Page 71 of Highland Slayer
Mabel smiled faintly. “It sounds as if you admire her already.”
“I do,” Estevan said. “It was her idea tae save Zora the way she did. I’ve never known a woman like that in my life. I dinna have time tae be frightened because I was too busy being awed by her.”
Mae chuckled, softly. “She has impressed you.”
“She has,” he said. “But she doesn’t know where she comes from, so dunna mention it when ye speak tae her. I dunna think it matters, anyway, but I wanted ye tae know that she comes from noble bloodlines. I’d want tae marry her even if she dinna.”
“It sounds to me as if you are serious.”
“I am,” Estevan said. “Will ye speak tae her?”
Mabel nodded. “I will,” she said. “Where is she?”
“Outside,” Estevan said. “She’s with some other women cleaning the bolts they collected from the battlefield. I’ll introduce ye.”
Mabel stopped him. “No need,” she said. “You remain here. Go over and save Matty from your sister’s incessant chatter. I will find this young woman and speak with her myself.”
Estevan couldn’t help it. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Thank ye,” he murmured sincerely. “And… be kind tae her, please? She’s been raised by women who have no warmth, no love as a family does. She’s never really spoken tae anyone else but them, so she may seem cold. But she’s not, I assure ye.”
Mabel eyed her son knowingly. “I assume you have discovered this personally?”
Estevan wasn’t known to blush, but if he was, he would have done it at that moment. Instead, he started laughing, his hand over his face.
“Not as much as I’d like tae,” he said to her prying question. “She’s an innocent, Mae, in all ways. Dunna fear. Nothing untoward has happened. Yet.”
Mabel cracked a smile. “Cheeky devil,” she muttered.
Estevan just stood there and grinned. But it soon became apparent that Mabel wasn’t in any hurry to meet Anaxandra, but rather, she was still watching the care of the soldier with the damaged eye. Since the soldier wasn’t in any immediate danger, Estevan was becoming restless.
“Will ye go now?” he asked.
Mabel looked up from the wounded soldier. “Is there a rush?”
Estevan sighed sharply. “Nay, but…”
Mabel took the hint. “But you want me to do it now,” she said. “Very well, if you insist.”
Estevan was back to smiling again. “Thank ye, Mae. I love ye.”
Mabel snorted softly, giving her impetuous son a wink before heading for the sanctuary door. She passed near Mateo as she walked, noting that he wasn’t doing what she had told him to do.
“I will not tell you again to lie down,” she told him, pointing a finger at him. “You had better be on your back when I return or there will be a row you cannot win. Zora, sit on him if you have to.”
Zora smiled gleefully while Mateo rolled his eyes and fell back on the bed, feeling persecuted by a ruthless woman and her annoying daughter. Mabel continued to the door as Estevan went over to save his friend, but what he really wanted to do was send Zora away so he could tell Mateo about Anaxandra. He was fairly bursting with it.
And Mabel knew it.
The last she saw, Estevan was trying to force Zora to tend to the other wounded, but Zora was more interested in bothering Mateo. Mabel smiled to herself as she headed out into the sunshine of a new morning, taking in a deep breath of the fresh air and thankful that a bad situation hadn’t turned out too horribly. As Estevan had said, it could have been much worse. But now, she was on the hunt for a young woman she didn’t know. All she had was a name and a location.
She struck out to search for a group of women cleaning bolts.
Like everyone else who visited St. Margaret’s, Mabel immediately noticed how odd the place was. The bailey was vast, but some of the buildings were connected by walkways that looked as if they were ready to collapse. As she continued on, she caught sight of a large and well-tended vegetable garden and stables that were small, given the size of the complex.
In fact, she could see her husband and two of her sons in the stable, speaking to Mother Michael as they tried to figureout how to feed all of the horses. Mabel briefly wondered if she should go and help Lares, as Kaladin had suggested she might be better in dealing with the mother abbess, but she decided against it. She’d already chased the woman out of the hall. Besides, Lares was a man of tact and understanding when he wanted to be.
She hoped this was one of those times.
As Mabel continued on, she could see groups of women around the bailey. Some were sitting down, cleaning swords, while still others were over by the kitchen yard. She couldn’t quite see what they were doing until one of them moved aside and she could see that they were handling bolts, which were fired from crossbows.
