It took her but a few moments to realize the first of her problems—she had no clothes.
After Iain left, wearing a very strange expression on his face, Robena had searched his chamber for her gown, tunic, stockings, and shoes. As she searched the cupboard in the corner, she wondered if this was a plan on his part to keep her there. That brought a smile to her own face, for it was a demonstration of his sense of humor and even a bit of the playfulness that she liked about him.
He might complain about his aching and aging bones and graying hair, but sometimes he behaved like a much younger man. And his skills in bedplay revealed no waning of desire or vigor, as was the case with some of the men she saw.
His body remained fit and strong, and he could outfight and outlast most of the warriors here in Dunnedin. She smiled again at the thought of Rob’s insults. She wanted to watch this battle. The sound of footsteps approaching down the corridor made her wrap a blanket around herself. A soft knock preceded the door’s opening.
“Robena?” The Lady Anice stood in the doorway holding a bundle of clothes. Hers?
“My lady,” she said, curtsying as best she could. “I beg yer pardon for being here.” Though she was welcome in the keep, Robena tried to stay out of view of the lady and the chieftain, Struan. Why bring trouble down on her head by flaunting her presence?
“Here,” the lady said as she tried to hand the bundle to her.
Easing an arm out from within the blanket, Robena reached for them, but the lady laughed and walked to the bed instead. She placed them there and walked back to the door.
“My thanks for bringing these. I wasna certain how I was to leave without them.”
“Iain asked to have them washed last night. He rarely asks for anything, so the servants hurried to do this for him.” The lady lifted the latch and dropped it, facing her.
“Ye ken that ye are welcome to stay here with him, Robena.”
“Lady Anice,” Robena began, unsure of how to say what she wanted to without sounding ungrateful or unappreciative. “I ken my place, my lady. I cannot thank ye enough for making a place for me at table and making it known to all that I am welcome.” Robena paused then and nodded, knowing that her next words would come close to an admission she probably should not make.
“’Twould be too easy to get the wrong idea if I stayed here with him.”
Something was dangerously different between them already and staying here would just confuse her—them—even more. The contentment she had in her life came from knowing who and what she was, and her place here in the MacKendimen Clan. To blur the lines and pretend to be something, someone, that she was not and could never be, would leave her wanting when he left. Nay, that was not the truth. Shewouldmiss Iain when hereturned to Dunbarton, but it would be so much worse if she allowed herself to want more than she could have. If she wanted him.
She swallowed against the sudden tightness in her throat and smiled at Anice, trying to express a confidence in her words and acceptance that she didn’t truly feel right now. The lady, a few years younger than Robena was, studied her then and tilted her hair as though considering something about her.
“I wonder—who would get the wrong idea if you remained here with him?” she asked.
When Robena would have answered back, to point out the problems that could arise if she acted as though she mattered as other than the village harlot, Anice smiled and shook her head.
“Worry not, Robena,” the lady said. “Ye have never overstepped yerself here in all the years I have kenned ye. I would not expect ye to do otherwise.” She lifted the latch once more and tugged the door open. Robena could see the lady’s maid waiting for her in the corridor.
“Though it might be something to see if ye decided ’twas time to overstep the boundaries ye have placed around yer life, and to claim a different place for yerself.”
So many possible replies rolled in her thoughts, and yet none would come to her tongue, leaving Robena silent and speechless as the lady left. Unable to face the challenge leveled at her in those words, Robena dropped the blanket and dressed. ’Twould be a poor show of gratitude if she did not get to the yard and watch Iain fight there. After all he’d done for her, and after he’d generously overlooked her lack of attention this last day and night.
Once garbed, she wove a braid to keep her hair from being blown wild in the November winds and put her cloak around her shoulders. Her stomach growled as she walked through the hall, reminding her of the meal she’d left untouched abovestairs,yet she did not stop. Not here. She could break her fast in her cottage later.
She’d made it almost to the door when the laird stepped out in front of her.
Struan MacKendimen ruled the clan, though Rob carried out many duties that the older man should. Five years ago, Rob’s arrival back at Struan’s call had revealed the secret of their relationship, and the balance of everything had shifted within the clan. As the elder of Struan’s sons, though his natural son rather than his legitimate one, Rob had turned out to be the better one to lead the clan.
But that was only known after Alesander MacKendimen, the other son, had married the Lady Anice MacNab and was killed in a strange incident on his way home to Dunnedin for the birth of their bairn.
Robena would have spit on the ground at the thought of the dead man had she not been inside the keep, and had it not been Struan before her.
“What do ye here, Robena?” he asked, looking her over and not bothering to keep that slight look of disgust hidden.
“I am on my way home, laird,” she said, curtsying slightly as she tried to hurry away. In some ways, Struan had the same hardness in him that his younger son had. Once more, she stopped herself from spitting at the memory of Alesander MacKendimen.
“Do ye have some task for me?” she asked. Even though it was a lie, she invoked the name of one of the few women the laird did respect, and she hoped it would protect her. “I will be going to Moira’s on the way, if ye need me to take a message there?”
The laird crossed his arms over his chest and seemed to think on her words before he shook his head. Then he nodded at the door.
“I ken that Anice has said otherwise, but I dinna want ye in my hall,” he said. “So, get ye gone from my keep.” He raised his hand as though to slap her but dropped it with a grunt at her instead.
