Chapter Two #3
“If your friend is right, then he has already killed David. The only one left standing between him and this land is Benet, a little boy. My son. Aye, I am worried.”
“Good.” He smiled at the way she frowned at him. “Then ye will be keeping a verra close watch on the lad and all who draw near him. I ken ye do now, just as any mother does, but ye have always trusted everyone in this keep, probably everyone in the clan.”
“Aye, I do.” She sighed. “Did.” She shook her head.
“I try to deny that my husband was murdered with poison yet it answers too many questions about the strange illness that took his life. I have seen most illnesses a mon can get and I had ne’er seen one quite like that.
The learned men we brought in to help were uncertain as weel, although they did their best to hide that.
I e’en ken most of the things that can poison one and what happens but ne’er that.
The way it can be slipped into food or drink by an unseen hand is the most frightening. How does one fight that?”
“Weel, some kings have someone taste their food first.”
Annys smiled. “Benet may nay like that. But it does give me something to think about. Mayhap his meals should be prepared only by one I completely trust until the threat to him has passed.”
“And who would that be?”
“Joan.”
“Of course.”
Harcourt was finding it difficult not to touch her, to reach out and stroke the thick braid of hair hanging down her back, touch her soft cheek, or even just hold her small hand in his.
He wanted her but knew it could be something that would only add to the troubles she now carried.
The whole keep would know as soon as they became lovers.
Even if that did not make everyone look more closely at Benet, it could weaken her position as lady of the keep, as the one acting in the stead of the laird.
“Why did I hear a bell?” he asked, trying desperately to get his mind off how sweet she smelled and how badly he wanted to pull her into his arms.
“Ah, David fixed that. I have always liked to come out here if I am too restless to sleep. He wanted me to be comfortable in doing so nay matter what I was clothed in.” She blushed as she ran a hand down the side of her robe.
“Some nights he would join me and we found it helped us sort out some problem to stand here looking at the stars and talking quietly. He wanted no one to interrupt those moments, either. So the men move away from this small part of the wall when they hear the bell.”
“Clever. And have ye been able to sort out the problem that brought ye here tonight?”
“Aye. I must accept that someone in this keep helped kill my husband and may be convinced to try and kill my son.” The moment she said those words she knew she had finally accepted that chilling truth and nodded.
“I ken it now and so now I will work to keep Benet safe and find out who betrayed us all.”
She looked at him standing so close to her that she could feel his warmth.
He awoke something inside her that had been sleeping since he had walked away a little over five years ago.
Annys was not sure what she should do about that.
A part of her insidiously whispered that she should take what she wanted but the practical side of her hesitated, mulled over how complicated that would make her life, and reminded her of how her heart had broken when he had just walked away.
It was just another thing she had to think about.
But not tonight, she told herself. Not when he was standing so close her hands itched to reach out and touch him.
Not with the night sky bathing them in a soft welcoming light that had her memories of their time together rushing to the fore of her mind.
None of those things made a rational, practical decision possible.
“I had best get inside,” she said even as she started to move away from him. “It has been a verra long day and it appears there will be many more to come. Adam will make certain of it. Sleep well, Sir Harcourt.”
“And you, m’lady,” he replied and watched her until she went back into the keep.
The little bell rang as she shut the door and he could hear the men returning. Nicolas was the first to appear and he waved the man to his side. It was past time to have a long talk with his friend.
“Did ye come up here with Lady Annys?” asked Nicolas as he leaned against the wall next to Harcourt.
“Nay,” Harcourt replied. “I came up on the wall from another route and found her here. I was actually hunting ye down. Ye have made a fine place for yourself here.”
“I have. It is a fine keep with good lands and it used to have a verra fine mon as its laird.” Nicolas cursed under his breath. “He suffered and I will make the one responsible for that pay when we find him.”
“It may be a her.”
“Doesnae much matter to me. The murder of the laird was the darkest of betrayals, especially when that laird was as good a one as Sir David. I was nay here long before I realized I had found my place and often silently thanked ye for that. I didnae fool the mon for long, either. He soon kenned just where I had come from and who had sent me.”
Harcourt smiled and nodded. “I thought he would. A quick-witted mon was David. Since he didnae send ye back, I will assume he wasnae offended that I asked ye to come here.”
“Nay. He said he was nay surprised ye would do so, either. He occasionally expressed regret that he had e’er asked ye for that gift. He kenned it wouldnae be easy for ye to turn your back on the lad. By the looks on their faces, I suspicion your companions wonder on it all as weel.”
“They do and took the first moment we were all alone to question me. I told them the truth. They understood yet I still suffered under the lash of their tongues for just walking away from my own child and the woman who bore him. That took longer to explain. Since David was such a good mon, and my companions kenned that soon after entering the keep, it softened the inquiry and what could have been a harsh condemnation. E’en from the MacFingals. ”
“Weel, for all they are a mad lot and their father breeds more bairns than should be allowed, that mon ne’er walked away from them.”
“True enough. There was no other way.”
“Nay, there wasnae, nay if David was to have the heir he and Glencullaich so badly needed.”
“I am ashamed to admit how long it took me to realize that I wasnae truly comfortable leaving my child in the hands of another mon.”
Nicolas studied Harcourt for a moment and then said, “I suspect it wasnae so easy for ye to walk away from the lass, either.”
“Nay, it wasnae but it took me a while to admit to that, too.” Harcourt gave a laugh that held little humor in it.
“Foolish young idiot that I was, it took me a while to accept that I hated nay being able to claim or raise the lad as weel as claim his mother. The beliefs of my kinsmen are obviously rooted more deeply in me than I kenned.”
“The lad was weel loved, and treated weel, too. David was a good father to him. Wheesht, he adored the lad. One reason Sir Adam was banished from the hall is because he openly stated his opinion of the lad’s legitimacy.
In front of the boy. For a moment I thought David would kill the fool. Now I wish he had.”
“And how do the people of this clan feel about Benet?”
“They love him. I have ne’er seen anyone be anything but kind to the boy, even a wee bit too indulgent from time to time.
They ken he wasnae David’s.” Nicolas nodded at the shock on Harcourt’s face.
“They dinnae care. The laird made his love for that boy so clear, his claim of the boy so loud and unwavering, that they all just joined in with the game. They kenned the mon might ne’er sire his own child and it had worried them.
Benet’s birth soothed their fears. Most e’en suspect their laird arranged it all for they kenned he could be sly and ruthless when needed.
Their acceptance of Benet as their future laird was complete, ne’er a doubt shown or spoken.
’Tis why I find the possibility that someone here murdered David verra hard to accept.
I do believe Callum is right about it being poison but it will take a while ere I can think of it without that instinctive denial. ”
“Annys also found it hard to believe but she does now. She also accepts that Benet is now in danger.”
“Good. It will make it easier to keep a watch on the lad. It willnae be easy. He is accustomed to running free here and in the village. I will make certain someone is with him at all times though.”
“Just be certain it is one ye trust.”
Nicolas nodded. “I will.”
“How ready are these men to meet what could become a full fight for these lands?”
Harcourt listened to Nicolas’s report and was heartened by it.
Work was needed but the men of Glencullaich were not completely green.
He was determined, however, to turn them into a highly skilled fighting force that any king would envy.
Every instinct he had told him that Sir Adam MacQueen would soon get weary of playing with Annys and then the real fight would begin.