Chapter Three
“Is it not the most beautiful tunic ye’ve ever seen?” Lady Josselyn asked, spinning in a quick circle in front of her maid Ruby.
Ruby’s emerald gaze shone with admiration. “Indeed, it is. Yer mother has a fine eye and hand. No one weaves such beautiful cloth as Lady Fergusson.”
“’Twas a gift for my birthday,” Josselyn said, holding her head higher. “Do I look older?”
“Ye look every bit of yer ten and five years,” Ruby declared. “Yer mother will be so proud.”
Josselyn looked expectantly toward the door. “Where is she? She was supposed to join us. I hope she’s all right. Her cough has returned. Mayhap she’s taken to her bed again.”
“Nay, I saw her sitting with her needlework in the solar not two hours ago. She must have been detained.” Ruby’s voice dropped, taking on a conspiratorial tone. “Something is going on. I’m certain of it.”
Josselyn leaned close, awaiting the latest gossip with bated breath. “Did she discover who’s been looting the stores?”
“Aye, but that was yesterday’s news. It was Jacob’s sons, those good-for-nothing lay-abouts.
They were stealing sacks of grain from the clan stores to pass off as their own.
Can ye imagine? And with the poor harvest we’ve had so far,” Ruby said, clucking her tongue with disapproval.
“Of course, when their father did the rounds and saw their oat fields still in need of harvesting, he caught on right quick to what had happened. Set them to work straight away, he did, and has commanded that they finish the harvest for the rest of the cottars on the Eastern slope. He’s even making them work the Sabbath. ”
Josselyn gasped. “He didn’t?”
“Aye, he did. He told them they could add breaking the sacrament to their list of sins when next they sought confession, and then Cook said she saw them filing into the chapel this morning, faces scrubbed clean and in their finest tunics. She said she’d never seen a more pathetic or repentant lot.”
“Oh my,” Josselyn exclaimed. “Well, that is one mystery solved, but what is now afoot? A lover’s tryst in the pantry? Or mayhap an unplanned handfasting?”
“I ken not,” Ruby said eagerly. “Although, wouldn’t that be grand, so romantic.
” She drew closer. “All I can tell ye is that before dawn I saw the captain and a band of ten warriors leave through the gate at a gallop. And as I was leaving the kitchens just now, on my way to yer chamber, I spied the steward racing through the Great Hall!”
A tightness settled in Josselyn’s chest at this news. “Oh dear! But why?”
Ruby lifted her shoulders. “I asked Cook and she told me to mind what was mine and to stop asking her so many questions.”
Josselyn smoothed her hands down her tunic, once more admiring the colors, deep green and wine red, both of which her mother had chosen to complement Josselyn’s chestnut hair and creamy complexion. “Whatever has happened, it can’t be too worrisome or dangerous or else the alarm would have sounded.”
Suddenly, the door swung wide. Josselyn whirled around and clapped her hands together in excitement as her parents hurried into the room. “Ye’re both just in time.” She spun in a circle. “Ye’ve out done yerself, Mama! Thank ye—”
“Josselyn, we have to go,” her mother said abruptly before crossing the room to the wardrobe against the far wall.
Josselyn made a careless gesture with her hand. “My lessons can wait.” She fanned out her skirt. “Look at how the colors blend when I spin.”
“Ye look beautiful,” her father offered.
She turned, ready to rush into his arms but faltered when she glimpsed his drawn brow. “What has happened? Ye look so sad.”
“I told ye,” Lady Clara said, draping Josselyn’s heavy wool cloak around her shoulders. “We must go.”
Eyes wide, Josselyn took in the hard set to her mother’s features. “But...I don’t understand. Why must we go?”
Her father drew closer. “There’s no time to explain,” he said before pulling her into his arms.
Josselyn’s heart pounded. There was a finality and a desperation in her father’s embrace that frightened her to her core. She pulled away, her own gaze seeking her father’s for reassurance. Like her, he had one golden brown eye and one pale blue—both were heavy with sorrow.
“Da, please, ye’re scaring me. We’ve always confided in each other. Tell me what’s happened.”
Once again, he crushed her against his chest, his warm, familiar scent surrounding her. “Hush, sweetling. Ye’re going to be fine, but ‘tis time to go.”
“But ye’ve not told me where?”
“That is not important now,” he said in a calm voice that did nothing to mask his worried expression.
Her gaze darted around the room. Thane stood in the doorway, his face red and his eyes wide. He was wearing his cloak and had a bulging satchel clutched in his fist. Ruby stood in the center of the room, wringing her hands, her face stricken.
Josselyn whirled around to face her father. “But Ruby hasn’t readied my trunks. She’s coming, too, is she not? I’ve never traveled anywhere without Ruby and my trunks.”
“Look at me,” her mother said firmly, seizing Josselyn’s face between her hands. “We need ye to be strong.”
Tears flooded Josselyn’s eyes, blurring her mother’s determined face. She nodded, unable to speak.
“’Tis time,” Thane urged, half out the door.
Panicking, she sought her father’s gaze. “Da!”
He pulled her close once more. “Everything will be all right. Just mind yer mother and Thane.”
She gasped, gripping his tunic in her fists. “Ye’re not coming with us?”
His face softened. “All will be well in the end, my sweet lass, ye’ll see.”
“Ye didn’t answer me!”
Thane drew close. “I promise ye, my lady, I will protect ye with my life if need be.”
She looked away from him, shaking her head furiously at her father. “I won’t leave ye.”
A sad smile curved Malcom’s lips. “We are never truly apart, daughter.”
A sob tore from her throat. She threw her arms around his neck. “I will never let ye go.”
“Ye must trust me, lass,” he whispered in her ear. Despite how she struggled, he forced her arms down. “Go with Thane and yer mother,” he said firmly.
Lady Clara drew close and looked her hard in the eye. “Ye’re made of stronger stuff than ye realize.”
Josselyn had never seen her mother look so unyielding. She ceased her protests, although she could not quell the tears rushing down her cheeks. Hearing a stifled sob, Josselyn looked over at Ruby who was crying into her hands.
She rushed to her maid’s side. “I love ye, Ruby,” she blurted, throwing her arms around Ruby’s neck.
“And I ye, my lady!”
A moment later, Lady Clara clasped Josselyn’s hand, pulling her toward the door. “Come now.”
“Wait,” Malcom burst out, storming after them. He took her mother into his arms and kissed her long and hard. Josselyn’s chest tightened. She could hardly draw breath as she watched her parents embrace as if for the last time.
Then her father turned to her and crushed her against his chest. “I love ye,” he whispered before he pulled away and reached again for his wife.
“Clara, ye unlocked my passion and taught me love. Ye’re my queen.
Remember that,” he declared. Then his gaze shifted to Josselyn.
He cupped her cheek. “Mind what I’ve always told ye—the greatest gift ye can give someone is time. ”
“But Da,” she cried, clinging to him. “I want more time.”
A bittersweet smile suddenly curved his lips. His gaze raked over her face as if memorizing every detail. “I’m so proud of my wee lass. I love my wee lass.” Then he thrust her away from him. “Go now! Before it’s too late!”
Her mother seized her arm and yanked her through the door.
Crying, Josselyn stumbled forward, down flights of stairs, through the Great Hall, then into the courtyard.
Tears blurred her vision. Her mind raced.
Tremors of fear coursed through her. She thought her knees would give way, but, suddenly, strong hands seized her waist, lifting her into the air and setting her astride a horse.
She sat, numbly, her chest tight, her breathing shallow. She couldn’t feel her limbs.
“My lady, ye must grip the reins,” a man’s voice said, the sound muffled by the din of her heart blasting in her ears.
“We must ride, Josselyn,” she heard her mother call out, although her voice sounded distant. “Take up the reins!”
“Mama,” she cried, fumbling with the leather straps, searching the hazy faces around her for warm, brown eyes and a heart-shaped face.
“I’m here,” her mother said, bringing her horse alongside Josselyn’s. “Take a deep breath, lass.”
Josselyn nodded and did as her mother bade.
“Good. Now, take another.”
Josselyn inhaled deeply and then again, and soon her heartbeat stopped drumming in her ears. For the first time, she looked clearly at the warriors and horses surrounding them. There were ten guards altogether, plus Thane and her mother.
“Let’s ride,” Thane shouted, his mount thundering forward.
Josselyn gripped the reins as she set out, but she shifted in her saddle to look back.
Her father stood on the battlements, and once more, deep, soul-wrenching sobs claimed her.
It was all she could do to keep her seat as Toonan and her father faded in the distance.
Even when the tallest tower could no longer be seen, she continued to gaze back.
Finally, she closed her eyes, leaned over in her saddle, clung to her mount’s neck, and prayed it was all just a nightmare from which she would wake.
“This isn’t real,” she told herself.
It couldn’t be.
Soon, the terrorizing dream would all be over.
She would rise from sleep and join her family in the great room to break their fast, and after that, she would work for a while at her needlepoint before going to visit Cook and Ruby in the kitchens.
Then, her father would send for her, and they would pass the afternoon together playing chess as was their habit.
Aye, it was all a dream.