Page 39 of Love with a Scottish Outlaw
Robby blinked at Duncan. “Good day, uncle,” he said politely.
Duncan nodded. “A good day to ye, too, nephew. And water sounds refreshing.”
Muriel rose to check on the sleeping bairn, then came to sit beside Duncan on the bench. She gravely took the pitcher and ladle, offering some to Robby first, then Duncan, then took a deep draft herself.
“Ah. Thank ye, lad. Now ye may go back to your worm-chasing. But don’t jump over—”
Robby vaulted right over the blanket and the baby, who slept on.
“—Alice,” Muriel finished weakly. Glancing at Duncan, she said, “The lad does not walk if he can run. He’ll wear me out before Alice is his age.”
“His da was never one to sit still himself.”
“Stop saying I told ye so.”
Duncan raised both hands. “I didn’t. Ye said such a man would always work hard rather than sit around on his arse.”
“And he does,” Muriel said tiredly. She took another dipper full of water, then eyed Duncan. “So I hear ye have a guest up in the caves.”
He grimaced. “I figured ye’d hear about her from Maeve.”
“Maeve might be my closest friend, but I actually heard from Ivor, when he came to visit his mum.”
“Traitor,” he grumbled. “I hope he didn’t gossip with anyone else.”
“He didn’t, only to me. So ye didn’t want us to know ye have a fine lady trapped in a cave?” she said, with both amusement and curiosity in her voice.
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
“So ye planned to tell me.” Her look was full of skepticism. “Mmph. No wonder ye haven’t visited much—although ’tis nothing new.”
“Ye know why I don’t come often,” he said in a low voice.
“Aye, we need to be protected, so ye’ve told us.” Muriel rolled her eyes. “We are not outlawed, Duncan, only you.”
“But I don’t want the clan punished for what I’ve done, any more than it already has been. So I’ll continue to avoid ye as much as I can.”
“No one but Carlyles even travel to our remote village.”
“They could track the cattle your husband has thieved.”
She pretended outrage. “James is a law-abiding man. But if the English and the Lowlanders insist on making it difficult for us to feed our families, then they get what they deserve.”
For several minutes, they said nothing, just studied the barren mountaintops that surrounded their glen, and their silence gradually turned companionable once again. When he was a wee bairn, Muriel had tried to soften the blow of their mother’s wrath, even though she was often the target herself. Their older sister, Winifred, was far better at staying on Mother’s good side, saying just what the woman wanted to hear. When their father had killed their mother, Winifred had already been married and living far away. Muriel and Duncan had only had each other as their father succumbed to guilt.
Now she regarded him with obvious determination. “Aye, I’ll take your fine lady in for ye. I was wondering when ye’d come ask me.”
“That’s not why I’m here.”
Her determination changed to astonishment. “What? She’s to stay in that cave with your rough men?”
“And women. Maeve is taking good care of her.”
“Of course no one knows better than Maeve how to make a guest feel at home. But . . .” Astonishment changed to curiosity. “Ye don’t want to rid yourself of a woman who has no memories of her past?”
Duncan hesitated, and then realized he could not lie to his sister, even to protect her. “I cannot rid myself of her because I know who she is.”
He thought Muriel might exclaim in disbelief, but she only narrowed her eyes and studied him as if he was one of Robby’s worms.
