McKenna slowly read the telegram and then sighed, "Another fortnight."
A perplexed Prescot asked, "Where does he go?"
"Where he always goes when he is enraged," McKenna answered, "to chop wood. No doubt he will have chopped enough to see us all through winter by the time we see the end of this."
"Two weeks?" Alistair muttered. "What is she up to?"
"I have been thinking about that." McKenna began to wander into the parlor and both butlers followed her. "How did she choose who to bring and who to leave behind?"
"How?" Alistair asked.
"She brought the ones who would not tell him, first because they fear her, and second because all of you love him too much to hurt him."
Alistair nodded. "She is right on that account."
"Aye, but Olivia dinna know I was on the ship until after it sailed, and by then it was too late to hide our dear Mr. Graham. She dinna believe she could keep me quiet, so what does she do?"
"What?" Prescot asked.
Alistair shook his head in disgust. "She waits to see if her husband has heard and will telephone to accuse her. 'Tis just the sort of thing she would do."
"That is what I think too," said McKenna, "but she does not know Hannish well enough. He will not telephone; he will wait until he can see the truth in her eyes."
"He might believe her excuses," Alistair cautioned. "She has very clever ways of getting what she wants, especially from her unsuspecting admirers."
Prescot gasped. "She has more than one?"
Alistair glanced back to make sure Hannish was not nearby. "You dinna hear that from us."
"Of course not," Prescot said. "How could his wife be so heartless?"
McKenna folded the telegram back up and put it in her pocket. "I assure you, she has no heart."
*
Everywhere Sassy was, Keith seemed to be also, but she ignored him for the most part. He was not an unpleasant looking man. In fact, if she did not find his too obvious smiles annoying, she might have fancied him a little. Happy were the days when Keith had plenty to do.
Aside from that, there was the problem of getting her hands on a catalogue. Each time she reached for one, someone else got to it first. There was the one in her employer's study, but she was certain she was not to go in there without asking. Still, after he went to bed and McKenna was asleep, Sassy lit a candle, slipped down the back stairs, through the empty kitchen, across the dining room, the parlor and into the study. As quietly as a mouse, she closed the door, turned on the lamp and there it was, right in the middle of his roll top desk.