Page 15 of Bride takes a Scot
“I won’t need anything, Declan. Good eve to you.”
Dismissed, Declan left and closed the door quietly behind him. He met Helena at the table. “See that my wife is given food and a bath. We have not eaten a good meal in days. I will be out amongst the clan if ye needs me.” He didn’t wait for Helena’s acknowledgment but hastened outside.
With a whistle, he called his guardsmen and commander-in-arms to him.
Anse, his cousin, and commander-in-arms, reached him first. He punched his arm and then shoved him. “Damn, ’tis good to have ye back. I take it ye had no trouble on the way home?”
“Nay, I thought someone followed, but whoever it was never showed themselves. I saw no one on my travels except for the Murrays when I crossed their land. All goes well?”
By then, Trevor, Slone, and Lorcan stood around him. His trusted guardsmen were the most skilled of all the MacKendrick soldiers. Brothers, the guardsmen resembled each other with their dark hair and eyes. Their skin likewise was dark, made even tanner by the sun because they often forwent the wearing of a tunic. There were rumors that their mother was a Spaniard, taken by their father as a slave, but he’d been so enamored, he’d kept her as his wife.
“Did ye not go through with it, Laird?” Lorcan asked, shaking his dark-haired head. “Do we now have a lady?”
“Aye, I did,” Declan answered. “I had no choice. At least now, we owe no tax and can put our coins to good use.”
“Then where she be?” Slone asked. “You got married, aye?”
“I put her to bed.” Declan took a moment to glance around their home, noting the fortification he had commissioned was about halfway finished. Three stories had been erected so far. Soon, he’d move into the stone structure and hoped it would be finished by harvest time.
“She must be a looker then if ye already finished with her,” Trevor said. “Could not hold out, eh? Did the poor lass get any pleasure at all?”
Declan scoffed at his soldier. “What business is it of yours? I would keep from making such lurid comments if I was ye, or mayhap you’d like to lift heavy stone for the rest of the week.” He reprimanded his soldier and bade him to be quiet, but then he couldn’t resist sticking up for his wife. “She is a looker, Trevor, but nay, we just rode a great distance, and she needs rest. It is not what ye are thinking.”
“Does this woman have a name?” Anse asked.
“Isabella.”
Slone chuckled. “Is she bonny, Laird? Or did ye get saddled with the ugliest of the lot?”
Declan scoffed at the soldier. “Truthfully, she was the most pleasing of the brides and I got the first choice so…” He shrugged. “Now, tell me the news and be quick about it.” He nodded as Anse gave him the latest happenings of the clan. There wasn’t much to report. “The Campbells have been quiet? They haven’t caused any issues whilst I was away?”
“Nay, they have not stepped foot on our land. I commanded the sentries to go out day and night and to make sure they did not trespass. There have been no reports of anything untoward by them either,” Anse said. “They’re keeping to themselves these days.”
“Good. And my brother Claude? Has he been training as I bade him to?” Declan’s gaze sought his younger brother amongst the fledgling soldiers who practiced arms on the adjacent field. Claude was at an age where he should have taken to arms already, but with the death of their father, his brother had balked at fighting. Most lads his age were overzealous to begin their training. Declan had given him time to mourn, but now his brother was more than ready to wield a sword for the clan.
“Claude comes daily and does his duty, but he does not like it,” Anse said. “His heart is not in it.”
Declan sighed and gathered that he would have to speak with his brother. “I do not give a cosh whether he likes it or not. He will take to arms akin to the rest of the MacKendricks. Aye, and what about Silas? What has he been up to lately?”
Anse waived his guardsmen away. “Be about your duties, men. I will speak to our laird.” Once the soldiers left them, Anse grimaced. “’Tis the truth, I have not seen your stepbrother. He goes about his way without reporting in and avoids me. Mayhap I should have a word with him.”
“It is my duty, and I will speak to him. He should not be going off without at least letting ye know where he’s off to. Murray said he saw him heading toward Campbell land recently. I think my stepbrother is intent on finding my accuser. That is commendable but he shouldn’t go outside the walls without letting someone know.”
Anse grimaced. “Perhaps, Laird, but I like not that he is sneaky about it.”
“You worry about the soldiers, Anse, and I will worry about my brother.”
“Stepbrother,” Anse corrected him with a clip, “I remind ye he is not related by blood.”
“It matters not. When my father married his mother, he became my brother. Now cease this senseless talk.” Declandidn’t know why Anse wasn’t fond of Silas. His commander should take his brother in hand and guide him.
Declan had promised his stepmother that he would see to his training, but Silas wasn’t very good at arms. He suspected Anse reproached Silas because the soldiers often followed his stepbrother’s lead. There was a wee bit of a power struggle there. Declan wouldn’t do anything about it until it became necessary. Perhaps in time, it would sort itself out.
Anse ambled away, slowly moving toward the fortification and he trailed him. “So tell me, Declan, what think ye of this wife? I assume she is bonny since ye are not complaining about her.”
Declan shrugged.
“I suppose ye are being closemouthed for a reason?” Anse asked. “Is she a harpy? God, I hope ye were not saddled with such a woman. A shrew for a wife is the most horrible thing imaginable, a fate worse than death if ye ask me.”