“Just a thought.” He smothered a smile as he immediately got to his feet. “But I’ll leave you to have dinner and discuss it while I check out the courtyard and upper bedroom area.”

“Why don’t we invite him to dinner, Jane?” MacDuff mused. “Maybe he’s not as objectionable as I first thought.”

“No thanks,” Rodland said. “Not unless it’s to be your taste tester. You had the right idea to begin with. You mustn’t raise my hopes now that you’ve convinced me to know my place in the laird’s scheme of things.” He winked at Jane. “Enjoy.” He strolled out of the dining room.

“I could call him back,” MacDuff said. “He seems to have a good work ethic. Fergus said the two of you appeared to be working very hard today. And then he came up with the rail ties. Perhaps you should pay more attention to his opinion.”

“Since it agrees with your own?”

“Now that you mention it.” MacDuff’s smile was mischievous. “Though he did temper it with a dig or two about my lack of discernment, too. But I can forgive him that since he obviously didn’t want to make you look bad in contrast. Should I call him back?”

She thought about it before she shook her head. Not a good idea. She didn’t want MacDuff to become too impressed by Rodland. She’d already found how sharp he could be. She’d prefer he fade into the background as far as MacDuff was concerned until she got what she wanted at Kilgoray. “He does work hard, but I’ve no desire to have to deal with the two of you at the dinner table. You’re difficult enough. Besides, Caleb didn’t send him here to entertain you.”

“No.” He lifted his wineglass to his lips. “I just thought you might want to hear Rodland reminisce about his heroic rescue at Caleb’s hands. Since you said he never talks about his missions, I thought you might be feeling cheated.”

“No, you didn’t. You merely had a hunch you might have found a way to cause a little trouble.”

“Ah, caught again.” MacDuff laughed. “So you intend to continue to use Rodland as slave labor?”

“Certainly not. I don’t believe in slave labor. But he did agree to work with me to find out what I could about Fiona. I’ll have him help me go back through all of Fiona’s journals and try to figure out why she was enamored with railroad tracks. There’s one more storage unit at the stable that might tell us something. Perhaps another couple of days of research and we’ll have answers.”