Amanda Scott (31 page)

Looking back, she saw him leaping through shrubbery near the burn. Even as she spotted him, though, he disappeared. Drawing a breath of relief, she turned back to get her basket of cress, just as Pinkie and Chuff stepped out of the trees.

The boy held his rawhide belt wrapped around one hand, the oddly shaped brass buckle swinging freely, like a weapon at the ready.

“We frightened the laird away,” Pinkie said, laughing.

“Where did you two spring from?” Mary asked.

“Chuff saw you go out the gate and thought we’d do weel tae keep watch,” Pinkie said proudly. “He said the laird might be on the watch for ye.”

“Chuff is wiser than I was,” Mary said, smiling at the boy, who was fastening his belt round his waist again. “I never thought the laird would dare.”

A half dozen men from the castle reached them then, and the burly Jock charged on with three of them in pursuit of Ewan. Mary set the other two to gathering nettles and dandelions while she harvested her celandine roots.

The children helped, laughing and boasting of their prowess with snowballs until one of the men threw one at Chuff. The boy heaved one back at him, and the battle was on. When the others returned to report that Ewan had had a horse waiting in the woods, a snowball struck Jock head on, drawing them all into the fight.

Mary joined in with enthusiasm, and the warriors pelted one another until everyone was wet and their hands were either stinging or numb from the snow.

Laughing, she said at last, “Much as I hate to stop, I think we had better go back and get warm.”

The others agreed, and they trudged happily up the hill together. Just as they reached the gate, one of the men glanced back. Pausing, he shielded his eyes from the sun setting low on the western horizon, then muttered under his breath.

Mary looked then, too, and felt a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold.

Despite a sheepskin cap and bulky greatcoat, she easily recognized Duncan as one of the leaders of a large party of men riding toward them. Recognizing the earl and Neil on either side of him, she realized that the hunting party must have met up with him near the ferry. She paid no heed to his companions, however.

“I don’t suppose you could help me slip in without his seeing me,” she said.

No one asked which rider she hoped to elude. No one spoke at all. The six men and two children just looked solemnly back at her.

She sighed. “You are right, of course. Very well then, I just hope he doesn’t murder me.”

“More like tae murder the lot of us,” Jock said dourly.

Seeing Duncan spur his horse ahead of the others, Mary knew that he had seen her. Turning to Jock, she said, “Shall we go inside? There can be no good reason to stand here waiting for him.”

“Aye, mistress,” he said, shooting another wary glance at the approaching rider. “It ha’ been a long while since the young master said ye were no tae leave the castle, and in all the excitement, I plain forgot about it. He’s bound tae be wroth wi’ all of us, ye ken. We left verra few behind tae guard the castle.”

Mary said, “Chuff, you and Pinkie take that basket into the kitchen for me, will you? Perhaps one of the men would like to go with you.”

Several of the men, casting worried glances at the approaching rider, were quick to volunteer, but Jock named one and ordered the others to remain.

As the children hurried through the open gate, Mary said, “Tell Martha I said the nettles and watercress are for a soup. She can begin to make it without me, but warn her to set the celandine aside until I can deal with it myself.”

“Aye, sure,” Chuff said. “I’ll tell her. Come on then, Pinkie.”

Following them into the courtyard, Mary and the remaining men had only a short time to wait until Duncan rode through the gate they had left open for him. He swung down from his saddle before his horse had come to a complete halt and tossed the reins to the nearest man.

Mary waited, her heart pounding, her hands folded tightly at her waist so that he would not see them tremble.

“What the devil were you doing out there?” he demanded. He did not grab her shoulders as he had done the day Neil had arrived, but he looked as if he might do worse than that if she provoked him.

“Your mother is worse,” she said steadily. “I went a short distance to collect some things that will help her get better, that’s all.”

“How ill is she?”

Relaxing a little, she said, “Her condition is not grave, sir, but her cough is much worse, and I fear her lungs may be inflamed. She cannot sleep, which makes it worse, so I went to collect some of the celandine we saw that day you walked with me down to the loch, and some other things as well.”

“Then where is the stuff you collected?”

“Chuff and Pinkie took it to the kitchen to give to Martha Loudoun.”

“Oh.” To Jock, he said. “I’m glad you and your men went with her.”

Hesitating, Jock glanced at Mary, clearly reluctant to betray her.

She said quickly, “They did not escort me, sir.”

“What?”

“Since I did not expect to go beyond sight of the castle, I decided that such an escort was unnecessary, especially with so few men here at the time.”

“I thought I had made my orders perfectly plain, madam.”

“You did, of course,” she agreed, “but I am not a child, sir. I am quite capable of judging such matters for myself.” Unfortunately, the memory of Ewan’s sudden appearance and her near escape reared its unwelcome head just then, making it impossible for her to meet Duncan’s angry gaze.

After a heavy silence, during which she could feel him watching her, he said grimly, “If these men did not escort you, why did I see them returning with you?”

Mary bit her lower lip,

“Well, Jock?”

She heard Jock clear his throat, and knowing he did so to give her time to speak first, she decided that if the bad news was going to come from anyone, it ought to come from her. With a sigh, she said, “Please, sir, don’t blame Jock.”

“Why not?”

“I slipped out through the postern gate. I did not tell Jock or any of the other men, because I did not want to waste time arguing with them.”

“So you defied me,” he said flatly.

His voice seemed loud, and she was sure that every ear in the courtyard was cocked to listen, but she could hardly deny that she had brought it all on herself. The gates remained open, and obliquely, she saw the rest of the riders approaching, but she did not turn. She gazed straight ahead at nothing in particular, but her attention remained riveted to her husband.

Forcing herself at last to look at him directly, she said, “I wish I could say that I simply forgot your order, sir, and was thinking only of your mother’s health.”

“But you cannot say that, can you?”

“No, sir, but if you want to talk more about this, may we go inside? I am beginning to feel a bit chilled.”

“Your cloak is wet, and you have snow in your hair, so I’m not surprised that you are cold. We are not going inside, however, until I get an answer to my question. Why did Jock and his men leave their posts if not to escort you?”

The silence this time was so thick she thought she ought to be able to touch it, but she knew that if she did not answer him, he would force Jock to do so. That would only make matters worse.

Balcardane, Neil, and the others had ridden into the yard and were beginning to dismount, but Duncan ignored them. Clearly, he intended to have her answer before he acknowledged anyone else.

“I … I met with some difficulty,” she said, avoiding his gaze again.

“Come, Mary,” he said impatiently, “don’t equivocate. This is not like you. Tell me the truth, and tell me at once, if you please.”

Again she hesitated, certain his fury would erupt when she told him.

He sighed. “Was it Allan Breck or Ewan MacCrichton?”

Grimacing, she said, “Ewan, sir. He was waiting. He told me that he has been watching the castle, hoping I would leave its protection.”

“The devil he has!”

Hoping yet to forestall the explosion, she said, “He saw you ride out this morning. So, when Neil, your father, and the others left as well, and then I stepped out, he thought no one remained to protect me.”

She heard the earl mutter, but Duncan’s words overrode his.

“He was right, wasn’t he, thanks to your decision to defy my order? You will not do that again. I think I warned you what would happen if you did.”

“I got away from him,” Mary pointed out. “He did me no harm, sir.”

“You look as if he rolled you around on the ground!”

“Well, he didn’t. We … we had a snowball fight.”

“You and MacCrichton?”

“No, of course not.” Feeling her temper stir, she wondered if he was being purposefully thick-witted. “The children threw snowballs at him, and I got away.”

“You are saying that a snowball fight erupted between the children and MacCrichton? Do you expect me to believe that?”

Hearing surprised murmurs from a number of others, she said, “Please, sir, let me explain. You see, I had forgotten that I the trees by the barn would hide me from the castle guards, but Chuff whistled for them, and they … they gave chase.”

Duncan turned his attention again to the unhappy Jock. “Where is he, then?”

“He had a horse waiting in the shrubs, sir. We were afoot, o’ course, so he got clean away, I’m sorry tae say.”

“Get some men out straightaway to look for him. They can look for Allan Breck, too, while they’re about it. I want them to scour the countryside this time until they find that precious pair.”

“Aye, master. I’ll see to it.”

Mary had taken advantage of the respite to collect herself, but when Duncan remained silent after this last reply, she looked at him in surprise. He was still looking at Jock, his expression grimly thoughtful.

At last he said, “You and your men are all rather damp, are you not?”

“Aye.”

“The children, are they wet, as well?”

“Aye.”

Silence fell again as Duncan turned slowly back to Mary. “I think you had better give me a complete explanation,” he said, his words measured in such a way that she knew he held his temper now by only the slenderest of threads.

Striving for calm, she said, “There is little more to tell, sir, but if you want to discuss it at length, I would suggest again that we go inside.” She glanced around pointedly at the interested audience, hoping he would realize that such a discussion between a husband and wife should more properly be private.

If he did, the realization did nothing to soothe his temper.

“By heaven,” he said again, reaching for her at last, his grip tightening on both shoulders, “I ought to shake you till your teeth rattle or put you right across my knee. Are you daring to admit that so little did you all heed the danger you had been in that you and these idiot men engaged in a childish snowball fight?”

“I would not have put it quite that way,” she said.

“I’ll wager you wouldn’t! Surely you see now why you must stay inside these walls. Damn it, Mary, he might easily have made off with you!”

“He did not, however,” she said, feeling her temper leap and struggling to suppress it. “Really, sir, the danger was not so great as all that. Even if Chuff and Pinkie had not thrown snowballs to distract Ewan so that I could run away, Jock and his men would have got there in time to prevent his doing me any harm.”

“You cannot know that,” he snapped, his grip tightening. “What if he had had a host of men with him? What if he had dragged you off and thrown you onto that horse he had, and simply ridden off with you?”

“He does not have a host of men,” she reminded him. “I never saw more than seven or so, and Chuff has never mentioned more than that. As to dragging me—”

“You don’t know! That’s just my point,” Duncan said, giving her a shake. “Think, lass! If he had had even two men, or one—What if they’d had weapons? Who would have dared to interfere with them then?”

“You would,” she said.

The explosion came then, and it was all that she had feared it would be, except that he released her. He took his hands off her shoulders in such a way, though, that she knew he was afraid that if he did not he might hurt her. His fear of that, she knew, was much greater than her own. She would not have put it past him to put her across his knee to teach her a lesson, but she knew he would never strike her in fury. She did not know how she knew it. She just did.

She did not try to stop the flood of words, but she was constantly aware of their audience. Therefore, when he stopped bellowing at her and began talking more grimly, telling her that she would do as he bade her because she was only a woman and needed others to protect her, her own temper snapped at last.

“Only a woman, sir?
You dare fling that in my teeth after I have lived all these years with no one but my aunt to protect me! How dare you say such a thing when you and others of your ilk killed the men who once protected me? It was Campbells, I remind you, who fought against my family and my uncle’s family, Campbells who conspired with the Crown to steal our homes, and Campbells who brought that butcher Cumberland here to kill our families and burn our lands!”

“We did not bring Cumberland,” Duncan snarled. “We got rid of him!”

She ignored him, too angry now to care if she was wrong. “All you think of is your stupid orders,” she cried. “You go in and out without a thought for danger, yet you believe I am such a fool that you cannot trust me to make simple decisions. Do you have so little faith in the men guarding Balcardane that you think Ewan could bring a party of horsemen close to the castle without their knowing?”

“That is beside the point.” His tone was curt and his hands were on his hips, but he regarded her warily, as if she had turned into someone he did not know.

“That is
not
beside the point. It
is
the point. If I erred, it was in not keeping my eyes open, in becoming so engrossed in my task that I failed to hear or see him coming. You are right to take me to task for paying no heed, but one scream from me would have brought Jock and his men running. I was no more than a hundred yards away from them, Duncan. Moreover, Chuff and Pinkie—”