“Nay, one thing I have never thought ye were was a fool.” Ailis smiled faintly, for Malcolm looked mildly irritated and not really much of a threat. “Neither are ye completely your cousin’s lackey.”
“Ye make some sweeping judgments of a man ye have spent little time with.” Malcolm frowned when he saw her wince and noticed that she was clutching the edge of the table very tightly. “Does something ail ye?”
“Is it the bairn?” asked Giorsal. “Do ye need to lie down?”
“Not as yet,” Ailis replied and looked directly at Malcolm. “Jaime and I have reason to believe that your cousins’ men will soon be here. Mayhaps, because of your aid to me before, they feel this is a reasonable place to search or set extra guards. There is nary another place twixt here and Rathmor that isna guarded. I was very surprised to find ye so unprotected and unwatched.”
“I have guards,” Malcolm grumbled.
“We saw no one, sir,” said Jaime. “That wasna intended?”
“Nay, that wasna intended.” Malcolm took a deep drink of his spiced cider. “I am cursed with lazy fools for my men-at-arms. My dear cousin Donald gives me the dregs of the pathetic guard he gathers around himself. Long ago I ceased trying to get any work out of the jesters Donald calls soldiers. If my cousin wishes to waste his money on mercenaries who canna even subdue some sheep in the field, ‘tis his concern, not mine.”
“I think ye will soon have more guard here then ye might wish for,” Ailis said, feeling almost sorry for the man.
“Aye, but it will be here to watch for ye or to watch me. Ye have already cost me dearly, wench. My kinsmen were never the most trusting sort, but before I set myself between ye and my cousins, they had never openly mistrusted me before. Now they do. ‘Tis a fine gift ye gave me. Now, here ye sit, eager to cause me even more trouble. Well, no, thank ye.”
“Malcolm!” Giorsal lightly punched him on the arm. “Ye canna speak so to a woman with child.”
“A woman carrying a MacDubh child,” he reminded her.
“The parentage of the child doesna matter to me, and it shouldna matter to ye. All we need to ken is that she carries a bairn. ‘Tis enough to move any Christian soul to want to help her. Aye, especially since I believe she willna be carrying that bairn for very much longer.” Giorsal’s tone carried the faint lilt of a question as she looked at Ailis.
Malcolm stared at Ailis’s swollen stomach in horror. “Are ye about to give birth?”
It was difficult for Ailis to completely suppress a smile over Malcolm’s reaction. “There is that chance. I do feel odd, but that could be because I am weary and wet. Time will tell. ‘Tis just that with MacCordy and MacFarlane men riding ever closer, searching for me, and the weather so very poor, I couldna wait outside any longer. I needed shelter.”
“Then why didna ye stay at Craigandubh?” Malcolm finished off his cider and refilled his tankard, all the while wishing that he had some stronger drink. “Ye could have been safe and dry there.”
“I would have been, but not my bairn.”
“Nay, I ken that my cousin has been angry and speaks cruelly, but ye canna take all he says to heart.”
“Oh, but I do.” She held Malcolm’s gaze with her own. “Donald MacCordy truly means to kill my child.”
“Nay, I canna believe that,” Malcolm argued, but his voice did not carry the strength of conviction.
“ ‘Tis true. Oh, mayhaps he did not mean his threats while ye still lingered at Craigandubh. That was still just fury, an unrefined cruelty born of hate and anger that was painful, but not truly dangerous. It began to turn as my belly swelled. Donald rarely ever lifted his hand against me, but ye could read the growing truth of his hostile threats in his face, in his voice, even in his eyes. Donald doesna intend to allow my child to live much after its first breath. If there can ever be anything more heinous than the murder of an innocent bairn, then your cousin has thought of it. He means to send the body of my child back to Rathmor, back to the MacDubhs, in pieces.”
“ ‘Tis so hard to believe that my own kinsmen would act so low.”
“Donald will. He is nearly mad with hate for the child I carry. So I couldna stay there, couldna wait until I had borne my child. I am not the only one who felt so. Ye ken well that someone had to have helped me and Jaime get out of Craigandubh. I willna tell ye who, but mention it only to show ye that someone else shares my opinion.”
“Sir Malcolm! Ho, my liege!”
All four people at the table froze as the deep voice echoed through the tower house. Ailis started to get to her feet, Jaime quickly standing up to assist her. Her first thought was to flee, but Malcolm grabbed her by the wrist and put her hand into Giorsal’s.
“Hide her, lass,” he ordered Giorsal. “Take her to your chamber. I will go and find out what trouble there may be and then tell ye what to do.”
As soon as Giorsal had ushered his unwanted guests up the narrow rear stairs to the upper floors, Malcolm strode off to his great hall. It was evident even before he entered the hall that the man-at-arms was just standing in the great hall bellowing for him and could not exert himself to look around. Malcolm cuffed the man offside the head the moment he reached him. The thickheadness of his men-at-arms infuriated Malcolm. The men Donald had given him to command were little good for anything more than arrow fodder.
“Cease your bellowing,” he ordered the man, then slouched in his chair near the fire. “What do ye wish to say?”
“A young page has arrived. He says his master is but a half hour’s journey behind him,” the guard answered.
“And this is of some importance to me, is it?”
“Aye, ‘tis your cousin, sir. Sir Donald is the lad’s master.”
