Page 2 of Bride Takes a Laird (Highland Vows & Vengeance #2)

East Dunbartonshire

Glasgow, Scotland

Mid-March 1260

T he wretched man rode his horse forward and forced her and her maid Linet to stop. All Kendra Graham hoped to do was enjoy the warmth of the morning on her ride through the countryside. Having been cooped up most of the winter, now Kendra wanted to be outside. With the many difficulties she’d dealt with over the past months, she needed the solace only the outdoors would bring.

Even though the day had warmed enough, the sun remained behind dismal clouds. Still, it wasn’t completely unpleasant—until she was intercepted by her horrid neighbor. Kendra sat upon her mare and raised her face to the sky with a hasty prayer that he wouldn’t detain her. She didn’t want to make idle chatter with the nefarious Lord Ellish Heatherington who’d stopped her just at the pass that led to her family’s land. There was no way to reroute around him and as much as she would like to ignore the man, she couldn’t be rude.

“Mistress, I am surprised to find you out here alone. Should you not have an escort?” The aged man had dark wavy hair with gray-streaked throughout. His face was marked with holes and sparsely covered by whiskers. Though he was garbed in expensive materials, she thought he appeared much like the warlord he professed to be.

“Good day, Lord Heatherington. As you can see, I am not alone and have my maid with me. Our escort rode ahead and I should like to catch up to them. If you shall excuse me.” Kendra tried to revert her horse to round him, but Heatherington blocked her path. Sky Dancer, her usually sweet-tempered mare, snorted and twitched her brown tail. She was just as displeased to be held up by the horrid man.

Her maid glanced at her with fearful eyes and Kendra tried to ease her by putting a small smile on her face. Linet always hid whenever Heatherington was near. The man had made unpleasant advances toward Linet and many times Kendra had intervened. Heatherington was a scoundrel and a knave. She disliked him immensely.

Heatherington continued to prevent her from moving around him as he directed his horse to block her as he ogled poor Linet. “My offer still stands, Mistress, and I shall be happy to take your maid off your hands. I hear you are in need of coins… Perhaps if I doubled my offer? She would make a good addition to the maids at my fief.” His grin widened with odious snideness.

Linet gasped and her blue eyes rounded at her. Kendra hoped she didn’t fall off her horse in a faint, but graciously, Linet shifted her horse to hide behind her.

Kendra wasn’t in the least threatened by the knave. On many occasions, she’d dealt with him and he’d always acted somewhat respectfully toward her since he hoped to make her his wife.

“My Lord, you cannot purchase my maid. Regardless of how much coin you offer, I will not sell her into servitude.” She disbelieved he’d learned about her family’s coin shortage and that he had the indecency to mention it. Was the fact that they were practically destitute common knowledge?

“I say, that is rather disappointing but alas, it matters not because she shall soon be in my home.” He feigned a pout but then his grin widened. “Mistress Kendra, I profess that you are as beautiful as I remembered. Your hair must be spun from gold and your eyes are as pretty as a bluebell. A man would be rewarded beholding such beauty each day and I am delighted to be such a man.”

Kendra wondered what he meant when he said Linet would be a member of his home. But with his obtrusive words, she scoffed under her breath at the man’s forwardness. He always spoke expressively and poetically but his words were far from complimentary. They were meant to be pretty, but his tone made them ugly and his voice even grated her every nerve. She never allowed his false flattery to turn her head. There was nothing she could use as a retort to his overly poetic words, and she tried her best not to glare at him.

“Are you as gleeful as I am by our forthcoming wedding?” Ellish bowed his head. “I shall invite all the peerage. At least those who have not instigated my wrath. It will be a grand event and perhaps I will even invite our king to attend. What think you of that?”

Kendra tried not to look daggers at the man, even as she knew his words were nothing but lies. “We are not betrothed, My Lord, so I bid you to cease any arrangements. As I have told you repeatedly, I will not marry you.” He was the last man she’d ever marry. Heatherington knew how she felt about him because she had for the past two years rejected his numerous pursuits with every excuse imaginable.

Still, he’d persisted.

“I am gladdened to announce that yestereve your father finally agreed. Why, only yestereve he accepted my bride price of ten pounds. Now, we can forget this madness and get on with our marriage. I plan for our wedding to occur at the end of the spring season and then you will finally be mine.” He grinned with a wicked tug of his lips and continued to ogle poor Linet. “As will you.”

Was that true? How could it be? Would her father actually betroth her to such a detestable man? Even now, in spite of his state of mind, he had to understand that Heatherington was not only arrogant and vile in thought and word, but that he was also the most unattractive man she’d ever looked upon. His thinning dark hair always appeared damp, his chin weak, his body lean with nary a muscle to show for his prowess at arms, and worse, he was well over two scores in age. Besides his dubious looks, he was known to be quite vile with a temper and cruelty toward his servants. She could only imagine how he would treat his wife—a wife she’d never be, she vowed. Kendra had done her best to rebuff his advances, but the man wouldn’t take no for an answer.

She had always hoped to marry a man the complete opposite of Ellish.

“Surely, you speak falsely, my Lord. My father would have told me if he made an arrangement with you and he swore not to.”

He snickered. “Did he now? I lined your father’s coffer well for your hand and I expect your submission,” his tone turned from sweet to sour.

Submission . Kendra’s stomach flipped and she thought she’d be ill. Somehow, she suppressed the urge to gag. Her father wouldn’t do such a wretched thing without conferring with her. God, she hoped he hadn’t, and for ten measly pounds? Being bartered for so little made her sick to her stomach. She peered ahead and hoped to see her father’s soldiers, but no one was there.

“I must go before Papa sends the sentry after me. Good day, Lord Heatherington.” Overwrought, she yanked on her horse’s reins. Unused to such harsh treatment, her mare reared onto her hind legs. Kendra grabbed Sky Dancer’s mane tightly and managed to keep her balance to avoid falling off. Surprised, to see her horse’s legs pinoining around his head, Heatherington moved out of her way. Good. Kendra leaned over her horse’s neck and rode hell-bent toward home.

“You don’t think he’s telling the truth, do you?” Linet asked when she caught up to her. Her maid’s long auburn tresses whipped at the breeze of her movement.

Kendra turned to look at Linet and noticed the tears in her pretty blue eyes. “Lord, I hope not. And worry not, Linet, because I would never give you to Heatherington no matter how many coins he offered for you. Let us ride on and I’ll find my father and ask him.”

Linet was her only friend, the daughter of the maidservant and the steward of their manor. She had lived in their home since the day she was born and had been Kendra’s ever-present companion for most of her life.

Inside the gate, they dismounted and waited for one of the grooms to take the horses. Linet stood beside her, silent and pensive. Kendra shifted her gaze about the baily and wondered where everyone was. At this time of day, there was always activity—men emptying carts from the fields, guards standing about jesting or discussing the day’s events, and children running amok with their mothers chasing after them. But today it was eerily vacant. It was quiet too and only the sound of the wind whipping the pennons atop their manor could be heard.

“Where is everyone?” Linet asked and drew closer to her. “Is there trouble?”

Kendra was unsure, but then she spotted John, her father’s attendant. “Oh, John, what is happening? Is there danger?”

John, a young soldier who was old enough to join the other men-at-arms, stayed within the manor and acted more like her father’s manservant than a soldier. His almost-black hair covered his eyes and she couldn’t tell if his gaze bespoke danger or not. When he reached them, he took the reins of her horse and Linet’s.

“Mistress, I was about to send men out to find you. Your da is missing again. I sent a search for him and all are looking beyond the walls. Worry not, for he’ll be found quickly. I suspect he hasn’t gotten far.” The young man assigned to keep watch over her father had a difficult task before him, especially since as a soldier, John was often called to perform his other duties that were more in keeping with his duties as a guardsman.

Kendra raised her hands to her chest as a twinge of pain settled there. “Oh, nay! Wasn’t the gate’s guard keeping an eye out?” She had directed that the guards keep her father within the walls, but somehow he managed to sneak by them. This wasn’t the first time he’d absconded past the gate.

“They were distracted when a woman was knocked down by one of the soldier’s horses,” John explained. “I heard the commotion and left the manor to give aid and when I returned, your da was gone.”

The more John spoke, the more daunting the news grew. “Oh, gracious, is the woman unharmed?” Kendra hoped she wasn’t severely injured.

“She received a few bruises for her carelessness. But when I returned to the hall where I’d left Lord Rupert, he wasn’t within. I searched the entire manor, around it, and nearby. He was nowhere in sight so I sounded the alarm.”

“My thanks, John. I shall go in search of him too.” Kendra was about to set off to look for her wayward father when the soldiers’ shouts came from the gate.

“Looks like they found him, Mistress.” John released the horses’ reins and turned to make a mad dash toward the gate to reach Lord Graham.

“Hold the horses,” Kendra directed Linet, then rushed after John. There by the gate, her father stood with his head lowered. She put a smile on her face and hurried forward to link her arm with his. “Papa, I worried for you. Come, let us get you inside.”

Her father said nothing but strolled silently next to her with his silvery-haired head lowered in defeat. When they reached the courtyard, he said, “I only wanted to walk about the grounds. Why did they drag me back?”

Kendra couldn’t answer because her father wouldn’t like her response.

As she walked Papa to the house, John led their horses away and the men who had searched for her father returned to their duties. They entered their home with her maid following. Linet took her cloak and set off to let Gilda, the maidservant, know they had returned.

Inside the great hall, their footsteps echoed in the now practically empty room. No tapestries adorned the walls to buffer the sound. The room felt cold as if no one lived there. She guided her father to the small trestle table where only four chairs flanked the wooden surface. Once, there had been a grand table that had sat at least twenty, situated in the center of the large room with smaller tables positioned around it. She’d sold the beautiful table that had been made especially for the hall when the manor was built, along with any other items that could fetch needed coins. Kendra settled her father in a chair and then took the seat opposite of him.

Gilda hurried into the hall and set a basket of warm bread in the center of the table. The maid hastened to the buttery and retrieved a pitcher of ale and cups for them. “The midday meal shall be ready soon.”

“Our thanks, Gilda.” She turned her attention to her father to address his disappearance. Papa, you know you shouldn’t leave the grounds. Remember, we talked about this.”

“Aye, but I just wanted to stretch my legs.” He grunted. “You shouldn’t be telling me where I can go. I am the lord of this manor and your father, and I bid you to remember that.”

Kendra pressed a gentle hand on his arm. She didn’t let his bluster bother her. He sometimes lashed out but she did her best to keep him calm. “Aye, but you know that I worry about you. You promised me that you wouldn’t leave the walls.” Before she continued to reproach her father, the manor’s steward strolled into the room.

Linet’s father, the steward, Norman, approached. “Mistress, I need to speak to you.”

She sighed wearily at Norman’s sorrowful gaze. He appeared displeased and she suspected that he hesitated to come forward. It wasn’t that she disliked the steward, but he always brought bad news and she’d had enough bad news already that day.

After she poured her father a cup of ale, she addressed him, “Good day, Norman.”

“I would like to meet with you this afternoon to go over the accounts.”

Kendra trusted the steward and had since she reached an age of understanding, and oversaw the keeping of their manor’s accounts. Norman realized that she was just looking out for her father when she’d done the recounting. She ensured his accounting was accurate and that he hadn’t thieved. There was never a miscounting—not that she suspected he would ever take coins from their coffers. When she’d turned ten years of age, she’d insisted that her father teach her to add sums and count coins. Strangely enough, Kendra excelled at figures and she enjoyed the tasks. It truly was her way of looking out for her father. They’d spent many hours together which brought them closer. Her mother had passed when she was very young and in teaching her, it afforded her father time to spend with her. Kendra cherished those times.

In recent years, Norman often came to her when her father was intent on using their wealth on unnecessary items. She had maintained her ability to rein in her father’s spending, a feat that often exhausted her. In the last year, she alone was responsible for the discouraging downfall of their wealth. Kendra had used every pound, shilling, and pence in her quest to find a healer who might cure her father’s ailment. All the coins paid were wasted on hair-brained remedies and unsound advice. Nothing helped and her father continued to be forgetful and worse, he declined.

“Will you make time for me, Mistress?” Norman asked.

Kendra pulled herself from her overwrought thoughts and nodded. “Of course, Norman. I will make myself available whenever you wish to meet. Just find me when you have a moment.”

The steward bowed to her, backed up a few steps, and hastened for the hall’s exit.

She took a warm roll from the trencher in the center of the table. Her father peered far off as if his mind was elsewhere. “Papa?” He seemed in a daze and she wondered where he went to in his mind when he was like that.

He came out of it a moment later. “Your cheeks are bright, dearest. Were you out riding?” Her father smiled winsomely at her as if he’d forgotten she was reproaching him for leaving the manor grounds. Perhaps he had.

Kendra decided to let the discussion go for now since it was unlikely he’d remember that he’d promised to stay within the walls or even that he’d left them.

She took a bite of bread, swallowed, and nodded. “I was. It is a beautiful day and warm. Looks like it shall rain later. I crossed paths with Lord Heatherington. He tells me that you accepted a bride price from him. Tell me that is not so.” Kendra reached across the table and gently shook her father’s forearm when he didn’t answer. “Papa, did you?”

Her father shook his head. “I do not recall doing so but I might have. I seem to remember him visiting yestereve. Was it yestereve?”

Kendra gasped. “Oh, Papa, you didn’t. Please tell me that you didn’t accept his coins. You must return them at once and reject his offer. I will not marry the man. He is old and vile.”

He muttered under his breath.

She couldn’t understand his words and set a hand on his arm again. “Papa, I cannot marry Heatherington. You know that I detest him. He is an evil man. Where did you put the coins? I will have Norman return them at once with your regrets.”

Her father shrugged and his bushy eyebrows rose. “Hmm. I cannot recall where I put them.” He smoothed his hands over his tunic and patted his thighs as if he were searching for them.

“What do you mean you cannot recall? Have you lost them?” Kendra’s shoulders slouched with the weight of his words. “Oh, Papa, what are we going to do? We need to find those coins because if we do not, I shall be forced to wed him.” The anguish of her situation reached her throat and her words came heavily as if they choked her. It took all her will not to sob outright or pound the table in anger with all the force of her fist. Ire rose to her cheeks and heated them.

“Worry not, dearest. We will find them.”

She despaired that if she couldn’t find Heatherington’s coins, she would have no choice but to marry the blighter. If there were enough coins in her father’s coffer, she would use them to repay the knave, but their stores and wealth had dwindled to almost nonexistence.

Kendra had so much to worry about: their empty coffers, her father’s failing health, and now, she had to worry about herself. No one was going to save her. She was doomed.

Thomas, the gate watchman, strode into the hall. When he reached the table, the tall soldier bowed. “My Lord, Mistress, this missive just came from the king. I thought it important enough to bring posthaste.”

“Give it here, Thomas,” she said and held out her hand. Kendra wasn’t about to let her father receive such an important missive—from the king no less. Thomas placed it in her hand, bowed to her, and turned on his heel.

She called out to the guard before he could flee. “Await, Thomas. Did you witness Lord Heatherington here yestereve? Did you see him give my father coins?”

The guard shook his dark head. “Nay, Mistress, he didn’t come when I was on duty. I will ask the other guards if they saw Heatherington.”

“Please, do, and if they did, have them come to see me at once.” The guard nodded to her and left. Kendra returned her attention to the missive and opened it. The king’s words were brief but made her stomach clench. Had she just thought she was doomed? She hadn’t expected things could get worse, but apparently they could. “Oh, nay, this cannot be.”

“What does our fair king want, dearest?” Her father’s muted blue eyes stared at her.

“He bids you to bring me to Edinburgh and that he intends to marry me to one of his followers. We are to leave at all due haste for the wedding which shall take place immediately.” Kendra scrunched her eyes at the words that wavered before her eyes. The madness of the day was getting worse with each breath.

“Well, then, dearest, our troubles are solved. You won’t have to marry Heatherington after all. We will leave to meet the king on the morrow.” Her father stood and set his hand on her shoulder. “Worry not, fair lass, all will be well. I find I’m tired after my walk and will seek rest.” He stood and left her without another word.

John, fortunately, had returned from the stables in time to escort her father to his solar. She nodded to him, and her shoulders eased, knowing his attendant would look after him for a while.

Kendra sighed heavily and muttered aloud, “My problems grow even more troublesome.”

She went to her bedchamber to pack her belongings and as she did so, she realized that she wouldn’t return home from the king’s castle. With her father aging and ailing, she had to find a way to keep him with her.

Would her husband allow her father to remain with her? Lord, she hoped so.

With her brother away, there was no one else to care for her aged father but her. She wouldn’t leave her beloved father unattended especially since her elder brother had hailed off to be in the English king’s regiment of soldiers. Who knew how long he would be away and when or if he would return?

Being situated near the border, Aston, her elder brother, hoped to appease both kings to the north and south. Henry, King of England, continued to plague the Welsh and tried to overtake the lands to the west. Wales continued to thwart Henry, but now infused with more soldiers, England would soon make progress in their endeavor, she mused. Henry wouldn’t cease his attacks until he gained the reward. Aston had professed that one day, they might need Henry’s aid or approval especially since the border region changed hands from time to time. So Aston had joined the South in their war.

Kendra didn’t much listen to the political news rife by the border. She had enough worries at home, keeping her father safe, avoiding Heatherington, and ensuring her family’s manor didn’t become insolvent or go to ruination. Her father overspent with little thought about where the coins were coming from or how they’d be replaced. Then their situation became even more dreadful when she had to sell off most of their property to find the necessary coins to pay the healers. The past year had been hard on her but she’d continued to search for a cure. Somehow, they would make do with the coins that remained which now might need to be used to repay Heatherington.

Kendra packed two valises full of her garments and belongings. Since it was unlikely that she’d return to her family’s manor, she ensured she took anything that she cherished. On the chair by the window, she retrieved her mother’s shawl. The soft, worn material eased her discontent when she pressed it to her face. She caressed her skin with it and swore she could still smell her mother’s scent even though her mother had passed when she was no higher than a man’s knees.

Little remembrances kept her mother alive. She had missed having a mother to confide in and there weren’t many women within the keep that she befriended except for Linet and the manor’s maidservant Gilda and in the village nearby, there weren’t many women her age to make friends with, and those who lived close were too busy with the upkeep of their homes. Likewise, Kendra had too many duties keeping her busy to spend time entertaining. From sun up to sun down, she ensured their home was kept in order, kept her papa safe, organized the payment for goods, and oversaw the accounting of their fortune—or lack of fortune.

But that was all about to change. Who would take care of things now?

After she finished packing her belongings, she retreated to her father’s bedchamber. Outside the doorway stood John, ensuring her father stayed within. “Lord Rupert is asleep, Mistress.”

She bowed to him and set her hand on the latch. “Go on, John, and seek your bed. When I leave, I shall lock his door.”

“Good night, Mistress,” he said and bowed before leaving.

Kendra was saddened at the thought that she had to lock her father in his bedchamber at night. But it was for his safety and ever since he’d gone off in the middle of the night, they had to be sure that he stayed within. She always checked that the door was unlocked in the morning. So far, her papa was unaware of the lengths she went through to protect him.

After she entered, she grabbed a satchel and packed several tunics, tartans, and a light cloak for him. His snore startled her and she peered across the bedchamber. Kendra loved him and she was the only person who truly cared for him besides John. It was her duty to see that he was protected. With his ailment of failing memory, she worried. Was his time coming to an end? That thought had crossed her mind repeatedly the last few months and she’d gotten no answers from the many healers she’d hired.

When she finished his packing, she did a thorough search of his bedchamber for the coins. She searched the table where he attended to correspondence, the table beside the bed, the various trunks where he kept his belongings, even amongst his garments, and found nothing. She checked beneath his massive bed, behind the secret wall panel in his room he thought she wasn’t aware of, and the small jeweled coffer that sat on the window ledge. Nothing. There were no coins to be found. Kendra sighed heavily. Where in God’s name did he put them?

Quietly, she closed the door to his chamber, locked it, and hung the key on the hook next to the threshold. She went to the kitchens behind their home. Inside the small stone cottage, a good-sized worktable sat beside a hearth that took up one side of the room. On the other side, wooden shelves lined one wall to the other. On those shelves usually sat sacks of grain, and all the items needed to prepare meals for all those within the keep’s walls. Their stores had diminished and hardly any sacks took up the shelving but soon the crofters would send more to replenish their stock once the crops grew and were harvested.

The manor’s main maidservant and cook sat having her nightly brew. Gilda smiled widely when she saw her. Kendra was grateful to the woman because she worked tirelessly to keep them fed. Most of the servants had been let go when their coins dwindled and she was unable to feed extra mouths, but Gilda never complained regardless of what had been asked of her.

“’Tis a fine night this. Good eve, Mistress,” she said and hurried to fill a cup for her. “Linet has turned in for the night if you needed her.” After she set the cup in front of her, she pressed back the curly waves of her faded reddish hair and peered at her with inquisitive blue eyes. Nothing much got past Gilda. She probably already knew they would leave, but Kendra was disheartened to speak of it.

“Nay, I am about to turn in myself.” Kendra sat for a moment and took a breath. It had been a day, the most hellish that she could remember. She raised her cup and took a small sip of the potent drink. Gilda made a brew that was made from herbs and other items—her secret recipe.

“How are you, Gilda? Do you need anything?” The woman was a godsend and was married to their steward. Both she and Norman were loyal and took care of them. What would she have done without them? It was down to their good grace that she and her father survived the past few months. Linet, too, had been invaluable and Kendra would probably have fallen apart if it wasn’t for her support and friendship.

Gilda shook her head. “Oh, nay, nothing. Norman told me about your father going missing earlier. I took him a bite to eat for his supper and settled him with a goodly cup of brew.”

“You are kind to us. My thanks. I just left Papa and he’s sound asleep.”

Kendra set the cup down, got up from the table and began rummaging through the kitchen stores to find things she could pack for the journey to Edinburgh. She packed two loaves of clapbread, wrapped several strips of salted venison, and a jug of cider in an oversized pouch used for such journeys that was kept by the stores.

“Are you going somewhere?” Gilda asked as she watched her from the table.

“On the morrow, Papa and I are leaving for Edinburgh. I shall not return and I am unsure when Papa will. Will you look after the keep whilst we are away?”

Gilda drew in a breath and rushed to stand near her. She patted her shoulder. “Oh, Mistress, I am saddened to see you go. Why will you not return?”

Kendra muttered the king’s request. “I shall be married and will live with my husband. Aston likely will not return for some time. I’ll speak to Thomas and shall have the guards close up most of the keep to prevent our home from being ravaged until my brother can return.”

Gilda dabbed at her eyes. “I am happy to hear that you will marry, Mistress, but I shall miss you. Like a daughter, you are to me.”

Speaking of daughters, Kendra needed to ask Gilda if she would allow hers to leave their keep. A wave of guilt washed over her at the thought, but she knew she’d be completely lost otherwise. “Would you mind terribly if I took Linet with me? If she agrees, that is.”

“Try and keep her from going and I promise you, she’d be weeping for days. I am sure she will be pleased to attend you. I’ll have her ready in the morning before you set out.”

“My thanks, Gilda, for all that you have done for me…for us.” Kendra bowed her head to the woman and hastily left the kitchen with the satchel of supplies in hand.

Tears gathered in her eyes at saying farewell to the kindly woman who had looked after her most of her life. Kendra pressed her eyes and sniffled her tears away. She wasn’t usually a weeper and rarely cried but the sentiment of leaving those she loved, the home she cherished, and what she was familiar with, threatened to send her into hysterics.

As she passed the manor’s entrance, she placed the satchel of foodstuff on a small bench just inside the doorway so she wouldn’t forget it on the morrow.

Then there was one more chore to be done before she could seek her bed and that was meeting with Norman. She found him in the small workplace on the main floor of the manor. Atop his worktable sat jars of ink, a scatter of quills, and several volumes of the manor’s expenses and income. Lately, the sums added were minimal and dismal. Their discussion was short-lived and expected. Norman handed her a small sack which held five coins.

“I fear that is all that remains, Mistress.”

She firmed her lips, nodded, and returned the coins to him. “Keep them in case you need them for the manor. I doubt we shall need them at the king’s castle. Whilst we are gone, you’ll see to the crofters’ payments. Do not threaten them though if they are unable to pay until after the harvest season. Safeguard the coins you receive and we’ll figure out what to pay later. I will send a missive when I get to where I am going.” Kendra didn’t like the unknown but for now, she couldn’t worry about it. Until she married whoever the king betrothed her to, she would make the best of the situation.

“Very well, Mistress. I’ll look after the manor and will take care of things. Worry not. ”

“You are a good man, Master Norman. I thank you.” Kendra knew the promissory notes were piling up and many were overdue. Somehow, she had to figure out how to pay the merchants. But that was a problem for another day. At present, she worried about Heatherington, her papa’s ailment, and Dear Lord, the king’s command that she marry.

After speaking with the guard and steward, she finally sought her bed. It was well after dark and she was overtired and overwrought. In bed, she tossed and turned, plagued with the thoughts of who her new husband might be. She hoped to find a little happiness and solace in her new life. What she wouldn’t do for a little peace.