“I hope you are correct, Lady Margaret. I wished to collect a ransom for the girl; I did not wish any harm to come to her, either from someone within Bellefleur or because of my own neglect. If I discover that she has been purposely harmed, I will see that the crime is punished.” He smiled sweetly at her, his expression indicating that he did not mean her, but the looks that briefly passed over her and her father’s faces told Gabel that they had heard and understood the threat.
“M’lord,” cried a page as he hurried up to the table. “I think you had better come with me. Sir Justice says there is something beyond the walls that you will be most interested in.”
Ten
A vicious curse broke from Ainslee’s wind-chilled lips as she stumbled and her painfully cold hands became buried in the icy snow. Out of habit she looked around to make sure that no one had heard her, then cursed again. She was the only unfortunate to be out in the freezing cold and snow. No matter how foul and blasphemous she spoke, no one was there to admonish her.
Ainslee stood up and vainly tried to brush the snow from her hands and her clothes. It was a useless gesture for she was already soaked through to the skin, but she hoped that, if she could not see herself covered in snow, she might be able to convince herself that she was not as cold as she was. As she plodded on, she wondered what she had done in her short life to deserve such a punishment. It seemed grossly unfair that the devious, murderous Lady Margaret was warm and comfortable inside of Bellefleur, while she was in danger of freezing to death. Even if she did not die in the snow itself, Ainslee was beginning to fear that she was returning to Bellefleur only to fall ill with a fever and die.
She was tired and she ached to lie down, but she knew the danger of that. To give into the urge to sleep was to welcome death. What kept her trudging on now was not only the desperate need to make Margaret pay for her crime, but also the intensifying craving to see Gabel and Ronald one more time. If she was going to die, she did not want to do it out in the middle of nowhere with no chance of saying farewell to her friend and her lover. There were things she wanted to say to both men, things she would never be able to say if she lost her life beneath the icy white covering the ground.
Just as she began to think she did not even have enough stubbornness left to keep moving, a dark shape formed ahead of her in the snow. Afraid to believe her eyes, she stumbled forward until the shape became more distinct. When she recognized it as Bellefleur, she wanted to weep with relief, but, even if she could produce the tears, she was sure they would freeze upon her cheeks.
“Now all I have to pray for is that some guard upon the walls does not mistake me for an enemy or a possible meal and cut me down,” she muttered as she struggled to move faster through the deepening snow.
Justice stared out at the figure stumbling through the snow and shook his head. When Gabel rushed up to his side upon the high walls of Bellefleur, Justice said nothing, simply pointed. He nodded when Gabel gaped out at the tiny shape moving clumsily across the snow, then cursed.
“ ’Tis Ainslee?” Gabel whispered, shock and doubt turning his statement into an uncertain question.
“It appears to be,” said Justice. “My first thought was to hurry out and get her, but I thought again.”
“Why? She must be nearly frozen to death.” Gabel scowled at his cousin when the younger man grabbed him by the arm and kept him from running down off the walls.
“She may be, but she is a MacNairn, one of a clan you have declared outlaws. I do not believe she would do so, but one cannot ignore the possibility that she is being used as a trap, as a lure meant to make us open our gates.”
“She has not had time to get to Kengarvey, plot that clever a trap with her kinsmen, and return.”
“Nay, I do not think so. ’Twas one of those things I felt you must decide.”
“Alright. We will not open the gates widely, only enough to allow one thin girl in, and the men are to be prepared to respond swiftly and fully to any hint of attack.” As Gabel hurried down the walls, he heard Justice relaying his orders to the other men.
Gabel eased open the gate and peered out. He could see no one beside Ainslee. As she approached, she stumbled every few steps. He ached to rush out and help her, but he stood fast. The need to cast aside all caution and run to her aid was born of emotion, and he had too many people to protect to act upon that. She fell against the edge of the door and he grabbed her by the arm, pulling her inside even as the two gatekeepers hurried to close the gates and bar them again.
He tugged her into the circle of light cast off by a torch stuck in the wall near the gate and studied her, as Justice ran up to them. She looked dangerously cold, and her attire was strange. When she moaned softly and collapsed against him, he picked her up in his arms.
“Did you become lost, Mistress MacNairn?” he said, his voice hard as he fought to hide his worry. “Kengarvey is still many miles to the north.”
“I have walked as far as I can today, m’laird. I believe I would like to seek my bed now.”
With a concerned Justice keeping pace, Gabel strode into Bellefleur. Her answer, gritted out from between chattering teeth, still told him nothing about what had happened. As he stepped into the hall, the brighter light there gave him a better look at Ainslee. It would be a while before she was recovered enough to question.
Ainslee struggled to lift her head from where she had rested it against Gabel’s shoulder. The bright light briefly blinded her, but then she saw Margaret Fraser standing in the doorway leading to the great hall. She moved so abruptly that Gabel nearly dropped her, but Ainslee managed to free herself from his hold. When she tried to stand up, she swayed and he caught her by the arms, but she held firm, refusing to allow him to pick her up again.
“I am not as easy to kill as my mother,” she said, staring right at Lady Margaret, who was too furious to hide her feelings.
“I fear the poor girl has been made delirious by her ordeal and now babbles,” Lady Margaret replied, her voice cold even as she attempted to give Gabel a polite yet beseeching smile.
“Nay. Ye canna play that game anymore, Margaret. Ye should have stayed with boulders dropped from the windows, or mayhaps a touch of poison. Ye should have kenned that, if this grand scheme to be rid of me failed, ye had no way to explain or excuse it.”
“Ye are talking like a madwomon.”
Although it caused her raw hands to bleed, Ainslee took the Fraser brooch from her shoulder and tossed it at Margaret’s feet. “Do ye recognize this, m’lady? I fear your dim-witted cousin Ian has lost the only friend he probably had.”
“Ye have spilled Fraser blood? This is why she spits out such wild accusations and lies, m’lord,” Margaret said to Gabel. “She tries to excuse her crimes.”
“If I werena little more than a lump of ice, I would gladly spill a wee bit more Fraser blood by cutting your throat,” Ainslee snapped and even attempted to take a step toward Margaret, crying out in frustration when Gabel again lifted her up in his arms. “Give me but a moment to warm myself, Gabel, and then I will make that sly whore pay.”
“Hush, Ainslee,” he ordered her, and then he looked coldly at Margaret. “Justice,” he called to his cousin, “I would like you to keep company with the Frasers until I have tended to Ainslee, for I wish to talk to them.” He waited long enough to see Justice and another man nudge Lady Margaret back into the great hall and then climbed the stairs to Ainslee’s bedchamber. “We searched for you, but could find no trail.”
“Ye were looking for the wrong trail, one made by me alone,” Ainslee said. “Ye should have looked for the trail I ken her cousin and his friend left. Those fools were too stupid not to have left a verra clear trail.” As her body warmed, she became aware of a great many pains and touched her fingers to her stinging mouth. When she saw the blood on her fingers, she cursed. “I think my lips have fallen off in the snow.”
“Nay,” he replied with a calm he did not feel. “I believe there are still a few pie
ces left beneath the blood.”
A sharp, stinging pain began to creep over her body, and she moaned softly. “I think I am bleeding everywhere.”
“I do not believe so, dearling. ’Tis just the blood moving through your veins again.”
“I dinna think it is verra fair that becoming warm again should be such a painful thing.”
Ainslee said nothing else as Gabel took her into her room and set her down on her bed. With occasional help from a maid, he stripped off her soaked clothing, bathed her, and wrapped her in a warm gown. He helped her sip a tankard of warmed mead, and then tucked her securely beneath the blankets. Once the pain in her body began to ease and all her injuries and raw skin were covered in salve and bandaged, she began to feel sleepy. For a moment she fought the feeling, still afraid to sleep, for it could be the first step toward death.
“You did not try to escape?” he asked, growing more and more certain that she had not, but wanting to hear her say so.
Her voice barely a whisper, and her words a little slurred as she tried not to move her lips much, Ainslee replied, “Gabel, I tell ye truly, my father willna pay for Ronald alone. He doesna like Ronald and considers him a worthless cripple. Making the mon my nursemaid wasna meant to be an honor, ye ken. Nay, unless Ronald returns with me, he willna return. If I left Ronald here and went to Kengarvey alone, I would never see the mon again. Kenning that, do ye really believe I would try to escape without him?”
“I did consider that odd.”
“But, when ye found me gone, ye thought I had slipped away so that I might deprive ye of your ransom and your chance to please the king.”
It was faint, and Gabel suspected that was only because she was so exhausted, but the sting in her words made him flinch with guilt. “Aye, although I did still have a few questions.”
“Did ye. Howbeit, ye had been smelling plots, and when I was gone ye felt that escape had been the plot ye had been sniffing out. Weel, I am sorry that I canna make it all that easy for ye.” She winced, for the movement caused her pain, but she reached out to grasp his hand. “I willna say that I will ne‘er try to flee, but I would ne’er leave Ronald behind. He, Ugly, and Malcolm are my family. Try to forget that I am one of the lawless MacNairns for but a moment, and look about ye, Gabel de Amalville. I am not the one plotting here.”
“Is that what you have been trying to tell me for days?”
“Aye. I felt ye would ne’er heed the warnings of a MacNairn against a Fraser and hoped to make ye see their treacherous natures on your own. Weel, that game has twice nearly cost me my life. I believe I canna wait for ye to open your eyes any longer. I am too weary to say much now. Come back when I have rested, and I will tell ye more than ye may wish to ken about your guests. If ye dinna wish to wait that long, then go and speak to Ronald. Tell him that I have confessed to my little games and that I accept failure. In truth, he kens more about them than I do.”
“I will. Rest, Ainslee,” he said softly and brushed a kiss over her wind-reddened forehead. “I will send my aunt in to sit with you for a while,” he added, and then smiled faintly, for she was already asleep.
As soon as he had fetched his aunt to nurse Ainslee, Gabel went to Ronald’s room. The man’s blatant relief that Ainslee had been found and his concern over her health only worked to confirm her assertions. Once Gabel gave Ronald her message, the man spoke freely about the Frasers. Gabel could not believe he had been so blind. He wanted to make them pay dearly for their attempts to murder Ainslee, but he knew that would be a mistake. At the moment the king would consider their only crime to be an abuse of his hospitality, for the MacNairns were declared outlaws, and that gave anyone the right to do to them as they wished.
When Gabel finally entered the great hall to meet with the Frasers, he did not want to listen to any explanations they had devised, but he forced himself to do so. He heard them out, then coldly told them they were to leave Bellefleur as soon as the weather had improved. It did not surprise him when they both acted outraged. The Frasers could not afford to have him as an enemy, and would do most anything to sway his favor back to them.
“M’lord,” Lady Margaret said as she drew near to him and lightly stroked his arm, ignoring the way he tensed and jerked away. “How can ye believe the lass’s tales? She is a MacNairn. She obviously tried to escape, something went wrong, and she had to come back here, so she tries to turn your righteous anger away from herself.”
“Then explain to me how she came by a Fraser’s brooch, as well as the cloak and sword of one of your men?”
“She stole them ere she fled into the night.”
“Nay, I think not. I think she got them when she was forced to fight for her life. Go. You are to leave as soon as travel is possible, and I suggest you keep out of my sight until that time comes.”
Before Margaret could protest anymore, her father dragged her out of the great hall. Gabel sighed, poured himself a tankard of wine, and had a long drink. When Justice sat down beside him, he pushed the jug of wine toward his cousin.
“So, you believe Ainslee’s claim?” asked Justice as he poured himself a drink.
“Aye. Although some of the clothes she was given are missing, she wears none of them. She was dressed in a man’s cloak, her nightrail, and a blanket. Scraps of cloth were all she had for her feet and hands. Ainslee would never leave so ill prepared. Nay, I do not know exactly what happened out there, and will not know until Ainslee is recovered enough to tell me, but this was no attempt to escape.”
“If she did not tell you exactly what happened, how can you be so sure the Frasers had a hand in it?”
“Because of all that Ronald told me about them. Ainslee had a Fraser brooch, so a Fraser had to be with her. Margaret’s cousin and his friend left before dawn, just as we had thought Ainslee had. They obviously took her out of here. Neither of those men has, or had, the wit to plan such a trick, and we can be very sure that they were not trying to help her.”
Justice shook his head. “They may well have put a lot of their prestige and power at risk. Mayhaps it was done for more reasons than an old hatred.”
“What other reasons? They were not taking her to Kengarvey, so they could not have made some bargain with her, nor could they have been thinking of ransoming her themselves and making their own treaty with the MacNairns.”
“The only thing the Frasers appear to want to do to the MacNairns is slaughter them to a man. Nay, I but wondered if Lady Margaret was aware of your interest in Ainslee. She does not seem to be the sort of woman who would tolerate a rival, especially if she considers that rival little more than a thieving peasant.”
Gabel stared at his cousin for a full minute before cursing. “I do not wish to believe that, for it would mean that I allowed my own lusts to place Ainslee in danger of her life.”
“I do not think it is all that simple,” Justice said in a vain attempt to reassure him. “Howbeit, you must consider that possibility. I press it for, if that is the way of it, then you must now consider that Lady Margaret will not only see Lady Ainslee as a rival, but as someone who has beaten her.”
“I knew that tiny red-haired girl would be trouble from the moment she faced me with that accursed sword in her hand,” Gabel complained, not truly angry with Ainslee, for he knew none of this was her fault, but needing to vent his frustration. “I shall put a much heavier guard on her and on the old man. Those Frasers have already shown that they are not above striking down the ones Ainslee loves simply because she loves them. And have that monstrously ugly dog of hers brought into her room.” He smiled faintly as Justice laughed, bowed mockingly, then hurried away to get the dog, and select a few men for guard duty on the MacNairns.
Groaning softly, for he detested such intrigues, Gabel finished his drink and went to Ainslee’s room. He intended to keep a watchful eye on Ainslee himself, and he doubted that anyone at Bellefleur would be surprised or shocked at that. It was a decision based mostly on emotion, but, after what had happened toda
y, he began to wonder if he was wrong to so completely ignore what his emotions told him. He had been fighting them so fiercely and questioning his every move so thoroughly to be certain it was not an emotional one, that he had missed a great deal of what had been going on directly beneath his nose.
His aunt smiled at him as he slipped into Ainslee’s bedchamber and, as he quietly approached the bed, he asked, “How does she fare?”
“She sleeps,” Marie replied. “Her breathing appears to be untroubled, and she has grown warm, yet not feverishly so.”
“I am pleased to hear that, for I was concerned that she might catch a fever.” He helped his aunt from the stool she was sitting on next to the bed and began to urge her toward the door. “Go to your bed, Aunt. I will watch o’er her now.”
“But she may have need of a woman’s touch,” Marie protested, even as Gabel pushed her out of the door.
“If she asks for it, I can call for you or for one of the dozen or more maids scurrying about Bellefleur. Sleep well, Aunt,” he said, kissing her cheek and then shutting the door.
Gabel poured himself a tankard of mead from the jug by the bed, then made himself comfortable at the end of the bed, his gaze fixed firmly upon a sleeping Ainslee. He was a little discomforted by how pleased he was to see her alive and apparently surviving her ordeal unscathed. It revealed far more depth to what he felt for her than the lust he readily admitted to. That was dangerous. The wise thing to do would be to distance himself from her, but, looking at her face and smiling crookedly, he knew he would not do that.
It was amusing in a sad way, but everything which attracted him to Ainslee was exactly what made it impossible for him to keep her around. That and the fact that she was a MacNairn. It became clearer every day that Ainslee had not been tainted by the poison infecting her father and his father before him, but the name was now a burden. It sounded callous to think that way, but Gabel knew he had to be callous. A lot of people depended upon him, and he could not do anything that might risk the position he had already attained, or hurt any future gains he might make. He wished he had more freedom to do as he pleased, but he did not, and he could not allow his feelings for Ainslee make him act as if he did.
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