“I told you, I can’t. I must hurry and change if I’m to join the queen on her walk. If I arrive late, it will be obvious, and then I’ll need to either lie or explain. Neither of which are appealing.” Maude turned away, but paused and looked back. “You may whisper to me, but apparently your voice carries when you speak to your sister. It carries straight to the queen.”
Kieran’s eyes flashed wide before regret filled them and his shoulders slumped. He looked like a guilty child being remonstrated by an adult.
“I’m sorry, Maude. You warned me not to say aught, and I insisted I knew better when you’re the one who survives her at court while I just visit. How much worse have I made it?”
“Significantly.”
Kieran was unprepared for the flat and succinct response. He looked at his feet as he tried to come up with something else to say. Maude took it to signal the end of their conversation.
“But how will you get out of your gown?” Maude spun around with such haste that her skirts twirled out before settling against her legs. “Bluidy hell. I didn’t mean it as it sounded. I mean, I wasn’t offering. Unless--- No. I meant should I fetch your maid?”
“I can manage on my own.” Maude turned away once again. “But thank you.”
Kieran had little choice but to watch her walk away. Unless he wanted to jeopardize her reputation, there was no way for him to follow her any further. And unless he wanted to jeopardize the little self-restraint he possessed at the moment, he had to let her go. He hadn’t intended to imply that he would help her undress until the image took shape in his mind. By the time he finished stumbling over his words, that was precisely what he wanted.
Chapter Four
Maude spent the rest of the morning avoiding both friend and foe. She arrived in the gardens as the women set off, easing her way into the center of the group with her sister and best friend. Several women strolled on each side, and her new nemesis trailed after the queen at the front of the pack. She kept her cowl over her head, the wind brisker than it had been the day before. After their constitutional, she accompanied the others to the queen’s solar, where she found the book on medicinals she’d been reading for several days. Blair and Arabella accepted that she wanted to be left alone, so they found other friends to sit with. She situated herself where no one else might sit near her, but if anyone approached, the queen would notice.
The queen and her ladies remained in the solar until the noon meal. Maude slipped away to her chamber until she was certain the meal concluded. She lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling for most of the time. Though tired, she didn’t dare fall asleep, lest she nap the afternoon away. The morning and the night before had drained her.
Upon leaving her chamber, Maude traversed the passageways until she reached the Great Hall, where she peeked through the open doorway and spied the queen rising. Her timing had been perfect. She slipped along the wall until she reached the group of ladies who congregated around the queen. Certain she went unnoticed, she failed to prepare for the queen to look at her with an assessing gaze.
“Lady Maude, I believe you planned to spend the afternoon at Cambuskenneth Abbey to collect more herbs and medicinals for the castle’s spense. They informed me this morning that it looks a wee sparse. We aren’t yet past the ill season, so I appreciate your assistance. Be sure to take guards.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” Maude dipped into a deep curtsy and would have liked to hug the woman if it wouldn’t have resulted in a furor. She recognized that the queen had taken pity on her. Maude had been to the monastery only a fortnight ago, but between what she overheard of Kieran and Madeline’s conversation and what she’d most likely been informed of the morning meal, the queen had offered Maude a reprieve.
Maude wove through the castle until she came to the undercroft where the spense was located. A large storage room of sorts, it was where they kept herbs and medicinals that needed hanging and drying. An aging monk from Cambuskenneth Abbey served as spenser. He was patient and gracious with Maude, who had shown a natural talent for healing since she was a young girl. She found the sick rarely cared what she looked like if she made them feel better. The monk had taught her a great deal since her arrival a few months prior, and she enjoyed her time with him. Going blind, he relied on her for help. The monk also took no interest in her appearance since he barely saw in the dark storeroom, and he was a man of the cloth. When she pushed the door open, she found the chamber empty, so she gathered two large baskets and made her way to the garrison. Since neither of her parents were in residence, only two Sutherland guards remained at Stirling. She breathed a sigh of relief when she recognized one of her father’s men walking toward the barracks’ door.
“Donald,” she called out to him. She would send him to search for Tomas instead of having to find another man to assist her. She became uncomfortable around too many guardsmen when there was no one else with her.
“Aye, ma lady.”
“I’m riding out to the abbey. Could you and Tomas please escort me?”
“Aye, ma lady.” While neither man was old enough to be her father, they’d known her since she was a wean, and they were two of the few men her father entrusted with his daughters’ safety.
“I’ll be in the stables readying Trioblaid.” Her horse’s name, Trouble, still made Donald laugh. She’d named the gelding Trouble because within hours of being born, he wandered out of the birthing stall and tried to enter a pasture where his father, an enormous stallion, was exercising. The colt toddled over to his father on gangly legs and tried to whinny. It sounded like a smothered trumpet. The stallion’s eyes rolled before he charged at the newborn. Lachlan had only moments to restrain his mount before the horse charged at his own son. A fortnight later, the colt proved to be an escape artist once more. He ambled out of his stall and away from his mother and discovered a barrel of apples. Maude found him with his head down to his withers as he chomped on the fruit. It was one of her early healing experiences, since the horse gave himself colic. His temper rivaled his father’s when he was a few years old, and Maude’s father insisted they geld him before he broke down any more walls to the stable. His powerful legs were his favorite tool to display his anger. Maude was one of the few people who had the ability to control him before his gelding. While no one would describe him as docile now, he was manageable. She guided him out of his stall once she’d saddled him and stood in the bright sunlight of the bailey while she awaited her guards. The sun was warmer than it had been that morning.
“Good afternoon, my lady.”
Maude knew who possessed the warm baritone coming from over her shoulder. She continued to stroke Trioblaid’s neck but glanced at Kieran.
“Good afternoon, Laird.”
Kieran frowned. He was unsure why at first, but he realized he didn’t care for Maude using his title. He would have rather it had been his name, and before he could stop himself, he said as much.
“It’s Kieran to you, lass.” Just as he had that morning, he kept his tone low. Maude rewarded him with a pretty blush that spread across her cheeks.
“I can’t call you that. Laird.”
Kieran grinned as Maude tacked his title on as an afterthought.
“You can if you want.”
Maude seemed to size him up, and Kieran had a moment of panic that he would be found lacking.
“What I want isn’t of consequence, Laird MacLeod.”
