Page 10 of All The Time You Need (Magic of Time #1)
“You’re not even listening to the words I’m saying. You don’t have to send anyone along with me. Seriously. I’m not the least bit concerned for my safety outside the castle walls. You might not believe me when I tell you that there was no mystery man who locked me inside that arbor, but I know it’s the truth, so I know I have no one to fear. All I need you to do is to tell your men that it’s okay to let me travel beyond the gates. That’s all I’m asking of you.”
The expression on Annie’s face as she spoke convinced Alex that she actually expected him to agree to her ridiculous request. That she didn’t realize how ridiculous her story sounded amazed him. That she didn’t realize that if he were to believe her story, he’d also have to believe that she was there of her own free will. And that supposition would naturally lead to the conclusion that she could very well be a spy. A spy that now wanted to return to whoever had sent her to deliver the information she had gathered.
Her story was such fantasy it might well be something his grandfather would have spun for an evening’s entertainment. Which left him right back where he started.
Either way, he wasn’t allowing her outside the castle gates.
Annie might have no concerns for her own safety, but he had enough for the both of them. If she hadn’t the good sense to willingly follow the precautions he’d established, then he’d need to give her some gentle encouragement.
“I’m no’ sure if it’s Lissa who’s the bad influence upon you, or you upon her. Whichever it is, it’s really of no matter to me. The time for Faerie stories has done and passed. You’ve been given shelter in our home with but one responsibility asked of you in repayment for our hospitality. Instead of wasting my time and yers with this silly blether about finding a passage through time, should you no’ be tending to my father’s recovery?”
Though they were the only two people in the great hall, Alex kept his voice low to avoid embarrassing Annie should anyone overhear his rebuke of her. To his surprise, she didn’t seem to have the least bit of appreciation for his consideration of her feelings. Nor did she appear to have the least bit of concern for who might hear them.
Her cheeks colored a lovely shade of pink and her eyes fairly sparkled with her anger. “You are the most arrogant, inconsiderate, unfeeling P-O-S I’ve ever met,” she stormed, one delicate finger poking forcefully into his chest. “I’ve told you that searching that freakin’ arbor is my only way home. The least you could do—”
“I’ve already done the least I could do,” he interrupted as Jamesy entered from the back of the hall and slipped into a chair nearby, a grin covering his face. “And quite a bit more, if I do say so myself. Now, if you have nothing else to discuss, our audience is at an end, my lady. You have yer work to do as I have mine.”
The noise she made before turning her back and stomping out of the hall reminded him of a bear protecting her young. Or perhaps a child preparing for an all-out tantrum.
“What is this P-O-S of which she speaks?” Jamesy asked, doing a poor job of hiding his amusement as he sounded out the letters Annie had used.
“I have no idea,” Alex answered. “But I’m willing to bet, from the way she said it, it’s something I wouldna like.”
“A safe bet, I’d agree.”
Alex sighed and slumped into the chair next to his friend. Barely halfway through his day and already he felt as if he’d been dragged through a field of boulders. The day had worn upon him, from his meeting at first light with the herder who’d complained of missing stock, to the new blacksmith who swore his tools were disappearing, right through this visit with Annie. Perhaps most especially this visit with Annie.
“It’s past time that the burdens of this day should cease. Hopefully, all the ridiculous blether is behind me now,” he mused.
“It’s an end to the day’s burdens that yer looking for, eh?” Jamesy asked, his face wrinkling with doubt. “From that, I can only suppose that no one has yet mentioned the two men waiting outside to see you. Shall I send them in and let you get this over with?”
Alex nodded his agreement, his stomach sinking as Jamesy strode the length of the great hall to open the doors.
“No’ again,” Alex groaned, leaning back in his chair as the next two petitioners were led into the great hall to seek the laird’s judgment.
Angus MacKillican and Oren MacIntosh slowly made their way toward him, each of them casting evil glares toward the other.
The past week had been calm enough that he’d almost begun to relax and allow himself to believe that he could handle being laird of Dunellen. And now, a day like this. What in the name of all that was holy had he done to deserve these two feuding in his hall again?
Alex did his best to stifle the sigh that rose to his lips, and ignored the muffled chuckle coming from the spot behind him where Jamesy stood. It appeared this would forever be his burden to bear. Perhaps, if he took control quickly, he could end this without allowing it to drag on forever, as it had each time before.
“We are to meet like this again, are we?” Alex asked, fixing his best laird’s frown upon his features. “What’s it to be this time? Another ewe gone astray? Another missing chicken? Did one of you piss upon the other’s land this time? I had hoped you’d learned a lesson after our last encounter.”
The two cantankerous old men seemed to have nothing better to do than to accuse each other of some perceived injustice.
“An animal gone missing is one thing. But this?” Angus declared angrily, pointing a bony finger in his companion’s face. “This attack upon my household is not to be tolerated. This fiend standing next to me is responsible for the disappearance of my poor, wee son. He’s sent that harlot daughter of his to lure my lad away from his own home and hearth.”
“Me?” Oren squealed. “Yer the one, you and that addled oaf you call a son. The two of you have spirited away my wee Karen, and I’ll no’ stand for it. I demand you return her home to me at once, safe and unsullied I might add, to do her chores in her own home, no’ yers, you filthy animal.”
“We’ll have none of that in my hall,” Alex cautioned, using his sternest glare as he leaned toward Angus and captured the man’s gaze. “As I recall, that poor, wee son of yers is older than I am. Could it be that he’s gone off to seek his own fortune?”
“No!” Angus yelled, breathing hard as he held himself in check before starting again. “You may be correct in yer recollection of my Niall’s age, but he’s an obedient lad, nonetheless. He would do no such thing without discussing his plans with me. Nor would he take such an action without my permission and blessing. As it is, his future is already set upon a path that’s agreeable enough to him. He’s all but betrothed to the youngest daughter of Leary’s widow.”
Next to him, Oren snorted loudly. “Leary’s wee bairn? That one canna be more than five or six winters, by my count. Could it be the widow herself, not to mention the house left to her, that yer lusting after, you filthy old hermit? Thinking to build yer own fortune, are you?”
“You offend me, old man,” Angus said, pushing out his barrel chest like a preening rooster. “Though a woman like that would do well enough to have a mature man like myself cast his eye in her direction, I’ve no interest in Leary’s widow or in her property. The daughter will be a fine match after a time. Niall’s still young enough to wait for her to add on a few years.”
“Mayhap he thought he could wait,” Oren said with a snort. “Until he remembered my own wee Karen’s beauty. And then, the two of you snatched her away and hid her out at yer place.”
“Just to make sure we’re speaking of the same daughter,” Alex interjected, “your wee Karen is older than I am, too, is she no’? I’d ask you both to consider: could it be possible that Karen and Niall have slipped away together?”
“No!” the two old men denied in unison.
If he accomplished nothing else in his time as laird of the MacKillican, at least Alex could remember this one moment when he had these two old rivals agreeing on something, for perhaps the first time in their lives.
“What are you going to do about it, young laird? I want my Karen home,” Oren demanded. “My lass would never have left me of her own free will. Not to mention, I’ve no’ had a decent meal in two days.”
Alex couldn’t ignore the fact that for as long as Niall and Karen had been willing pawns in their fathers’ plans for their lives, it was unlikely they’d suddenly decided to up and disobey them now. If that were the case, he also couldn’t ignore the possibility of something darker having happened to the two of them. With tensions high between the clans, he couldn’t afford to overlook anything.
“Have you noted any strangers about?”
Angus shook his head, but Oren frowned, seeming to consider the question.
“Harold’s lad swore he’d seen men lurking about the pastures just before that sheep went missing from the herd a week back. I’d supposed it was merely the lad’s way of hiding his own incompetence but—” He stopped suddenly, a trace of concern coloring the anger in his expression. “You think the Gordons could have a hand in my wee daughter’s disappearance?”
“I’ll send out a party of men to look for Karen and Niall,” Alex said.
A party of warriors, to look for them or for anyone else who might be lurking in the area.
“You’ll check his cottage, I assume?” Angus demanded, obviously not grasping the significance of the situation.
“We’ll check both cottages,” Alex assured him. And though he didn’t want to extend the offer he was about to make, he knew it was necessary. “It might be best for both of you to stay within the castle walls until they’re found. Yer welcome to take yer meals in my hall here at Dunellen.”
It was an offer the search party he would send out would be making to all their people who lived outside the protection of the castle walls. A necessary precaution until they were able to determine what had actually happened to Niall and Karen.
“No’ for me,” Oren huffed, patting one gnarled hand to the hilt of the old sword hanging at his side. “I’ve no fear of any man roaming our lands. Besides, if I stayed here like some hunkering coward, who would look after my home and my sheep? You think I’d leave them to the mercies of just any thief passing by? No’ hardly. No, lad, as far as I’m concerned, you can keep yer invitation.”
“Same for me,” Angus agreed. “I’ve animals of my own what need looking after. And someone should be there in case Niall returns. You’ll have to do without my company as well, my fine young laird.”
Alex shrugged, not sure whether to be concerned about their safety or relieved not to have them bickering underfoot. “As you wish, but understand this, the both of you. Should we find foul play is responsible for Niall and Karen’s disappearance, yer presence at the castle won’t be by invitation, but by demand.”
They might both annoy the hell out of him, but if it came down to it, he wouldn’t allow them to stay outside the castle walls and be harmed by their enemies.
Alex waited in silence as the old men turned and made their way out of the great hall, biting his tongue when they appeared ready to begin their fussing afresh as they shoved their way out into the hallway. He thought from their reaction that someone else was waiting to enter, but after a moment the door slid shut behind the old men.
“Shall I put together a search party?” Jamesy was already on his feet as he asked the question.
Alex nodded. “Ten men, no more. We canna easily spare that many, but neither can we afford no’ to go look. Brief Morgan on what’s happened and have him lead the group. A quick circuit of our lands and nothing beyond. Have them offer the protection of Dunellen’s walls to any who want it.”
Jamesy slipped out the back of the room as soon as Alex finished speaking, leaving Alex alone in the silence of the big hall.
Rather than improving, his day had taken a decidedly nasty turn. Nasty enough that he was almost afraid to wonder what other plagues the day might yet hold in store for him.
He rose from his seat and headed for the door. If the day was going to get any worse, he needed to do something to release the tension he’d built up already so that he didn’t end up skewering someone for daring to point out his shortcomings as a laird. Yet again. An hour or two in the lists would provide exactly the sort of physical release he needed. Once he’d located Finn, that was exactly what he planned to do with the next hour of his life.
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