Love in the Time of a Highland Laird (A Laird for All Time Book 3) by Angeline Fortin (bill gates books to read .TXT) 📕

bit of a temper,” Mathilde said when he’d gone. “Makes me tremble in my boots. Yet there you are, so calm. Butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth. You impress me, Miss Maines.”

She smiled. “Please, call me Al.”

“Al? Very well, you can call me Tildy,” she offered. “It’s been a fair while since anyone has but then, there are few I like well enough to allow them to. And I do like you, Al.”

“Thank you.”

The compliment warmed her through. If boyfriends had been hard to come by in life, true girlfriends were even harder. And she got the strong feeling she might have found one in Keir’s cousin, even if she was losing him in the process.

The thought made her heart ache. But it would have eventually in any case.

Turning back to the battery, she concentrated on making the connections she’d need to short the leads. She’d peeled off the hard plastic, outer casing to expose the inner wires and trio of long batteries covered in their black rubber coating. And more importantly, she’d figured out a way to trigger it that could be quickly done.

And easily. Despite her argument, Keir could manage it without any trouble at all. She simply didn’t want to be left behind to wonder and worry about what was going on.

And then there had been another part of her that wanted to strike against ‘The Butcher’ for what he’d done to the Highlanders. What he was still doing to them. The more stories she heard about the atrocities he was committing against the people here, the more incited her humanitarian side became.

She’d felt the same anger when Dr. Fielding had begun his little zoo but had felt helpless to raise more than a verbal complaint in opposition. Even when human freedom was at stake. It had eaten at her, pained her until it burst upon Hugh’s arrival.

What Cumberland was doing was even worse. The tales she heard about torture and hangings weren’t just violations of human rights. They were unacceptable war crimes. Crimes against humanity that would have gotten him called before a UN tribunal in the future. They didn’t have that here to help these people. There was only men like Keir to fight back. And she wanted to be a part of it.

Even if her contribution didn’t go further than the detonation of a small IED. And it was extremely improvised.

Mathilde was twisting long lengths of silver thread she’d produced from her mother’s old sewing basket into wires. Al would use them to short the battery by attaching an end of each to the leads within the battery and the other ends to silver butter knives. With few things handy made from copper, silver would have to do. It was just as conductive even if her end product looked ridiculous.

“How is this going to work?”

“Once the two wires connect the knives to the battery, we can lay one knife across the other with a piece of straw between them. With that in place, we set the straw on fire. The connection will be made when it burns away between the two, allowing the current to pass through them, short-circuiting the battery which we’ll string up as close to the lock as we can.”

“It’s quite clever really,” Mathilde said. “Did you learn this in boarding school or from an eccentric governess?”

Al grinned and shrugged. “Neither.”

“I wouldn’t think so, governesses are so rarely interesting,” she replied. “My lasses would love you though. Their governess cares only for painting and etiquette and they are bored silly. My youngest especially, she always reading from journals and such. Just like Hugh always did.”

Her voice caught, just a hitch.

“Tildy, I’m so…”

“Oh, pish!” she said, straightening and holding her wire up triumphantly. “That’s neither here nor there. It’s only that he would have enjoyed this all immensely. He would have liked you, I think, as well. Though perhaps not as much as my cousin.”

A blush painted Al’s cheeks and she ducked her head to hide it.

“No, don’t be shy,” she chided. “‘Tis plain to see he likes ye well enough and you like him. The way he looks at you tells me there is something more as well. Is he your lover?”

Her face reddened to a full flush and a low moan escaped Al. Had she just thought it might be nice to have a girlfriend? She couldn’t talk about him. Not about what they were doing with each other, particularly when she had no idea where it was all going.

And most especially not with his cousin.

Mathilde laughed. “Bold as brass with him yet shy with me. It does make my imagination soar. But I won’t press you… for now, at least. Tell me instead, how is it you don’t know how to ride a horse?”

*

Al stared up at the beast in the stables. She’d had one of the stable boys point out the horse she would be riding—assuming she really meant to contradict Keir’s wishes and do this crazy thing. It didn’t seem so bad. Its brown eyes were kind. Other than a brief glance, it seemed pretty disinterested in her.

Which was fine.

But it was so big. No, compared to the others, it was small. It was just big to her.

“I’m an animal lover,” she told it quietly, reaching out to stroke its forehead. Jumping aside with a start when it shook its head. “No, really, I am. I love animals even if I never had much of a chance to know any as big as you.”

She shook her head. She was talking to a horse.

“I have a cat. Had. I worry about him. I hope someone found him and is feeding him. His name is Mr. Darcy. Keir hasn’t asked yet why I named him that. I wonder if he ever will. Maybe he’ll make fun of me for idolizing romantic heroes,” she laughed under her breath. “Maybe, for my sake, he won’t figure out he’s one of them.”

“He wants to save me, you know?” She tried