“We will be prepared. A guardhouse is to be built as well. Four soldiers will be permanently stationed here.”
His cousin nodded, but Alex knew he disagreed with his choices.
Alex wouldna let the land stand fallow. Nay, he’d use the strategies he’d learned while he was away and make the MacKays a feared clan. Even the keep required updating. He wanted to construct a new tower and reinforce the outer wall. They also needed to recruit new soldiers. All of it would be financed by his own gold and silver.
“Where do ye wish to go next?” Jamie asked.
“We will visit all of the westward villages today. Leave half of the men here to start working, the rest will come with us.”
Jamie immediately departed to make sure his orders were followed.
The earl would pay for his treachery even though there was no direct proof linking the man to this violence. Spilled blood required revenge. An eye for an eye—as the Almighty demanded. Alex wouldna rest until the debt was paid in full.
*
Keely knew shehad to brave going belowstairs. As Lady MacKay, earning the respect and trust of the clan meant everything to her. She couldna hide in her bedchamber forever. With Leah at her side, she descended the stairs, hoping to be welcomed by someone.
The colorful tapestry and weapons hanging over the main hearth in the great hall had been covered with a blood-stained sheet. Keely couldna believe her eyes. And though she understood the importance of the symbol, it was a lie.
“Milady,” Leah urged her mistress onward. “Ye must take yer seat at the high table.”
“That dinna come from our bridal bed,” she informed Leah.
“Aye. Laird Alex sent me to retrieve it from yer bedchamber.”
“But why?”
Her every move was being carefully watched by the soldiers and servants in the hall. It was bad enough she’d woken in an empty bed, learning from her maid that Alex had ridden off with his captains. But to have to stare at the sheet while she broke her fast… It dinna set right with her.
“Remove the unseemly thing,” she commanded Leah.
The maid hesitated, looking about the hall before she finally nodded and searched for a chair to stand on so she could reach it. Leah dragged the heavy piece of furniture as close to the hearth as she could get it, then climbed up. Just as she started to reach for the end of the sheet, Mathe approached.
“Nay,” he called out. “Climb down, Mistress Leah.”
“But sir…” the maid said.
“Doona stop, Leah,” Keely instructed her.
“Lady Keely,” Mathe said. “The sheet must stay.”
“I disagree, Captain Mathe. After all…” she whispered. “Tis my blood on it, is it not?”
The captain’s cheeks turned scarlet. “If ye’d come with me.” He took her arm, gently encouraging her to walk with him. “A conversation better held in private.”
Keely stopped walking. “And where would we find a place to talk alone?”
“Yer husband’s solar, perhaps?”
Keely shook her head. “And give the clan something else to wag their tongues over? I am well aware that my reputation is questionable, Captain Mathe, but I wouldna want to give the maids a reason to start talking ill of ye. Anything ye have to say will be spoken here.”
“Christ’s blood,” the normally mild captain exclaimed as he huffed out a breath. “I dinna think I’d live to see the day when the Almighty would deliver a woman with a tongue as careless as her laird’s.”
Keely couldna hold back the morbid laugh. “What are ye trying to say?”
“Lady Keely…” He cleared his throat. “That sheet is to remain hanging in the hall for ten days—enough time for any MacKay or visitor to satisfy their moral curiosity.”
“Moral curiosity? Just what is that, sir?”
