Chapter Five #2
To her surprise the cat stuck its head under her armpit as she slowly untied the rope holding it trapped. It was not yet wary of people. That could prove to be a good thing.
“What are ye doing?” asked Harcourt as he stepped up on the other side of her, Nathan close behind him.
“Someone has tethered this poor cat to a stake and I mean to set it free,” she replied, silently cursing how tightly the knot she worked on was tied.
Harcourt sighed, easily recognizing another so much like his kin, one who could leave no sorrowful looking stray unaided. “This is how they lured ye into their reach, isnae it?”
“Aye,” she admitted reluctantly and made a soft sound of triumph when she finally got the knot untied.
The cat just pushed itself deeper into her side, ramming its head more snugly up into her armpit.
She resigned herself to the possibility of ruining her gown and getting some fleas as she picked it up in her arms and stood.
The way both men looked at the cat burrowed into her armpit almost made her laugh.
They both looked sadly resigned to what they clearly saw as foolish womanly softness.
“Are ye certain ye wish to take that with ye?” Harcourt asked.
“Aye,” said Nathan, trying to get a good look at the cat. “Dirty, thin, cowardly. Nay a grand find.”
“’Tis certain that it belongs to no one so, aye, I will take it home with me.
I do try to get the people to cage any dog or cat that goes into season but they dinnae always do it.
’Tis extra work, isnae it, e’en though I have the cages for them and have e’en had a shelter built to put the cages in.
So, at times I find myself with a few that need some shelter.
I have almost succeeded in getting the numbers down so that any newly born are usually taken in by others without hesitation. ”
Harcourt watched as she moved to walk out of the alley, the cat tucked up hard in her arms. He had been at Glencullaich long enough to know that Annys collected the animals tossed aside as avidly as several of the women in his clan did.
Glencullaich did not really need yet another stray cluttering its bailey or keep.
He knew he had no chance at all of convincing her of that as he listened to her talk soothingly to the still-shaking animal.
“It will need that leg looked at,” Harcourt said as he carefully examined the way the tether had scraped the animal’s leg raw, ignoring the growling noises the animal made since it did not move from its place in her arms with its face tucked up in her armpit.
“Dunnie is verra good at that. He will ken what to do,” she said.
It did not surprise Harcourt when Dunnie took one look at the cat Annys showed him and scowled at her. The man probably saw far too many. It did take some time to detach the cat from Annys, however, before Dunnie could haul it away to fix its injuries.
“Who do ye think tried to grab ye?” Harcourt asked as they slowly walked toward the keep.
Annys had hoped the lack of questions immediately after saving her had meant Harcourt would just accept it all as one of those dangers of market day. She should have known better. Unfortunately, she did not really have all that much she could tell him. Not with any certainty.
“I think it may have been Adam,” she replied. “All of them wore cloth tied around their faces, but just the way he spoke when I made him let go of me made me think it was Adam.”
“Just how did ye make him let ye go?”
She could not fully repress a blush. “I slammed my hip into his, um, groin.”
“Clever. Weakest place on a mon. Instinct most often makes him reach for himself after such a hit as weel.”
“Which is what he did. Then I ran. I kenned that if I could just get back to the opening of the alley, I could call for help.”
“It was a risky thing for him to do.”
“I thought the same.”
“Mayhap he grows desperate.”
“O’er what? The fact that Benet and I still reside here? Still breathe?”
“Aye, exactly that,” replied Harcourt. “The mon didnae appear to be one who had a lot of patience. Nay, nor one who could make any plans that would require it. What he did today is the sort of thing a mon does simply because an opportunity arises and he snatches at it without much thought.”
“I did wonder how he could e’er have thought he would succeed. Weel, I shall write to his father now.”
“Do ye think that mon will be of any help to you?”
“Nay,” she replied as they stopped outside her bedchamber door and she struggled not to think of what had happened the last time they had stood there together.
“He was verra angry when David chose to marry me. I was to be Nigel’s wife, nay David’s, he said, and since Nigel was dead, I should just be sent back home.
Me and my dowry, of course. David wouldnae send me home as he kenned it wasnae a good place for me to be, nor could he give up my dowry.
Many of the improvements we now enjoy were made with it. ”
“Then why write to the mon if ye ken that he willnae help?”
“So that I can honestly say that I tried to get the family to help, tried to seek aid from my late husband’s kinsmen. It may prove important if Sir Adam gets himself killed.” She sighed. “And he hasnae actually hurt us yet so I would like it ended ere that happens.”
“He killed David.”
“We ken it, but unless we can catch who put the poison in David’s food, I can ne’er prove that.”
“And ye dinnae think he was planning to hurt you today?”
“What good would that have done him? Benet wasnae with me.”
“Because without ye, Benet would be even more vulnerable. Aye, we would still be here to protect him, but Sir Adam may nay believe that. I think he believes we would leave, that ’tis only ye who hold us here.
” He nodded when she frowned, her expression revealing her doubt of his words.
“The mon doesnae think a plan through. That is a belief I have become more certain of each time he tries something.”
“I am nay sure any of David’s family has the wit to do so,” she said. “Nay any of the ones I have met. David was their brightest light once Nigel was gone. I oftimes felt they all resented him for that, for being such a respected, learned man.”
“There is one thing that puzzles me.” He hesitated, uncertain of how to ask his questions without risking offense, and then decided to simply ask, “Why, if ye were chosen to marry Nigel, did ye wed David?”
“Ye do ken, dinnae ye, that I was betrothed whilst little more than a bairn?”
“Ah, one of those marriages arranged to make some sort of alliance.”
“Exactly. I was just nearing the age to be old enough to marry when I was brought here to learn all about being the lady of this keep. It wasnae long after that when Nigel sailed off to France. He had heard too many tales of men making plenty of coin fighting for the French and how that might e’en give him a verra good chance of fighting the English.
I wasnae heartbroken when he left though I had spent enough time with him to think he would be a suitable husband.
So I waited. And waited. And waited. David sent out inquiries when we had gone a year without any word from him.
Then we got a short visit from a mon who claimed he had fought alongside Nigel and his men and that he was dead. ”
“With all the men that went with him? I assume he took some men with him?”
“Aye, some. I fear he did take our best-trained men but that was only a half dozen or so. But, this mon had no information to give us on their fate. He said Nigel was alone by the time he met up with him.”
“And David accepted the mon’s word?”
“Nay, not fully, although he couldnae think of any reason for the mon to travel so far just to tell us a lie. But, he didnae really want it to be true if only because Nigel was the last of his family. His father died ere I came here and his mother died soon after. We have ne’er received any word that would reveal that mon to have been a liar though. ”
“And so then ye married David. Did ye nay ken the truth about his injury?”
“I did. Joan told me. E’en David tried to stutter through an explanation.
It didnae matter. E’en a childless marriage was better than being sent back home.
” She could see that he now meant to ask her about that last statement so she opened the door to her room.
“I must see to getting the letter to Sir Adam’s father written now. ”
Before Harcourt could say another word he found himself staring at a shut door.
He was already reaching for the latch, intending to follow her into the room, when he accepted that it would be a mistake.
The need to know why she would dread going back home to her own family was strong, but he knew he had to stand back and allow her to tell him when she was ready to.
Cursing softly, he turned to leave. There was more than enough work for him to do to stop his mind from preying on what Annys had not told him.
Annys listened to Harcourt walk away and breathed a sigh of relief.
She had not meant to say anything about why she had chosen to marry David, at least nothing beyond the fact that he would be a good husband and a kind one.
Only David and Joan had known that her acceptance of David had had little to do with betrothal contracts, dowries, or some attempt to still become a laird’s wife despite the fact that the laird chosen for her was dead.
After the three short visits her parents had made to Glencullaich she suspected the people here fully understood her reasoning.
Most had undoubtedly guessed that she had married Glencullaich more than that she had actually married David.