Page 42 of Bride Takes a Laird
Kendra turned away and left the room. On her way down the stairs, she considered her father and decided to visit him. If she had little time left with him, she wanted to spend as much of it as she could with him. She entered the great hall and found Magnus’s father standing by the hearth.
After snatching a hard roll from the table, she approached him. “Good morn, Stan. How are you this day?”
His face was grim with a dullness in his eyes. He looked melancholy. “Good morn, lass. If ye were looking for Magnus, he left the keep earlier and I do not expect he’ll return until late this eve or mayhap even the morrow. If ye shall excuse me, I was about to take asmall tray to my wife.”
Magnus’s mother had become more miserable by the day. Kendra worried about her too. “Lady Faye hasn’t come down for the midday meal?”
He sighed. “Nay, she will not leave her bedchamber now and refuses to do so. I can not get her to eat either,ochI will keep trying. She has not eaten since yestermorn.”
“That is not good. Let me try. Besides, I should like to see her.” Kendra took the tray from him and headed to the lady’s bedchamber. She knocked at the door but heard nothing from within. As she leaned the tray on her hip, she opened the door and entered. “Good day, Lady Faye.” She set the tray on the end of the bed. Lady Faye sat on the bedside and gazed toward the window casement and didn’t bother to glance her way. “It looks to be a beautiful day.”
“Does it? I did not know it was midday.” Her tone implied that she was unaware that morning had passed, and nor did she care that the weather was fair.
Kendra sat in the chair that faced the bed. “Laird Stan was going to bring you food but I insisted he let me bring it. He tells me that you are not eating.”
“I am not very hungry.”
“You will make yourself ill if you don’t eat. I understand that you mourn your son. But he wouldn’t want you to sicken yourself because of your despair.” Kendra leaned forward. “You must eat.”
“What do you know about despair?”
Kendra sighed lightly. “’Tis the truth, I know much about it. My mother died when I was very young and this is all I have left of her.” She pulled the shawl tightly around her shoulders. “I cherish this shawl not because it keeps me warm but because it is like being hugged by my mother. Often, I seek its comfort and I assure you, it does ease me. I had hoped… Well, Magnus spoke so fondly of you and I thought perhaps to at least befriend you.”
Lady Faye snorted a derisive laugh. “I doubt that, lass. Magnus is not fond of anyone, least of all, me.”
“When I first arrived, he told me that I would like you and his father and that you were both friendly. I cannot lose you when we have yet to know each other. Please, at least eat a little.”
Lady Faye lowered her gaze. “I am sorry to hear that ye lost your mother, lass. Ye have never had a motherly person care for ye?”
Kendra shook her head. “Not really and believe me, it was rather lonesome sometimes. There were very few women at our manor and I did have a friend…Linet. Her mother was kind to me too. But it has always just been me and my papa. My brother was hardly at home and I rarely saw him. I’m afraid I have little family to speak of and when Magnus told me that he had a large family, I was gladdened because you would now be my family.”
“I always wanted a daughter but God only thought to give me sons.”
“You were blessed, My Lady. Your sons care for both you and your husband.”
Lady Faye reached out and took a piece of cheese from the trencher. “I fear that I might have ruined Ned and Jake with my coddling. My two eldest sons were taken from me and put to training at such a young age. I never got to enjoy being their mother, not like I did with the two youngest.” She nibbled on the cheese. Kendra was pleased to see that she finished it and then reached for another piece.
She decided not to mention it. “A mother must bear such heartache,” Kendra said. “I hope that I can keep my babies with me as long as possible.”
“Ye and Magnus plan to have children soon?”
Kendra smiled. “We do. Before you know it, you will have a wee bairn to hold and coddle. Think of your grandchildren. I will need help and your motherly wisdom too, Lady Faye, so I cannot have you sicken yourself. Please, eat. Go outside and get some air. Return toyour activity. That would please Ned, and me too.” The mention of grandchildren seemed to perk the lady up and the edges of her mouth shifted slightly upward toward her cheeks.
“I apologize, lass, for worrying ye.”
“I want to share something with you…something I have not told anyone except for Linet. Before my father and I left for the king’s castle, my father accepted coins from our neighbor as a bride price.” Kendra lowered her gaze in shame. “I prayed for a miracle to stop the marriage and then we received the order from the king. Never did I expect to marry someone as honorable as Magnus.”
“He is that,” his mother said. “Perhaps too noble.”
“I am grateful that Magnus chose me. But now the situation grows wearisome and I—”
“Now ye must return the coins to this neighbor?”
Kendra nodded. “I must because the man is nefarious and rather vindictive. If I do not return the coins by summer’s end he threatens to take our manor—my brother’s legacy—in repayment.”
“Then ’tis simple, return the coins. Have Magnus do it when he returns.”
“I…I would but I cannot find the coins. My father does not remember what he did with them and I am unsure what to do.” She explained how her father’s memory failed. “My search of my father’s possessions has yielded nothing and I have not been able to find them.”