She heard a sound to her left and looked down to see a man ride into Lismoor on a big, black horse. Was he a man? He looked like something far less tamed. He had long, dark hair snapping behind him like a pennant and a long beard and even more hair on a face that was difficult to see. Was he a demon? Her blood chilled in her veins and her mettle nearly abandoned her. Was possibly seeing William again worth this terror? She remembered the morning the Scots came pouring into Berwick castle. Shouting and killing.
She closed her eyes and then hugged the wall when she grew dizzy staring over the stairs. Her escort tugged her elbow. She would have tugged him back but she didn’t want to fall over the side.
Another man met her at the entrance, and at the sight of this one, Julianna’s heart nearly beat straight out of her mouth. She recognized him. She’d seen him before at St. Peter’s! With William! She remembered this one’s scar. It ran down his face, from under his eye to his chin. The look of him, with his long hair and his belted plaid swinging around his knees could have frightened the sun from the sky if he looked up at it. But he knew William. He had to.
He eyed her as if he might remember her, as well.
She lifted her fingers to her hood, making sure her recognizable hair was covered.
“I’m here about the position for the new governess.”
He looked up at the heavens and smiled. “Ah, God is good!” he praised. “Come in! Come on!” He cleared a path and swept his arm before him.
Suddenly, her feet dug in and she was too afraid to move. Was she truly mad enough to enter a castle filled with Scots? The MacPherson had to be the earl. Her heart thundered in her chest making her feel ill. “Is…is Miss d’Argentan inside?”
“No, lass. She’s in Invergarry with her husband and their bairns. Why did ye not tell me ye knew Aleysia?”
Julianna’s head was spinning. Everything around her was spinning. What should she do? When two more plaid-swinging, sword-carrying Highlanders passed by her, her mouth went dry. No! She would not fall faint! She’d faced terrifying things before.
“Who did you say you were?”
“I’m Commander R—”
An ear-piercing scream went out through the keep, rattling the walls and making the candle flames dance—and getting Julianna’s feet moving into the entrance of the great hall. She stopped because she wasn’t completely mad to barge in on a group of Scots while they ate and drank.
Her belly rumbled. The screaming continued. “Ehm, how old is the child?” she asked.
“Two, Miss. Elias is two.”
The sound grew sharper, louder than the men trying to talk over it. Her escort shoved his pinkie into his ear and shook it.
“Is someone beating him?” Julianna asked, suddenly alarmed. If someone were hurting a child here, she would be using all her poison in one place.
“Sorry, I didna hear ye, lass.”
Julianna repeated her question and he shook his head as he led her out of the great hall, down three steps and into the main keep. “Nicholas would have our heads if we put a finger to the wee lad.”
Nicholas. Not William. She refused to be disappointed. The earl had to know where William was. But it would have to wait. She hurried down the hall toward the crying babe with her escort chasing after her.
The screeching grew closer, piercing her eardrums. She moved faster, desperate to make it stop.
She barged into a small, softly lit room with a few trunks against the wall, and a table beneath one of the windows. There was a little wooden bed, a table beside the bed, and a crying babe under it.
“Elias,” Julianna said as she removed her jewelry and put it in her bag. She got down on her belly and covered her ears. She didn’t shout over him but made him curious to hear her when she whispered. “You can come out now. I am here.”
“Lyahs want Avice,” he cried.
Lyahs, Julianna thought. Elias. “Who is Avice?” she asked another mean-looking man on the floor next to her.
“His nursemaid,” the man told her.
“Where is she? Why does no one fetch her?”
“Avice left,” the first man with the scar said. He looked twice as mean. Did he say he was the commander? “She left when Nicholas…Lord Rothbury returned home.”
Julianna hid her anger when she turned her smile on the boy. She knew what it felt like when your nursemaid left in the night when she had promised to love you.
“Elias, I am Julianna. Why do you not come out here and—”
