Jane was a while in coming as Lady Strathmore had decided that the castle had to be cleaned from top to bottom for the upcoming ball, a fact that had horrified Jane. Normally, she made it a point not be easily found when there was work to be done. This time, she’d hidden behind the curtain in the library and had promptly fallen asleep, propped against the windowpane. She’d been fortunate only John the footman had found her as she’d drooled a bit and marred the glass. Lady Strathmore was not the fussiest of employers, yet Janie couldn’t help but think perhaps window drool was a bit much. So, sighing as if greatly put upon, Jane had wiped the window with the dust rag she’d let drop to the floor on the onset of her nap, then trudged back to the kitchen.

She halted on seeing such a huge man waiting on her. “Och now, who be ye?”

“Donald. Mistress Annie sent me to ye.”

Jane looked the man up. Then down. She lingered on the appropriate places and raised her brows in admiration. “Annie has always been a good cousin to me.”

The man’s brows lowered.

Janie quickly said, “So ye’re one of the lads from the cottage, eh? Fairly large, aren’t ye?”

“I’m no’ the largest.”

Well! That was difficult to imagine. The giant who stood before her was every bit of six and a half feet tall, his head barely clearing the ceiling. He was a fine-looking man, too, Jane decided. With large hands as could hold a lass just right whilst tupping.

Suddenly feeling more awake, Jane smoothed her hair and hoped she didn’t have a red spot on her forehead from napping against the window. “Whot’s Annie wantin’ from me?”

Donald glanced around the busy kitchen. Preparations were already under way for the ball and there was a fervid air to the many maids and cooks who ran hither and yon. ’Twasn’t a good place for private speech. “Mistress Annie wrote ye a note. Can we speak somewhere where there’s less noise?”

Jane pursed her lips. “There’s a shed by the barn.”

“A shed?” Donald blinked. “There’s no need fer that. Everyone is in here so no one would hear us talkin’ if we just went outside.”

“But the shed is very private.” She leaned forward and placed her hand on his thick, bulging arm. “No one will even know we’re there.”

Donald shook his head. “Mistress Annie said I was to hurry, so the courtyard ’twill do.” He turned and went back the way he’d come.