‘Seems to me if she was reiving and running wild, your wife is perfectly suited to your life, Cullen. Just keep her away from the worst of them. You know of whom I speak. He always had a yearning for dark-haired lasses.’
***
Lowri woke with a start. A shadow lay across her face. She sat up and was confronted with a bonnie, young lass. Her eyes were bright with curiosity, and she seemed amused.
‘I was waiting for you to wake. You have slept for an age, snoring like a bear, you were.’ She giggled and began smoothing the pretty coverlet, stroking her hands along the outline of the embroidered flowers as if her mind was elsewhere. Her laughter died away. ‘This was a wedding present from my brother, but my husband does not like him, so he will not have it on our bed.’
The woman was of an age with Lowri, blonde, plump-cheeked and full-breasted, and she had a swollen belly.
Lowri got out of bed to avoid the scrutiny. She went over to the fire, which was now roaring heat into the small chamber. ‘Did you build up the fire?’ she asked.
‘Not, that’s not for me to do. I am mistress of this house. Esther did it. She likes you, I think, much more than she likes me. No one likes a Glendenning here, and definitely not one with a fat belly.’
‘Glendenning? said Lowri.
‘I am Maeve Macaulay now, Seamus’ wife, but I was Maeve Glendenning once.’
Lowri tried to feign ignorance of the scandal around the lass, but her eyes strayed to the woman’s belly, and the look on her face must have given her away.
Maeve smoothed her belly with her hands. ‘You have heard about me, I suppose.’
‘Aye, a little.’
She heaved a sigh. ‘So you know that I was shuffled off to Seamus to hide my shame, which grows bigger every day.Sometimes it kicks me from the inside out.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Folk love to gossip, don’t they? Did Cullen tell you?’ Her soft eyes welled with tears.
‘Aye, he did, but only to spare you embarrassment, I think.’
‘Embarrassment?’ She frowned. ‘I am not the one riding around the country alone with Cullen. I saw you arrive with him. And you look like he’s been tupping you in the fields. So perhaps it is you who should be embarrassed.’
How quickly the lass turned from smiling friendliness towards spite. Lowri bridled at her tone. ‘I need not be ashamed of anything, for I am his wife.’
‘Oh. Surely you are not in earnest?’
‘I am,’ she replied.
The lass put her hand to her mouth and giggled again. ‘Why on earth would he get married?’
Maeve was a strange one indeed. ‘It is a long story,’ said Lowri, for she did not know what to tell Maeve. ‘Did your husband not tell you?’
‘He tells me very little, but you must tell me everything, for I’ve little entertainment here. Did your family arrange it, like they did mine?’
‘Something like that.’
Maeve rattled off a myriad of questions, and Lowri was about to tell the lass to mind her own business, when someone called ‘Maeve’ up the stairs. The lass grimaced and headed to the door. ‘It’s Esther. Damn her to hell. I must go. I have chores. I will come later, and you can tell me everything.’
‘Can I come with you?’ said Lowri. She had to get the lay of the land and could not bear to be alone with her thoughts for aminute longer. Even Maeve’s strange company was better than that.
Maeve beamed. ‘Alright.’
Lowri followed Maeve down the stairs. The house was a little shabby. The walls were bare, and though there was the odd piece of fine furniture, it boasted little in the way of comfort. Draughts whined under the main door as they headed down a low corridor to the back of the house.
Maeve must have noticed Lowri’s disapproving glances, for she stopped and said, ‘It’s not much, but for a man as young as Seamus, it is a good living. The house is sound, and there is a great deal of land, which is fertile and gives a good yield, or so Seamus says. He bought this place with money from my brother, for taking me on. Yet, for all it could be, I do miss home so very much.’
‘You are unhappy here?’
‘I deserve to be. This is my punishment for lying with a man I was not married to, nor could ever be. But it was not my fault, not really. I was young and innocent of the ways of men. He took advantage.’
‘Men are not to be trusted,’ said Lowri.
