Chapter One #2
Anger shot through her as Beth jumped from her chair. “Are ye telling me that the king has ordered me to be paraded before some laird I ne’er saw, and then be embarrassed by being compared to another lass like he was buying a horse?” She took a breath. “Should I show him my teeth, then?”
Her da stood and looked over at her mam. “Jean, ye should be dealing with this anyway.” He turned to Beth. “Pack what ye need. We leave in the morning for Castle Leod.” With those words resounding in the room, he left, closing the door with more enthusiasm than was necessary.
Beth turned to her mam. “Please tell me this was all a nightmare that I will soon awaken from.”
Her mam walked to her and put her arm around her shoulders, hugging her close. “’Twon’t be so bad.”
“But Mam, I ne’er wanted to get married. We’ve spoken of this before. Let my sisters add to the Munro population.”
Mam moved her forward. “I ken that, dear, but ye must have kenned that one day it would happen. Laird’s daughters are no’ allowed to remain single. They must bring alliances and coin to their families.”
Beth leaned back and looked at her mam. “Da has made three alliances with my sisters’ marriages. How many does he need?”
Mam shook her head as they started up the stairs to the bedchamber floor. “’Tis the king’s order, Beth.” She stopped halfway up the stairs and turned. “Ye say ye will remain here to take care of us in our old age. Who will take care of ye in yer old age?”
*
Daniel woke to the sound of someone yelling. “Laird!”
He’d spent the prior night drinking away his anger, which had done nothing except make him oversleep and awaken with a pounding head and a stomach ready to bring up whatever it was he’d last eaten. Along with the whisky.
He threw off the bedcovers and pulled his braies on, slipping into his léine as he strode to the door and out into the hall.
A young lad who Daniel remembered as being the son of one of the stable masters raced up to him, out of breath. “Laird, they need ye in the stables. One of the horses broke out of his stall and ran o’er a groom.”
They both ran from the keep with Daniel yelling to the closest guard. “Get the healer and have her meet us at the stables.”
There seemed to be a dozen guardsmen huddled at the entrance to the stable. “All of ye get back to the lists and keep training.”
Daniel made his way through the crowd, now breaking up, and walked to the man lying on the ground, with Brendan, the head stable master hovering over him.
“How is he?” Daniel asked.
“I’m no’ sure, Laird. The horse bumped him on the shoulder and then stepped on his leg as he ran from the stable.”
He nodded and bent down alongside the man. Daniel didn’t want to turn him over in case it damaged him further. “Who is he?”
“Ian Mackenzie, Laird,” Brendan said.
Before Daniel had a chance to ask anything else, the healer, Emma, hurried up to him, clutching her ever-present basket of medicants. “What happened here?”
Daniel nodded to Brendan to explain to the lass.
After learning about the mishap and examining him, she ordered him to be taken to one of the bed chambers so she could help him.
Daniel authorized the use of one of the keep bedchambers. The men moved Ian onto a large board and they carried him upstairs with Daniel leading the way. Once the man was settled and Emma attending him, Daniel downed a mug of ale, then went to his own bedchamber, washed and dressed for the day.
He had plans to visit one of the bothies who were having problems with leakage. He ordered a wagon with supplies on it so he and the owner, John, could fix the problem if it wasn’t too bad. Since this was the first he’d heard about it, he assumed they could quickly mend it.
’Twas a cloudy day, which only added to the depression of his overindulgence and lack of enthusiasm for the king’s edict.
When he got to the bothy, he found several of other men from the village had already started on the roof.
With them all working silently, they got the leakage and other problems the man was having fixed.
It took longer than Daniel had expected and it was almost dark when he left the bothy.
After sweating out the alcohol from his body as he made his way through the job, Daniel decided to take advantage of the light from the full moon so he went to the loch and, stripping off his clothes, dove into the cold water.
He swam for about a half hour and then climbed out, dried himself with his léine, then slid his braies on and headed back to the keep.
He wanted nothing more than a quick meal in the kitchen and a good night’s sleep.
An unknown carriage sat in front of the stable.
He walked up to Lewis, the man who was now taking Ian’s place until the man was able to return to work.
That reminded Daniel that he needed to look in on Ian to see how the man was faring.
When he’d first seen him, he hadn’t looked too bad, but it was hard to tell these things without a healer’s report which he would receive soon.
“Whose carriage is this?” Daniel asked Lewis.
“Laird Munro, his wife and daughter arrived while ye were gone. I think Louise greeted them in yer place and led them to the keep.”
Daniel nodded. So, one of the lasses had arrived. It must have been Lady Beth Munro. He knew nothing about her, except that right now she was housed in one of the bedchambers in the castle.
He strode to the outer bailey where he found his chatelaine, Louise, directing men to unload a wagon that must have belonged to the Munro family.
“There ye are, laird. Ye weren’t here to meet yer guests,” Louise said, looking a tad put out.
“Nay. I was seeing to the injury of one of our men, then spent the rest of the day fixing John’s bothy so he and his wife and bairns won’t have to sleep under trees if it rains.”
“Did ye ken they were coming?” She gestured toward the carriage that was now being brought to the stables.
“Aye and nay. The king has ordered two lasses and their parents to Castle Leod for the purpose of me selecting one to marry.”
Louise sucked in a breath and placed her hand on her chest. “So soon. Dinna the king give ye time to prepare?”
Daniel shook his head. “Nay. I only found out about it yesterday.”
The chatelaine shook her head, placing her hands on her middle. She sniffed, and rightly so, since she was the one who had to provide for guests without prior notice and the laird present. “I sent them up to their bedchambers to refresh themselves before we have supper, which will be verra soon.”
There went his plans for a quick supper and a comfortable bed. He nodded. “I will change and go to the great hall in time to greet them when they come down.”
Daniel took a deep breath.
And now it begins.