by Amanda Scott
“Aye, my lady, and how many lads will you require to serve you?”
As she opened her mouth to reply, Rob said, “Send as many as you need to set out our food. We’ll serve ourselves.”
Adela’s mouth dropped open, but at a look from her husband, she shut it and made no objection when he suggested that everyone adjourn at once to the solar.
“Giff has told him,” Isobel murmured to Sidony as they followed Adela.
Watching Rob’s stern profile, Sidony saw a muscle twitch high in his cheek. “Sakes, he looks ready to murder someone,” she said. “Probably me.”
Isobel did not comment, which was just as well, because Sidony’s gaze had shifted to Giff. He turned his head just then and smiled warmly, even, she thought, reassuringly. At any event, she felt reassured and warmed all through.
As soon as the table was ready, Rob took his place at its head and gestured to Giff to take the one at its foot. He said nothing until all the platters were in place. Then, dismissing the gillies, he waited only until everyone had taken seats after the grace, then looked first at Adela on his right and Isobel beside her. At last, his gaze moved across the table and came to rest on Sidony. Heat flooded her cheeks.
It was so unusual to see Rob angry that new guilt surged through her. Although she managed to meet his gaze, it took effort to do so, and more effort to resist looking to Giff for another dose of reassurance.
Rob said quietly, “Giff told me what happened. I won’t deny that I’m angry about it, but the thing is done, many are at fault, and now we must take good care that the information goes no further. Do you all understand me?”
Before anyone else could speak, Adela said, “Sir, please, she did not—”
His hand closed over hers where it rested on the table beside him, silencing her. “I’ve no intention of acting the tyrant, my love, so you’ve no need to defend Sidony. What she should or should not have done—what anyone should or should not have done—is irrelevant now, unless you can think of anything that happened that may occur again.” He paused, looked from face to face, and said, “No? Then we need say no more about that for now. I do not speak for Hugo or Michael,” he added, glancing at Isobel. “They are certainly likely to say more.”
Sidony drew a long breath and let it out again.
Rob said, “If no one has anything else about this matter to discuss, mayhap someone can suggest another topic.”
When no one else seemed inclined to speak, Sidony felt that she somehow bore a responsibility to do so. She said quietly to Giff, “Is it still your plan, sir, to find a ship and sail back to the west?”
“Aye, my lady,” he said. “In troth, I have found my ship.”
She sighed. “So you will see Kintail again quite soon, will you not? I do so wish I could go with you.”
“You will go soon enough,” Adela said as she helped herself from a platter of roast lamb that Rob held for her. “Our father’s wedding is just weeks away now, so we shall all be departing in a fortnight. Art so eager to leave us, dearling?”
Sidony shook her head. It did seem impractical to wish she could go with him, but she feared that life in Edinburgh after he sailed would seem sadly flat.
Into the ensuing silence, Giff said to her with a disarming chuckle, “I’ve no objection if you want to come, my lady. One thing that has concerned us all along is Fife’s likely interference, but even he should be put off at seeing a woman aboard.”
“Now, see here,” Rob said, turning that stern look on Giff. “Don’t be putting notions in the lass’s head. The last thing you want aboard that ship is a female.”
Giff’s eyes twinkled. “Now think, Rob,” he said. “You’ve all told me what nuisances Fife’s lads have made of themselves this past year, and we want to avoid drawing their interest. What if we were to fly a Norse flag and declare that we’re carrying a Norse princess to visit Prince Henry at Orkney?”
“Don’t be daft,” Rob said, but he was grinning, which told Sidony that both men were joking. “Just think of the consequences, Giff. To take her with you, you’d have to marry her. If you didn’t, you can be sure that Macleod would order the marriage the instant you delivered her to him if he didn’t cut your liver out first.”
“Och, well, then I’m afraid it is out of the question, my lady,” Giff said, smiling in a way that wrung her heart. “But at least you can’t say I was unwilling.”
“But you are certainly of an age when most men do seek wives, sir,” Isobel said lightly. “Do you never intend to marry?”
“Someday, perhaps,” he answered. “I shall inherit Duncraig one day and have to settle to a laird’s duties. But until then, I want as few responsibilities and ties to the land as possible, thus to avoid the usual pain and difficulty inherent in such.”
Sidony saw the question hovering on the ever curious Isobel’s tongue and said quickly, “Faith, I don’t want to marry either, nor do I want to sail round the whole of Scotland to get home. ’Twould be dreadfully uncomfortable as well as unseemly.”
She could not enter into the spirit of their exchange, but neither had she any desire to hear Isobel pry into matters that Giff did not wish to discuss.
He was regarding her quizzically, but it was Adela who spoke, saying, “Surely, you mean to marry one day, Sidony. As much as you dote on children, you must want a family of your own.”
“Aye, sure, I’d like children,” she said. “I’m just not sure I want a husband.”
“But, my dear,” Isobel said, “you must have the one to have the other.”
“Aye, and there’s the rub,” Sidony said. They were all looking at her now, and she wished they would not but knew she’d brought it on herself.
Even so, she did not want to discuss it further. This was not the time, not with Rob silent again and still looking as if he wanted to beat someone, to tell them how much she was coming to dislike being told what she must and must not do.
Rob having announced that he wanted a few words with his wife, the two had disappeared up the stairs when Isobel said, “I mean to take a nap, Sidony, and I’d advise you to as well. It is likely to be late before we sleep tonight, and you will want to be up early to ride with Ealga to meet Isabella.”
Sidony was not sleepy, but she knew Isobel needed her rest and could think of no graceful way to insist on staying alone in the solar or in the hall, since her sole companion—other than servants or men-at-arms—would apparently be Giff.
But then he said to Isobel, “If it please your ladyship, I would speak with Lady Sidony before she retires. I owe her an apology for my comments earlier.”
If Sidony was surprised, Isobel seemed more so. But with a glance at Sidony, she said, “Very well, sir, I leave her in your care. Pray don’t make me wish I had not.”
“I’ll take care, my lady,” he said. But when she had left them, he said to Sidony with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, “I have something I want to say to you, and I was going to ask you to step back into the solar with me, but doubtless you’d say ’tis too private and tell me to boil my head. So I’ve a better notion.”
The lurking twinkle reminded her of how her sister Sorcha often looked just before leading her into an adventure that, likely as not, landed them both in the suds. Thus, she said warily, “What is this notion, sir?”
“I’ve seen what a fine horsewoman you are. Will you come ride with me?”
“Now?”
“Yes, now. Lady Isobel will sleep, and Lady Adela will be some time with her husband, so . . .” He grinned, revealing a hint of challenge in his expression.
“But I can’t. Think what they would say!”
“The trick is to seize opportunity when it presents itself, lass, because if one loses the moment, it does not come again.”
Nor would it, she knew. He would soon be gone.
“Of course,” he added, the challenge now in his tone, “if you fear them . . .”
“Don’t be daft,” she said, adding honestly, “I am more a
fraid of you.”
“Are you, lassie?” Although they were by no means alone, he put a hand to her cheek as he said gently, “You need not be. I’ll not harm you.”
“No, for I won’t let you,” she said, more to reassure herself than him. She hesitated until he raised his eyebrows. Then, with a sigh, as if she had not known from the moment he touched her that she would give in, she said, “Aye, I’ll go.”
She had second thoughts when he urged her straight out to the stables. She had changed from her riding dress to dine but agreed that she had no time to change again, not without risking an end to the whole mad scheme.
“Faint heart?” he murmured.
“No, but I’ll likely ruin this dress.”
“Not if you use a proper lady’s saddle.”
She wrinkled her nose, showing him what she thought of that idea, and said, “But tell the lads to hurry. Rob may not stay as long as you think with Adela.”
“He’ll spend the afternoon with her if he does not want to endure a bedtime lecture later,” he said before turning away to order their horses saddled.
“You seem very sure of that,” she said when he turned back to her. “I should think it is Rob who will be doing the lecturing now, and Adela who is enduring it.”
“Nay, for he must return to Roslin in the morning,” he said.
“But is not the countess coming to town tomorrow? Why does he not ride with Lady Clendenen and me to meet her?”
“Doubtless he wants an earlier start than her ladyship,” he said glibly, pushing a hand through his hair. “Now, tell me how you learned to ride so well.”
“My father taught us all,” she said, and although she suspected he had somehow equivocated about Isabella, she responded calmly as he set himself to draw her out.
The lad who saddled their horses also saddled one for himself, thus telling Sidony that Giff had ordered him to accompany them, which surprised her.
Apparently Giff read her thoughts, because as they rode through the gateway, he said, “I’m daring, lass, not suicidal. I don’t want Rob or any of your so-protective kinsmen after my blood. The lad will follow but not too closely.”
“What did you want to say to me that necessitated this ride?”
For once it was he who hesitated. Then he said, “It did occur to me that I might have offended you with all that talk of marriage. I’d not want to think I had.”
Mercy, she wondered, was he going to ask her to marry him? The thought was by no means as distasteful as she had led herself to believe it would be.
“You did not offend me,” she said, lifting her chin. “You may recall my saying that marriage is not something I seek just now.”
“Why not?”
She tried to think of a clever reply to make him either laugh or wish she did want a husband. The latter thought shocked her so that she resorted to grim candor. “If you must know, I’m tired of people telling me what to do. Husbands always do.”
He laughed and said, “I’d feel the same way if I were a lass, so let us just enjoy this stolen freedom of ours. Would you like to see Leith Harbor?”
She agreed readily, ignoring the prick of disappointment at his easy acceptance of her declaration. But the day remained sunny, and the sight of wool being loaded onto one ship after another in the harbor proved fascinating. Not until they turned back toward Lestalric did she realize how much time had passed.
“Rob will murder both of us,” she said. “If he does not, Adela will surely flay me with words for this escapade.”
“Still, we enjoyed a fine afternoon, lass, and I’ll tell you something I’ve been thinking this past hour and more. I’d like to know you better if you’re willing. Mayhap, after you return to Glenelg, I could come and see you sometimes.”
“I’d like that,” she said solemnly, “if they don’t murder us.”
But it was neither Rob nor Adela who greeted their return but Lady Clendenen, who bustled up to them as Giff was lifting Sidony from her saddle.
“Sakes, where have you been, child?” her ladyship demanded. “I only just arrived, myself, but when I told one of the lads I wanted someone to fetch you to me directly, he said you had ridden out. But to have done so only with Sir Giffard! What were you thinking, the pair of you?”
“Did you want me for a particular reason, my lady?”
“Aye, of course. I wanted to tell you straightaway before it slipped my mind that we need not be in a bustle tomorrow. We can sleep as late as we want, for Isabella means to delay her journey until Thursday afternoon. But now that I think about it, mayhap Rob has already told you.”
“No, madam,” Sidony said, looking at Giff. “No one told me that.”
Chapter 11
If Lady Clendenen noted tension between Sidony and Giff, she paid it no heed. Having made it clear that she did still intend to meet Isabella on Thursday, she waited only until Sidony agreed to leave town with her shortly before noon, then bustled away to her bedchamber to begin dressing for Adela’s supper.
The minute her ladyship was beyond earshot, Sidony said accusingly to Giff, “You already knew about Isabella! I knew you were keeping something back.”
“Did you?” he said in a maddeningly calm way. “I hope you don’t expect me to apologize again, for I’ve no intention of doing so, but I must find Rob at once and tell him about this. He’ll say I ought to have asked how she got her information, but doubtless she’d have snubbed me if I had asked. She won’t snub him.”
“But why should she snub anyone?” Sidony demanded as he hurried her across the yard to the entrance steps. Her cheeks burned with anger, but he—doubtless without any thought for that anger or for any impropriety—had put an arm around her shoulders. The enraging part was that despite being furious with him, she enjoyed the warm feeling it gave her. He did not even seem to be thinking about her, though, because he had not answered her question.
“The most likely person to have informed Ealga is the countess,” she persisted. “In any event, why should it matter who did?”
“Because only the few of us directly involved were to have that information, which is why I did not tell you. In troth, I doubt I should say any more about it now. That must be for Rob to decide, but I think you should be with me when I tell him.”
Gratified, she said, “I do want to be there, but why do you say I should be?”
He looked down at her with his mischievous twinkle. “Because I’ll have to confess that I was with you when her ladyship told us. He is less likely to express his feelings to me so vehemently about that if you are there, as well.”
Since she knew that he could not possibly be afraid of Rob if he did not fear Hugo, she realized more quickly than she might have that he sought to protect her, rather than himself, from Rob’s displeasure.
“He won’t like my having learned more about this, will he?”
“This wasn’t your fault, lass, and he won’t eat you. I won’t let him.”
They found Rob in the castle’s cavernous, oak-beamed great hall, and noting his surprise at seeing them walk in together, Giff thought it best to give him no time to express it. It was a near thing, though, for servants were scurrying about, setting up tables for supper, so they had to wend their way through the congestion.
By the time they reached Rob, he was frowning heavily.
“We need to talk privately,” Giff told him. “Yonder by the fire will do.”
The frown grew heavier, but Rob nodded. As soon as they had separated themselves from the general commotion, he said curtly, “What is it?”
Giff knew he need state only the bare fact. “Lady Clendenen just told us the countess means to put off coming to town until Thursday afternoon.”
“Did she now?” Rob said dryly. “She’s gone upstairs, but I’ll send someone to fetch her back down to us in the solar. No one else will be there now, because my lady wife is with our daughter, and I believe Isobel is still asleep.”
“You should know, too, that her
ladyship and the lady Sidony mean to ride out to welcome the countess and come back with her procession,” Giff said.
“Adela did mention that,” Rob said. To Sidony, he said, “I forgot that you and her ladyship had formed such an intention, but doubtless someone would have mentioned it today, and I’d have found a way to prevent a pointless journey.”
“I hope you won’t object to our going Thursday,” she said.
“Nay, lass, although I expect Hugo will say I should forbid it in view of your curiously unusual behavior these past few days,” he said.
Giff, knowing he bore some responsibility for her behavior, suppressed a smile at Rob’s tactful phrasing. But the lass raised her chin at both of them and said, “In the past, my sisters have often behaved so. Mayhap I envied their more-enterprising natures and sought to learn how it feels to do as one pleases.”
Giff held his breath, but Rob only shook his head and said, “To think I have always thought you the sensible one. Just have a care, my dear, and do not neglect to take an armed escort. The main road will still be gey busy Thursday.”
“Thank you,” she said. “We won’t forget.”
“I expect you’ll want to go upstairs now to dress for supper,” Rob said.
When she hesitated, Giff knew she was weighing her desire to learn more against Rob’s likely tolerance for defying a clear dismissal. Well aware that Rob had treated their stolen afternoon with undeserved leniency, he felt only relief when she said she would see them at supper, curtsied gracefully, and walked away.
Rob said grimly, “You may come with me now. I have more to say to you.”
Knowing he would not get off so lightly, Giff accompanied him without a murmur but hoped Lady Clendenen would soon obey her summons.
Shutting the solar door, Rob said, “What game is this with Sidony, Giff?”
Giff had been prepared to make the sort of brash response customary for him in such cases. But Rob’s mild tone disarmed him, and in that moment, he realized that Sidony, having flung caution to the winds to ride with him, deserved more from him now than a flippant response.
