Hero of a Highland Wolf
Page 68

His voice was dark and growly, and Colleen realized the notion that his grandfather was the very first administrator had been an honor for his clan and his pack. She felt bad that anyone had to spoil that for him. But maybe it explained why Uilleam had killed Grant’s grandfather.
She showed Grant the documents, explained what she thought had happened, then said, “Did Neda keep journals?”
“Aye,” he said slowly. “They were stored when she died. We didn’t think anything of it, but we didn’t want your father to destroy them if he had a mind to.”
“Understandable and good thinking. Can I see them?”
“Aye.” Grant started to leave the study, and she followed him. “I can have them brought here to the study,” he said.
“How about having them delivered to Neda’s chamber? I want to spread them out there, organize them, see what I can see. I don’t want to make a mess of the study, and no one is using her chamber right now.”
“I’ll help you.” He called someone on his cell and said, “Get a couple of men to grab Neda’s boxes of journals and bring them to her chamber. Thanks.”
Colleen looked up at him as they strode toward the women’s corridor. “You were building a wall, nice manly work.” She reached over and ran her hand over his muscled chest.
He gave her a wicked smile. “You’re sure you still want to read Neda’s journals?”
She laughed. “Yes. I have a one-track mind myself. I want to learn what Neda had to say about this.”
“Calla said Archibald told Baird that Uilleam was courting Neda.”
Colleen’s jaw dropped. “No. Really?”
“Aye, that’s what she said.” Grant put his arm around Colleen’s shoulders and continued down the hallway to Neda’s chambers while Colleen considered that news.
“So he wasn’t just the first manager of the estates. He was trying to woo Neda into mating him, and he would have been the owner, too.”
“Sounds like that from what you’ve discovered and from what Calla learned.”
“Which would be all the more reason for Uilleam to be so angered and kill John. Hopefully, she mentioned it in her journal,” Colleen said.
“You really aren’t angry about me not mentioning the discrepancies, are you?”
“Yes, I am. You should have told me when I first arrived. I should make you do a striptease for us at my bachelorette party.”
“You think I would mind?”
Colleen felt her body warm. “Actually, I would. I mean, I love looking at that hot body of yours, but I don’t want everyone else to get an eyeful.”
He laughed.
“I suppose no one else would have kept journals. Your father, perhaps, who might have said what he felt had happened to your mother.”
“Nay.”
“Archibald told me that you were stealing from me. I wonder how he knew.”
“I wasn’t stealing from you, lass,” Grant growled.
“I know. He made it sound like you were in charge so you had knowledge. Which you did, and you hadn’t let me in on the truth. So how would he know?”
Grant didn’t say anything until they arrived at Neda’s chambers and found ten taped boxes sitting squarely on the floor beside her bed. Grant got out his knife and cut through the tape. “I wouldn’t think the thief would tell Archibald or anyone else about what he’d done, for fear he’d never get a job again.”
“Unless he bragged about it.”
“Or Archibald…” Grant shook his head and began lifting journals out of the box.
“Or Archibald what?” Colleen began sorting the journals by decade.
“This is going to take forever,” he said, cutting through the tape on another box. “Or Archibald knew the man had done it.”
“As in he had been involved in the theft somehow? How long had the cook worked for you?”
Grant stopped what he was doing and stared at her. “Since your father took over.”
She let out an annoyed sound. “So Archibald and my father were behind cheating himself out of money?”
“Nay. Your father wasn’t sober enough to focus on the accounts. He had issues with several things but nothing that was a problem. But he had found this great cook and wanted to install him as the main cook.”
“Was he a great cook?”
“Aye. He was.”
“But one of Archibald’s men, maybe. So he may have thought all he had to do to discredit you was say that you were responsible for the theft, and Archibald’s man would have made sure you were somehow seen as the villain.”
“But your father left, then he died, and I discovered the theft and booted the cook out.”
“And failed to mention it to me.” She started organizing the second box of journals.
“You are still sore with me over it.”
“Yes, because Archibald tried to discredit you as one of the bad guys.” She sneezed. The books were full of dust. “This will take forever.”
“I took care of it,” he reiterated.
She glanced at him. “You thought I’d be like my father. High-handed. Unreasonable. Threaten to fire you?”
Grant paused. “Aye, lass. After dealing with Theodore, I didn’t know what to expect from you.”
“I’m nothing like my father.”
“Which is one of the reasons I mated you.”