Page 25 of Bride of Fire
Chapter 14
“Bloody hell, did he put us next to that babe?”
Jenefer could hear the crying as if the child were in the room with her. She made a mental note to relocate the nursery once she was laird here.
Hallie shook her head at the sound. “Get some sleep, Jen. And I forbid either of you to attempt escape.” Then she burrowed farther under the bedsheets.
Feiyan arched a slim brow at Jenefer, as if to say this was all her fault, then fell back upon the pallet beside Hallie. She snatched a bolster from the bed and folded it over her ears with a smile of mockery.
Jenefer fired back a smoldering scowl.
Forbidden to escape? This was a travesty. How else was she going to raise an army to claim Creagor?
She bit back a curse and sat in simmering silence.
Meanwhile, the babe continued to wail—long, shuddering cries.
How anyone could ignore the sound, she didn’t know. It felt like an insistent grating on her soul. Her two cousins, however, snuggled together, as content as a pair of hens in a warm coop.
Impatient with them, Jenefer got up and paced past the fire. She wrung her hands at the relentless howling.
Where was the child’s mother? she wondered. Where was its nurse? Did the hardhearted Highlanders truly believe it spoiled an infant to answer its cries?
It was disgusting. And it only proved what horrible creatures these people were. Once Jenefer took over the castle, she swore she’d send the lot of them back to the Highlands.
To Jenefer’s further annoyance, despite the persistent wails, in another few moments, her cousins had fallen asleep. Their slow, relaxed breathing made a stark contrast to the miserable cries.
Stopping beside the fire, Jenefer scowled intently at the wall, willing someone on the other side of it to come to the babe’s aid.
After a long moment, the weeping finally subsided, as if someone had at last picked up the child.
Relieved of one source of exasperation, Jenefer turned to glare at the other—the two lumps of her cousins, snug and snoring in the bed.
They might sleep on the watch, but Jenefer would take no rest, not while a usurper inhabited her keep. Even if Hallie had commanded her not to escape, she would keep vigil. Someone had to be ready for an opportunity to overcome their captors or coerce the brutes into letting them go.
An oversized, cross-legged, leather-seated chair stood beside the hearth. A large bolster cushioned the seat. She narrowed her eyes at the embroidered letters on its face—M m G—and wondered what they stood for.
Maggot Mouthed Giant.
Miserable Meddling Goat.
Motherless Midge-witted Glutton.
With a sigh, she sank down upon the chair. It proved surprisingly comfortable. So comfortable that her eyes drifted shut and she slipped into slumber.
The serenity was broken a little while later when the babe started up again at full volume.
Startled out of a dead sleep, Jenefer instinctively shot to her feet and reached for her bow. Of course, it wasn’t there. Two confused blinks later, she remembered where she was and what had happened.
She glanced at the bed. Her cousins were still sleeping peacefully, sawing planks with their breathing. The fire had burned low.
While the babe wailed away, Jenefer got up and poked at the fire, stirring the coals to life. She added another lump of peat. Ordinarily she wouldn’t waste fuel like this, but it was cold in the room with no coverlet, wearing only a linen leine. Besides, she rather liked the idea of wasting the Highlander’s resources and making him pay for the trouble he’d caused her.
On and on the babe cried, mewling and bawling, then gasping in a quick breath, only to howl again.
Jenefer scowled once more at the wall, silently cursing the occupants on the other side.
Once she secured the castle, she swore she’d take that babe away from its cruel owners and give it to a milkmaid or serving lass to raise. Hell, even that gruff old knight in her uncle’s company, Sir Rauve, had better mothering instincts than whoever was caring for the child at the moment.
