“All yer servants appear so…happy,” Lady Murdina said, sounding thoroughly befuddled. She filled her goblet to the rim and took another long, deep drink. “How do ye manage it?”
“I treat them with the respect they deserve. They are not possessions. They are members of my clan. Family, in fact.” He stopped her when she tried to refill his glass. “No, thank ye. I still have plenty.”
She winked and set the pitcher down. “It is good to know ye are not one to drown in yer cups.” Her eyes narrowed as her attention slid back to the children’s table. “Yer war chief appears to fancy my son’s nursemaid. Should he not be seated here at the head table with us?”
“I feel sure he will join us when the meal is brought to the table.” Gunn glared at the war chief. Jasper had a tendency to push boundaries, but he had never been unwise enough to challenge an order. Gunn then forced himself to focus fully on Lady Murdina. “How is it ye came to find Mistress Lorna to look after yer son?”
The lady set down her goblet and refilled it again. “She came highly recommended by a friend of mine,” she said without looking him in the eye. As she stared at the children’s area once again, her eyes narrowed to slits. “Highly recommended indeed.”
“I see.” Gunn allowed himself a smug chuckle at the poor lie. “Did ye not think it odd when she came to ye with naught but the clothes on her back?”
“An eccentricity.” Lady Murdina flipped a hand as though shooing a fly. “My friend warned me the girl was odd.”
“And that nay bothered ye?”
“Oh no,” she said while taking another drink. Her voice echoed inside her nearly empty goblet. “When I saw how Frances immediately took to her, I didna give another thought to her strange ways.”
“Interesting.” Gunn leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the arm. How could the woman be so foolish as to lie about something so easily disproven? Of course, he knew she would say Lorna was the one who lied. Yet Jasper had reported that Hesther and Frances relayed the same details that Lorna had.
He glared at Jasper, willing the man to meet his gaze. When the war chief did, Gunn gave a nod, then pointedly looked at Jasper’s empty chair.
Jasper grinned and nodded back, remaining rooted to the spot beside Lorna. But he showed the good sense to hold up a hand as if begging for time to finish the conversation.
Gunn agreed with another slow nod.
“Is it not fortuitous that we each retain the same solicitor?” Lady Murdina caught the base of her goblet under the pewter plate set at her place. Wine sloshed over her hand and onto the table. “Oh dear, I have made a mess.” She flipped her hand, slinging droplets everywhere.
“Dinna fash yerself.” Gunn caught hold of her wrist and stopped her from making it worse while he signaled for a maid.
Lady Murdina leaned his way and smiled. “Ye are s-so forgiving.” Her slurring set him more on edge, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end.
“Nothing to forgive.” He released her wrist as a maid appeared. The lass dried the lady’s hand, then tended to the table. After all that, he realized what the woman had said before the mishap. “Yer clan’s solicitor is Liam MacGibbon?”
“Aye.” The rosy-cheeked matron topped off her glass, took a deep drink, then topped it off again. “He is a fine man. Do ye not agree?”
“That remains to be seen. This is the first task he has done for us.” The young man had not impressed Gunn, but their former solicitor, Gerald Macray, would be difficult for anyone to replace. The fact that MacGibbon handled both parties in this delicate matter of a marriage contract also raised his suspicions. How could MacGibbon honor the best interests of both sides?
Lady Murdina lurched closer. With a teasing smile, she plucked at his sleeve, then walked her fingers down his arm. “I think yer war chief is trying to get Frances’s nursemaid into his bed.”
“That would be unwise.” Gunn tightened his fists, willing the man to come to the head table and sit.
“Now, now,” she said in a lusty whisper, then slid her hand down to his thigh and squeezed. “’Tis a cold night. A bed is much warmer with two.”
He took her hand and placed it firmly back on the table. “There are hearths in every room and more blankets than can be counted.” He pushed back his chair and stood, glaring at Jasper, who offered an irritating tip of his head and held up his hand again.
It was all Gunn could do to keep from marching over there and dragging the rutting bastard back to his seat. That would not do. Instead, he went to the long cabinet against the back wall, fetched a bottle of port, then returned and plopped it down in front of Lady Murdina. With any luck, the stronger wine would silence the woman and send her to her dreams with the greatest of haste.
Chapter Eight
“No, thank ye.I am fine with just water.” Lorna covered her cup for the third time. Her stomach had finally found an even keel, and she wasn’t about to set it rolling again with any form of alcohol. The kindly serving lad seemed surprised, but moved on to fill the other tankards.
“I think ye will find the wine quite good, mistress,” Jasper said. His earlier grumpy self appeared to have vacated the keep and left in its place an attentive man she might even call charming. “Or I can have port or whisky fetched for ye. After all, this is a celebration.”
“No, thank ye. The water is fine.” She cast a glance at the children. “Besides, I have to stay alert to watch after these three and anything they might get into.” As if they would. She had never met three better-behaved bairns in her life.
“Aye, Miss Bella can be a sly one at that.” He tugged on the wee lass’s braid, then lowered his voice as though about to tell a ghost story. “She is Mrs. Thistlewick’s ablest spy.”
Bella sat taller, beaming proudly. “Mrs. Thistlewick and I keep the clan safe the only way we know how. Dinna ye worry about our ways, Jasper.”
