Chapter Eleven #2
Seamus was always the same – honourable up to a point, and then came the knife-sharp ruthlessness.
At eighteen, almost before he knew how to be a man, he had been married off for the sake of his clan.
It could not have been easy. Cullen was five years older, and life had hardened his character, adding layer upon layer of bitterness, anger, and resentment, like rings forming inside a tree.
But he had fought to keep a conscience and some claim to kindness.
Yet his cousin already had the world-weary bitterness of a much older man.
Had his new wealth made him bolder, more arrogant, or had the sacrifice of his future, for the sake of Maeve Glendenning, turned his heart to stone?
‘Tell me, Cullen. Why did you really bring that lass here?’
‘I cannot take Lowri along when I go about my trade. So I was hoping…’
‘To leave her with us? The answer is no, cousin.’
Cullen narrowed his eyes. ‘I’ve got you out of many a hole in the past. You owe me.’
‘I do, but not this much. Glendenning will find out when he visits. He is allied to Peyton Strachan for now, and when the news reaches his ears that his sister bides here, he will come to take her back. I’ll not make an enemy of that hard bastard.’
‘I cannot drag a woman into my life. It is too dangerous.’
‘Seems to me if she was reiving and running wild, your wife is perfectly suited to your life, Cullen. Just keep her away from the worst of them. You know of whom I speak. He always had a yearning for dark-haired lasses.’
***
Lowri woke with a start. A shadow lay across her face. She sat up and was confronted with a bonnie, young lass. Her eyes were bright with curiosity, and she seemed amused.
‘I was waiting for you to wake. You have slept for an age, snoring like a bear, you were.’ She giggled and began smoothing the pretty coverlet, stroking her hands along the outline of the embroidered flowers as if her mind was elsewhere.
Her laughter died away. ‘This was a wedding present from my brother, but my husband does not like him, so he will not have it on our bed.’
The woman was of an age with Lowri, blonde, plump-cheeked and full-breasted, and she had a swollen belly.
Lowri got out of bed to avoid the scrutiny. She went over to the fire, which was now roaring heat into the small chamber. ‘Did you build up the fire?’ she asked.
‘Not, that’s not for me to do. I am mistress of this house. Esther did it. She likes you, I think, much more than she likes me. No one likes a Glendenning here, and definitely not one with a fat belly.’
‘Glendenning? said Lowri.
‘I am Maeve Macaulay now, Seamus’ wife, but I was Maeve Glendenning once.’
Lowri tried to feign ignorance of the scandal around the lass, but her eyes strayed to the woman’s belly, and the look on her face must have given her away.
Maeve smoothed her belly with her hands. ‘You have heard about me, I suppose.’
‘Aye, a little.’
She heaved a sigh. ‘So you know that I was shuffled off to Seamus to hide my shame, which grows bigger every day. Sometimes it kicks me from the inside out.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Folk love to gossip, don’t they? Did Cullen tell you?’ Her soft eyes welled with tears.
‘Aye, he did, but only to spare you embarrassment, I think.’
‘Embarrassment?’ She frowned. ‘I am not the one riding around the country alone with Cullen. I saw you arrive with him. And you look like he’s been tupping you in the fields. So perhaps it is you who should be embarrassed.’
How quickly the lass turned from smiling friendliness towards spite. Lowri bridled at her tone. ‘I need not be ashamed of anything, for I am his wife.’
‘Oh. Surely you are not in earnest?’
‘I am,’ she replied.
The lass put her hand to her mouth and giggled again. ‘Why on earth would he get married?’
Maeve was a strange one indeed. ‘It is a long story,’ said Lowri, for she did not know what to tell Maeve. ‘Did your husband not tell you?’
‘He tells me very little, but you must tell me everything, for I’ve little entertainment here. Did your family arrange it, like they did mine?’
‘Something like that.’
Maeve rattled off a myriad of questions, and Lowri was about to tell the lass to mind her own business, when someone called ‘Maeve’ up the stairs. The lass grimaced and headed to the door. ‘It’s Esther. Damn her to hell. I must go. I have chores. I will come later, and you can tell me everything.’
‘Can I come with you?’ said Lowri. She had to get the lay of the land and could not bear to be alone with her thoughts for a minute longer. Even Maeve’s strange company was better than that.
Maeve beamed. ‘Alright.’
Lowri followed Maeve down the stairs. The house was a little shabby. The walls were bare, and though there was the odd piece of fine furniture, it boasted little in the way of comfort. Draughts whined under the main door as they headed down a low corridor to the back of the house.
Maeve must have noticed Lowri’s disapproving glances, for she stopped and said, ‘It’s not much, but for a man as young as Seamus, it is a good living.
The house is sound, and there is a great deal of land, which is fertile and gives a good yield, or so Seamus says.
He bought this place with money from my brother, for taking me on.
Yet, for all it could be, I do miss home so very much. ’
‘You are unhappy here?’
‘I deserve to be. This is my punishment for lying with a man I was not married to, nor could ever be. But it was not my fault, not really. I was young and innocent of the ways of men. He took advantage.’
‘Men are not to be trusted,’ said Lowri.
‘Aye.’ Maeve grabbed onto Lowri’s arm. ‘No one has ever mentioned my shame at Graywell, for Seamus has forbidden folk to do it. He is proud, you see, and will not acknowledge that this child is not his. So, we ignore the truth, the two of us, and it hangs in the air, and folk stare when I am with Seamus, wondering what he thinks of me. Not that he is with me much.’
Why would Maeve talk of her situation with such candour? There was something desperate about her, and Lowri began to think the lass was a little touched, but her loose tongue could be useful.
‘Perhaps you should not talk about this with me,’ she said.
‘Why not? And mark my words. You may be Cullen’s wife now, but you will forever be an outsider, just like me, for the Macaulays only ever trust their own.
And who else can I talk to? I’ve no friends here.
If you stay, we may be friends, even though you are a Strachan, and my brother, Jasper, once hated yours.
’ She giggled. ‘It seems times have changed for all of us.’ She stroked her belly absentmindedly. ‘I must get on.’
Lowri followed her to the kitchen, which was smoky and dark, but it had a roaring fire, which was welcome. The old woman, Esther, was lounging before it, smoking a pipe. ‘Master says you are to skin those rabbits for supper,’ she said with a sneer.
‘Can you not do it?’ said Maeve. ‘I have a guest to look after.’
‘Guest!’ she scoffed. ‘Look here, I’ve much else to do, and Master gave his orders.
You’d best jump to it and skin those beasts properly this time.
The last ones were ruined.’ Esther got up and handed Maeve two knives, nodding at Lowri.
‘This one here can help. She looks like she knows her way around a blade.’ She stuck the pipe back in with a little clatter against her teeth and took her leave.
Maeve regarded the five limp carcasses with dismay. ‘They live more simply at Graywell than I did at home, so I am put to menial tasks as penance for my sins.’
Lowri felt a stab of pity for strange, talkative Maeve. ‘I do not think it is a punishment. I think it is a necessity. This is not a large holding. There seem to be few servants here.’
‘Aye, it’s not like Kransmuir Fell.’
‘My brother, Peyton, went there once, and said it was a fine place, very grand indeed.’
‘It is a fortress, or a prison, depending on who you are. It was a prison for me, always pressed under my mother’s thumb, so I was.’ Maeve sighed. ‘But now I have exchanged one cage for another. Oh, silly me. I must get on, or there will be snide looks from Esther.’
‘If she is a servant, you should stick up for yourself.’
‘Oh, that is impossible. She has a vicious tongue, and her and Seamus are thick as thieves.’
It seemed they both bullied poor Maeve, and Lowri had a flash of anger for the poor lass, who began to attack the first carcass, clumsily stabbing and tearing at the rabbit skin. She would cut a finger off any minute now.
‘Careful,’ said Lowri. ‘You must gut this fellow cleanly, or you will taint the meat.’
‘I know, but it is disgusting.’
‘Would you like me to help you?
‘Oh, would you?’ said Maeve gleefully.
Lowri took the knife and began to attack the rabbits as Maeve looked on, wincing at the crack of their little leg bones as Lowri tore the skin off them.
‘You do that well,’ she said.
‘Lots of practice. I was a little wild in my youth. I ran away from home many times and had to find food.’
‘Oh.’
‘My brother, Peyton, taught me to use a bow and to hunt. He was good like that. He used to say, ‘No one can be helpless in this life, especially not a woman.’
‘What a strange thing to say. Should your brother not have protected you from life’s ills and kept you safe at home?’
‘He tried to, but I was stubborn and foolhardy, and I…’ Lowri stopped cutting as a sob choked her throat. She leaned on the table to steady herself.
Maeve came up and patted her back. ‘Don’t cry. ‘Tis the same for all of us. Men are beasts most of the time, and we must learn to endure them.’
Lowri turned to Maeve. ‘Are all the Macaulays cruel?’