Page 28 of Bride Takes a Laird

Kendra rose. “I shall go then. My thanks, Ellen, for your aid. Do you wish to accompany me and Linet, Lady Faye? We can take a nice stroll and you can show me around, and perhaps I’ll find Magnus on our walk.”

“Oh, nay, I do not leave the keep, not these days.” Magnus’s mother lowered her eyes and sighed sorrowfully. “Your husband was up early and is likely about his duties. Magnus takes his position as our laird very seriously. I rarely ever see him as I doubt ye shall.”

“Thank you, Lady Faye, for telling me. I wondered and shall see him later then.” Kendra grew concerned for a moment but would speak to Magnus later about his mother’s odd comment. Questionsrankled her. Why didn’t she leave the keep? Was her son’s death dispiriting her? Was it possible that something could be done to brighten the woman’s mood, or was she always so melancholy? With hope, Kendra wondered if she might somehow aid her if Lady Faye allowed her to.

She left the keep and stood outside the entrance where she gazed about and watched the faces of the clan’s people. It struck her that everyone wore such serious or melancholy expressions. There was no joy in their faces, only sorrow. Winston, the lad who had journeyed with them to Magnus’s home, stood near the entrance of the fief, and bowed to her when she eyed him.

Linet sidled next to her. “How sad they appear. There is a darkness about the people here. You can feel it.”

“I believe they are in mourning but I could be wrong. Perhaps they are always dour or maybe Magnus’s brother’s death has affected them greatly.”

“How did he die?” Linet asked.

Kendra shrugged. “I hoped Magnus would tell me, but he hasn’t spoken about it. He too seems to mourn his brother deeply. He must have been greatly cherished or perhaps his death was disheartening? I suppose someone will tell us when they are ready to.” She wanted to find out the answers to those questions. “Come along then and let us get to the cottage.”

Linet linked her arm with hers as they usually did when they walked about. They set off toward the back of the fief. Winston walked behind them in the same direction. Kendra thought nothing of it and paid him no mind.

Though it was sunny, the wind whipped at her. She pulled her shawl around her and walked toward the back of the fief. Kendra missed her home. Though she was often alone there, except for Linet’s good company, she was just as alone here. She supposed there wasn’t much of a difference in her life but she hoped to find friendship and acloseness with Magnus’s family.

A woman dropped a basket of wool on the lane. The wind easily swept some of it away and the woman shouted. Kendra and Linet hurried to help retrieve the bits of wayward wool. When they had gotten all the wool back and pressed it deeper into the basket so the wind couldn’t scatter it again, the woman smiled up at her from her place on the ground.

“Glory be, I thought I had lost the day’s collection. My thanks, Mistress.”

Kendra returned her smile. “You are more than welcome. I think we got it all.”

“I do too. Thanks to you,” the woman said as she pushed herself to her feet and positioned the basket on her hip. “Good day.” She hastened away.

Kendra walked on and saw Hugh’s cottage in the distance. She thought to visit Hugh since his home was first as she passed. When she reached it, she knocked at the door but no one answered. She opened the door, stepped inside, and Linet followed. The cottage was clean and somewhat tidy, especially given that an elder man lived there. The bed was made and there was a tin cup on the table. Laird Hugh must have gone out. Yet she hadn’t seen them on her walk.

She retreated from the cottage and opened the door to the next one. That cottage too was empty. Kendra thought to take a moment to search through her father’s belongings again. Surely, the coins he’d accepted from Heatherington had to be amongst his possessions. She’d found nothing when she searched her father’s bedchamber before they left for Edinburgh. That meant that the coins had to be either on his person or within his possessions.

“What are you looking for?”

“For the coins Papa took from Heatherington. I need to find them soon so I can send them back before he makes threats.”

Linet rushed forward and helped to search among her father’sgarments. “I’ll check his clothing.”

Kendra removed his garments from the satchel, set them in a pile for her and Linet to search, and felt along the seams.Nothing. She found two small satchels he used when he was about the keep and emptied them. All she found was a string, a small dagger, and a collection of small stones.

“Where did you put them?” she said aloud as if expecting an answer.

“Nothing’s here in his garments,” Linet said.

Then Kendra checked his bedding, thinking that if he had the coins, he could have hidden them there. He probably didn’t know the significance of the coins or how important it was that they were returned. She lifted the stuffed mattress, felt along the coverings, and beneath the bed.Nothing. Kendra despaired that if she didn’t find the coins soon, they would suffer some horrid slight from Heatherington. The man wasn’t one to go against and he would be irked if he was deceived. Would he try to overtake her home? Kendra needed to protect her family’s servants and kinsmen.

She stood in the center of the cottage and couldn’t find anywhere else to check where her father would have hidden the coins.

“What are you doing in here?”

Kendra whirled around, startled, as her father and Hugh entered the cottage. She shook off her despondent mien and smiled. “Good day! I thought I would come and see how you were getting on, Papa.”

“Who are you, lass?”

She narrowed her eyes at her father’s question. “It’s me, your daughter…Kendra. I wanted to make sure you were settled and to ask you about the coins again. We must find them.”

Her father traipsed past her and sat at the table. He poured himself a cup of ale from a small jug that sat in the center and disregarded her. He grumbled something, but she couldn’t make out what he’d said, though “coins” was one of the words she could discern from the rest ofhis mumbling.

Kendra glanced at Hugh before she rushed past him to the table. “Papa, please speak to me.”