Maude slipped her gown off and climbed into bed after pulling together the window covers. She allowed the tears to begin once more as her hope for ever reaching a truce with Kieran’s family gave way. She mourned the loss of companionship that never took root. She mourned her loneliness as she accepted she would live isolated from everyone but Kieran, Agatha, and Adam. The housekeeper and her son had become her only allies. She had impressed the steward with her head for numbers from the very first time they took inventory. Agatha praised her for her efforts, but despite offering an ear, Maude wasn’t ready to trust anyone at Stornoway. She’d even kept her fears and hurt hidden from Kieran, too ashamed to admit to the things she heard or that she failed to overcome how much they hurt. She refused to admit weakness before him, but she feared she wouldn’t be able to control her tears. She feared now that they started, they might never end. Temptation to write to her family and beg them to take her home carved a larger place in her mind each day, and as she laid in bed, she forced herself to refrain from pulling out a parchment and penning a missive asking them to rescue her. It was only the painful idea of being apart from Kieran that kept her from doing it. She allowed herself to drift off to sleep, the only escape from the onslaught of doubt, self-recrimination, and hurt.
Hours later, her eyes burned and itched as she pried them open. She reached around in the dark for the flint and candle on her bedside table. As her hand swept the surface, she didn’t find the figurine that had taken pride of place on the nightstand. She scrambled off the bed and lit the candle before dropping to her knees to look beside the table and behind it before looking beneath the bed. She slid her hand as far as possible, even slipping partway under the bedframe. She placed the candle on the floor near her head to allow as much light as possible to shine, but the carving wasn’t there. She rose and looked around the floor nearby before moving to the table that held her comb, perfume, and hair pins. She looked in her jewelry box and tore through her chests. She looked in Kieran’s chest and along his side of the bed. She stirred up the rushes throughout the chamber, but to no avail. The carving her father made was gone.
Maude hurried to dress and rushed belowstairs as people gathered for the evening meal. She looked about, but Adeline was nowhere to be seen; however, Abigail glared at her. Maude searched for Kieran and breathed a sigh when he approached with Kyle. They were in the midst of a heated conversation, and Kieran barely spared her a glance until he stood before her, then his gaze softened before nodding to Kyle. His second-in-command continued on to the dais while Kieran laced his fingers with Maude’s.
“How’re you fairing, buttercup?” He kept his tone soothing while attempting not to sound patronizing. “Did you rest?” He didn’t dare mention she looked as haggard as she had when she escaped his solar.
“I slept, but Kieran, when I woke, I noticed my carving is missing. I searched everywhere, but it’s not in our chamber.”
Kieran heard the concern in her voice, but Kyle’s gestures for him to join his second at the table distracted him. A rider had arrived to inform him that the Morrisons had been riding their border, and rather than be on patrol, they looked to be scouting a few of the neighboring villages. It concerned Kieran that a raid was imminent, and he’d been making plans to ride out when the bell for the evening meal sounded. He needed to continue his conversation with Kyle, but he noted Maude was upset. His gaze shifted back to her as he kissed her forehead.
“I’m sure it’ll turn up. I’ll help you look when we retire.”
“Nay, Kieran. I’m telling you, I looked. I looked beneath the bed, around the bedside table, in my chests, your chests, my jewelry box. I pushed the rushes around, but it wasn’t there.”
“Perhaps it fell from your pocket,” Kieran led them toward the table as he nodded to Kyle. He seated Maude and turned to his chief warrior. Maude opened her mouth to argue that she never took it out of the chamber that day and had seen it when they woke that morning, but Kieran had dismissed her. She blinked several times as the servants moved about, bringing heaping dishes of food to the tables filled with clan members. A serving woman leaned between Kieran and Kyle, flashing Kieran a view of her cleavage, but he leaned away to continue speaking to Kyle. Despite Kieran’s clear lack of attention, many of the serving women and maids persisted in flirting with him in Maude’s presence. She gritted her teeth to keep from upbraiding the woman for flaunting herself. Kieran sensed Maude’s restlessness and looked over at her before following her stare to the woman who continued to linger as she offered him anything he might want. He hadn’t dallied with a servant since he was a young man discovering how women fawned over him. His father warned him of the dangers of playing favorites with servants, and it had convinced him to look elsewhere. The young woman annoyed him, so he waved her away in time to see another batting her eyelashes at him as she approached the dais with a platter of blood sausage just beneath her loosely tied blouse. A crack underfoot made the woman pause, and he saw Maude lean forward. Just as it had earlier that afternoon, the color leached from Maude’s face as the serving woman put down the platter and reached for what she’d stepped upon. Maude’s hands gripped the sides of the table as the woman lifted two small pieces of wood that had once been the family figurine Maude cherished. Kieran feared she might collapse as she swayed beside him. He reached to ease her into her chair, but she pushed his hands away. She reached across the table for the woman to put the remnants of her most prized possession into her hand. She turned the two pieces over; the wood splintered.
“Ma lady, I am vera sorry. I didna ken it was there,” the young woman croaked.
“I’m certain you didn’t, but someone did.” Maude’s eyes hardened as she looked at the others at the dais before casting her stare at the diners. She’d reached her limit for patience and forgiveness. If they cared so little for her that no one but the servant before her looked shocked or even dismayed, then she was finished trying to win them over. Her hand curled around the wood as she pushed back her chair and left the dais without a word. Kieran watched her in stunned silence. Her eyes were dry and her back ramrod straight as she walked with dignity to the stairs. He watched her climb them and then disappear on the landing. Once she was out of sight, rage consumed him to a degree that paralleled his emotions on the battlefield.
“Who?” he bellowed. “Who did this? Who stole from my wife and purposely hurt her?” No one moved. He didn’t expect anyone to admit to their guilt, but he hoped someone had seen something. “I will punish the culprit. I dinna care if it be a mon or a woman. I will take the lash to them. My wife has done naught to any of you since she arrived but be kind and generous. She has worked as hard as any other member of this clan, hoping to earn your respect, but naught she does is good enough for you. You’ve judged her based on the opinions of a bitter and spoiled woman and a temperamental and equally spoiled chit.”
Kieran suspected his mother or sister, perhaps both of them, were behind this, but he also was certain they found someone to do their dirty work. Someone they would lay the blame on when he confronted them. He turned toward Abigail and leaned over the table as far as his tall body could reach.
“You had something to do with this,” he hissed. “You and mother are behind this. You have crossed a line from which there is no return. Leave this table before I beat you.”
Kieran had never in his life threatened a woman and been so close to following through. Red dots danced before his eyes as he drew a deep breath through his nostrils. He was grateful for the several chairs and people between him and Abigail. She dashed from the dais, not needing a second warning. He once again looked out at the crowd who watched him with guarded expressions, but he saw the fear on more than one person’s face. In the past, he would have regretted causing alarm among his people. He had never wanted them to cower before him, but the lack of healthy fear for his authority led to the conspiracy and actions that wounded Maude. His lip curled in disgust as he looked from person to person.
“I’ve never been ashamed to be laird of this clan. At least not until today. I’ve tried to convince myself over and over that you’d come around and see beyond Maude’s appearance to the woman beneath. But you’re shallow and spiteful to judge her because she’s not frail and dainty like my mother and sisters. You’d rather admire their selfishness and laziness rather than appreciate a woman who has done naught but serve you since the morning after she arrived. Who bakes the bread you eat? Who ensures you have meat at each of your meals? Who hunts for that meat? Who brought medicinals, working alongside our healer and visiting our sick when the ague swept through a few sennights ago? Who has borne the embarrassment of hearing your snide comments with grace and an open heart? My wife, your lady. You are a disgrace. Those who have spoken ill toward my wife are without honor, but those who did naught to stop the others are just as bad, if not worse. You’re the ones who turned a blind eye to a wrong. I do not jest when I say I will take the lash to whoever played a part in this. I will learn who it was.”
Kieran spun on his heel and marched to the stairs, which he took three at a time, leaving a stunned crowd to their own devices. He turned toward his chamber but paused when Abigail called out to him.
“They’ll hate you for that, just as Mother warned. She doesn’t belong here, Kieran. She’ll never be one of us.”
“Why do you hate her so much? You don’t even know her.”
“She’s the reason you locked Madeline away. She ruined our sister’s life.”
“She did no such thing. She argued against my decision and is the only voice that has kept you and Mother from joining Madeline. She’s been protecting you since before she met you. Madeline sank her own ship with her words and actions. She disgraced herself and embarrassed our clan, threatened to weaken us before the court with her unguarded tongue. It was her comments and actions that kept her from remaining at court or even marrying. She could’ve just as easily spewed her bile at another lady-in-waiting and caused even more damage. We’re all lucky that Maude and the Sutherlands forgave the slight. Other clans might not have. But you know Maude now. You’ve seen how hard she works and how hard she’s trying. What do you still have against her?”
“You mean how she’s trying to ingratiate herself? How she’s trying to pretend she belongs when her clan killed our people only a few moons ago? What aboot how she spreads her legs for you like a whore? Everyone knows you can’t keep your prick to yourself. She looks like a tavern slut and acts like one. She’s not even pretty. She’s fat and plain with tits that belong on a jersey cow.”
Kieran’s ears rang as he listened to the venom his little sister spewed. He wasn’t sure if it was their mother’s influence or if all the women in his family had a propensity to cruelty and jealousy. He shook his head as he looked at the young woman Abigail had grown into.
“What if you marry a mon whose sisters don’t meet your standard of beauty? Would you disparage them? Shun them? Who are you to decide whether Maude is considered beautiful? I love my wife and believe she’s the bonniest and most desirable woman I’ve ever met.” Kieran realized he spoke the truth. He had been aware from the start that he desired Maude above all others, but he hadn’t been struck dumb by her beauty. He’d even thought her face was pretty but unremarkable in the beginning. Now, as he pictured her, he couldn’t think of anyone more lovely. Her rich chestnut hair as it curled over them as they made love. Her smoldering eyes that twinkled when she teased him. The long, thick lashes that hid her eyes when she was shy or guarded. Her crooked, gap-toothed smile that she rarely shared but warmed him to his toes when he was on the receiving end. Her curves that made him drool. Her button nose and soft chin that jutted forward at just the right angle when she was determined. Everything about her appearance appealed to him without considering who she was beneath the superficial. “Your vanity and haughtiness make you ugly, Abigail. You shall always come up lacking compared to other women. You may have an appealing face and frame, but your soul is ugly. I wish there was a way to change that, but I don’t think there is.”
Kieran walked away and didn’t look back despite leaving his sister with her mouth agape. His heart hurt for his family, but it broke for Maude. She’d endured more than her share of pain in her short life. She’d proven stronger than the adversity she met, but it had taken its toll on her. He eased into their chamber before locking the door. He looked around and found her curled into a ball on the window embrasure. He approached with caution, not wanting to startle her or intrude if she wished that he not touch her. She turned haunted eyes toward him, and he noticed she clutched the broken wood in her hand. She looked back at the dark night sky without a word or sound. She was folded into such a small form that there was room for him to share the window seat. He was at a loss. He remained unsure how to comfort her when she was so closed off to him. Nothing about her body language said she wished for him to touch her, so he sat in silence across from her. He would wait until she was prepared to speak, but as time drew out, her silence became deafening. He feared she would tell him she would leave him, that she would ask her family to retrieve her. He would fight her until his last breath, plead with her to stay, but guilt gnawed at him for bringing her to a home he suspected all along would be unwelcoming, all because of his mother and sister. He fidgeted until Maude looked at him and sighed.
“I’m not leaving you, if that’s what has you in a dither. You’re my husband, and I’m the lady of this clan, for better or for worse.”
“Buttercup, I am so sorry for all of it. I’m sorry I brought you here. I’m sorry I didn’t protect you despite my promises. I’m sorry they’ve been cruel and unfair to you. I’m sorry they’ve hurt you. I’m just so very, very sorry. I was selfish and insisted upon getting what I wanted, and I should have thought of you instead. Really thought of you rather than assuming, in my own vanity, that I could control everything.”
“Are you sorry you married me?” Maude whispered.
“No.” Kieran’s response was instantaneous and vehement. “I’ll never regret marrying you, even if I regret how our marriage has affected you. I love you and would walk away from this all if I could.”
“I would never let you do that.”
