Biting her tongue to stifle a giggle, Kate was thankful for the dim lighting. She was sure Maggie was perfectly serious, and Kate did not want to insult her by laughing.
“I will never eat even a morsel of meat,” Callum’s sister declared lovingly.
Callum grumbled something, but his sister seemed not to notice as she threw herself down in the hay and lay there on her back with Sarah atop her belly.
An hour later, Kate and Maggie both lay on the barn floor. Callum had requested that they return to the castle, but both women refused. Sprawled on their backs and staring up at the low rafters, they talked quietly while Callum sat propped against one wall, his long legs stretched out before him and crossed at the ankles. Both of them giggled when he began to snore.
“Did Callum tell ye about our imprisonment?”
The question was so sudden and unexpected that Kate took a moment to answer. Then, “Nae, he has not spoken of it.”
“He never does.” Maggie looked toward him. “I do not remember much before we were taken captive. They put the sword to my papa, and then did bad things to mama before they killt her, too. Callum tried to fight them, but he was just a lad. Och, he grew strong later, though.” She paused. Her eyes drifted off to the past for an instant, and then she blinked and began to breathe again. “He did everything they demanded, but they still beat him.”
Lying still beside her, Kate turned to gaze upon Callum’s sleeping face while his sister spoke.
“He is so stubborn, though.” Maggie yawned and her eyelids grew heavy, but she continued speaking. “Each time they beat him he vowed to kill them. They mocked his promise, until one morn when he pretended to be asleep. A guard stepped closer to him and my brother killt him with just his forehead. Callum knew they would kill us because of what he had done.”
The barn was so quiet Kate heard the sound of her drumming heartbeat. She wanted to scream for Maggie to cease, but she could say nothing. She poured her eyes over her knight, aching to climb into his lap the way Henry had climbed into hers. She wanted to kiss his face and soothe his cold heart. But he would never let her. The thought made her moan.
“They came for me first. But Callum broke free.” Though Maggie’s voice was but a whisper, Callum’s eyes opened as if he were hearing her words in his sleep.
He rose from his place against the wall and stood over them. “Come, to bed with ye now,” he said gently and picked Maggie up in his arms.
“Och, but were they not surprised at that, Callum? Were they not surprised at how ye killt them all?” Maggie said, and then closed her eyes.
Callum’s expression twisted with some emotion so painful Kate doubted she would ever recover from seeing it.
As she settled into bed that night, Kate’s thoughts were plagued with images she prayed hard to forget. But first, she prayed that the two people who lived through the horrible tale could forget them, as well.
Chapter Twenty-One
THE MORNING SUN BLAZED like a dragon’s breath through the wide, unshuttered windows of Kate’s room. Golden light splashed over her hair while Maggie brushed it until Kate’s scalp began to ache. Callum’s sister had insisted on bathing her new friend after they shared a hearty meal of cooked oats. Kate’s skin still tingled from the scrubbing she received at Maggie’s strong hands, but it felt wonderful to finally smell better than a fortnight’s worth of dirt.
She had so wanted to brush Maggie’s hair, but the lass refused. But after Kate commented on how Jamie might be tempted to plant a kiss on her cheek if it was clean, she did agree to wash her face.
At Callum’s request, a handmaiden named Aileen had delivered an earasaid and an armful of kirtles and shifts to Kate’s room earlier, all of which were tried on until Kate finally chose one with a sleeveless bodice of sapphire wool. The cut was low, the laces ending just beneath her breasts. She wore a cream-colored shift beneath with long bloused sleeves. Maggie had helped her don her earasaid of patterned scarlet and saffron, pleating it around her waist with a belt and wrapping the spare material around her shoulders. She’d secured the plaid with a round brooch of hammered bronze.
“Kate?” Maggie asked now, brushing one of Kate’s curls around her finger. “Is yer uncle very skilled with a blade?”
Kate heard the distress in her voice and knew what Maggie was really asking her. “I’ve never seen him in battle, but he often boasted of his skill.” When Maggie expelled a little groan, Kate hastily continued. “Whereas I have seen Callum wield a sword, and I do not believe any man could stand against him.”
“Are ye verra frightened for yer uncle, then?”
Kate shifted in her seat. She was not worried for him at all. In fact, she did her best not to even think of him. But she couldn’t tell that to Maggie without the girl thinking she was as coldhearted as her grandfather. “I don’t want Callum to kill him,” she finally said, leaving it at that.
“Nor do I.”
Kate turned to her, surprised. “How is it that you suffered with your brother at the hands of my kin and you don’t wish them dead, as Callum does?”
Maggie’s huge eyes shimmered with tears when they settled on Kate. “How much longer will my brother live if he keeps killing them? Sooner or later they will come for him. Just like they did at Kildun.”
Kate nodded slowly and turned back around. Her heart beat madly in her chest. She knew Maggie was right. She had even tried to tell him at the inn. This war would never end if the killing continued, and Callum would surely die. “We must stop him.”
“How?” Maggie asked. A dash of hope tinged her voice. “D’ye think he will listen to ye? He did say he would give ye tulips.”
“Tulips?” Kate turned to her again with a befuddled look. The lass had the most peculiar way of switching topics right in the middle of a conversation.
“Aye, he would pick tulips for ye.”
