An English Bride In Scotland (21 page)

“I am going to write to Mother and Father,” Annabel announced, interrupting his thoughts and Ross felt his heart sink. They would be stuck with her for a bit then as the letter went south to England, and then longer still as the response traveled back. Damn, he’d be lucky not to kill the woman ere she left.

Chapter 15

A
nnabel woke slowly, roused by the donjon blowing his bugle. Shifting sleepily, she rolled toward Ross to see if the sound had awakened him, only to find the bed beside her was empty. He’d left early . . . again. Ross had been up and out of the keep well before the morning bugle every day for the last week. The man worked far too hard.

A knock sounded at the door, and Annabel sighed and sat up, tugging the linens and furs to her chin as she called, “Come in.”

It was no great surprise when Seonag bustled in, a ewer of warm water in one hand and soap and linen in the other.

“Is the laird gone already again?” Seonag commented dryly as she carried the ewer to the small table against the outer wall where Annabel performed her morning ablutions.

“Aye,” she murmured, pushing the linens and furs aside to sit up on the side of the bed as the woman poured the steaming water into the waiting basin. “He left early to ride to MacDonald. There was something he wished to discuss with Giorsal and Bean.”

“Ye mean he left early to get out o’ the keep ere yer sister goes down to break her fast,” Seonag said dryly.

“That too,” Annabel murmured unhappily. She understood his desire to avoid Kate. She was most unpleasant to be around now and had been since Annabel had confronted her with what Ross had told her about her slipping her hand up under his plaid. It had been obvious from Kate’s expression that she hadn’t expected him to tell. Annabel supposed her sister had thought herself so irresistible that he’d keep it to himself and simply arrange some secret assignation with her. Annabel was so very glad he hadn’t.

When first confronted, Kate had tried to claim she was just testing Ross, trying to ensure that he would be a faithful husband and could not be lured into straying by a beautiful face. But when Annabel hadn’t fallen for that, she’d got nasty . . . with everyone. Her one goal now appeared to be to make everyone’s life as miserable as she possibly could.

Annabel couldn’t blame Ross for wanting to avoid that. But she did miss cuddling up to him in the morning before they started their day, and chatting with him at the table.

“M’lady?”

Annabel glanced to Seonag in question. The maid had finished filling her basin and had moved to the chest that held all the gowns they’d mended. They’d finished the very last one the afternoon before, and both of them had been greatly relieved to be free of the chore. Now, Seonag was staring down into the open chest with confusion.

“What is it, Seonag?” Annabel asked with a frown.

“Where did ye move yer gowns to?”

Annabel raised her eyebrows in surprise at the question. “Nowhere. They should be there.”

“Well, they aren’t,” the woman assured her, vexation covering her face.

Annabel hurried to her side to peer into the empty chest. Bewilderment was her first reaction. “But they were all there before sup last night when I put the cream-colored gown away.”

“Well they’re no’ there now,” Seonag pointed out grimly.

“Aye. I can see that,” Annabel murmured, rubbing her forehead. “I just do not see where they could have gone, or who would have moved th—” Pausing abruptly, she glanced to Seonag and the two women said together, “Kate.”

Annabel cursed and headed for the door, fury giving her feet wings and making her ignore Seonag’s squawked, “Wait!”

She threw the bedchamber door open with a crash and hurried to the next door along the hall, reaching it just as Seonag caught up with her and threw a linen around her shoulders. It was only then Annabel realized she’d charged out of her room naked. Normally, she would have been embarrassed. In that moment, however, she didn’t care. She merely drew the linen around her, caught it under her chin with one hand, and threw Kate’s bedchamber door open with the other.

“Why sister, do you not look fetching,” Kate said with a mean laugh.

Annabel tore her gaze from the bed where she’d instinctively first looked, and glanced to the chair by the fire where her sister’s voice had come from. Kate was ensconced there, a rainbow of cloth scraps littering the floor around the chair as she sliced away at Annabel’s dark blue gown.

“Actually, I am glad you are here,” Kate continued idly. “I could use some help sewing these now I have done all the hard work and cut them down to my size.”

Annabel simply stared at her for a moment, and then her gaze shifted to the cloth on the ground and she choked out, “My gowns.”

“What?” Kate asked, and then gave a laugh. “Nay, of course not. I got these out of that chest in your room. ’Twas obvious they were old secondhand rags, so I knew you would not mind me cutting them down for myself. I was growing ever so weary of the two you loaned me to wear.”

Annabel clenched her fists and turned a fury-filled gaze on her sister. She wanted to kill her in that moment. She wanted to drag her out of that chair by her hair and wring her scrawny little neck and—

“ ’Tis all right,” Seonag said quickly, scurrying forward to begin collecting the scraps of cloth off the floor. “We can sew these back into the gowns and fix them. No one will ken they were ever cut apart. I can—”

“Oh, those are not the parts I cut off,” Kate said. “Those are what is left to make my dresses out of. I threw the extra panels in the fire as I cut each one off. Although,” she added pensively, “I suppose that was silly. I could have made at least one other gown from the scraps I removed from each gown since they were so big. Oh well.” She shrugged, and then raised her eyebrows. “Are you not going to sit down and help me?”

“Help you?” Annabel hissed with disbelief.

“Aye. After all ’tis apparently your fault the cloth merchant will not come up to the castle. Otherwise I could have just had you buy new cloth for me to make my wardrobe from, rather than having to make do with cast-off cloth from a dead woman’s gowns.”

“To make your wardrobe from?” Annabel asked, amazed by her gall.

“Well, you do not expect me to have to make do with just one or two gowns, do you?” she asked as if the answer should be obviously no.

“I do not expect to outfit you with a wardrobe at all,” Annabel growled, her temper overflowing . . . a temper she had never realized she even had. If she weren’t so furious, Annabel would have been shocked by the rage racing through her as she stalked toward her sister.

“Well, of course you should expect to make me a wardrobe. You are my sister and this is my home now. I expect—”

“This is
not
your home. You are a
guest
here, Kate,” Annabel interrupted furiously. “And a very unpleasant one at that. Perhaps had you tried to act like a proper sister, I would welcome you here, but as it stands, I do not wish to even see you, let alone house and clothe you.” Her mouth tightened and she added grimly, “I have been waiting to hear back from Mother on her willingness to take you in, howbeit I am not willing to wait any longer, and I do not care if she wants to take you in. She shall have to. As soon as Ross returns I am going to ask him to arrange for your return to Waverly. Your lady mother is the one who raised you to be such a selfish, spoiled, spiteful brat, and she can now live with what she has created. I am done.”

Kate’s eyes widened and then her face crumpled. “How can you say that to me after everything I have suffered!” she said through a sudden storm of tears.

“Because it is true,” Annabel answered coldly, unmoved this time by her tears. “You have driven my husband from his home, terrorized the servants and done nothing but bedevil me, and now,
now
you have gone and cut up every gown I own but one.”

“Every gown you own?” Kate asked with amazement and immediately shook her head. “Nay. These were secondhand gowns—”

“In
my
chest in
my
bedchamber,” Annabel interrupted, growing furious all over again. “You had no business in there! And pray, do not try to tell me you did not know that while they were secondhand gowns, they were all I had to wear.”

“Fine, I knew they were your gowns,” Kate snapped. “But I only destroyed them so that your husband would be forced to buy you new material for a proper wardrobe as befits a lady.”

“Oh, please,” Annabel said dryly. “You are the most selfish creature in Scotland and England combined. ’Tis more believable that you did it to ensure I would buy new cloth and
you
could get new material for a proper wardrobe of your own. Besides, you already said the merchant will not come here so you know that is not—” Annabel stopped abruptly, her head coming up. “The cloth merchant will not come here? Why would the cloth merchant not come here?”

She turned to Seonag in question, but Kate answered.

“Because your dog attacked the spice merchant, and—”

“Jasper did not attack the merchant,” Annabel snapped in the dog’s defense.

“I am just telling you what I was told,” Kate said with a shrug. “Whatever the case, apparently the merchant stormed out of here yesterday morning. He was ranting about being dumped in a room and left to starve, and he would see you sorry for it. He was going to stay at the inn in the village until his wound healed, and then he would tell all the other merchants not to come here if they cared for their hide.”

Annabel stared at Kate, absently noting what she was sure was glee in her sister’s eyes as she revealed this information. It was as if she was enjoying her misfortune. But Annabel couldn’t be bothered worrying about that now. Her mind was taken up with the enormity of what she’d just learned. No more spice, no more cloth, no more trinkets or pots.

Most of what they needed to survive could be produced here at MacKay. They would not go hungry. What they counted on merchants for were the items that they couldn’t provide or make for themselves, like silks and spices from Asia, fur from Russia, salt and wine from France, cloth and tapestries from Flanders, and so on. They were luxuries really, not necessary really, but once used to those luxuries . . . Annabel couldn’t imagine months or years without being able to buy spices to aid Angus in his efforts. This was horrible.

She turned to Seonag with dismay. “Is this true?”

Seonag looked at a loss for a minute and then shook her head and admitted unhappily. “I’m sorry m’lady. I . . .” She let her breath out on a sigh and admitted, “After the last attack and your sister’s arrival I—” She grimaced and confessed, “I just plain forgot all about the man.”

Kate made a snorting sound and arched her eyebrows at Annabel as if to say, Will you let her get away with this? Annabel ignored her. She was going to let Seonag get away with it, because she too had forgotten about the man. How could she punish Seonag for something she too had done?

Annabel turned abruptly and swept from the room, uncaring that the linen she wore billowed out around her like a cape. Her mind was racing. What was she to do? She could not allow MacKay to be banned by the merchants. Dear God, Ross would be so disappointed in her.

“I’ll help ye kill her,” Seonag announced, following her into the master bedchamber and closing the door.

The words made her pause and blink. It actually took Annabel a moment to understand who the maid was talking about, which was surprising since moments ago she would have enjoyed choking the life out of her trying older sister. Truly, Kate had unintentionally given Annabel everything she hadn’t known she desired with that one act of running off with her lover. Yet now she seemed bent on ruining and destroying everything Annabel had gained.

However, the news about the merchant had driven her worries about Kate from her mind. The truth was, she only had to put up with her sister until she grew tired of taking her nonsense and her conscience could withstand kicking her out and sending her elsewhere. Had Kate even tried a bit to be a good person, just a bit, if she were just a little less selfish, a little less unpleasant . . . Well, Annabel would have put up with her and given her a home for life. But Kate was a stranger who seemed to love to touch and rub up on her husband, abuse the servants and torment Annabel. The voice of her conscience was quickly growing faint in her ears. To the point where choking the life out of her sister with her bare hands and being dragged to hell by the abbess was beginning to look attractive.

“We’ll tell everyone her stable boy returned for her and then bury the body in Angus’s herb garden,” Seonag continued, and then pursed her lips and said, “He may even help with the task. She has complained and insulted his cooking so much he is ready to take a cleaver to her anyway—”

“Seonag,” Annabel said wearily. “Kate is the least of our worries right now.”

The maid goggled at her. “Are ye mad? She ruined yer gowns, is driving the laird out of his marriage bed, and—”

“Aye, but Kate will be gone as soon as our mother agrees to take her in. But—”

“Well and surely she’s takin’ her time about that,” Seonag interrupted with disgust. “She probably no more wants her than we do and will no’ answer at all rather than say so.”

Annabel felt her heart lurch at the suggestion, but simply said, “The point is that Kate is a temporary problem, whereas do we lose the merchants, they could be gone for years, even decades. And then when they do return they will charge even more exorbitant prices than they already do because they will know we are desperate.”

“Aye, but what if yer mother does no’ agree to take Kate?” Seonag asked, apparently more concerned with that than anything else.

Annabel rubbed her forehead with frustration and then shook her head, and teased, “Well, then you can offer to help kill her again and then I may accept.”

“Right.” Seonag relaxed, a good deal of her anger slipping away. Expression solemn, she then asked, “What shall we do about the merchant?”

“I am going to have to go down to the inn and bribe him,” Annabel said grimly.

“Bribe him with what?” Seonag asked with concern.

“What does a merchant like best?” she asked dryly, and answered, “Coin.”

Seonag frowned. “Will the laird allow it?”

“My husband gave me the chatelaine keys and free rein to do as I saw fit,” Annabel murmured, remembering when he’d done it, and thanking God he had. “He also gave me the coins that were part of my dower and said to use it to buy a new wardrobe. And he gave me the freedom to see to Kate as I saw fit. I shall use part of it to bribe the merchant if necessary.”