Chapter 3
Scott was up and ready to head into Ayrshire Village by the time the morning sun had filtered through the curtains of his chamber. His mind was filled with the many scenarios that could take place when he met the redhead woman who had stolen from him.
He still did not have a proper punishment to give the lass. The thinking had cost him most of his night’s rest, but Scott was more active than his war chief and his guard when he saw them situated at the entrance of the dining hall as he made his way down for breakfast.
Pausing to raise a curious brow at his guard, Scott scratched at the stubble that was starting to grow on his chin. “Did ye find her?”
“Good morning to ye as well, me Laird and aye, I did find her. I set out earlier with a few men. Our task was a wee difficult as the villagers were nae exactly friendly toward us. Still, we managed to find her. She is the oldest daughter of the old Esquire yer father kept around until he passed. Her name is Liliana Clarke,” Conner replied, his eyes drooping slightly while Scott nodded at him, a small scowl lingering on his face.
For some reason, the information about the lass seemed to anger him.
She was the daughter of an Esquire his father kept under his wing.
His father was generous toward his subordinates which meant the lass had money, she had food.
Then why would she sneak into his castle to steal?
She had no real motive. She was not driven by anything perhaps other than greed and how that made his blood boil. Still, he remained calm
“Thank ye and get some rest, ye look like shite. I will ride into the village myself after breakfast. Neither of ye need to follow me.” Scott walked past the two men who followed behind him, simply out of habit.
“That is nay exactly the best thing to do, me Laird. Conner just said the villagers were nae happy to see them. That’s because they recognize yer men,” Adrian pointed out, hoping to reason with his Laird, but his words fell on deaf ears as Scott had taken his seat at the table, and food was piled in front of him by the servants. “Me Laird.”
“Aye, I heard ye the first time, Adrian.”
“Perhaps ye dinnae understand what Sir Adrian is trying to say, me Laird. Let me put in words ye can understand.” Conner stepped up to the Laird, who looked away from his food to meet the gaze of his personal guard.
“If ye go to the village without proper protection, the chances that ye will get lynched are extremely high.”
“My own people would never.”
“They dinnae like ye, me Laird. They want ye gone by any means necessary.”
Scott clenched his teeth at being interrupted by his guard, but there was not much he could do about Conner.
They had grown up together, with him being the son of the housekeeper.
Conner was comically blunt even as a child.
While Scott did need someone to put him in his place every now and then, they were odd, but they were friends.
Scott would never admit it to Conner, but he thought of his guard more like a brother than a friend.
Scott raised a warning finger at his guard before a heavy hand descended on his shoulder. “Now, me Laird, let’s nay resort to violence this early in the day. Conner was being rash as usual, but he is correct.”
“Ye are nae the person the villagers want to see the first thing in the morning. I know ye dinnae nae mean to ignore their needs as each battle has been taking more than we can give, ye are nae to be blamed, but the villagers dinnae understand this. They see things their way, and until we attend to their demands, there is little we can do to change their minds. If ye go to the village alone, the villagers might get hostile, and we dae nae want that. Allow us to go with ye if ye dinnae want a large party accompanying ye.”
Adrian was the sort of anchor their trio of friendship needed.
Adrian was older than them, Scott had counted it to almost a decade older.
The large man had caught and won the eye of the young Laird with his fighting style and his experience on the battlefield even before the old Laird had died.
Scott wasted no time in appointing the rather gentle giant as his war chief rather than Conner, who shrugged it off, saying he would be leading their men to their doom if he ever led a battle.
Though Adrian was a man of soft words, shielding his younger friends away from conflict from others and themselves, Scott could testify that he was a bloodthirsty beast on the battlefield, his black mane matted with the blood of his enemies, his eyes, black as coal showed his victims their way to Hell.
A steaming bowl of soup was set down on the table before Scott broke the trio out of their argument.
“I have nay clue what ye are about to do, Scott, but I suggest ye listen to Adrian. As always.” The cheery voice belonged to none other than Maia Wright, the housekeeper and Scott's mother figure. She flashed the men a warm smile which only Adrian returned. “So, what are we talking about?”
“Nothin’,” Scott and Conner replied at once as Scott pushed the soup away from him. This earned them both a disapproving glare from the plump woman.
“Actually, a thief got in the garden last night, Maia. She was trying to steal food.”
Maia’s eyes went wide as her lips parted with a gasp at Adrian’s confession. “And it seems Scott is enamored with her.”
“Her? A lass?” Adrian nodded, and Maia turned back to Scott. “And ye did nae want me to hear about it because ye knew I would scold ye?”
“Maia, I am seven-and-twenty winters old, ye cannae scold me.” Scott pushed his chair back and got to his feet, appetite gone.
Maia sounded smug and it irked Scott. Maia could always read situations better than he could.
She had warned him the villagers would soon get fed up with his nonchalant behavior toward them but in his defense, he had his birthright to protect.
“Aye, I cannae scold ye, but I can scold Conner. He will know how to convey me message. Where are ye going? Ye have nae had breakfast yet!”
Of course, there was the constant fussing, but could his day truly be complete without Maia almost yelling at the Laird and her son to take better care of themselves? Truth be told, Scott never needed to, Maia was always there.
“Scott is going to find the lass and br—” Adrian winced as Scott’s elbow connected with his side.
“Ye stay here and cough up our entire battle plans while ye are at it,” Scott hissed at the large man, who took a cautious step back as his Laird pushed past him. “Conner, let us leave.”
“Aye, but without Adrian, the villagers—” Conner started but stopped, pursing his lips and looking away from the sharp sideways glare Scott directed at him.
Maia let out a loud sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Just go with him, Conner. Ye better nae upset the villagers, Scott, since ye certainly know what ye are doing.”
Scott turned to face the housekeeper who had waved the servants in the room over to clear the table. “So ye expect me to leave the thief be? If I let her be, the villagers will make a mockery of me.”
“Ye want to drag a lass out of her home because she stole food from ye. Food that the villagers are clearly lacking. Scott, think about this.”
“They have farms, Maia, and Conner said she was the daughter of an Esquire! She is nay lackin’ food. She came to spite me, rile me up. She tried to steal from me, and I will make an example out of her.”
His words caused Adrian and Conner to exchange looks. With Scott’s reaction to the thief the previous night and how he spoke of her now, something had obviously changed, but when it came to their Laird, it was often difficult to tell.
Her eyes snapped open as a gasp escaped from Liliana. Below her, she could hear the heavy banging on the door of the house and on the other side of the room, she could hear her sister clumsily scrambling out of bed.
“Liliana, wake up!” Alana snatched the fur covers off Liliana, but she did not need to go that far.
Liliana was already awake and her heart thundering in her chest like the skies during a storm.
She did not have to guess who was banging in their door this early in the day.
She knew it was the consequences of her actions. But how had they found her?
Perhaps the guard that aided her had also been the one to expose her, or someone else had seen her face, but how could they have fished her out that quickly? Was the Laird conducting a search to find her, or did they know this was where she resided?
Her mind was a scrambled mess as she tried in vain to control her heavy breathing.
The terror that washed over her was worse than her panic after being caught the previous night.
Cold sweat prickled her forehead as she received a shove from her sister once more.
This prompted her to get out of bed. Her legs wobbled underneath her as she slipped a robe over her nightdress, almost forgetting her slippers until Alana pushed her back into the room for them.
Liliana wiped her palms against her robe, holding on to the banister as she descended the stairs to find her entire family, even her sick father, already at the door which was pulled open.
The moment her feet touched the floor, her brother, Patrick, stepped away from the door with a curt bow allowing a man to step in.
But it was not just a man. It did not matter how much Liliana wished and prayed to whatever God was listening that it was just a man, it fell on deaf ears as the Laird himself had been the one to seek her out.
Their eyes met, and Liliana sucked in a breath while she took a step back, more than ready to flee to her chamber and never show her face again.
She had done what she did for the villagers, cast away logic for their sake, and even though she did not regret it, she knew she would be the only one who had to suffer whatever punishment the Laird would give to her.
“Me Laird as ye can see, the whole family is present. If ye can find who it was who broke into yer Castle last night, please do, although I doubt it is from this household. I know all of my siblings were in this house all through the night.” Patrick kept his gaze low while the Laird hadn’t taken his eyes off Liliana.
“Ye go to such great lengths to defend yer siblings. Ye even challenge me, I find that impressive. But unfortunately for you, the thief is right here, staring back at me like a fish out of water.”
Liliana frowned; her lips curled into a scowl.
A last attempt of defiance as she crossed her arms over her chest. The Laird could prove nothing.
Patrick had seen her go to bed, Alana had seen her in bed when she was startled awake by the door.
Liliana tried to stand her ground, her face nonchalant while her hands shook, forcing her to clench them into fists as the Laird stalked toward her, stopping when his foot touched hers.
“Such audacity from a wee lass such as yerself.”
Liliana huffed, the corner of her lips quivered as she looked up at the Laird. The man basically towered over her. “I dinnae understand what ye speak of, me Laird. Whatever it may be, I am sure ye can say it from a respectable distance.”
Scott huffed out a small laugh, lips curling into a smirk as Liliana continued to hold his icy stare. “Ye snuck into me Castle during the night, I have nae a clue how. Ye got into me gardens and tried to steal from me.”
“I beg yer pardon, me Laird, but it seems ye have the wrong lass. I can nae even sneak past me ill faither. I… am but a lass, I am frail. How could I have pulled off such a feat?” Scott could not tell if she was teasing or mocking but it annoyed him either way.
The Laird opened his mouth to speak, but Patrick was faster.
“Me Laird, I assure ye that I could havenae been my sister. After supper, the lasses retire earlier than the men. I checked on them after putting me father to bed, my sisters were fast asleep. I, myself, dinnae retire until it was almost morn.”
“There is nae way anyone could have left or gotten in without running into me. And please, me Laird, be kind enough to step away from me sister. I willnae have her be intimidated by anyone as long as she is under my wing.”
Patrick’s plea went past the Laird as he remained in his position. “My personal guard saw her as clear as day.”
“Perhaps yer guard mistook her fer someone else.” Liliana’s second brother Oliver spoke up as he glared at someone on the other side of the open door. “These men go to war all the time, some blows to the head and ‘tis easy to see things when yer head is scrambled.”
“Oliver!” Patrick gently nudged his brother in the rib.
“Even if my guard mistook her fer someone else, who else has hair like this?” The Laird reached out for a curly strand of Liliana’s red hair, twirling it between his fingers before a hand came from beside her to yank Liliana out of his sight.
Patrick pulled his sister behind him before giving the Laird a quick bow as the man turned around.
“Please, me Laird. Let us keep our hands to ourselves only out of courtesy. And while it is true that nay one has hair like me sister in the village, that does nae mean the thief came from this village. She is nae the only one with hair like this in the Clan, I am sure of it. Ye could have seen another hair color as well, me Laird. The blacksmith’s daughter’s hair is curly, ye must have seen the color wrong. ”
“I cannae say if ye are calling me stupid or a liar. Yer sister tried to steal from me, she left behind a sack and her lamp when she was being chased. Me personal guard saw her up close, and every guard that gave chase, including myself, saw her hair clearly.”
“It was a dark last night, me Laird. It could have been easy to—” Patrick was cut short when the Laird stepped into his space. While her brother was a large man himself, almost the same build as the Laird, he was towered over as well.
Anger seemed to radiate off the Laird as he glared not at her brother but straight at her, but this time, Liliana could not stand her ground.