Page 57 of Bride Takes a Laird

“Good.” Hayden stood and before he left the cottage, he turned to Clarance. “My thanks, healer, for your aid. I’m well enough now.”

Clarence guffawed. “So ye say, aye?Och, ye might want to wait a few days before returning to duty or training or ye might be wavering on your feet.”

“I am well and my head no longer hurts,” Hayden said. “I need to get back—”

“Och, who am I but a healer…?” Clarence tisked and flapped his arm at them. “Be gone then. I’ll likely see ye here again before the day is through. If ye start to see double again, return at once. Laird, keep an eye on him for he is not as recovered as he deems.”

Magnus nodded to him. He wasn’t about to demand that Hayden stay at the healer’s cottage. If his soldier considered himself well enough, then he wouldn’t gainsay him.

Hayden stepped outside. “I vow that man is maddened. He wouldn’t cease prodding and poking at me. Methinks he hasn’t had a live person to tend to for some time.” He bellowed with a grunt. “Icannot believe Oswald was killed. When I awakened in the woods, I realized ye were gone. I thought you’d gone for help but when we returned, I wasn’t thinking right. Clarence said that Oswald was struck true in the center of his eyes.”

Magnus grunted. “He was struck harder than ye were.”

“I have a hard head,” Hayden said and grimaced. “I will miss my comrade, my brother-in-arms… There was no one I trusted more than him, except for ye, Laird. Until I avenge him, I won’t be able to mourn him.”

“Aye, me either. I visited him this morn, his resting place. Ye should go and see him. The clan could not await us for his burial and he was laid to rest before I returned.” Magnus had left his friend’s grave with anger filling him. Since he’d been able to rid it with the use of his sword arm most of the day, he felt much better.

“I understand, and aye, I probably will visit his grave this eve.” Hayden walked beside him. “Before the attack, ye were going to tell me what happened at the harlot’s home… What did ye find out about Ned’s murder?”

Magnus had forgotten that he had yet to explain what transpired and what he’d found out about Ned. He quickly filled Hayden in on what Mary had told him and that they now searched for Gordon and Ezlen. In brief, he spoke of what happened when he was confronted by Geoff Chattan, and lastly, that Kendra had left him.

“I know them both well, Gordon and Ezlen, and cannot believe they would extort coins from Ned. But that is not to say they wouldn’t. When we find them, we shall force the truth from them,” Hayden said.

“Ifwe find them. They’ve been missing for some time. It is probable that they have left the area and absconded to who knows where…? We may never get the truth about Ned’s death. I find I grow weary of worrying about it.” Magnus approached the main fief and invited Hayden to supper.

“I am sorry, Laird, to hear that Milady returned to her da’s home. But I understand that she needed to take her da’s body home. It is only right that the lord be buried on his land. She will return. As to the Chattans, ’tis about time we show them that the Camerons will not be tread upon. We’ll make them see that we mean business when we take to arms.”

Magnus waved Hayden to enter the keep before him. They ambled inside and took cups from the buttery on the way to the table. Inside the hall, his parents sat at the trestle table. The table was laden with various foodstuffs. He found himself hungry after training most of the day. He piled on stew, bread, and a handful of nuts on his trencher and set it before him.

His mother gazed at him with reproach. Magnus grunted in objection at her look, but she didn’t desist. “What is it, Mother? Ye appear to want to say something so speak, go on.”

“I am disappointed in ye, Magnus. How could ye let this happen? Ye should go and collect your brother from that healer’s cottage. Bring him home. We should tend to him, not some stranger. And I disbelieve ye allowed your wife to leave and have no concern for her. Ye should be riding hellbent to get to her, and yet, here ye are, eating supper as though ye have no troubles.”

He sighed and peered at his mother with angst. “Think ye I do not want to go after Kendra? I cannot leave when we are on the brink of war with the Chattans. They insist that we allow their sheep to graze on our land. I will not allow it. Along with that horrid situation, I must find the men who murdered Ned.Och, ye are right though. We should bring Jake home. He should be here, tended to by Clarence. I’ll see to it on the morrow.”

“I’ll go with ye, Laird,” Hayden said.

His mother pounded the table with her closed fist. “Ye worry about a small tract of land when our clan mourns. Who cares if the Chattans allow their sheep to graze upon our land? Let it be, Magnus,and go and retrieve your wife. Your soldiers can bring Jake home and when ye return, ye can find out who killed Ned. I do not know why ye are making this so difficult.”

“I am the laird, Mother, not ye. I make the decisions for this clan and family, and right now the matters that I must handle are more important than fetching a wife who should not have left the holding without my permission in the first place. Now cease haranguing me.” Magnus rose and with a pound of his fist on the table, said, “I do not need to hear this cosh, not from your surly tongue.” He turned to Hayden. “Be ready at first light and we’ll retrieve Jake.”

No one spoke to him on his way from the hall. Magnus trudged up the stairs and entered his bedchamber with a thrust to the door. The quiet eased him but being there also reminded him that he needed to get to Kendra. He wanted to be there for her in her time of need, and yet, he was unable to leave his holding at the present. Torn between his duty as the laird and his duty to his wife, Magnus raked his hands through his hair and growled in frustration.

On the approach to his trunk that held his garments, he spotted his grandmother’s brooch sitting atop. Kendra had left it behind. He sighed in objection because he wasn’t sure what that meant. Did she intend not to return? Or had she left it behind to keep it safe? Regardless, he held the brooch and closed his eyes at the coldness of the metal in his hand. Lord, he hoped she was safe.

He disrobed and got into bed. Sleepless, his mind wandered from one thing to another. But he finally drifted off as he thought of how bonny his wife was, how winsome she was in spirit, how pleasing she was. He missed her. As much as he wanted to be there for her, he admitted that he needed her too. She had a way of solacing him. What he wouldn’t do for a wee bit of peace now and with his wife held in his arms.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kendra searched theentire manor for the missing coins. Every place where she could think of was checked and rechecked for the misbegotten bride price, even the loosened floorboards in the hall and her father’s bedchamber. She removed the few remaining tapestries and considered there might be a hole in the wall where her father might have put them. But there was nothing, no secret hole or place within the manor. All the floorboards were intact and none loosened.

Deep in thought, she hadn’t noticed Linet enter the hall. Kendra paced around the small table with her hand beneath her chin as she pressed her other hand at her temple. An ache throbbed there in annoyance at her failure.

“Are you unwell?” Linet asked.

She about jumped knee-high off the floor. “Oh, you gave me a fright. I didn’t hear you enter. Nay, I am not unwell. I am feeling much better, only aggravated that I haven’t found the coins yet. I must thank your mother for her potion for it has settled my stomach.” She continued to traipse around the table and stopped. “We have searched for days on end, everywhere within the manor for the coins. They cannot be here inside the walls. I mean to search for them outside.”

“If Heatherington came and spoke to your da, they were probably outside. Maybe he hid them out there somewhere? I’ll get John to helpus search.” Linet left the hall.