Page 14 of Highland Renegade
“For sure, we doona intend to make things easy for them,” Rory said.
“Ye can count me in for that,” Devon replied.
“I ken ye doona want them here.” Ian looked at each of them. “But until—orif—the Earl of Bute can get our names cleared, we canna fight for our lands.”
Carr nodded. “Meanwhile, we must take care nae to anger the countess too much lest she sets us out on the road and we must needs disappear into the mists again.”
Ian raised a hand before Devon could protest. “Ye need to have a care for what ye do. ’Tis a fine line we walk.”
He had the odd feeling he was already teetering on it.
…
“Who is the new man on the dais?” Lorelei asked that evening as they’d gathered in the Great Hall for the meal.
Juliana rolled her eyes. “Is it not plain as day that is another brother? They all look alike.”
Lorelei tilted her head and considered. “There is something that is different about this one.”
Emily looked at the dais and then to her sister. “Besides the fact that he has been scowling at us since we came in?”
“All of them have been scowling, ever since we had the wagons unpacked.” Juliana glanced sideways at the raised table. “But I agree that his staring is somewhat unsettling.”
“He looks really angry,” Lorelei replied.
“He was not here when we arrived,” Emily said. “Finding out about us was probably a shock.”
Lorelei shook her head. “Everyone else was shocked, too, when they heard the news, but mostly they are just ignoring us.”
That was true, although where they were seated at the small square table to the side of the dais it was easy enough for no one to pay attention to them. Emily wasn’t sure if Ian had meant it as an insult to tuck them away practically out of sight, but she considered it a kindness, whether intentional or not. It would have been very uncomfortable to try to mingle with the clan seated on the benches of the long tables—at least until they had a chance to get to know them—and she certainly didn’t wish to be a spectacle on the dais. The more unassuming she could be right now, the better.
“It will take time for them to accept us,” Emily answered.
After the conversation with Ian yesterday, she was under the impression that they would not announce her actual ownership until the clan, at least most of them, had gotten used to the idea of her sisters and herself living at the castle. That had all changed with the brother’s outburst this afternoon. She’d heard several servants talking in low tones as she descended the spiral staircase from the old part of the castle earlier, and they’d quickly gone silent when they’d seen her. She thought they were probably speculating on why three women had brought five wagons worth of items that, somewhat grudgingly, Carr and Alasdair had been pressed into service to unload and take to the rooms that Lorelei and Juliana had chosen to use. Little did anyone know that those wagons containedalltheir worldly possessions.
“We may have to wait a long time for that to happen,” Juliana said. “I could not get more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ out of any of the servants, and that was before everyone found out about the deed.”
Emily had had similar experiences herself. When she’d introduced herself to Hamish, the castellan, he’d looked at her with an attitude that would have done justice to any Mayfair butler. She’d been able to get only short, terse answers from Maggie about the household schedule and, when she’d gone to the kitchens, the cook made it clear whose domain that area was. She’d heard shouting in the bailey earlier but she hadn’t thought much of it, since there was always noise outside.
“I thought you were not going to tell the clanspeople about the deed yet,” Lorelei said.
“Yes. That is what Mr. MacGregor and I agreed to.”
“Then what happened?” Juliana asked.
“I do not know.” She’d taken some cheese and bread off the morning sideboard so the three of them could work through the midday meal. It wasn’t until she was returning to her bedchamber to change her dusty dress for supper that she’d overheard two maids talking about the announcement that had been made. If it could be called that. It seemed that the lately arrived brother was fit to be tied. She sighed.
“It seems I will have to corner Mr. MacGregor again and get some answers.”
…
“You are not planning to disappear again this morning, are you?”
Ian paused in saddling Paden and stared at the wall over the horse’s withers for a moment before he slowly turned to face his nemesis.
Emily stood in the open doorway of the stable, the rising sun silhouetting her in a reddish glow as if she had stepped through a circle of fire. Or, as Devon or Rory would probably put it,stepped from the gates of hell.But demons didn’t have golden hair or eyes the color of a mountain loch. Should they? He briefly wondered if either Jezebel or Delilah, the great seducers of biblical times, had been blond. He gave himself a mental shake. He doubted very much that the countess had her mind on seduction, given her no-nonsense expression. It was his own head—albeit probably not the one on his shoulders—that fancied that notion. Mayhap he needed to pay a call to a tavern wench in Dalmally to rid himself of this untoward lust he felt. He forced himself to gather his thoughts.
“I have crofters to see. Best to get an early start.”
