’t like that at all. Jane was the upstairs maid at Kilkairn, and a more lascivious woman was difficult to find.
    In fact, Kat was quite certain that Jane had bedded most, if not all, of Malcolm’s guests. “I daresay St. John isn’t the sort of man Jane would like to dally with.”
    Annie looked astounded. “He was breathin‘, wasn’t he?”
    “Aye, but—”
    “Then Jane would enjoy dallyin‘ with him. She’s not particular, is our Jane.”
    Kat cut another potato in two, this time slicing it so thoroughly that she buried the tip of the knife in the table top. “Oh! I’m sorry.”
    Annie’s hand closed over Kat’s. “Just leave the knife there. I’ll take care of the rest of these.”
    “Are you certain? I can at least—”
    “I’m certain. Besides, aren’t the lads waitin‘ on ye?”
    They would be, of course. Since housework had never held any appeal, Kat readily washed her hands in a bucket and dried them on a towel Annie kept nearby. “You’re right. We have to finish the windows by the end of this week or we’ll be good and behind.”
    “There is no ‘good and behind.’ There’s only ‘behind.’ Get to work, Miss Kat.” Annie flashed a smile, her angular, usually morose face lighting. “I’d never let the lads alone for a minute. You canno‘ tell what they’ll be into.”
    Kat agreed, smiling in return. The men they’d gathered as glassworkers