“Aha!” The woman slapped him on the shoulder. “Sir Brian.”
“Verra good, Molly.” Brian grinned. “’Tis nay so verra easy to tell us all apart.”
“Nay, true enough. There are a lot of ye lads and ye are all, to a mon, big, handsome devils. I am thinking your fither left a verra strong mark on all of ye, aye?”
“Aye, he surely did.”
“Just how many of ye are there? More than those rogues the Camerons?”
“A lot more. The old Cameron laird died after breeding a mere dozen or so but our fither is still verra much alive.” He winked at her.
Molly laughed, a loud, raucous sound, and slapped Sir Brian on the arm again. “Rogues. Naught but a lot of handsome rogues. Ye lot and those thrice-cursed Camerons. So, ye will be wanting my best room, aye?”
“Aye, I would and, Molly? If anyone comes looking for us, we are nay here and ye have ne’er set eyes on us.”
She nodded. “Helped yourself to someone’s daughter, have ye?”
Arianna was just opening her mouth to answer what she saw as a slur upon Sir Brian’s honor when he gripped her arm so tightly she feared there would be bruises left behind. She understood the silent warning. What she did not understand was why he would want the woman to think he was such a man, one who would spirit away someone’s daughter for a tryst at a lowly inn. Unless hewassuch a man, she thought, and scowled at him. He did not see her disapproval, however, for his gaze was fixed upon Molly. Since she had already decided a MacFingal could not be constant, the one thing she would insist upon if she ever became interested in marriage again, she was also being very contrary to take umbrage at Molly implying the same thing. Arianna inwardly shrugged, and scowled at him again.
“Any Frenchmen come here, Molly my beauty, and I want to ken about it.”
“If ye havenae already slipped away, eh? Weel, best ye pay me all I will be due right now. I am getting too old to be chasing young laddies down the road. The will is there but nay the strength.” She slapped her knee and laughed.
A look of confusion and then anger passed over Sir Brian’s face before he joined in with Molly’s laughter. Arianna recognized that look. She had seen it often enough on the faces of her kinsmen. Sir Brian had just heard something he had not understood, had thought it over, guessed what was meant, and was not at all pleased. Some of Sir Brian’s brothers were probably going to get a hard lesson when he next saw them. She ignored how relieved she was over the indication that Sir Brian was not some lecher who made regular visits to the inn with a different lady on his arm every time.
When the woman named her price, Arianna was prepared to call it nothing less than base thievery. But then Sir Brian laughed, flung his arm around the woman’s wide shoulders, and began to bargain with her with a skill that many of her kinswomen would have envied. It quickly became evident that this was exactly what the woman wanted and thoroughly enjoyed.
It also became quickly evident that Molly considered Arianna of as little interest as she did the packs Sir Brian carried. She did not know whether to be amused or insulted and decided she was a little bit of both. The MacFingalladdiesobviously used this inn as a trysting site with some regularity even if Sir Brian did not. Molly had decided that Arianna was just another woman one of the MacFingals would enjoy for a little while and then blithely discard.
The room they were led to came as a pleasant surprise to Arianna. The inn looked worn on the outside, but Molly clearly took great pride in keeping the inside very clean and well appointed. There was a large, high bed with ample pillows and linen, plus two chairs and a table set before a small fireplace. A wooden privacy screen in the corner undoubtedly held what was needed to clean up, perhaps even the chamber pot.
“A maid will be up soon as I have requested a bath,” said Brian as he put his packs down on the bed.
“A real bath? Heated water and all?” Arianna wanted to push him down onto the bed and kiss him senseless.
“Aye.” He grinned. “Molly drove a hard bargain for it but I thought we both deserved one. All I ask is that ye dinnae linger until the water chills.”
“Nay, I swear I shall leave ye some of that heat.” She looked around the room and then frowned. “Where will the bath go?”
“Right before the fireplace. As soon as it is brought up, I will go down to see about a hot meal and give ye some privacy.”
Even as she was thanking him there was a rap at the door. A boy entered with the round wooden tub followed by two maids with buckets of heated water. It was obvious that Molly kept some water readied for such requests.
“I believe Molly must get enough of my brothers and cousins here to ken that having water ready for a bath is worth the trouble,” Brian whispered in her ear. “The woman kens how to keep those who use her inn coming back time and time again.”
“Verra wise.”
It took several trips by the maids to fill the tub, and Arianna was doing her best not to get impatient. The moment they set two buckets of water in front of the fireplace so that extra heated water could be added or some could be used to rinse, Arianna began to unlace her gown. When the door shut behind them, she almost tore her clothes off. A sigh of pleasure escaped her as she sank her body into the hot water. It had been too long since she had enjoyed a hot bath.
Despite the temptation of it, she savored the way the heat eased all the aches in her body for just a short time and then began to wash. She scrubbed her hair until it squeaked, wrapped it in a large drying cloth, and then began to scrub the dust of travel from her body. There was no denying how much she had missed pampering herself in such a way, and she promised herself that she would do very little traveling after this journey was at an end.
Realizing that some of the heat was already fading from the water, she climbed out of the tub and dried herself off. Since she would have to allow Brian the same privacy he had allowed her, she dressed in the gown Brian had bought for her in the last village. Once he was done, she would wash the one she had been wearing in the bath before it was emptied. She was in the midst of rubbing her hair dry when a rap came at the door.
“’Tis Brian, Arianna.”
“Come in. There is an extra bucket of heated water by the fire,” she said as he came into the room. “I used the other one to rinse with. I will go into the hall while you bathe.”
He frowned. “I am nay sure that is a good idea.”
