Page 59 of The Guardian's Bride

“There are lengths of it hung on the walls here, and I will be glad to show you what is on the loom. Aedan, that old plaid is filthy and torn—and damp too. I will give you a new one.”

“This has been to hell and back, and today I fell in the sea and used it for a towel, so it has not quite dried. I hoped you could repair the weave.”

“Or turn it into a horse blanket!”

He laughed, then looked at Colban. “Lad, I wonder if you could play a game while I chat with your aunts about something.”

“We could play a table game if you have one,” Rowena offered.

Colban had a hand under the table as he slipped bits of food to one or two dogs. “Do you know Ard-Rì? We have a silver board with polished stones, black and white.”

“High King? I know it. Will you capture my king, or shall I capture yours?”

“I will get to the king’s square first! All your knights and soldiers will fall. But I will help you pick them up again,” he offered.

“Thank you. Show me your board while your da and your aunts have a chat. Come,” she said, standing, holding out a hand.

Aedan stood when she did, and watched them, entranced. She had a natural manner with the boy, kind and respectful. Colban had taken to her easily, and the dogs followed her too.

“Aedan. Aedan!” Jennet repeated. “What is this matter we must discuss?”

He stepped away from the table as two maidservants entered the room. “They will want to clear the table. We can talk over there on the window bench. Ah, those are fine new cushions.”

“I covered the old pillows with scraps of plaid,” Marjorie said. “I could make cushion covers out of your old plaidie too.”

“A horse blanket suits a knight’s plaid better than a seat cushion.”

“Either way,baobach,you would sit on it,” she replied.

“But why leavetomorrow?” Marjorie asked after he explained the threat from Edward and Sir Malise, adding that Sir Brian would take them to Bass Rock for safety.

“Day after tomorrow,” he clarified, “we will go to Dunfermline to meet Brian Lauder.” He glanced toward Rowena and Colban, who sat on the opposite end of the long room focused on moving black and white polished stones over a silver board.

As if sensing his glance, she looked up at smiled. Just then, Colban slid one of his white stones into place and crowed.

“Aedan,” Jennet prompted. “You were saying?”

He cleared his throat. “Just for a few weeks until the matter is settled. Sir Brian and Lady Ellen are good friends and you are welcome on the Rock or at Tyningham.”

Jennet set her needlework aside and folded her hands calmly. “The Bass is a prison now, they say, and remote. Think of your son. He should not live in such a place.”

“I am thinking of my son,” he said. “I fostered with the Lauders, remember?”

“Aye. But to leave here—my loom is not easily moved,” Marjorie said, “and I have plaids that are promised.”

“Those may have to wait. Bass Rock is safer for all of you just now.”

Jennet huffed. “How could this castle be unsafe, guarded and secure as it is? Even when the English burned Wemyss Castle, between here and Dunfermline, they did not ride here. They will leave us be. We have had troubles enough.”

“Edward has always threatened the MacDuffs, Aunt, you know that. He keeps our nephew in England as his ward, truly a hostage. And he has caged Isabella in a heinous manner, while your husband, our chief, sits in a dungeon,” he said fiercely.

“And they captured you, but you escaped. Now they want Colban!” Marjorie said.

“So it seems. The Bass Rock is the one place you can be secure.”

“Sir Patrick will come by tomorrow,” Marjorie said. “He often brings news, and may have heard word of Edward’s plans in Fife.”

“Patrick Wemyss?” he asked.