Beloved Secrets, Book 3

by Marti Talbott

  “Who dare plague me?” Hendry screamed as he started to run down the hallway on the second floor. Assured he was about to catch his intruder, he did not bother looking in each of the bedrooms, and instead hurried down the stairs. Predictably, he slipped on one of the rocks and nearly fell. Unfortunately, he caught himself just in time.

  Once more being very careful not to make a sound, Skye went to the back stairs, quietly descended, and headed for the kitchen. She could hear Hendry go back up the main staircase and begin opening and closing doors on the second floor. It was comforting to know where he was.

  All told, the castle had five staircases – two that went to the upstairs bed chambers, two that led to the top of the towers, and one near the kitchen that few knew anything about. Skye prayed Hendry did not know about it either. It was rarely used and led to the top of that portion of the castle wall that served to enclose the inner courtyard. She cautiously opened the door, stepped inside, closed the door, and paused to let her eyes adjust to the darkness. It was hopeless, for there was not a shred of light to assist her. Even so, it was her only escape. She put her hand on the wall to feel her way and started up anyway.

  As soon as she reached the top, she hurried to the far end of the wall and crouched down. She could see into the inner courtyard well enough through a gap between the large square stones, but the outside wall was higher and she had to stand up to see over it. Evander promised to light two candles in his window to signal that the men were finished, and when she took a chance and rose up, there they were. She allowed herself a relieved breath and then crouched back down to wait. It would probably be a while before Hendry gave up and went back to his drinking.

  Skye was wrong.

  Hendry did know about the stairs, and with no door at the top, she could clearly hear him climbing up. She rose up a second time, peeked over the outside wall and looked straight down. Jumping would likely kill her and if Hendry found her, he would likely kill her too.

  Somewhere inside the castle, another door slammed. Hendry’s footsteps abruptly stopped and soon she could hear him going back down. Skye closed her eyes and remembered to breathe.

  “Who does this?” Hendry shouted. Unsure where the sound came from, he turned round and round in the dining room, trying to decide which way to go. It was not until the huge front door slammed that his question was answered. He marched to the door, flung it open, and finding no one in the inner courtyard, stomped across and opened the outer door. He was too late, for by then, whomever it was had gotten clean away.

  “I am robbed!” he shouted as he shook his fist in the air. Not one member of the clan came to his aid or even opened their cottage doors.

  Skye dared not breathe. She continued to watch as Hendry crossed the inner courtyard again and went back inside. The next sound she heard was the door to the Great Hall banging shut. She stood up and looked down the outside wall once more. With the light of a candle held in front of his face, Shaw motioning for her to meet him behind her mother’s cottage. She nodded and then crouched back down. At last, she could go home – if she could escape without Hendry catching her.

  Somehow, she was not as brave now as she had been when she first entered the castle. For what seemed like forever, Skye stayed hidden and waited to see if Hendry would come back out. As well, she kept an eye on the window of the north tower and was relieved when he was not there. Even so, she stayed a while longer, nervously twirled a lock of her red hair, and waited until she was certain Hendry would not come out again.

  Terrified, she finally slipped back down the stairs, tiptoed to the front door, quietly opened and closed it, and made good her escape. As soon as she was out, she ran around her mother’s cottage and into Shaw’s arms.

  She was violently shaking, so Shaw held her long enough to calm her before he stood her away from his sore ribs. “You did very well,” he whispered.

  “If not for you, he might have had me.”

  “I should not have let you go. Dinna let Evander tell you to do it again. We need your kind of sunshine and I know not what Hendry would do if he caught you.”

  She neither agreed nor disagreed. She was too frightened to know what to say.

  “I lent Andra the cane you gave me,” said Shaw. “Might you let him use the other? He is still unsteady on his feet.”

  “Aye,’ she managed to say at length, “I shall take it to him in the mornin’.

  “Good. Go home, your mother is worried.”

  She nodded, peeked around the corner to make sure Hendry was not lurking, and then scampered around the cottage and darted inside.

  AFTER SHAW FINISHED counting the baskets of food in the cellars the next morning, he walked to the castle. He was not looking forward to his first real encounter with Hendry since Hendry appointed himself laird, but if he was to report the counts, he had to enter them in the log just as his brother did.

  He was not yet healed and hoped his vulnerability was not too obvious. When he opened the door to the Great Hall, Hendry had his head on the table and was sound asleep. It was the perfect opportunity to have a good look around since Shaw had only been in that room a few times before. It was a long, narrow room with a hearth at one end that might have taken the chill out of the air – if it was lit, and if there was wood beside it to burn. The long table lacked a good polish, but the woodwork was as magnificent as he remembered.

  Shaw ignored the weapons on the walls for he knew Jamie’s would not be there and he needed no reminders. Instead, he looked around for the paper log in which to write the numbers. At last, he spotted it on a small table and went to pick it up. Not caring if he woke Hendry or not, he took the ledger, the quill pen, and the bottle of ink with him to the opposite end of the table and sat down. He penned the number of livestock first, then the food, the amount of tanned leather, and the baskets of wool that had been washed and spun. During a normal winter, the women made clothing, but this year he suspected they would not have much time. Aside from meals to prepare and bread to bake, there would be snow to melt down for water, and if not, carried from the river. Ice needed to be broken so the livestock could drink, and stored hay fetched each day to feed them. Sheepdog puppies to sell come spring needed to be nurtured inside, and eggs had to be gathered, providing the hens did not freeze to death. All that and more without many men to help would leave little time indeed for making cloth and sewing clothing.

  Shaw wrote the number of men, women, and children in the log, and then wrote the names of the dead. He tried twice, but somehow he could not write his brother’s name, so he did not.

  Hendry never moved a muscle. For a moment, Shaw hoped the man had drunk himself to death. He might have, too, for the sun was out and Hendry was normally in the tower watching by this time of day. Unfortunately, Shaw could see Hendry breathe. He put everything back where he found it and left the room. During past long winters when fuel for fires was getting low, some of the families moved into the castle. Not this year, not with Hendry inside.

  HIS WORK FINISHED, Shaw decided to soak in the sun for a little while before he tried to put together a burial box for Conall. He crossed the outer courtyard, headed into the tall grass of the glen and only had to pause twice to rest as he walked the entire length. He was on his way back when Lexine came to walk with him.

  Jamie once said he loved no other once he laid eyes on Lexine. She was perhaps not the most handsome woman Jamie had ever seen, but she had the kind of blue eyes he looked forward to seeing first thing every morning. She was wise as well, and Jamie often asked her opinion. After the clan split, Jamie and Lexine had more time to spend together and their lives were filled with love and laughter. Too soon, Laird Jamie MacGreagor was gone.

  “Are you well?” Shaw asked her. Under his breath, he begged her not to ask how Jamie died. He had seen little of her since his recovery, and even then it was just in passing. One thing Shaw admired was that when Lexine was not tending her feeble son, she enjoyed weaving baby blankets out of soft lamb’s woo
l for the clan’s newborns.

  “I am well, thank you. Glenna says you grow stronger every day and I am happy to hear it.”

  “I was grieved to hear about your son.”

  She looked away. “I am grateful to have Jamie’s daughters still to raise. They remind me so of him.” Lexine stopped walking, and took a moment to glance back to make certain no one could hear her. “Shaw, there is somethin’ I must tell you.”

  He stopped walking too and turned all his attention to the woman he liked and admired very much. “What?”

  “I am quite certain that...”

  AWAKE FINALLY AND STANDING in the north tower window, Hendry watched Lexine and Shaw talk. Shaw appeared to be agreeing with her about something and the more Shaw nodded, the more Hendry narrowed his eyes. He watched and watched, for their conversation seemed endless, until at last Lexine walked back to the cottages. When she got close enough to see him watching her, Hendry moved to the side, deeply frowned and whispered, “’Tis just as I thought.”

  HENDRY WAS NOT ONLY furious, he was drunk when he stormed out of the castle and marched down the path to the cottage Lexine and her two small girls now occupied. Without even knocking, he yanked open her door and when she screamed, he yelled at her. “Be quiet, lass!”

  Clearly afraid of him, she wrapped her arms around her frightened, crying children and returned with a defiant glare of her own. “Why are you here?”

  “I have come for Jamie’s gold.”

  Lexine kept her tone low and even. “What gold?”

  In long strides, he walked to the beds at the end of the room and began to toss the two mattresses aside. When he found nothing under them, he took out his dagger and began to slice up the first mattress.

  Lexine eased her daughters toward the door and then slipped them outside. In a flash, she picked up the smaller of the two, took the other one’s hand, and raced to the back of her cottage. Her first thought was to run to the cottage Shaw and Glenna shared. Nevertheless, when Lexine got there, she stopped short of knocking. The last thing she wanted to do was to bring Hendry’s wrath down on Shaw, so she turned the other way and when to the home of the only remaining elder.

  Shaking and nearly in tears, she burst into elder Aulay’s home, and quickly closed the door behind her. Apparently, it had been a long day for the elder, for he was fast asleep, was loudly snoring and apparently had not heard a thing. She calmed her daughters, set them in chairs and then went to the window and peeked out. Hendry was yelling at the top of his lungs and she could even hear him that far away.

  After Hendry had done all the damage he could to the inside of Lexine’s cottage, he started to storm back out when he spotted Shaw standing in the open doorway. Shaw stood with his arms folded and a stern expression on his face. “What do you want?”

  “I came to see what a lad who has clearly gone daft looks like.”

  “I am not daft,” Hendry argued. He approached Shaw, stared into his eyes for a long moment, and when Shaw did not move, he took his hand and tried to push Shaw aside. It was not as easily done as he expected and when Shaw still did not move, he screeched, “Dare you stand in my way?”

  Without saying a word, Shaw relented, moved back, and then watched as Hendry traipsed back to the castle. A moment later, Shaw went inside and looked at the carnage. “Lexine?” he whispered. She and the children were obviously gone, so he went back outside to look for her. By then, he was far from alone. Several of the men had come to see what was happening and Evander even had his sword drawn.

  “You stood up to him?” Evander asked Shaw.

  Shaw looked at Evander’s sword and then back at his friend’s face. “As did you, I see.”

  “I surprised myself. Do you suppose Hendry thought I was protecting him? He did not seem to fear me.”

  Some of the other men chuckled, and so did Shaw. “Did you happen to see where Lexine went?”

  “Here,” she said from the back of the gathering crowd.

  “Are you hurt?” Evander asked.

  “A little frightened, is all. He demanded Jamie’s gold.”

  “Gold?” several asked at the same time.

  “Jamie had gold?” Evander asked.

  Lexine set her youngest daughter down. “Not that I know of, but Hendry thinks he did, and now he accuses me of hidin’ it from him.”

  “Well, he must not be allowed to ruin your belongs no matter what he thinks,” said Evander.

  “And who is there to stop him?” Dan asked. “He is our laird and we are beholden to obey him. ‘Tis the MacGreagor way.”

  “Aye,” said Shaw, “’Tis the MacGreagor way.” As the crowd dispersed, he went back inside Lexine’s cottage and began to straighten up the place up. He set the chairs upright, and although Hendry had cut one side of each of the mattresses, the other side looked like they might do until they could be sewn up again. He even put the pillows and blankets back on the beds. Then he held out his arms, let the little one run to him and tucked her into bed. He did the same with the older one, and when he looked, Lexine was smiling.

  “’Tis what Jamie used to do,” said Lexine. “They miss him so.”

  In a friendly gesture, Shaw touched her on the shoulder and then headed for the door. “We all do. Fret not, for I doubt Hendry shall come back this night.”

  “I thank you. Tomorrow I must fetch the rest of our things and bring them from the castle. Hopefully, that shall be the last I shall ever have to see of Hendry MacGreagor.”

  Shaw nodded and left. He was infuriated by Hendry’s audacity, but there was some good news – when he lifted the little girls, the pain in his chest did not increase. It was a good sign that he was nearly healed and it could not happen too soon to suit him.

  IT WAS VERY EARLY IN the morning when Glenna heard the urgent cries of little children. She cautiously opened her door, pulled her shawl tight around her shoulders, closed the door behind her, and attempted to follow the sound. As she walked down the path, the cries grew louder and seemed more urgent, until at last, she realized they were coming from inside Lexine’s cottage.

  She softly knocked on the door, “Lexine, are you unwell?” She got no reply and although the children stopped crying for a moment, they soon went back to howling. “Lexine?” She knocked louder this time and tried again, “Lexine?” Still, there was no answer, so she opened the door.

  Both of Lexine’s little girls were sitting on their bed with tears streaming down their cheeks. Lexine was nowhere to be found. “There now, dinna fret,” Glenna said as she went to soothe each of them. “She shall come back soon enough.”

  Something was truly amiss.

  The morning fire had not yet been lit in the hearth and Lexine would not have left her children alone for long. Glenna handed each of the little girls a crust of bread, and then went to look out the door. She had not been there long before she saw Shaw coming up the path.

  “Lexine is not here,” Glenna whispered when he came near enough to hear.

  “Perhaps she has gone to get milk for the girls.”

  “Aye.” Glenna doubted it. Lexine would have gotten milk the night before, but that was the only thing that made sense. “The cottage is stone cold.”

  Worry wrinkles crossed his forehead. “She dinna light the fire before she left?” He watched the anxious look on his aunt’s face as she shook her head.

  “Build one and stay with the girls while I see if I can find her.”

  “Aye,” Shaw barely had time to say before she headed down the path.

  “Lexine?” Glenna began to shout. She paused each time a cottage door opened and inquired, but none reported seeing Lexine since the night before. Glenna walked every path, looked inside each empty cottage, and the more she called out, the stronger the feeling of dread gripped her very soul. Soon, others were dressed and had joined in the search.

  Shaw left Lexine’s girls with one of the other women and went to search too. Members of the clan walked all the way around the loch, looked i
n the storage cellars, walked into the forest in all directions, and repeatedly called her name. The people searched for her both up and down river and one of the men even rode to town. She was not there either.

  An hour passed, and then two. “A stranger took her?” a worried Glenna guessed when she and Shaw finally met up again.

  Shaw did not think so. “Nay, the dogs would have barked had a stranger taken her.” He dreaded the thought, but by then, there was no place other to look save in the castle.

  IN THE GREAT HALL, Hendry would barely look at Shaw. “How should I know where she is? Why should I even care? She will not tell me where Jamie left his gold and she knows very well the clan is in great need of it.”

  “Perhaps she dinnae know where it is,” Shaw argued, “if indeed there is anythin’ left of Jamie’s funds.”

  As soon as Evander entered the room, he walked to the head of the table and leaned forward until Hendry had no choice but to look at him. “Have you hurt her?” he boldly asked.

  “Of course not,” Hendry huffed. “She has likely run off.” Hendry abruptly got to his feet and walked out of the room.

  “Where is he goin’?” Shaw asked.

  “To the north tower, most likely. We should follow him. Perhaps we can see Lexine from there. On the other hand, perhaps we can see her better from the south tower.” He stuck his head out the door, assured himself that Hendry was gone and started out. “She would not leave the wee ones alone lest somethin’ happened to her. Hendry has killed her.” Evander led the way to a flight of stairs and began to climb up to the south tower. “There can be no other explanation.”

  “Aye.” Shaw had been thinking the same thing, but saying it out loud took him aback for a moment. He did not like Hendry, but he did not think him capable of murder either. Shaw gave his aunt a pledge not to go in the towers and therefore briefly hesitated to go up. Still, for Lexine he was willing to break his pledge this once. The stone stairs felt sturdy enough under his feet, but he noticed some of the mortar was beginning to crumble near the wall. “’Tis not safe,” he muttered.