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Edinburgh—there was no other explanation.
    “Mu’um?” Mr. Ridley asked anxiously.
    Fiona glanced at him from the corner of her eye. “I believe, Mr. Ridley, that Sherri has decided to return to Edinburra.”
    He looked confused by that.
    “She was fearful of traveling into the Highlands because of all the murderers and thieves waiting to nab her,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “She mentioned something about finding another position—but I didna think she meant immediately .”
    Mr. Ridley’s eyes widened. He glanced at the public house, then at Fiona.
    “Are you . . .”
    “Certain? Quite,” she said, folding her arms. “Silly, foolish girl!”
    Mr. Ridley looked so uncomfortable that Fiona feared he would jump out of his skin. “Then . . . then what will you have us do, mu’um?” he asked a little frantically, squinting at her.
    “An excellent question,” Fiona said irritably. Damn Sherri! Now what was she to do? And how could she go off and leave Sherri to walk back into Edinburgh?
    Fiona put a hand to her forehead and shielded her eyes from Ridley. She just needed a moment to think.

Chapter Three

    T he good and noble reasons for which Duncan had, reluctantly, agreed to take a very foolhardy woman to Blackwood completely escaped him as Ridley explained that the foolhardy woman’s even more foolhardy lady’s maid had decided to return to Edinburgh.
    “How?” he grunted.
    “By foot?” Ridley guessed.
    Oh, how bloody splendid. A woman with no more sense than the cows standing across the road was attempting to walk to Edinburgh?
    A quick search for her on horseback turned up nothing. When Duncan heard that a public coach bound for Stirling had come through the way station, he could only assume that the chit was clever enough to at least find her way onto that coach.
    Ridley looked frantic when Duncan told him that there was only one thing left to do: Ridley would take the horse and ride for Stirling, hopefully intercepting the public coach and the maid before she got herself intoworse trouble. If he could not find her, he was to return to Edinburgh and deliver the news to Seaver.
    In the meantime, Duncan would take the wagon and the other incorrigible female and continue on to Blackwood. He had reasoned with Ridley that he had little choice. The sun was already beginning to slide to the west and they had three, perhaps four, hours of good daylight left. He might make it as far as Clackmannan if he was lucky, and that was being optimistic. If Duncan was going to reach Blackwood for Christmas in two day’s time, and begin the necessary preparations for Hogmanay, he could not turn back and lose a day.
    Ridley nervously explained this to Lady Fiona, who took the news with her hands clasped demurely before her. The only indication that she understood a bloody word Ridley said was her elegantly winged brows, which slowly rose up until they seemed to disappear under the rim of her bonnet.
    “Do you mean to suggest that I should go on to Blackwood with . . . him?” she said, nodding at Duncan, clearly not recognizing him in the least.
    “You’ll come to no harm,” Ridley said quickly. “But we canna allow the lass to wander off by herself, aye? We canna say how much longer we might be detained, and the supplies must reach Blackwood.”
    The lady seemed to consider that for a moment; she looked at the wagon, then at Duncan, who glanced away from her intently curious gaze.
    “You realize, Mr. Ridley, that my reputation will be called into question under your scheme, do you no’?”
    Ridley’s face turned very red. “I . . . I—
    “Let us carry on,” Duncan said brusquely. They were wasting time.
    His interruption drew a startled gaze from Fiona Haines.
    “We canna leave Miss Barton to the dangers of the road,” Ridley suggested.
    She gave him a sharp look, but shook her head no, they could not leave her.
    “If you’d prefer, milady, we could arrange a seat on the public