Chapter Nine #5
“Are ye daft?” Druce sounded ready to drag the cook to Bedlam himself. “She may be English but I’ve nae seen evidence of a sinister bone in her body.”
“She bit you.”
Druce shook his head before he laughed. The sound was loud, shaking the copper lids hanging on the wall between the ovens.
“That’s nae sinister. It makes me cousin a damn lucky man, to have that fire in the lass as he does.”
There was a touch of heat in Druce’s voice that made Anne stare at him. The large Scot sent her a smug look that drew a snort from Brodick. Druce shrugged at his cousin.
“Can’t blame a man for noticing. Seeing as how ye put her into me arms yerself.”
“Now don’t you start telling me what I can’t be taking offense at. I’ve got enough o’ that at the moment.”
Brodick turned his attention back to Anne. His jaw was tight as he battled the urge to deal with the maids the way he wanted to. Anne wanted none of it.
“Be at peace, my lord. There are some things that should never be ordered. I prefer to earn my loyalty. A few weeks is nothing compared to the true value of knowing that each bit of respect shown to me is truly meant.”
There was more than one gasp from the row of maids. Bythe looked confused.
“Ye said it in front of all, my lord, refusing to eat. I heard the tale from twenty different men and women.”
“She didnae try to poison me but it is possible the woman means to drive me mad.” He shook his head but raised a dark eyebrow.
“She was cooking under yer own nose. Are ye telling me that ye dinnae know what’s going on in this kitchen?
” He pointed to the ring of keys attached to the cook’s belt.
“Are ye so careless with those that anyone might get into the herbs without yer permission?”
Bythe covered her lips with a hand that shook. Brodick scanned the rest of the maids.
“Did it nae cross any one of yer minds that there would have been witnesses a plenty to such a deed? Or am I to assume that such harmful herbs are kept unlocked?”
Blythe’s face turned red, one hand covering the ring of keys hanging from her belt.
Being the cook meant she was charged with the costly herbs that served as flavoring and as ease for ailments.
No one took such costly, hard to come by things without her unlocking the small drawer they were kept in.
The keys were the symbol of her position at Sterling; they never left her sight.
Her mouth opened but no words made it past her horrified lips.
Anne turned her back on it all. More certain than ever that her guilt showed.
She was not worthy of Brodick’s defense.
It was a solid truth that she was doing something harmful to him.
Stealing the dowry that he had invested so much effort into securing with her father.
Two years of work that she would not bring him the reward of.
She was convinced that God was working through the staff to force her to confess.
Her stomach heaved, the guilt making her sick. Anne ran from the eating area before she lost everything in her belly.
“The mistress has been very kind to me.”
Brodick turned to stare at the single voice raised in praise of his wife. Coming through the doorway, young Enys used her hands to feel her way.
“Why do ye say that?”
Enys tilted her head towards him, lowering her head as if she could see him looking at her.
“The mistress has spent many days helping me spin. She does the things I don’t have the sight for and she’s a good carder. One who doesn’t quit when the hours grow long.”
He was suddenly tired, more fatigued than he could ever recall being. The wall of hatred between Scotland and England looked near impossible to scale. His wife had been sitting in the spinning room instead of taking control of Sterling. Yet she had not been lazy. He didn’t know what to make of it.
He might be lord of the castle and of the land but it didn’t seem to lend him any weight in this battle. That angered him. But it was not the sort of emotion that had sent him into the kitchen, ready to thrash a few maids.
It was a deep rage against injustice toward his wife.
He wanted to spare her the ill will between their countries.
The hope to unite that had seen him negotiating with her father was struggling to survive amidst the animosity.
The woman he’d looked forward to returning home to was worth more than quick judgment.
“No one of us chooses our parents. I’m disappointed in the lot of ye. Sterling has nae ever been such an unjust place as I find it today.”
He left. Druce followed him, the other man looking as confused as he felt.
“What man ever understood the way a woman thinks?”
Brodick wasn’t able to shrug off the problem so simply. “Why would she sit in the spinning room instead of taking her place as mistress of Sterling?”
Druce frowned. “Are ye sure ye want to become suspicious of her again, Cousin? That didnae do so well for ye before.”
“It doesnae make sense.”
And even if Druce was right, there was no stopping the suspicions that clouded his thinking. Mary was hiding something. He was sure of it.