Part of Adam’s childhood dream of becoming a seafaring adventurer stemmed from his uncle’s exploratory maritime pursuits. Adam’s father granted his uncle a castle and a wee bit of land for himself to own, but he was never able to keep his brother from the waters.
“Uncle.” Adam couldn’t keep himself from smiling. “How are you?”
“Verra good, actually,” His uncle was grinning ear-to-ear. “I’ve finally found a reason to settle down into my castle.”
“Well, what a surprise!” Adam exclaimed. “Did you finally find yourself a wife?” he asked, halfway in jest. Perhaps he spoke of the woman who’d been on his lap.
His uncle flashed his teeth, revealing a couple of gold ones and more than a couple missing ones. “Aye, I did. I married Una two moons ago.”
“Una? My father’s Una?” Adam asked slowly, not believing he heard clearly.
“Ach, yes. But that was fifteen years ago, wasn’t it?”
Something wasn’t settling right in Adam’s stomach. He hadn’t seen his stepmother in those fifteen years, and suddenly, she marries his uncle without the wherewithal to tell Adam?
“Did Una accompany you here to Rosach Castle?”
“Nay, she stayed at home with her daughter,” Bearnard said briskly. “But how about you? Your wife is a bonny one, isn’t she? Blonde hair, blue eyes?”
“Wait,” Adam held up a hand for his uncle to cease talking. “Did you say that Una has a daughter?”
“Aye, Tara. Didn’t you know?”
“Know what?” Adam demanded.
Bearnard looked noticeably uncomfortable. “Ach, son. I can’t believe you don’t know. It probably shouldn’t be comin’ from me. You have a half-sister, Tara.”
“You mean. Una… and my father?”
“Aye. It must’ve been right before Calum died. Tara will be fifteen winters this spring.”
A sister? He had a sister and Una never told him?
Adam took Bearnard’s tankard from his hands and downed its contents. “Aye, ‘atta lad,” Bearnard said, grinning. He snapped his fingers at a serving girl. “More, ale, please!”
When the girl came by with two more tankards, he said, “So tell me more about your new wife.”
“New wife?” Adam asked dumbly, the drink already dulling his mind.
“Yeah, Nellie was her name? What family is she from?”
“Oh.” Adam shook his head to clear it. Right, my wife. Something told him to lie, as much as he hated to do so to his family. However, it was not like his family didn’t keep things from him. “Some poor excuse for a laird in the lowlands made a feeble attempt to steal some of my land. Can’t trust anyone anymore, right?”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Bearnard agreed. “That reminds me,” his uncle hunched his head closer towards the table, indicating for his nephew to do the same. “There’s something I’ve been meanin’ to talk to you about. I have a plan, of a sort.”
“A plan?”
“Well, you see…” His uncle glanced around him. “Things are a little bit… unsteady here in Scotia, what with King David absent from his seat in Scotia, an’ now, this deadly sickness being spread about.”
“An’ what’s your point?”
“Well, what better opportunity to take advantage of it all?”
Adam crossed his arms. “In what way, pray tell?”
“We take over the other clans, one by one, my clansmen and yours. These lairds won’t know what hit ‘em, especially when we take over the coastal castles by water. We seize their lands first, an’ then eventually, we’ll find enough influence to overpower King David and his Guardians.”
Adam burst out in laughter. “You jest!” he cried, but his uncle did not look to be mirthful. Adam immediately sobered. “Nay, you are not jestin’? Are you quite serious, Uncle?”
“Aye, I’m serious!” he said adamantly.
Adam felt like he was going to need another tankard of ale. Instead, he shook his head. “My allegiance is to King David,” he told Bearnard.
“You swear allegiance to an absent king,” his uncle said. “The English are still takin’ good care of him in Windsor. Robert Stewart may be guardian, but I think he already has eyes for the throne. He’s winnin’ favors with neighborin’ clans one-by-one.”
“Oh, so you would be a king? What are you going to offer everyone once you have the crown?”
“Whatever the hell they want. I’ll be king, Adam!”
He couldn’t believe he ever looked up to this fool. “You are mad, Uncle.”
“Ambitious for sure, but mad… eh, perhaps that, too.” His uncle shrugged. “All that time out under the sun must’ve fried my senses a bit. Are you in with me, lad?”
“I think not, Uncle. Like I said, I swear allegiance to King David and I would never betray him. You swore fealty to him, too, Uncle. You were right there with him at Neville’s Cross. You fought for him. Are you now abandoning him?”
Bearnard looked as though he didn’t know how to answer. Adam stood up from the table. “Nay, Uncle. I will not follow you with this an’ I pray that you will not follow through. Please, excuse me.”
He walked away, still in disbelief over his uncle’s words. Had he gone mad? True, Scotia was in a state of disarray with all that battles being fought between kingdoms and clansmen. However, who in their right mind would try to topple the Stewarts, the most powerful family behind King David II?
Yes, some people had fallen out of Robert Stewart’s favor, but he still had influential people backing him. Influential people who had much more clansmen at their backs than Adam or Bearnard ever could. To attempt to overthrow him and his supporters would be a death wish, even if Adam did want to go through with it.
His uncle’s shocking proposal almost made him forget that Bearnard had married Una. And more than that, he had a half-sister! Adam was relieved to hear that Una yet lived, but it hurt that in all these years, she did not write to him. Wouldn’t she think that he’d like to meet his sister?
Well, he now knew where Una lived, so he would write a missive to her in the next free moment that he had. And to Tara as well. If there was to be no response, he would pay them a visit himself; Bearnard’s estate was not too far of a trip.
He ran across MacKenzie in the hall as his clansman stumbled to his own room, with not a woman in sight, surprisingly.
“We’re leaving tomorrow morning,” Adam told him. “Tell Alister if you see him. I don’t want to be surrounded by these people any longer than I need to with this blue sickness spreading so quickly.”
“Aye,” MacKenzie agreed. “It sounds to be like the worst possible hell. Goin’ up to your wife, then?”
Adam glared at him, but returned to the room, relieved to see Nellie sleeping peacefully on the bed. However, on the ground, her breacan was spread out, and on top rested a pillow and the extra blankets.
She had taken the time to set a bed for him.
Chapter 17
They both awoke the next morning with a splitting headache.
“What horrible light,” Nellie muttered, rubbing her eyes. “What is that?”
“It’s the sun, lass.”
“Ugh, make it go away.”
Adam groaned as he rolled out of his bed and quickly drew the curtain shut so they could have blessed darkness again. “Much better,” he said as he lit a candle on the table. “At least for now.”
He smiled at the mess of hair that piled on top of Nellie’s head. She must’ve been too weary to brush her hair before she went to sleep last night.
“What are you laughing at?” she asked suspiciously.
“I didn’t realize there was a bird in here.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. Then, realizing Adam was staring at the top of her head, she reached up to feel her hair. Giving him a dark look, she scrunched up her mouth and threw a pillow at him, which instead hit the back of the bedroom door.
“I know, I know…” he said, holding his hands in surrender. “I’m
insufferable.”
Nellie shook her head and got up, still fully dressed from last night, and went to her bag that was brought up into the room by one of the servants during the festivities. She took out her brush and began to tame her wild hair. Adam forced himself to turn away, but really, he could watch her forever.
Nellie did not seem to notice. “You know,” she said, staring at the closed door that had a myriad of hatch marks etched into the surface. “I believe I’ve been to Rosach Castle before.”
“Why do you say that?”
She pointed to the door. “I remember being here when I was little. I was wary of playing with the lasses who where my age, so I followed some boys up the stairs to this exact room, I believe. One of the boys was playing with a knife. He would throw it at a tiny target that was positioned to this door, and I thought it was the most astounding thing I’ve yet seen. So, I asked him to teach me how to do it just as skillfully.”
“I remember.”
“What?”
“I was there, Nellie. That was me. We were for a clan meetin’, I believe. Nay… It was for a Christmas feast. Hammish’s father liked parties, if not more than his son, and he invited everyone he knew to celebrate at Christmas. An’ you came in,” he said, pointing at the door. “With hair covered with ribbons, an’ a festive dress to match. Alister an’ I told you to leave, but you weren’t havin’ any of it.”
Nellie brought her hand to her mouth and laughed. “I can’t believe that was you!” she exclaimed. “Did you know I kept practicing after that day? I’ve gotten quite skilled at it after having naught much else to do at Burrach Castle.”
“Perhaps you’ll show me sometime.”
Nellie looked around. “Well, do you have a knife now?”
“Aye,” Adam took out a small pocket knife and handed it to her.
“What a tiny thing,” Nellie exclaimed. “If only I had my dagger.”
“Oh, what a braggart you are.”
“Just watch. I’ll hit that marking that looks a little like a tree. Do you see it?
“I do.”
She aimed the knife and threw it across the room, naught but a hair away from the marking.
“Impressive,” Adam said truthfully. He pulled the knife out from the door. “Here, let me try.” Just as he was about to throw the knife, a servant opened the door and stood in stunned silence with a tray of breakfast in his shaking hands.
“Ach, I apologize,” Adam told the boy as he coaxed him in. “We were playing a game, you see.”
“Yes, sir,” the boy said fretfully, setting the food down at the table as quickly as he could so he could flee.
Nellie laughed as she picked up a knife to spread butter on the freshly-baked bread. “Poor lad,” she said, then took a bite out of the bread.
“He’ll be frightened of me for the rest of his days,” Adam chuckled.
They ate the rest of the food in relative silence. Adam wasn’t much in the mood for talking as last night’s events still plagued his thoughts.
Of course, Nellie sensed the air of unease. “What is the matter?” she asked once she finished eating. “It looks as though you’ve seen a ghost.”
Adam had debated whether to tell Nellie about Una. It wasn’t like they were an actual married couple. However, they seemed to be friends, although neither of them had yet admitted to it. And as friends, she deserved to know.
“I talked to my uncle more last night,” he began.
“Yes, I know.” Nellie raised an eyebrow.
“He said that I have a half-sister.”
“A half-sister?” Nellie asked, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Before my father died. Una… she was pregnant with my father’s child. I never knew…”
“Una…” Nellie repeated, as though she had forgotten about the woman. Her face hardened and her lips drew into a thin line. “Well, Una left you in haste after your father died, didn’t she? There was no way for you to know.”
“Aye, that’s true. And it hurts that I did not know a thing about her existence.”
“Well, I could say a few choice words about Una, but I’ll hold my tongue,” Nellie reasoned.
Adam frowned down at his empty plate. “There’s more,” he said.
“What is it?”
“My uncle told me that he married Una.”
“Married her?” Nellie blanched. “Is she… is she here at the castle?” She stood up as though his stepmother was going to reveal herself behind the curtains.
“Calm, Nellie. Nay, she’s at my uncle’s own estate with my… sister, Tara. But it’s not far from here. Nellie. I see the look of fear in your eyes. She is my stepmother still an’ she will not harm you.”
“How do you know that?” Nellie was almost shouting. “She left you! A boy not even ten to run Dunaid all by yourself! Did you ever stop to wonder why someone who supposedly loved you would do such a thing? And don’t tell me it was all because she was heartbroken!”
Adam turned to her, furiously. “Did you ever wonder whether the curse was some sort of made-up tale? That your family wasn’t cursed at all, but it was all a product of your father’s deluded mind? An’ that he tricked you into believin’ us Maxwells were a wicked family?”
Nellie’s eyes widened. “How could you? How could you belittle me and what I had to go through? You are the one who is deluded, Laird Maxwell.” She grabbed her breacan off the floor and held it tightly in her hands as she left the room. “I will be waiting for you at the stables.”
Adam sighed and left the room after her, cursing his loose tongue. Was Nellie right? Was he really just trapped in his boyhood vision of his stepmother?
As Adam followed her, Hammish stopped him in the hall. “A spat already?” he asked him.
“Aye. I suppose that’s what it was.”
“A word of advice,” Hammish leaned closer to him. “Suck up your pride an’ let her win all the arguments.”
“Wise words, Hammish,” Adam told him.
“Years of experience,” he said, failing to notice Adam’s sarcasm. “Visit again soon, will you? Perhaps in better times.”
“Best of luck to you an’ your family, Hammish.”
Nellie was indeed waiting for him in the stables, her back turned toward him as she pet Apple’s nose. She did not turn around as he approached.
“We’re off, then,” he said as Alister and MacKenzie walked up behind him, looking as though they had not slept all night.
Nellie said not a word to him the entire way back to Dunaid Castle. Adam did not dare to press the matter. When they finally arrived at Lachina’s in the evening, she finally spoke to him.
“Adam, I am not angry with you, but there are just some major things we do not agree on. I very much hope you are right that Una will not come for me. Thank you for the trip. It was very enjoyable.”
He did not like the way she spoke so formally to him when that morning, they were playfully teasing each other upon awakening. He nodded his head tightly, not trusting himself to speak, and left for his castle.
On the night following his return, Adam called all able-bodied men who lived on his estate to come to Dunaid. All of them now stood in his hall and Adam could not shake the image of each of them harboring the blue sickness.
Was this a good idea? Nay, they all needed to know. It was best they hear it from him, rather than from word of mouth.
“I just got back from Rosach Castle,” he told the several dozen eyes staring at him. Were they going to react similarly as those in Rosach did, with panic and fear?
“There has been word of a sickness spreading across Europe,” he continued. “People have called it the blue sickness. It is swift and it is deadly. It has already reached England and is startin’ to appear in Northumberland. I would advise everyone to limit any unnecessary travel for the time being, until this sickness stops its spread.”
His clansmen looked uneasy. Some were frowning; others were whispering amongst themselves. “Do you know
where it came from?” One man asked.
“I know not,” he told him. “Some say it is a punishment from the heavens. Whether that is true or not, I would say that everyone keep the air fresh in their homes. And watch out for any symptoms: malaise, fever… When it’s farther along, dark tumors will appear on the body. You will know if you have it.” He remembered Hammish’s words and repeated them: “I do not say these things to frighten you, but to raise awareness.”
“You think this may be a curse?” old man Ross asked.
“Aye, with that Lyall nearby…” another muttered.
“Where is she now? Is she still in the castle?”
“Enough!” Adam shouted, quieting the room instantly. “You will not speak about Lady Lyall in such a manner. An’ if I hear you speak one more thing about a curse, I will find a way to curse the lot of you to hell. Leave.”
Stunned, his men filed out of the great hall until only Alister remained. “You actually fancy the lass, don’t you?” he asked.
Adam gave him a look that shut the man up, then left the hall to retire to his room.
Chapter 18
“Nellie.”
She was sitting in the corner of Lachina’s house, mending her skirt. She’d just awoken not long ago and had a hot cup of tea sitting beside her. The saffron dress Adam had given her was torn when a wayward bramble snagged at the hem, so she was working on the last stitches of a new garment. Lachina had some extra bit of linen and she used her old dress as a pattern to make the new one.
“What is it, Lachina?” She did not like the somber look on Lachina’s face.
“Come outside, please.”
Elspeth was sorting through bundles of dried herb on the working bench and followed both of them outside to the garden. Nellie gasped and covered her mouth in shock. Lachina’s garden had been torn up from root to stem. All the hard work she’d put into the garden, all the days of labor were now for nothing.
“Did an animal do this?” Elspeth asked, her eyes wide.
Nellie shook her head. “Nay, no animal is capable of this. A human did this, and on purpose. Why?”
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