Page 28 of Wild Wicked Scot
She absently fingered the gold necklace he’d put around her neck as she thought about it. He’d obviously taken the letter with him this morning. Had he taken it to keep her from reading it? Or had he simply taken it to respond to whoever had written it?
She turned away from the chest and leaned against it. What was she to do now? How did one spy on one’s estranged husband?
The door swung open and the dour-faced woman appeared once again. “Your maid is no’ to be found, then,” she announced, sounding vexed. “I’ll help you to dress, then, aye?”
God, please no.But Margot smiled. “Thank you,” she said, and mentally prepared herself to face her first full day back at Balhaire as a pariah.
CHAPTER SEVEN
MARGOT’SMAID, NELL, was hotter than the bathwater that had been drawn for her.
“How crude it was, milady,” she said angrily as she stalked around the old rooms Margot had once occupied, laying out gowns from which Margot would choose. “That man as big as a tree come in here as if he owned this pile of rocks and demanded to be shown your things!”
Jock, she meant. Margot stepped into the bath and sank down into the hot water.
“I says, ‘You can’t go looking through my lady’s things,’ andhesays, ‘Stand aside, you wee nymph. I’ve no bloody time for it.’ Beggin’ your pardon,” she added hastily in apology for her language, and dipped a curtsy.
“It’s all right,” Margot said. The hot water felt good on her body, particularly those spots that had not been so well used in a very long time. She leaned back and closed her eyes as Nell stomped about, listening to the sweep of her gown on the carpet as she ranted about her encounter with Jock.
“I don’t like it here,” Nell said, tossing her blond head. “Never did. It’s not right that a man can come into a lady’s chamber and put his big paws into her things and stir them about like a mutton stew. And with no regard for costly lace and silk! My father always said Scots were hard-hearted and the only redeeming thing about them was the road they built to England.”
Margot laughed at that. “They’re not as bad as that.” She sat up in the bath, water pouring off her shoulders and breasts. “Come and help me wash my hair.”
When she’d dressed and Nell had put her wet hair up, Margot ventured out of her rooms. She went down the curving stairs to the main floor. She heard voices in the great hall, Jock’s rising above the others. Margot walked in the opposite direction of all those Mackenzies and out the front door.
The mists had lifted and left in their wake a blindingly bright day, and she stood a moment to let her eyes adjust, her gaze landing on Sweeney Mackenzie in the company of three men. At least Sweeney had been kind to her before. She’d never been able to determine exactly where Sweeney fell on the chain of command at Balhaire, but he was always about. She strode forward.
“Good day, Sweeney.”
He looked surprised to see her. “G-good day, m-m-milady,” he stammered.
She’d always found his stuttering curious, as it seemed to affect him only when he was very anxious. And he did seem quite anxious—he glanced at the young man beside him as he tugged so anxiously at his wig that it began to tilt to the left.
Margot looked at the men. None of them could look her in the eye, and all of them seemed unduly apprehensive. Was it her? Was she so reviled? She shielded the sun from her eyes with her hand so she could better peer at them. “Is everything all right?”
“Ah...m-m-madam,” Sweeney began.
“Is the laird here?” she asked, pointing to the door.
Sweeney shook his head.
What in blazes was the matter with these men? “Has he gone far?”
“N-no, m-mu’um. He’s training the m-m-men.” Sweeney seemed pleased to be able to offer up this information, at least.
“Well, then. You can take me to him.”
Sweeney’s throat bobbed on a deep swallow. “J-J-Jock, he’ll t-t-take you, aye? We’re to t-t-take your things, that’s all.”
Her things? “What things, Sweeney?”
Sweeney’s face reddened. One of the men behind him jabbed him in the back and muttered something under his breath.
“I think you are mistaken, Mr. Sweeney. Nell is still unpacking my things. You must mean to put my trunk away, is that it?” she asked, her gaze narrowing on the poor man.
Sweeney looked helplessly to the man beside him, but that man was staring at Margot, his expression one of pure dread.
Margot stepped closer. “It would appear there is something I should know,” she said coolly.
