Cloe came running to meet me in a flutter of excitement and Mistress Aileen followed more demurely down the path, though there was a Highland welcome in her frank face not to be denied. I slid from the horse and kissed Cloe. Miss Macleod gave me her hand.
“We are hoping you are quite well from your wounds,” she said.
“Quite,” I answered. “Better much for hearing your kind voices and seeing your bright faces.”
I dare say I looked over-long into one of the bright faces, and for a punishment was snatched into confusion by my malapert sister.
“I didn’t know you had heard my kind voice yet,” mimicked Miss Madcap. “And are you thinking of holding Aileen’s hand all day?”
My hand plumped to my side like a shot. Both of us flamed, I stammering apologies the while Cloe no doubt enjoyed hugely my embarrassment. ’Tis a sister’s prerogative to teach her older brothers humility, and Cloe for one did not let it fall into neglect.
“To be sure I do not know the Highland custom in the matter,” she was continuing complacently when Aileen hoist her with her own petard.
“I wass thinking that perhaps Captain Macdonald had taught you in the armory,” she said quietly; and Cloe, to be in the fashion, ran up the red flag too.
It appeared that my plan for an immediate departure from England jumped with the inclination of Miss Macleod. She had received a letter from her brother, now in Scotland, whose plans in regard to her had been upset by the unexpected arrival of the Prince. He was extremely solicitous on her behalf, but could only suggest for her an acceptance of a long-standing invitation to visit Lady Strathmuir, a distant relative living in Surrey, until times grew more settled. To Aileen the thought of throwing herself upon the hospitality of one she had never met was extremely distasteful, and she hailed my proposal as an alternative much to be desired.
The disagreeable duty of laying before my lawyer the involved condition of my affairs had to be endured, and I sent for him at once to get it over with the sooner. He pulled a prodigious long face at my statement of the gaming debts I had managed to contract during my three months’ experiment as the prodigal son in London, but though he was extraordinarily severe with me I made out in the end that affairs were not so bad as I had thought. The estate would have to be plastered with a mortgage, but some years of stiff economy and retrenchment, together with a ruthless pruning of the fine timber, would suffice to put me on my feet again. The expenditures of the household would have to be cut down, but Mr. Brief thought that a modest establishment befitting my rank might still be maintained. If I thought of marrying——