Chapter 6
THE SMALL ENTOURAGE rattled down the path.
Malcolm’s pony was harnessed to the wagon and Malcolm, sitting next to his father, held the reins.
Eleanor and Hannah sat uncomfortably in the wagon with a frayed dress folded unevenly and resting on Eleanor’s lap.
Thomas, Keir, and Logan rode their respective horses, single file in front.
Eleanor and Hannah resorted to lip-reading and gestures to communicate unless it was to comment on the Scottish scenery they passed.
The sights and smells were new to them.
The earth was briny and wet, the bogs gave off a dank tangy scent, but new spring growth peeped up through the soil.
Eleanor couldn’t help but stare ahead at the backs of Tavish and Malcolm, because between their shoulders she’d get a glimpse of the riders.
There’d been a short introduction of Thomas, who’d given them hard-boiled eggs for their breakfast and a cup of something she heard the younger McKelvey call watered-down whipkull.
She didn’t like it, but she drank it.
The brothers had eaten standing up, staring at her and Hannah, who had been given the seats.
She’d been terribly uncomfortable and had answered all questions with one-syllable responses, keeping the timbre of her voice low and husky.
Their plan seemed to be in flux, with an upcoming stop at a small farm along the way.
Eleanor gleaned from the morning’s conversation that the McKelvey brothers had a sister who married a Beldorney.
They lived on a farm not far from the Beldorney estate or Hall as Keir had called it.
She thought Luxbury had called it a castle.
Perhaps Beldorney was a common name in Scotland.
She wasn’t sure if the Beldorney clan was high-born, but Lady Beth had intended for Eleanor to go by that name.
She thought back a couple of nights to Lady Beth’s admonitions. She said Luxbury had relatives in Scotland, of the Beldorney clan, and that the captain had chosen that name for her to use; the Beldorneys were English sympathizers and would teach her things she should know as a Hanover heir.
She felt her heart rate quicken.
She was in the middle of something outlandish and her feelings and fears made amendments by the hour.
She clutched at the hidden brooch and tried to remember her mother more clearly.
The pony pulled the wagon steadily and turned to follow the riders along a bumpier path.
Then the path opened up onto a beautiful expanse of meadows and fields.
It took her breath away.
And she had a perfect view of the horsemen, now riding abreast.
The McKelveys’ kilts flapped against their horses’ rumps, but the men themselves wore tartan trews, leather lined to protect them.
Their hair, ribboned into hasty tails, bounced at their necks.
She admired their posture, their shoulders … and then Keir twisted in the saddle to look back at the wagon. Their eyes met for a full two seconds before she remembered to breathe. She quickly looked down at the ratty dress in her lap.
Hannah nudged her.
“Look, a farm.”
She raised her gaze again and saw a small house on the hilltop.
Keir was now galloping up the trail, his brother trotting after him.
Thomas stayed nearer to the wagon and laughed when Tavish made a remark in Gaelic.
Hannah poked at Malcolm’s back.
“What was that your father said? We didn’t understand a word.”
Malcolm looked over his shoulder, a smirk on his face, and repeated the Gaelic phrase.
Hannah punched him harder.
“In the King’s English, please.”
“Och, he said he hoped to see some teats.”
Both Hannah and Eleanor nodded and laughed.
They’d heard much worse and had been expert at making their own bawdy retorts in their capacities as young male stable hands, before Lady Beth took them in hand to transform them.
Hannah gave Eleanor an eye and said, “My friend El here could show you his, or rather, hers.”
That got a chuckle from Tavish and a disappointed groan from Malcolm.
To Eleanor she said, “You’ll need a couple rags or maybe stuff some pouches with wool to give yourself the look, El.”
Eleanor clutched the dress up to her chest and made a face at Tavish’s back.
She let an uncouth rejoinder slip out of her mouth, followed by, “When you see me next, wearing this frock, you’ll fall in love with me yourself, Pascoe.”
The wagon picked up some speed as the pony tried to keep up with Thomas’s gelding.
The girls took a bad bounce and groaned, but they finally reached the cabin.
Tavish jumped down and told Malcolm to hold the pony at the halter, to keep his head up from nibbling the light green shoots sprouting up everywhere.
The girls stayed in the wagon, awaiting instructions.
At last they had a moment to speak privately while the McKelveys embraced their sister.
“I think I may have a problem,”
Hannah whispered, clutching her stomach.
“I always get these painful stomach flutters a day or two before my monthly comes.
How am I to hide it?”
Eleanor swung her head up, looked at the small woman smiling up at that handsome Highlander.
“Perhaps we’ll get a chance to confide in that woman.”
Hannah looked over.
“But she’s their sister.
She’ll be on their side.
We have to keep pretending we’re English lads, pretending to be a guard and a lady.
If I get my monthlies—”
“We’ll figure something out.
Shh, here they come.”
Keir brought his sister to the wagon and immediately spoke to Eleanor.
“Stand up, lad.
Show me sister the dress.”
Eleanor got to her feet and held the fabric a few inches in front of her body.
Even with the height of the wagon she wasn’t much above the Highlander.
“What think ye, Fenella?”
“Oh, it’s long enough for him.”
She tittered and grasped Keir’s elbow, still looking up.
“But even as delicate and, er, graceful as this fella is, it’ll take a miracle to pass him off as a lady in waiting or such like.
Lad … if ye could be anywhere now, where would ye be?”
Without hesitation Eleanor responded, “America.”
She was pleased with how she’d lowered her voice, grateful it didn’t quiver, though it was flat and lifeless.
“Aye,”
Fenella nodded, “America.
A place fer new beginnin’s.”
Eleanor held her tongue, glanced back and forth between Fenella and Keir.
Fenella would hold her stare, but Keir would not meet her eyes.
He looked at Hannah.
Fenella nudged him.
“Then the other one, perhaps? Stand up, Pascoe.”
Hannah stumbled to her feet and crossed her arms.
She lifted the left side of her upper lip to approximate a sneer.
Then she snatched the dress from Eleanor and curtsied.
“Well,”
Fenella clapped her hands, “that was quite a change.
He may be yer lady.
I’ll fetch ye a better dress.
And me bonnets.”
Keir looked at his sister.
“Does it grieve ye to nae be called Lady, Fenella?”
“Not at all.”
She waved a hand at her house and fields.
“Here be me own Beldorney estate, a piece of Scottish heaven all to ourselves.
I’m Lady Beldorney here.”
She gently touched her hand to her belly then shielded her eyes with a palm and looked far off.
“And there be me own prince.
Hubert.
And Huey by his side.”
“Aye, a prince of a man is he.
Little Huey’ll take after him.”
Keir turned his body away from the wagon and began to lead his sister back toward the house.
“Has Huey been practicin’ wi’ the hatchet?”
Hannah and Eleanor sank back into the wagon.
“So, we’ve switched roles again?”
Hannah frowned at Eleanor.
“I’m sorry.”
Eleanor brushed off the concern.
“No matter.
The only thing that matters now is getting to that outhouse beyond the cabin.
I’ll go first.”
“Take the dress.
Change.
Maybe we can both be ladies. Again.”
***
“’TIS SETTLED,”
KEIR crossed his arms, towering over everyone as they circled around him by the sideyard bathing tub.
“Thomas, ye’ll be staying in the bothan on the edge of the heathers, a’waitin’ for us.”
Then he said, “The lads’ll bunk wi’ me nephew in the loft and you two …”
he raised his voice and indicated Tavish and Malcolm who still stood off a ways with the pony, “…? I thank ye much, but ye may ferry yerselves along home now.”
“Ye have nae further use o’ me wagon? How will ye get the lads … er, lassies … to the estate?”
Tavish scratched at his beard.
“They’ll ride wi’ me and Logan and don the dresses a mile from the Beldorney gates.
We’ll say they were waylaid by highwaymen and we McKelveys came to their rescue.
Thus they’ll be without carriage, bag, or baggage.
Just a lady and her servant.”
He looked at the women.
“I shall decide which is which once Fenella pretties them up.
Oh, and Tavish, have ye got the braids still?”
Tavish felt his pockets and withdrew the blond human hair braids and the darker horse hair braids.
He came close and dropped them onto Keir’s outstretched palm.
“Och.”
Keir frowned at the locks and touched the darker ones first.
“Rather coarse they be.
Me gelding, old Copper, mayhaps could donate from his mane.
Though I’d nae expect a high-born lady to wear somethin’ from a horse’s arse.”
The men all laughed.
***
ELEANOR, STANDING BEHIND Hannah, moved forward and swiped a braid from his hand.
In her lowest, most practiced male voice, she tried out a lie, “These were fine enough to fool the ship’s purser and bribe our way onto the frigate.”
Heads nodded, but Keir looked down at Eleanor.
“Tell us, El, how did ye get on board? Ye were hired by … well, can ye tell me the name of our English partner?”
Eleanor racked her brain for the name Tavish had mentioned last night.
“Sullivan.”
“He means Sylvan,”
Hannah interjected.
“Right. Sylvan.”
Eleanor stared at Keir.
***
KEIR’S TONGUE CAUGHT on his teeth.
The lad was deceptive, he was certain, but Tavish was nodding.
“And what,”
Keir got his mouth to move, “what was it ye were hired to do?”
He watched the lad suck in a breath.
There was something pulling at Keir’s inner being and he meant to figure out exactly why this small nothing of a person brought out such confusing feelings. “Well?”
Eleanor huffed, pounded one fist into her other palm, and answered, “There’s a plot against King George and Queen Charlotte too.
Some want them both dead.
Her first.
There’s an illegitimate princess, born and raised in secret … I daren’t say where … and we, me and Pascoe, are meant to spy when they move her to Scotland.
And either kill her or bring her to reign … we weren’t told which.”
Keir handed the braids to Fenella.
“Well, the lad has a grasp on the main points … and is as confused about the plot’s end as this McKelvey.”
He touched his chest and nodded at Eleanor.
“I think we need to study the topic a might bit more.
Perhaps wi’ the princess herself.”
He looked over their heads at the shapes of his brother-in-law and young son walking through the fields, making their way closer to the homestead.
He resumed his attention on El and Pascoe.
“Have ye any qualms if ye were to be asked to slip the fair maiden a poison?”
Both of their faces gave away their answer.
He put his hand up to stop them, if they were to lie.
“Don’t answer.
I’ll nae ask ye to do such a deed.”
He glanced at the other men.
Thomas raised an eyebrow, but Tavish gave a gruff farewell and climbed onto the wagon with Malcolm.
They all watched the wagon roll off, then Keir looked to Fenella.
“And I won’t ask ye to feed five more mouths.
Logan can come wi’ me to hunt the wood pigeons I saw signs of in the fields we passed.
Thomas, ye’re welcome to come along.”
Keir gave his sister a quick embrace and whispered a request.
“Can ye see to it the lads get a proper bath?”
***
FENELLA WASN’T STUPID.
She smiled warmly and drew her shawl tighter around her shoulders, inviting the two pitiable creatures into the cabin to help her with the fire, the potato peeling, and the water fetching.
But as soon as they came in, she barred the door, leaned against it, and demanded, “Just what are ye lassies attemptin’ to prove?”
She clucked her tongue.
“I’ll nae suffer ye to pretend this nonsense aroun’ me own lad.
’Twould be confusin’ to Huey.”
Eleanor looked at Hannah and Hannah shrugged her shoulders.
Eleanor let out a long breath and lowered her head in a semi-bow.
“We beg your pardon.
How did you know?”
Fenella looked them up and down.
“Ye’ve clipped yer hair, but long hair doesna make a lady a lady.
Ye’ve mastered a few of the manly traits, I’ll give ye that, but I saw ye touchin’ hands walkin’ from the outhouse.
An’ ye couldna hide yer blushin’ when ye looked upon me brothers.
Handsome men they be, and nary a lassie in the parish can look away when one or t’other passes.”
“We didn’t know what to do.”
Hannah crumbled into the nearest chair.
Eleanor touched her shoulder.
“That’s right.
We were on the ship, in the skipper’s cabin, when an inspector, well, we thought he was an inspector … when Tavish came in and ordered us to take off our dresses and get into these grimy breeches and shirts.”
“A mistake, then?”
Fenella’s scowl softened.
“Ye musta been sore afraid.
Dae ye ken what matter ye’ve gotten yerselves involved in?”
Eleanor nodded, tears gathering in her eyes.
“We’ve been planning our escape, but …”
She dropped into the next chair.
“Aye, ye’ve been scairt inta submission and then drawn in further by me brothers’ good looks an’ charm.
I dinnae blame ye.
I ken what those emerald eyes can make a lass do. Still …”
she stopped leaning against the door and stood straighter, “ye’ve burrowed yerselves into a knot of conspiracy.
I see all the nonsense the men are aboot.
Me own husband, a Beldorney relation, ye ken, is privy to the plan.
Me brothers aim to protect me from the truth, but I ken more than they think.”
She stared at Hannah until she dropped her eyes then turned her attention to Eleanor.
“But ye’re English.
I cannae make sense of it.
An’ wi’ yer hair so short, an’ braids cut off before Tavish found ye.
I cannae guess why.”
She folded her arms and waited.
Hannah spoke first.
“We worked for Lady Beth and Lord Edgeworth at castle Ingledew.
In the stables.”
She glanced at Eleanor who gave her the slightest nod.
“It was by the Lady’s mercy that we lived there, pretending to be lads until she thought it best to teach us to be proper ladies.
I was brought from Cornwall, but El, er Eleanor, was born at Ingledew.
Her mother ran away to Scotland, Lady Beth said, and we’ve,”
she took a breath, “we’ve determined to search her out.”
Fenella dropped her rigid stance.
“Ye poor lassies. And ye,”
she touched Eleanor’s shoulder, “’twere but a wee bairn and abandoned by yer ma?”
She tisked her tongue.
Eleanor lifted her head and wiped her eyes.
She reached in her breeches and unpinned the brooch she’d hidden there.
“Have you ever seen a woman wearing a brooch like this one? And calling herself Mary Ainsworth or Mary Fletcher?”
Fenella reached for the brooch.
“There be nae ring to either name, but I’ve seen a pin like this holdin’ fast to a young lad’s kilt.”
Eleanor’s eyes went wide.
She reached for Fenella’s hand and gulped.
“Can you tell us where?”
Fenella handed the brooch back.
“’Twas at a fair, aye, a year or so past.
Two days walk north.
But the fair draws folks from all parts.”
She moved back to the door, unbolted it, and hung her shawl on a hook protruding from the center.
There was a silence in the small cabin then.
Fenella threw another log in the fireplace.
She kept her thoughts to herself a few moments more as she opened the potato bin and filled her apron with six large potatoes.
She snapped off the sprouts that had begun to grow and tossed them on the fire.
“I’ll keep yer secret,”
she said, setting the potatoes on the table and going back to a cupboard for a bowl and a knife.
“An’ I’ll help ye on yer way … after ye help me brothers wi’ their politickin’.”
Eleanor shifted her gaze and stared steadily at Fenella.
Fenella took the knife and pared the first potato.
“Me husband, Hubert, had a fallin’ out wi’ the Beldorneys.
A marriage was arranged between the Beldorney clan and the McDonough clan.
He was to take his vows and marry Morag McDonough, but we’d already met … an’ Hubert had fallin’ heelster gowdie in love wi’ me… so he broke off the engagement and wedded me.”
She sighed.
“Which brought such shame to the Beldorneys that they disowned him.”
She shook her head.
“Though as soon our bairn was born, they gifted us this land.”
She finished all six potatoes and threw the peelings out the back window.
“A word between women: marry fer love.”
She smiled at the girls and was encouraged to see a hint of a smile appear on Eleanor’s face.
Fenella suddenly became serious.
“I’ll nae spend hours boiling water fer yer baths.
Ye’ll get as clean in cold water.”
She opened a trunk that sat along the outer wall and pulled out another dress and two bonnets.
“Here ye go.
The spring’s a wee walk behind the house.
There be rags to wash with dryin’ on the bushes.
We’ll show the men what bonnie lasses ye can be.”
“But …”
Eleanor stood, “I think I understand.
You want us to help them and if all goes well, then perhaps your husband might be reunited with his family.”
Fenella nodded slowly.
“If ye please, could ye dae a wee bit of spying on me behalf? Soften up the Lady of the house, Hubert’s mum? Ye’ll get yer pay from Keir, and I’ll add to it from me own stash, to help ye on yer search.
I’ll write ye a letter, too, a letter of introduction to me sister at Castle Caladh and me married sister further to the north.
Ye’ll have places to stay whilst ye search.”
Fenella watched Eleanor release a full smile.
Och, me brothers both will be smitten should they learn her true sex.
***
THE ICY WATER was shocking.
They splashed themselves with handfuls of it and rubbed off two days’ worth of dirt with the rags.
The sun at least was helpful in drying them and they donned the dresses and bonnets as soon as they could.
Hannah gathered the boys’ clothes and dunked them in the spring and rung them out as well as she could.
They both arranged them to dry on the bushes.
Eleanor grinned at Hannah.
“You look beautiful, Pascoe.
It must be the blue of the dress.”
“You should have let me wear the old one.
I don’t want to be the lad pretending to be the lassie that’s impersonating a lady’s companion … or the lady herself.”
She laughed at the complicated ruse.
“But I understand.
This way we’ll keep your true identity better protected.
I wonder if we’ll run into Captain Luxbury.”
“I hope not.”
Eleanor lifted the hem of her skirt as they stepped over rocks and then took the narrow path back to the cabin.
“She seems to love her husband.”
“Who?”
“Fenella.
I wonder how she could leave Castle Caladh to live here.”
Hannah shrugged.
“Perhaps they call it a castle, but it’s no bigger than the hut she has now.”
She looked at the cabin as they approached it.
“I miss Ingledew.
The cook.
The horses.
The warm baths.”
She laughed.
“I even miss Lady Beth.”
“As do I,”
Eleanor said.
“I’ve had no other family.
Just them and you.”
“Eleanor,”
Hannah touched her arm and they both stopped walking, “I didn’t say before, but I think it was wrong of Lord and Lady to try to send you off and make you into a princess … and to usurp the King’s throne.
It’s treason, is it not? You could be hung or beheaded.”
“It will all work out.
It always does.
Remember all the tricks we pulled? The thefts? The pranks? Even when we were caught, the punishments worked to our favor.
And now, so recently, the attack of the highwaymen—where were we when that happened? Safe in the bushes.
Then when we sneaked up, did they catch us? No.
Safe again.
Getting on board the ship where women are thrown off because of the sailors’ superstitions?—safe again. Kidnapped by Tavish? Safe with the McKelveys. Everything works out for me, for us, Hannah. Don’t worry.”
They started walking again.
“Oh, I see that now.
And Fenella knows we’re girls and she’s not going to reveal our secret.
Safe again.”
She went silent a moment.
“Though I wouldn’t mind if that younger brother of hers knew me as Hannah and not Pascoe, a lad.”
“You like Logan?”
“Mm-hm.
And don’t deny you’re attracted to Keir.”
***
KEIR WALKED COPPER the last quarter mile, plucking feathers as he trailed after the others.
Thomas had gone on to find the bothan, but Hubert and Huey had joined them on the hunt when they’d crossed paths in the far meadow.
Now they rode double beside Logan, with four more naked birds tied and bouncing against their mounts’ flanks.
When they reached the stone hut, Logan took Copper’s reins and unsaddled his brother’s horse for him.
There was a small paddock for the horses and Fenella had already filled the troughs with water.
Logan opened the gate and led them in.
“Where be ye, Fenella, me fine bonnie lass?”
called out Hubert.
His son echoed the call to the laughter of his uncles.
Fenella came around from the back of the small home carrying the now dry clothing that had been left near the creek.
Hubert dismounted and helped Huey down, then strode over to embrace his wife.
“What have ye there, me bride? Have ye stripped some poor beggar boys of their fancy garments? Teased some swain out of his livery?”
Hubert kept Fenella squeezed in his arms as he pretended to look about for the lads Keir had told him of.
“Yer brother says he left ye to do the work of fairies and make changelings of two poor lads.”
He laughed, looked at his wife, and gave her a quick kiss.
“Ye’ll be surprised, ye will.”
Fenella struggled half-heartedly to free herself, the breeches and shirts stiff against her bosom.
“There’s some little things yet to be figured out, but if ye expect to see two lassies, then two lassies ye shall see.
I’ve named them … Eleanor and … Hannah.”
She raised her voice, “Come out and show yerselves.”
All eyes turned to the cabin door.
Keir pulled the last feather out of the wood pigeon and looked up, his fingers still clinched on the feather.
Hannah stepped out first, tying the strings to her bonnet.
Keir snorted a laugh and dropped the feather.
The disguise seems quite good; it will fool anyone, he thought.
He was pleased with his sister’s skill and also thankful she’d never done this to him when they were young and she bossed him around.
Then the second lad appeared.
All the air in his lungs fled.
He made a convulsive effort to breathe as he stared at Eleanor, twirling on tiptoe, lifting and dropping her hem, fluttering her hands, and … and laughing, song-bird high and musical.
“Are ye fooled?”
his sister’s voice cut through the laughter.
He glanced right and left at the other men who seemed equally stunned.
Fenella cackled, “Aye, ye all looked fair blootered.
’Twill be easy to fool the Beldorney staff and intrude as ye wish.”
Fenella handed the dry clothes to Hannah who made a face and said, “There is one problem.
I held the braids too close to the candle, to warm the wax already on the ends, and now we have no braids at all.”
“Ye burnt’em?”
Fenella frowned.
Keir ripped his eyes from Eleanor, caught his racing breath, and pretended to be checking the pigeon for any bristles he missed.
’Tis not a she, but a he.
’Tis a boy, a lad, a verra young man, a male of me own sex.
He kept his eyes on the bird and berated himself for his ridiculous reaction.
The voices of the men rose in strange praise of Fenella’s handiwork.
Fenella is the only woman here, he repeated to himself.
“Are ye nae pleased, brother?”
Fenella came close to him whilst he scolded himself, and now freed the bird from his hand.
He nodded at her, still unable to speak.
Fenella chuckled.
“Aye, I see that yer eyes believe what yer heid denies.
But ye’ll be sayin’ him and he again as soon as I pack the frocks in a sack.
And the bonnets.
Ye cannae lose the bonnets.”
She pointed to Eleanor.
“Show them your hair, Mistress Eleanor.”
Keir risked watching as the lad, he had to think of him that way, removed the bonnet and shook out a curly head of brown hair.
When he’d first met the rascal who’d called himself El and who’d been ungraceful in jumping off the wagon, his hair was slicked tight against his skull, but now …
Keir looked away.
***
THE GIRLS SLEPT well in the loft, their stomachs full, and the blankets warm.
The soft sounds that the child, Huey, made were comforting and lulled them both to sleep in a matter of minutes.? But Eleanor woke before dawn and lay there thinking about Keir McKelvey.
She knew he’d looked at her and seen her, the real her, and he must have known right then.
Was he not kin to Fenella? Did he not have the same intuition she had?
But he kept his eyes averted through the fine supper Fenella served.
He seemed intent on bringing in armload after armload of firewood.
He and Logan spread horse blankets in front of the fireplace to make beds for themselves on the floor.
Once she and Hannah changed back into the shirts and breeches, she expected Keir to give them more instructions, but he still would not look her way.
She didn’t know how to act anymore.
Should she be more girlish in the breeches or more masculine in the dresses?
She turned onto her side and watched the flickering light from the flames below dance along the wall.
She raised herself enough to see over the edge.
There he was, on the floor.
She knew which clump of blankets covered Keir; Logan’s face was visible, but Keir’s was not.
She looked past his shape to the fire.
The flames were wiggling upward, sparking and popping to ignite a newly place log.
One of the McKelvey brothers must have recently added new wood. Perhaps that was what had awakened her.
Eleanor leaned farther forward.
Keir rolled over; his eyes opened.
She knew if she moved to duck down, the little bit of motion would catch his attention.
She didn’t blink and kept as still as she could.
A minute passed, then two.
Beneath her the door from Fenella and Hubert’s room creaked.
She saw Keir’s gaze dart that way. Fenella crept into the room and Keir raised himself to a sitting position.
“I jist added a log,”
he whispered.
“’Tis me habit, since Huey was a bairn, to wake twice a night, and e’en now that he sleeps through, I still wake.”
Eleanor rolled back and listened.
Their voices changed from whispers to low tones.
Fenella said to him, “Our brother told me the news.
Ye had a rumpus with our father.”
“Hmph, old MacLeod raised the dowry on Anabel and Father accepted.
I threw a fit and broke a few things.”
“She’s a lovely lass … but ye want somethin’ more than a pretty girl to give ye bairns.
Ye want a wife ye love, who loves ye back.”
She put a hand on his back.
“Have ye any other lass in mind?”
Keir stayed silent.
“Perhaps,”
Fenella gave him a final tap, “after these secret doin’s ye have yerself mixed into, ye’ll find yerself a woman ye’d risk losing Castle Caladh fer, like Hubert did fer me.”
She glanced at the fire.
“That should last till mornin’.
Get some sleep.”
The door creaked again and Eleanor heard Keir sigh.
Men didn’t cry, but it sounded as if he was grieving about something.
She pondered the bit of information she gleaned from the quiet conversation.
Keir was betrothed.
How soon would he marry? And why did it bother her so much?