Page 44 of The Highlander's Virgin Widow
“Me faither had died two years before I met Fletcher. I dinnae think I’ve ever told ye that story.”
“I dinnae recall, M’Lady.”
“Well, ye’re about to hear it today,” she muttered.
15
She grabbed the shears and nudged Stella, and they made their way out of the Great Hall and through the large passageway that led directly to the courtyard.
The hot afternoon wind blew across their faces and made some of the firelight around them flicker. After Evander had cleared the stones from the passageway, they were able to properly hang sconces on the walls without worrying about them falling.
Not that she was ever going to thank him to his face. He had enough power over her. The last thing she wanted was to give him more.
“Me cousin became the Laird after me faither, and he was the complete opposite. Me faither was kind, gentle, and loving. He had always told me that if I intended to get married, it must be for love, nae duty. Me cousin, on the other hand, couldnae wait to marry me off to the first Laird who would show the slightest interest in me.”
Stella listened with rapt attention. Keira rarely spoke about her past except when she needed to curry favor with the councilmen or drive home a point.
“He came to me the night I was supposed to leave for Blythe Castle, me cousin. He said to me in nay ambiguous terms that I was to never set foot in me faither’s castle ever again. ‘Ye’re nae useful to me here, Keira. I will have ye imprisoned the day ye decide to set foot in here again.’”
“That is quite horrible.”
Keira pushed the door open, and the cool afternoon wind hit their faces, the scent of grass and fresh earth filling their nostrils.
“Ye dinnae ken the half of it.”
A heavy silence descended on them, and for the briefest moment, Keira felt tears welling up in her eyes.
Nay. Nae now.
She blinked them back almost as soon as they had come and then turned to her maid. “Me point, Stella, is that in the past few months we’ve been together, I believe I have grown to be a true lady of the clan, have I nae?”
“Aye, M’Lady. The villagers and councilmen all respect ye.”
“So ye realize how it will feel when I ask ye if something is going on under me…” she trailed off, realizing that was no longer the case. “Underthisroof and ye refuse to tell me.”
Stella sighed as they rounded the corner of the castle, toward the western fields.
Keira’s garden was only a few yards ahead, but at the pace they were keeping, they may get there after the sun had completely sunk below the horizon.
“’Tis nae longer a matter. That is why I havenae brought it up. One of his men went after Claire.”
Keira frowned. “Claire?”
“Aye. She’s one of the maids who clean the stables. One of the Laird’s men had been bothering her… asking her to sleep with him. Of course, the first few times, Claire had refused. But over the past few days, he had been asking more persistently and had even threatened to kill the man she is currently seeing.”
“What? How was I nae informed when this was all happening?”
Of course, everything went back tohim. Evander Sloan.
Ever since his farce of a takeover, he had made things even more difficult. Yet he always seemed to waste no time in calling her out and saying that she didn’t know how to control her men. Yet his men did this? In her castle, nonetheless?
She didn’t know how they did things back in his previous castle, but when she saw him next, she was going to give him an earful. If he couldn’t control his men, he might as well do her and everyone in the castle a huge favor and get them all out of there. If he liked, he may go with them as well.
“I also didnae ken this was all happening. Claire only informed me a few days ago, and the Laird happened to be listening in on our conversation.”
So he is an eavesdropper too?
“And how exactly did the Laird handle it?”
