Chapter Nineteen
Annista huddled down beside Bonnie on her bed and very, very gently took the little maid into her arms. Bonnie hid her face against Annista’s shoulder and continued to weep.
Annista feared the worst, and the black rage inside her was a formidable thing. She feared the worst—but needed to hear the truth.
Even as Alan stood apparently frozen in the doorway behind them, she whispered to Bonnie, “What happened, my darling. What happened to ye?”
“He—he—”
“Who?”
“The young master.”
“When? How long ago?” Could Annista still catch him? She wanted to get her hands on him. To do an equal harm. “But first, aye, she must know all.
Gently, she smoothed the damp hair back from Bonnie’s face. Her fingers came away slick with blood.
“Why was he here?”
Bonnie’s eyes met hers. “Looking for ye, Mistress, so I do believe. He came to the door. Your door. I did no’ want to let him in. He kicked it open—”
And did no one hear this? Of course not. They had been in the stable. Or looking for Evan, and him in the house all the while.
Why had Evan come looking for her? Annista wondered, but did not press the matter with Bonnie.
“He—he came stormin’ in. He did no’ believe ye were no’ here. He looked through the room and then—then he looked at me. Asked where ye were. When I said I did no’ ken, he—he struck me.”
Struck her, the brute. A wee lass who would not make up half of him. Was that all he had done?
“Wha’ then?” Annista’s rage made her breathless. Behind them, she could Alan also breathing raggedly.
“I screamed and fell. He spat some words at me, told me to shut up and came for me. I screamed and screamed again and he—he fled.”
“He did?” Och, sweet merciful heaven. “He did no’ hurt nor harm ye any—any other way?”
“Nay, Mistress. I think he took fright when I screamed.”
“Did no’ want to be caught here,” Alan said darkly. And when Annista looked at him over her shoulder, he added, “He wished to harm ye, though, Annista.”
“He may still be here in the house. Go, Alan, tell your father!”
He went. Bonnie continued to sob against Annista’s shoulder, but Annista—Annista wanted to make sure.
“Ye are certain he did no’ molest ye? Or any such?”
All the breath left Bonnie’s body as she grasped her mistress’s meaning. “Och, nay.”
Thank God. “Very well, so. Let me see your face.”
She sat Bonnie up on the bed, dried her face with the hem of her own admittedly filthy skirt, and performed an inspection. Bruising blossomed on the left side of the pretty face and swelling had started. The blood came from a split on her cheekbone.
Annista’s blood fairly boiled. Yet it was not so terrible as it might have been. “Why did ye no’ come for me?”
“I was afraid to leave the chamber. I thought he might still be out there, Mistress. The gallery is so dark—”
“Aye. All right, now.”
Master MacKallan came crashing into the chamber with Alan right behind him. He looked aghast.
“Is she all right? By God, I can see she is not. But he did no’—”
“By the grace o’ God, he did not. He left when she screamed.”
“Screamed! We did no’ hear—”
“The house is half emptied,” Alan said, “wi’ the servants guarding all the doors. Father, how in hades did he get in? Is he still here?”
“I ha’ told Archie to search the house, wi’ the other footmen. If he is here, we shall soon find out.”
“I will assist them.”
Alan ran out, still half dressed as he was.
Lady MacKallan came tiptoeing in, her face dead white. “What has happened? Husband—”
“He was here,” Earl MacKallan said shortly. “Evan.”
“Oh, sweet heaven! He did no’—”
“He did no’. But the maid needs tending. Send for some warm water, will ye?”
Earl MacKallan went out, presumably to join the search, which Annista could now hear, beyond her chamber. She and Lady MacKallan stared at one another.
Lady MacKallan waved her hands. “I can scarce believe—”
“I can.” And Lady MacKallan should. She must know of what her son was capable—Annista could see the shame in her eyes.
“Bonnie,” Annista sought to soothe her maid. Her friend. The young woman who was here—in harm’s way—solely because of her. She, Annista, had some responsibility for this. “I promise, ye will no’ be left alone again.”
Bonnie hid her face in Annista’s shoulder and nodded.
Annista glared at Lady MacKallan. “Ye see wha’ this has come to? My sister. Now my maid.” And it would have been her, had she been here instead of Bonnie. “Ye should ha’ curbed that monster long ago.”
“Ye think we did no’ try?” Lady MacKallan wrung her hands.
“Bonnie, Bonnie, love, did ye see where he went after?”
“Nay. He ran out and I shut the door, came in here and prayed he would no’ come back. I was so afraid he would, and—”
“Aye. Aye.” A mercy, that. “All right,” she soothed her maid. “He is gone now. I will no’ let him hurt you again.”
She turned on Lady MacKallan. “Ha’ ye heard enough? Arrange a guard for my maid. It stops here wi’ that monster ye call your son harming or hurting anyone.”
****
The house was searched from top to bottom, word of what had transpired spreading in whispers between the servants and estate workers.
Annista did not participate. Instead she, with the help of an older maid called Morag, very gently eased Bonnie out of her nightdress, which was spattered with blood from her cheek, and tended her hurts with witch hazel.
The little maid’s bruises testified all too well to the truth of her account, and Annista’s rage built all the while into something fierce and wild.
Morag, who usually served Mistress MacKallan, remained mostly silent. But once they had Bonnie tucked into the bed, heaped with blankets and a good fire going, Annista pulled her aside.
“Has Master Evan ever attacked others of the servants?” she asked.
Morag refused to meet her gaze. “Ah, the lasses ken fine to avoid him. If they can. We try to watch out for one another when he is to home and never be on our own—as your wee maid was this night.”
“That was my fault.” Annista had been worrying about the stallion and, to her own shame, had not given a thought to Bonnie.
“Still, we should ha’ warned the wee lass.” Morag’s eyes still dodged Annista’s. “To be honest, I did no’ think he would move against his brother’s wife—or aught that belonged to ye.”
“Do ye ken whether Master Evan abused my sister so, when she was here? Bedeviled her, as he has done Bonnie?”
“Och, Mistress! We dared no’ interfere between the two o’ them. But that sweet lass—aye, she looked so sorrowful as the time passed. We thought since the Mistress knew o’ it—well, as I say, ’twas no’ we servants who could get between them, was it?”
Annista felt sick, thinking of her sweet, gentle sister who had no one to take her part. At least Bonnie had her, Annista, though admittedly this had been her fault as much as anyone’s.
“Did any o’ the lasses here in the household act as my sister’s personal maid?”
“Annie did, for a time. But Master Evan dismissed her, saying he did no’ like having her around, and she left soon after.”
“I see.” Annista glanced at the bed where Bonnie turned her face into the pillow. How many times had Robena wept for solace alone?
“I want someone to stay with Bonnie at every moment. Maids, mind—no rough-handed men.”
“Aye, Mistress. But will ye no’ want to stay wi’ her yoursel’?”
Annista did, more—almost—than anything. But she had hunting to do.
She found Billy guarding Tempest’s stall along with two of the younger grooms. Chieftain’s box was empty and Billy told her Alan had gone out riding once again.
Aye, indeed—if Evan had not been found in the house, he must have escaped it.
She returned inside and found Earl and Lady MacKallan in the hall, both pacing.
“This is terrible, terrible,” Lady MacKallan began as soon as she saw Annista. “But, my dear, I am certain your maid will be all right.”
“She is terribly frightened and did nothing to earn such abuse.”
“Indeed, not.” The earl and Lady MacKallan exchanged a look. Were they thinking of Robena and what she had earned?
Lady MacKallan’s hands fluttered. “We did not even ken he was here in the house. You say he came looking for you?” Clearly, she wondered for what purpose. Annista had been wondering the same.
Earl Neilan said, “We have had complaints in the past—tales that he struck the barmaid at the public house in the village, and the daughter o’ a tenant when she—er—repulsed his advances.”
Oh.
“He has tried to press himsel’ upon women—”
Was that what he had intended with Annista, in catching her alone? Perhaps in punishment for her standing up to him? Such men liked to humiliate as well as harm.
“Och, it could ha’ been worse,” Earl Neilan said, and Annista had to admit that was so. Had Evan forced himself on poor wee Bonnie, could Annista ever have forgiven herself?
“Morag is wi’ Bonnie now, but I want someone on guard outside that chamber when I am no’ there.”
Earl Neilan bristled. “Is that necessary? By all accounts, Evan is no longer in the house. And she is just a maid—”
Annista looked him in the eye. “Ye may treat your own servants wi’ neglect—as ye did my sister. While I am here,” she drew herself up, “it shall no’ be so.”
“Listen here, young lady—”
“Ye failed to curb that—that monster and failed to protect those who relied upon ye. While I draw breath in this house, it shall no’ be so again.”
How many times had Evan used harsh words against Robena, frightened and intimidated her, while these folk turned a blind eye? Nay, Annista could not make up for that, but she could protect Bonnie.
“Do no’ worry,” she said harshly. “Bonnie will no’ be under your roof for long. I intend to send her back to my father’s estate as soon as she feels able to travel.” If only Annista could accompany her.
“But then,” Lady MacKallan began, “ye will be here wi’out a maid.”
Her husband spoke over her. “To be sure, Annista, ye shall do as ye wish.”
“Until then, I trust ye to place one o’ the footmen outside my chamber for her protection when I am no’ by.”
“Surely ye will stay wi’ her,” Lady MacKallan said.
“Nay, for I mean to help in the search for that creature ye call a son. And when I do find him, he will regret it.”