The Laird (24 page)

Finished pulling herself together, Beth asked, “Do I look presentable?”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “Aye, as always.”

In the brightly lit hall, Duncan pulled a bit of straw he’d missed from Beth’s cotehardie and tossed it behind them. ‘Twas then he saw they hadn’t escaped Rachael’s curious perusal. He winked at her over Beth’s head. A slight smile took form on Rachael’s lips then disappeared as she silently directed his attention to the opposite side of the hall. There he spied Angus, Sean, and Tom chest, to chest and ready to come to blows with three of the Bruce’s men.

“Damn God’s teeth!”

Beth, still ruminating over the import of Duncan’s earlier words, of their lovemaking, murmured, “Damn what, Duncan?”

She followed his gaze and her worry over his preference for the words “I care” instead of “I love” immediately evaporated. “Oh!”

“Stay here, my lady, whilst I see what ‘tis afoot.” Duncan cast a quick scathing glance toward the Bruce, who looked totally indifferent to the battle brewing in her hall.

Why the hell did the Bruce just sit like a contented Buddha at the head table when half the men threatening to tear her hall apart were his? The bloody nerve!

She then spotted Flora leaning against the wall not far from the rumbling Neanderthals and wondered if the woman’s flirting had caused the men’s hostilities. Given the look of indignation on her face, Beth wouldn’t have been the least surprised. Damn the woman.

Having seen her fair share of bar brawls, Beth worried her lower lip as she surveyed the hall and the men Duncan approached. Picturing all her hard work turned to ruin as more agitated men came to their feet, she glanced at the Bruce. He was smirking.

The bastard
hoped
they’d come to blows! Not bothering to wonder why, and not caring if Duncan approved or not—-her only goal being to defuse the situation before the entire clan became involved—-she grabbed an empty tankard and clanged it hard and repeatedly against the table.

The hall went quiet. Not tomb quiet but enough so she could be heard. In as loud and dramatic a voice as she could muster, she shouted, “Hark!” As worried faces turned in confusion to see what she was about, she continued with as much dramatic emphasis as her limited talents allowed, “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary...”

She hunched her shoulders like a crone and walked down the center isle. Eyes squinting, she beckoned those that would follow with a crooked finger, “...over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore...”

She saw Kari’s face light in understanding and heard her exclaim, “Listen! Our lady tells a troubadour’s tale.”

Beth slowly spun, her voice imitating a conspirator’s stage whisper, “While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,” she rapped on a nearby table, “as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.”

She almost sighed seeing many wide eyes following her every move. Too many, however, still looked torn between hearing her tale and joining the fray. She again beckoned them to follow. “‘Tis some visitor, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door, only this and nothing more.” To her relief, they could tell that it was in fact more, and many began following her away from Duncan and the bully-boys to the far end of the hall.

“Ah, distinctly,” she confided, “I remember ‘twas in the bleak December, and each separate dying ember wrought its ghosts upon the floor.”

Finally standing before the sitting area with most in the hall settled in rapt silence before her, she hoped Poe wouldn’t mind her changing The Raven up a bit so they could better understand. “Eagerly I lusted the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow from my books surcease of sorrow—-sorrow for the lost Lenore—-for the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore.”

An excited murmur suddenly swept the group before her. Daring to believe she had them captivated with the tale of lost love, she glanced toward Duncan to see how he fared. All appeared calm, though two men still stood with fisted hands on hips in heated conversation.

She silently thanked her tenth grade teacher for forcing her to memorize the eighteen stanzas as punishment for nodding off in class before continuing, “...and the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purpure curtain thrilled me—-filled me with fantastic terrors never kenned before...”

By the time she came to an end, Duncan and the Bruce had disappeared along with Isaac. Flora and Rachel had joined the crowd before her. Seeing Flora wipe a tear away, Beth wondered at it. She wasn’t that great a storyteller.

“Another, my lady!” someone called.

“Aye, another,” somebody else agreed, “but this be it a tale of great joy, my lady.”

Great joy? Good Lord. Her mind flashed through the movies she’d seen only to discard them, one after the other, due to their very twenty-first century plots. Then Snow White came to mind and she smiled. The children present would enjoy it, at least.

Thinking how her own life now mimicked a fairy tale she began, “Once upon a time in a land far away...”

~#~

Flora studied the Black’s wife as she rambled on about silly dwarves and a poisoned apple. Aye, she could use one of those.

Nay, for surely she’d be as dead as yesterday’s fish if not for Lady MacDougall grabbing her about her chest and squeezing. And she did understand the pain of lost love, if her tale of the raven were true. Even a fool could see her mistress’s face couldna hold a man’s attention past a fortnight. Mayhap she did ken more than most the pain of dreadful angst and grieving. Aye, she’d not have the lady killed. She owed the woman that, but no more.

S
itting across from the Bruce in the library, Duncan tried hard to mask his anger at his enemy’s impertinence, caring naught for what the Bruce claimed his strength in numbers to be, nor his conveniences to be.

“John, we need camp on opposing sides. I’ll not be traipsing across the damn valley every time I want to work my mount, so the answer is nay to ye stabling our cattle. As for the purses, I’ll not concede that either. ‘Tisna lack of trust on my part for ye, but for yer man. Though of Albany’s house, he is a newcomer. I ken Isaac’s honesty. He has repeatedly demonstrated his loyalty, and desire to remain within my holding. Ye canna say the same of William Kerr.”

“True, but what if yer man takes it into his head to weigh my portion with his finger on the scales?”

Isaac, fists clenched, came to his feet. Duncan couldn’t blame his friend for feeling insulted but waved him down. “Nay.” Turning his attention back to the Bruce he murmured, “By all means have ye man at Isaac’s side then, but Isaac collects and holds.”

“Agreed.”

Duncan narrowed his eyes, wondering what the Bruce plotted for ‘twas too swift a concession. He would have to see Isaac well guarded at the tournament, which posed another problem, of leaving Blackstone with less experienced men than he’d like. Damnation. Or did the Bruce really believe him easily defeated?

“So ‘tis agreed,” Duncan murmured, holding up his chalice. “We willna be paired in hand-to-hand, but have our lots drawn by the List Mistress. We will pair—-with ye first--in all mounted contests, arriving with face plates up, bring our own heralds, hold our own cattle, and Isaac holds the purses.”

The face shield idea had been Angus’s. ‘Twould be a hell of a thing for him to fight hard all day only to be
challenged
by the Bruce—-to have steel put on their lances tips in the final round--only to lose thinking he faced the Bruce when, in fact, he faced a fresh opponent. And the Bruce had several good men to choose from.

“Aye, ‘tis agreed,” the Bruce affirmed raising his own goblet. They drank deep, both parched from all the talk. “Shall we join the ladies now?”

“Why not.”

They rose and the Bruce laughed, “’Twasna so bad, aye?” He then delivered a powerful slap to Duncan’s left shoulder.

It took everything Duncan had to keep his face serene and not drop to his knees. Damn the man! He now had no doubt that the Bruce kenned his injury, but he could spare no energy in wondering how.

He forced a smile, hoping he hadn’t gone pale. The pain radiating down his back and left arm was such that had he had a dirk on his person he would have gladly buried it to the hilt in the Bruce. Then twisted it. Thrice.

Entering the hall, they found all before his lady wife; some in chairs, others on the floor, and some like Angus, with tears in his eyes, leaning against the wall. Apparently hearing his approach, his second in command straightened and blinked furiously. Angus nodded, thumping a closed fist over his heart. His friend’s signal confirmed what his eyes could see, that all was as it should be.

He turned his attention to Beth wondering what she could possibly be saying to hold the assembly so enthralled, for Angus wasna the only one who appeared moved. They couldna ken her well, surely? Then he noticed Rachael at Beth’s side.

As he approached he heard Beth say, “Alone with poor dead Elizabeth, the old crone...” Here Rachael interjected, “auld sotted widwife.” And Beth continued, “...opened the girl’s hand and found the prized locket.”

“Did she give it to Mr. Bumble, my lady,” the anxious child at her knee asked, “so the orphaned babe could find his clan?”

Beth ruffled the lad’s russet curls, “Nay, lad. The crone pocketed—-stole—-the locket before any spied it. Since they didna ken his rightful clan, Mr. Bumble christened the babe Oliver Twist.”

Wondering if only orphans peopled his lady’s tales, he came to her side and cleared his throat. “My lady, what say we retire? ‘Tis nigh onto midnight surely.”

Many an “Aw, but she isna done,” and “Oh, please, my lady, what of the babe?” went up from those at her feet.

She smiled. “This tale will take many nights to tell.” She stood and placed her hand on his arm. “I promise to continue tomorrow.”

Amongst much grumbling and yawning, the clan began to disperse. He covered Beth’s hand and found it cold and sweating. Frowning, he placed a palm to her forehead. “My lady, are ye ill?”

She grimaced as she threaded her arm through his. “Nay, Duncan, just terrified. I’ve just spent two hours trying to keep your clan well-occupied by telling stories only half remembered from my childhood.”

“Ah.” He watched mothers collecting their ale-besotted husbands and sleepy children, while others cleared the tables. “Ye apparently did it well.”

Nodding toward the Bruce who remained in conversation with his men at the far end of the hall, she asked, “Did your meeting go well?”

“As well as could be expected given the man’s predisposition to maneuver all to his advantage.”

Beth studied the Bruce for a moment longer, suddenly wondering about the attack on the night of her arrival. Even Rachael had said little about it. “Was it his men who attacked the coach I was in?”

Duncan nodded. “But the men were mercenaries, not of his clan. In the fray, I’d not thought to keep one alive to question, so I canna prove what I feel in my gut to be so.”

“I’m sorry if my arrival caused a further rift...” She stopped as the Bruce men inexplicably settle around the room in twos. “Duncan?” She clutched his arm. “Are they
all
spending the night?”

He patted her hand as they ambled past families settling around the hall. “Aye, but dinna fash. We’ve guards aplenty.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “And ye already ken how to bar yon solar door if ye have a mind.”

“This,” she mumbled through clenched teeth and a false smile as she nodded to the child who wished her good sleep, “is not something to jest about. You just said you believe the man to be a
murderer
.”

To make matters more untenable, all the weapons had been put away as some sort of peacekeeping gesture.

She could picture waking—-if she hadn’t been killed in the night--to the hall looking like a monument to carnage.

He patted her hand. “Some would say the same of me.”

She huffed. Even if only half the tales she’d heard at supper were true, some might call her husband bloodthirsty or even a mercenary, but
never
a murderer. She knew to her bones that his honor had--and always would--hold him in check. But the same, she suspected, could not be said for the man Rachael now guided toward the third floor chamber designated for their elite guest.

Just the thought of the Bruce lurking only feet below their bed pushed any desire for romance out of her head.

Her hands started to perspire again. As she twisted the ring on her left hand to ease the itch beneath the band, she knew she’d get no sleep tonight.

“My lady.”

Beth turned to stare straight into Miss I’m Too Sexy’s huge brown eyes. The thought of taking shears to the woman’s long kangaroo lashes made her smile. “Yes, Flora?”

“
Madame
, I regret not having had opportunity earlier to thank ye for saving my life. I am most assuredly grateful, for I ken few would have made the effort.”

“You are most welcome, but I’m sure any here would have done the same. I just happened to see your trouble first.”

“Nay, my lady.” Flora cast a quick glance toward Duncan then about the room. “I fear...” She shook her head and dropped into a deep curtsey. “I humbly thank ye and am at ye service.”

As she glided away, Beth asked, “What do you make of that, husband?”

“She has the right of it. Had it been left to me, she’d have choked to death.”

“
Duncan!
” She swatted his arm. “Don’t even say that in jest.”

He captured her hand and brought it to his lips. “Lady, I must attend to matters before retiring. Can ye find yer way to our bed without me?”

“Yes, but hurry.” She didn’t care to be alone with the enemy just paces away.

He ran his tongue over her knuckles causing her to shiver. “Ah, ‘tis gratifying, yer impatience.”

She gaped at him. Here her stomach churned with worry--that their throats would be slit as they slept, and he’s got his mind on sex? God love a duck! Had she known he’d stop thinking with his head and start thinking with what dangled beneath his kilt, she never would have acquiesced to following him into the barn, let alone made love to him.