Chapter Twenty-Four
Maude’s days settled into a predictable routine. Kieran grumbled that Maude robbed him of his beauty sleep when she awoke before the sun, but it was the only way she would agree to start the day making love to him and still be in the kitchens as the servants arrived. Neither was willing to cease their nighttime couplings, so both dragged themselves through the day, exhausted but sated.
Maude went to the kitchens each morning and lit the fires, ensuring they were blazing by the time the head cook, and the servants arrived, many still rubbing their eyes. Most mornings, Maude had already kneaded the dough left out the night before to rise and had it in the ovens. She was stirring the cauldron of porridge as the women pulled cured meats and cheeses from the larder and prepared trenchers from the day-old loaves. The first few mornings the women eyed Maude with suspicion, but as they became accustomed to her smile and nod, they accepted her help. None were rude to her, but they also did little to involve her in their conversations. After she broke her fast alongside Kieran, she would make her rounds to ensure everyone who worked inside the bailey had all they needed to contribute to the keep’s smooth operation. The laundresses were not as reticent as the kitchen staff. They peppered Maude with questions, but she was never convinced the women took a sincere interest in her so much as they hoped for kernels of information that they might turn into gossip. She was careful what she shared, but kept a practiced naivety to her tone, hoping the women wouldn’t realize she recognized their motives. Maude made a conscious effort to blend in as she worked, rather than sweeping in and demanding changes. She made subtle suggestions or led by example as she attempted to assert herself as the lady of the keep.
She overhead more than one comment from the servants that made her heart sink as she tried to earn their respect through hard work. After years of Adeline swanning about and refusing to assist with manual labor, Maude’s efforts made her look more like the farm wife Adeline and Abigail called her than the lady of the keep. She attempted to balance her efforts, ensuring other women saw her sewing before the fire as people arrived for the evening meal. She had a loom brought to the ladies’ solar and began a tapestry, but it was a chamber Abigail and Adeline favored more and more, so she abandoned the room and asked that someone take the loom to a storeroom where she decided to work. She spent much of her afternoons gathering plants that served as medicinals as the gardens sprouted. She made the error of having only one guard accompany her when she left the keep’s walls to forage along the tree line that was within view of the wall walk. It was her first heated argument with Kieran, and to her great misfortune, it took place in the bailey.
“What were you thinking leaving the safety of the keep with only one mon?” Kieran demanded.
“Who would do me harm here? Do you expect a raiding party to come barreling through the trees and steal me away? You’re overreacting and making a scene.” Maude’s look of disbelief only angered Kieran more.
“That is what I fear. This may not be a large island and the MacLeods may control most of it, but we have known the Morrisons and MacIvers to raid. What better prize than to steal the laird’s beautiful bride?” Kieran was bellowing by the time he finished, only possessing a vague awareness that people gathered to watch. It had incensed him to return from the lists to learn Maude had left the walls with only one man. “How could you not imagine it would upset me? We traveled here with two score of guardsmen, and I would have brought the king’s army if I could. I insisted upon accompanying you when you had two guards on the way to see Father Michael, and I didn’t think that was enough.”
“And that was on the roads outside Stirling. Lewis doesn’t strike me as a place rife with highwaymen.”
“Mayhap nae highwaymen, but ye never ken if there might be lawless men wandering aboot,” Kieran’s burr slipped back into place as he became more agitated. The thought of someone emerging from the woods and capturing Maude made his chest burn. He rubbed a fist over his sternum, trying to ease the pain. Maude watched Kieran battle the fear that threatened to consume him and realized that, as always, his high-handedness and overprotectiveness came from his deep concern for her. She lowered her basket to the ground and stepped closer to Kieran, resting her hands on his chest. He covered them with one hand while the other cupped her nape. “I love you, Maude, and I will never be careless with your protection. I wish you wouldn’t be with your own safety. I’d never forgive myself if aught happened to you when it’s preventable by having a few more men escort you. Please.”
Maude nodded as Kieran rested his forehead against hers. “I love you, too, and I didn’t mean to scare you. It was thoughtless, and I’d even disappoint Da by only taking one guard. He wouldn’t have allowed it on Sutherland, and I should’ve known better here. I’m sorry.”
“Then why’d you only request one?”
“I didn’t want to inconvenience your men. Which of them would want to watch me pick flowers? That’s not a task any of them would wish to perform.”
“Inconvenience them? What do you think they’re there to do? They’re called guardsmen because that’s their damn job. To guard. You.”
“No. They’re there to guard the clan, not one woman traipsing through the grass.”
“You’re part of the clan now,” Kieran reminded her, but it was easy to forget when she knew she was still unwelcome. He pressed a deep kiss against her parted lips, aware now but uncaring of those who watched. He wouldn’t spare a minute to ignore his wife’s safety, and he wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to kiss her.
* * *
A week slid into a moon which slid into two, but despite Maude’s efforts to fit in, the clan still gave her the cold shoulder. She avoided Adeline whenever possible, but Abigail took any opportunity to question Maude’s choices around the keep. She complained when Maude ordered the doors to the keep be opened to air out the Great Hall each day. She whined about the lavender and rosemary mix that Maude added to the rushes. She complained that her nose itched while she refused to leave the Great Hall when Maude had the tapestries taken down and beaten outside, then the hearths scrubbed. Adeline joined the complaints when Maude ordered more tallow candles burned than beeswax. Maude agreed the smell of the tallow was unpleasant, but when she reviewed the accounts, she was astonished to discover how much they spent on candles alone. When her mother-by-marriage’s complaints threatened to create a mutiny among the staff, Maude pulled out the candle making supplies along with dried rose petals she found in the spense. She ground the petals into a fine powder before adding it to the wax she melted and poured into the molds. She ignored the women who surrounded her as she worked, many shocked that she knew how to make candles. She grimaced when she ordered the new candles replace the fresh tallows she’d already had put in sconces around the keep and in the large overhead candelabras. She took the barely used scentless tallows to the blacksmith and cooper for them to use in their workshops. She didn’t dare comment that the reason for the smell was poor quality. She attempted a peace offering by sending several beeswax candles to Adeline’s and Abigail’s chambers, but it did little to remedy the growing rift between the women.
As the days passed, Maude retreated further into herself and ate less and less. The constant scrutiny wore on her nerves, but she struggled to determine how to improve her relations with her new clan. Kieran watched as Maude toiled around the keep each day, dark circles forming under her eyes and the skin pulling taut over her ribs. He commented more than once that she worked too hard, but she would offer him her half-smile before changing the subject. He was aware she was unhappy, but he was at a loss to how to remedy the situation. His endeavors to secure a betrothal for Abigail were futile. Word of Madeline’s fall from grace had spread, and many clans were leery of accepting a bride said to be similar in disposition to Madeline. He considered sending her to court as Madeline’s replacement, but one sister in disgrace was enough for him. When he suggested that he send his mother to her dower lands, Maude became upset and tears filled her eyes. She begged Kieran to give her more time to win over the clan, but he was coming to accept that he’d misplaced his optimism and faith in his people.
“I will order them to cease ignoring you,” Kieran growled as they sat together in his solar. He disliked it, but Agatha had become his informant for how his clan treated his bride. The housekeeper had always known all that occurred in the keep and had often shared pieces of information that aided Kieran in the running of the clan. When Maude refused to discuss events that upset her, he turned to Agatha. It shocked him to learn the unkind things said about Maude. He suspected she was aware of the gossip but was thankful that she never heard it, or at least she denied hearing it.
“You can’t order them to like me, Kier. They either will, or they won’t.”
“I can order them to respect you.”
“They do, or at least my position within the clan. No one is rude or disrespectful to my face, because I’m your wife.”
“But they don’t respect the tireless effort you put into improving the clan. The keep has never looked better, our finances are steadily improving thanks to your thriftiness, and their lives are better for it.”
“They don’t see those small things. To them, I am someone new who has taken over from a woman many of them have known most of their lives.”
“A woman who hasn’t done a thimbleful of what you’ve accomplished in two moons.”
“Leave be, turtledove. They’ll come around. It hasn’t been that long.”
“It doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Kieran muttered as he lifted Maude onto his lap from where she perched on the side of his desk. They grew closer each day, relying upon one another’s knowledge and experience to run their clan, and their intimacy grew as they learned what brought them to ecstasy. She ceased their conversation as she often did with a searing kiss that wiped Kieran’s mind of anything but his need to join with her. He ran his hands over her ribs and breasts as she squirmed to get closer. When she shifted to straddle him, he laid her on his desk. He rested on one forearm while his other hand found the hem of Maude’s kirtle. He inched it up until his hand found the thatch of curls between her legs. Maude’s head rested on the tabletop as Kieran slid a finger along her seam.
“Kier,” she whispered on a moan.
She drew him in for a kiss as his finger entered her. The sensation drove Maude to intensify their kiss as she rocked her hips to meet Kieran’s questing finger. He eased a second finger into her as he worked the sensitive flesh. Her soft mewling spurred him to use his thumb to circle her nub. As they kissed, Maude reached between them and tucked his plaid into his belt. Her hand cupped his length before guiding his cock to her entrance.
“I don’t want to hurt you. This wood cannot be comfortable,” he murmured as he tried to hold in the groan and rein in his need to thrust into her.
