Page 18 of Rebellion's Fire

Christian couldn’t stop her gaze flying to the old woman’s face, although at least she managed not to exclaimTwo fires?aloud. She remembered one fire, huge, all-encompassing. She’d been three years old. When had the other fire happened?

By then, they had reached the path leading back up to the hall, and she had no reason to cling any longer to her new companions. Her search for the truth would have to be slow, gradual, a few different questions asked of different people over time.

So, ignoring her own curiosity, she said, “You’ve been treated well? By the MacHeth stewardship?”

“Wild boys,” Eta pronounced. “More interested in war than farming. Loegaire, the steward, has never wronged us.” She adjusted the sack on her shoulder and cast Christian a sideways glance. “The simple lord brought you here?”

“Simple?” Christian stared at her. “I wouldn’t have said there’s anything simple about Adam MacHeth at all!”

Eta let out a cackle of laughter. It sounded like genuine pleasure.

“Not that kind of simple. Or even mad-simple,” one of the younger women explained. “Simple as in…fey. He has the sight.”

Superstition.Fortunately, she was watching her tongue so carefully that she didn’t speak the word. Her companions might well have taken it as an insult, either to themselves or to their simple lord. And in fact, if she shut out her more sane and sensible southern self, she could almost imagine the weird glazing of his eyes, his strange aloofness, to be part of that impossible gift of foresight and prophecy. Almost. As it was, curiosity surged afresh.

Again, Christian had questions, and again she felt all the frustration of feeling unable to ask them. In silence, she gazed along the shoreline at the scattering of wooden huts, big and small, that lined it. Winter covering for boats, perhaps, and large enough for ships.

Maybe Eta had given her the clue.“Wild boys. More interested in war than farming.”

Christian’s lips parted with sudden suspicion. Were there war galleys hidden in those huts? On her land? The MacHeths would use them against the king. If William found them—and he would—did she want that either? His men were not sailors.

“My husband is a soldier, too,” she said clearly. “But war is a way of life I don’t want brought here.”

Their eyes flickered to her and away. Not in disagreement, she thought, but in understanding. Like women the world over, they didn’t want war either. They just got dragged into the consequences.

Having made her point, Christian nodded to them. “If you need anything, you can find me at the hall. Anyone can.” And she left them to walk back up the rough-hewn steps from the beach and on up the hill toward the house.

As she neared the hall, a small troop of soldiers advanced toward the woods with a horse-drawn wagon. William, on horseback at the head of some other mounted men, waited by the gate, observing. He would explore today, decide how to make Tirebeck as safe as it could be from a military perspective. To William, it would be all about fortifications, not about the people who lived here, who could and should be friends.

Not for the first time, she wondered if she’d done a terrible thing bringing William here. With all the diplomacy of a battering ram, he was bound to antagonize the people. And if it came to war with the MacHeths, as it surely must, the people would suffer at least as much as the soldiers. By MacHeth laws, Tirebeck and everyone in it were already fair game. Since she and William held Tirebeck for the king, the MacHeths would feel quite entitled to carry off cattle and raid crops. And worse. After all, they thought nothing about raiding south into the king’s estates in Moray, or even deep into what was regarded as the king’s own territories of Angus, Fife, Lothian, Strathclyde, and more…

Loegaire, Eua’s husband, the steward, was with William, mounted on a small, agile horse. He didn’t look comfortable.

“The women are quarreling,” William said to Christian by way of greeting. “Sort it out or send the lot of them packing.”

What, even Alys?She contented herself with a sardonic smile and passed inside the gates. Who knew? If Alys was being difficult about her new home, William’s answer might well have been yes.

Two years ago, Christian would have rejoiced at Alys’s departure. Now, she found the other woman a useful buffer, a means of avoiding her husband. Although he didn’t like Christian and she’d been pronounced barren, with William’s physical needs and Alys gone, she could well become the personification of any port in a storm. Providing it was dark.

With a slightly twisted smile, she crossed the yard and entered the main hall to find all three of her women looming over Eua. Cecily had her by the arm while Alys and Felicia screamed at her.

A couple of the men lounged against the folded-up trestle tables, watching the theatre and grinning. Christian dealt with them first.

“I’m sure Sir William didn’t leave you here to prop up the walls. Attend to your duties.”

As they sloped off, not without a few glances over their shoulders, the women stopped screaming, although Cecily didn’t release Eua’s arm. Eua stood rigid in the younger girl’s hold, fury spitting from her eyes and thinning her mouth to a hard line.

“Cecily,” Christian snapped, and Cecily dropped Eua’s arm like a hot coal—more through surprise than actual fear, Christian was sure. Providing they kept her few clothes clean and mended, and helped her to dress when necessary, Christian had more or less ignored them all for months, if not years. But now she had a household to run—her home—and in the midst of the continual threat of war, shewouldhave peace here.

She walked up to them, more irritated than truly angry. “Why are you screaming at Eua?”

“She refused to make our beds and wash our linen!” Alys exclaimed.

“You’ll make your own beds and take care of your own linen until Eua has organized more servants to take care of a household this size. Eua is not your maidservant. She runs the household under me. Your first concern will be formylinen and my traveling dress, which is in dire need of cleaning.”

All four of them stared at Christian. Eua clearly had not expected her support either. Alys’s mouth actually dropped open.

“Now,” Christian said gently and turned to Eua. “We need to talk about meals. For how long can we feed everyone?”

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