“It sounds as if you’re the last person he wants to have tending him at the moment. I’ll send Fergus to check on him and report back to me.”

He was probably right, she thought. After what Caleb had evidently been through, he didn’t need her to be around him in this emotional state asking questions. “Then I’ll take that cup of tea and you can get back to work.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. Caleb has already relegated me to second rank, and I resent it. He has an uncanny ability to show up as some kind of Marvel hero on occasion and I need to spend this time with you to erase it.” He put his arm around her and led her toward the castle. “You’re family and I have the right to give you comfort, as is my duty as head of our household.” He smiled as he saw her open her lips. “No complaints, like it or not you know you’ve been heading in that direction. It’s only a matter of time. Now, I want you to tell me everything about Campbell.”

*  *  *

3:40 P.M.

“I hear you made quite a splash when you arrived at the courtyard,” Rodland said when Caleb answered his phone. “But you can hardly blame me for not hanging around waiting for your grand entrance. I had to do what MacDuff ordered since Palik wasn’t exactly explicit about when you were going to arrive. I’d already had a rough time with Jane, and I didn’t want any other problems.”

“Problems?”

“You don’t want to hear about it.” He paused. “How are you? I hear you showed up covered in blood and scared Jane. Not good, Caleb.”

“I hardly had a choice. I wanted to get back and tell Jane about Campbell myself before she heard it from someone else.”

“How did she take it?”

“The way you’d think she would. I’ve let her have it with both barrels during the last twenty-four hours. I hated it.”

“Well, the last I heard MacDuff was being amazingly charismatic and kind to her. Just what you wanted. He hardly even let me talk to her.”

“That could be bad or good.”

“I agree. But I’m opting out of sessions like the one you put me through last night. It was too damn rough.” He continued accusingly, “She threw up. And it was your fault.”

“I don’t doubt it.” His hand clenched on the phone. “And I’m sure I’ll hear from her later. Don’t worry, I’ll never make you go through that again. I just didn’t want her to be alone.” He added, “I’ve got to hang up. MacDuff sent one of his marines with EMT training to stitch up that knife wound in my shoulder. I’ll talk to you when I get a plan together to go after Bohdan.”