“I will watch Margaret for ye if ye are eager to get out,” said Colin as he stepped up beside her in the doorway.
Bethoc turned from watching Kerr disappear down the road and looked at Colin. He was badly bruised, even after a week of healing, but the swelling had gone down a bit. It would be a long time before he completely healed and she was still concerned about the bad bruise on his temple. It was also a wonder that nothing had been broken.
It had been a very long week since she had seen Callum and she truly missed him. She had not been able to do more than hastily deliver some food to him and then hurry back home. It seemed odd to her that she should be feeling such a need to see the man. He was very handsome with his dark red hair and green eyes, and grew more so as each bruise faded away. But all they had done was talk some as she had tended to his injuries. Even that kiss was but one time. It seemed hardly enough to cause her such a need to go and see him.
“Nay, Colin, I cannae leave Margaret,” she said, not able to hide all her reluctance. “I promised my mother I would ne’er leave her.” At times that promise felt like a chain around her neck but then she would feel guilty for having such a thought for she adored Margaret.
“And we ken why now, didnae we? He got rid of them. Probably brought her one of us to make up for it. But I doubt she meant for ye to keep her attached to your side as ye do.”
“Odd though it is, I believe she did.”
“Ye want to go and see your mon.”
“Colin! I dinnae have a mon.”
He laughed. “Och, aye, ye do, though I dinnae ken why ye are keeping him in a cave.”
She gaped at him. “What cave?” she asked weakly.
“Do ye really think we would let ye just wander off all the time? Nay. We followed. After the first time it was always just me or Bean. Did think we might have to do something when those men approached you.” He grinned. “But our wee Margaret put on a fine show, didnae she. I wouldnae have wanted to touch a child who could screech like that either. Sounded possessed.”
“Aye, she did weel. Ye have always kenned where I have gone?”
“Always.”
She slowly sat down in the doorway. A moment later, Colin sat down beside her. Bethoc did not know what to say or do. The cave had been her secret place for so long. It had been what she loved about it, the fact that it was her place and no one knew where she was. She had been slowly making it more comfortable, more livable. She did not know what she should do now that she realized it had not been much of a secret at all. And what should she do about Callum? He needed to be hidden. It was alarming to know that he was not.
“Does Kerr ken?” she asked quietly, suspecting her father could make money by telling the men where Callum was and that would be too sore a temptation for him to resist.
“Nay. Why would we e’er tell him?” Colin shook his head. “Ye dinnae need to look so afraid. We would ne’er let him find out. And I dinnae thinkhebelieves any of us go anywhere. If we had somewhere to go the whole lot of us could have left by now. I think he believes his fists are enough to hold us. Fool. ’Tis just that we have naught else and whether we like to admit it or nay, we are all too young to be just out on the street. Hard to get a bed or food. Also ye are easy prey for any mon who wants to beat on something or the like.”
Bethoc thought about that for a moment and nodded. Kerr felt he had them all cowed, that they would never leave because they were afraid of what he would do once he caught them again. He believed they had built their own cages and kept them filled with a bed and just enough food to make them stay. It was also a trap she had no idea of how to escape.
She sighed as Margaret toddled up and sat on her lap. The little girl handed her a brush and then sat up very straight. Bethoc decided she had just been given a chore.
“Fix,” said Margaret.
“Demanding wee thing, arenae ye?” teased Colin as he tickled her and she squealed with laughter. “Ye should be talking by now, pet. Ye dinnae think she is a wee bit . . .”
Brushing Margaret’s wild curls, ones so much like their mother’s or her own, Bethoc said before he could finish his sentence, “Nay. I think wee Margaret just doesnae say a word until she is sure she can say it exactly as she hears it and ye can understand her, until she has it just right. And I was told that children raised in a house like this quickly learn the value of being verra, verra quiet. That could be part of it.”
Colin nodded. “Aye. Wish I had remembered that lesson the other night. I was just too angry to think. Even as the words leapt from my mouth, I was telling myself to hush.” He laughed bitterly. “Truly wish I had listened to that voice.”
“I have a bad feeling he actually could have killed you. He has ne’er done ye like that before.”
“He was trying and, aye, he wasnae quite sane. ’Tis because he feared what we might find. Found it anyway though, didnae we.” He shook his head. “We buried the bairns next to Mother and then wrote on a stone and set it over the grave. He saw the stone, too. Now he kens we found them. If he hadnae lost his mind, we ne’er would have. Put the bushes back in as weel. Some are a wee bit sad, but I think they will recover. Then ye willnae have to walk all over the countryside to get some berries.”
She thought of what the boys had painstakingly etched into the stone.Four angels laid to rest with their mother at last. May she hold them in her arms forever.It brought tears to her eyes, even though she scolded herself for being so sentimental. Despite Kerr Matheson’s brutality, her boys were growing up to be good men. She prayed she could soon find them something better than being Kerr’s workers or something he could punch when the anger in him got too much to hold in. They deserved a much better life than that.
“Thank ye, although I ne’er minded. I was so afraid when he saw that stone, too, but he hasnae done a thing,” she said in wonder.
“Dinnae think he will,” Colin replied. “He needs us to work his fields. Needs ye to cook and clean. Knock the life out of any of us now and he loses his whole kingdom. I dinnae think he worries about any of us at the moment. What I want to ken is, what is he watching for?”
“What do ye mean?”
“I have followed him into the village.”
“How do I keep missing all this sneaking about ye are doing?”
