To her relief, her father was not home. Colin played quietly in the corner with a happily babbling Margaret. She hurried over to give the little girl a hug.
“Are the boys still working?” she asked Colin.
“Aye, and I should be helping them.” He frowned toward the door but made no move to join the others.
“Soon, Colin. Ye didnae have anything broken that I could find but it was bad. Everything was bruised and that takes time to heal.”
“I ken it. Do ye e’er think there has to be something better than this?”
“All the time,” she answered as she hurried over to start their supper. “It is out there. Some day we will be free to seek it. But I dinnae think t’will be all that much different from what we do now, just in a different place with different people.”
When he just murmured in reply, she turned her attention to what she needed to have to make a meal. She did believe they would have something better. Some days it was all that kept her going. It just seemed that they had to have something better than working themselves into exhaustion only to watch Kerr Matheson drink and gamble the earnings from their labor away.
Briefly she considered asking Callum but hesitated to do so. She had the feeling he would offer her something out of charity and that was not what she sought. She and the boys could work. They needed to have something they could work at, something that would put the profit in their hands instead of Kerr’s.
As she worked she thought over how to put the question to the man. He had been out in the world in a way none of them ever had so she was sure he would know better what their chances would be of getting, perhaps, a small farm they could work. Bethoc got lost in the thought of it and only partly took note of her father’s arrival.
“Hey! Are ye e’er going to put that on the table?” Kerr yelled.
“Of course, I was just making certain t’was done.” She placed the pot on the table and watched him spoon out a large serving for himself as the boys sat and waited.
And that was why her mother got lost in her dreams so often, she thought. It was what she had to do to escape a deeply selfish, angry man and the ugliness in her life. It was an effort to bring herself back but Bethoc did, and breathed a sigh of relief. It was not a happy place she returned to but she knew she had to be here. The boys needed her to stand for them, to be here in body and in spirit. Someday, she mused as she doled out a share of what was left to all the others, this man will rule us no longer.
Chapter Six
“Why are we back here?”
Uven frowned at Simon. “Because this is where he disappeared.”
“I ken it but we have already been here, several times.”
“True but the fact that it has been a month of hunting and we have found naught makes me think he ne’er left this place.” Uven frowned as he stared at the river and searched the bank carefully. “We have ne’er found a body, no horse, no word of him at all. Havenae found any sign of the boy, either. ’Tis as if they were all just swept away.”
Simon ran his hand through his hair. “Weel, people have gone missing before.”
“True but there was almost always something one could find e’en if ye ne’er found the person. Just something that let ye ken the person had been in that spot at some time.” He looked around. “Where did Robbie go?”
“Said he saw something odd up on the hill,” Simon answered and Uven looked up the hill to where Robbie stood staring at some dying bushes. “There he is, studying the area round those bushes it appears. Wonder what he has found?”
A few moments later, Robbie rode back down the hill and faced them. “We need to have a look up there. I am thinking there is a cave and, if I am judging it aright, someone has been up to it recently.”
“A cave? That would be a fine place to hide if one was injured.” Uven dismounted and took his mount’s reins in hand. “I think we should walk up to it. Secure the horses at the base.”
“It is a narrow path, true enough,” said Robbie as he also dismounted. “Uneven, too. So watch your step.”
By the time they reached the brush hiding the entrance, it was easy to see what it was. Uven cautiously moved the covering as Robbie and Simon stood beside him with swords at the ready. Then he drew his own sword and stepped inside, needing a moment to see clearly in the dim light. Callum sat next to the wall grinning at him.
“Took ye long enough,” said Callum, laughing as his friends marched over to clap him on the shoulder. “Heard Robbie sniffing around and almost called out but decided I should wait in case ye were fleeing someone.”
“Had no one chasing us. Didnae ken what we would find,” said Simon.
“Ah, aye, they broke my leg, the bastards, but, weel, I am healing now.”
“If we are to stay here for a while, I think we best move the horses,” said Uven.
“I will do it,” said Robbie, and strode out of the cave.
“How did ye find the cave?” asked Callum.
