“I dreamt about it last night, ye know.” Emma shuddered. “When I worked at the McCade pub, I had plenty of men trying to unlace my bodice and put their hands up my skirt. They didn’t give a damn if I was a healer or not. For them, women had one purpose and one alone, and I wasn’t fulfilling mine. They truly thought that they had a right to take it from me. But last nightwas the closest any man has ever come. I truly thought… Oh, let’s not worry about what I thought. I suppose I wasn’t thinking much at all besides how to get his awful, sweaty palm away from my face and how I couldfeelhim touching me, under my skin, even.”
Riley shuffled closer, sliding her arm around Emma’s shoulder. “Men are beasts,” she said, with feeling. “Have you told Delphine?”
Emma shook her head. “I don’t want to upset her. Besides, if I’d followed her advice, I wouldn’t have been in that situation, in the first place.”
“Yes, but you shouldn’t have to worry about following a strict set of rules so that you don’t get—”
“And it gets worse,” Emma interrupted. She closed her eyes, drawing in a deep breath. “I’m worried that Laird MacPherson will use this as a way to get me out of the Keep.”
Riley’s eyes went round like two pools of dark honey.
“He wouldn’t do that! Not after he saved you!”
Emma groaned. “He tried it before, Riley.”
“What? You never told me that.”
She shrugged. “I wasn’t supposed to be listening. Look, here’s what happened. It was only my third week here. I don’t think ye and I were even friends yet, not properly. Delphine had sent me out to get some herbs, and when I came back, the door was half-open, and I could hear that she was talking to someone in there.”
“And you eavesdropped?”
Emma had the grace to blush. “Aye, I eavesdropped a wee bit. I recognized Laird MacPherson’s voice, ye see. I won’t lie to ye. I was impressed by him when I first came here. He was handsome, much younger than I thought, and kind. He’d come in and chat with us like he was a normal man, and I was… well, I suppose I was taken with him. That was before I found out that he takes lassies to bed like it’s a sport, ye understand.”
“Go on, go on.”
“Well, they were talking about me. I don’t remember the exact words, but Laird MacPherson was saying that I wasn’t a good fit as a healer’s apprentice, and he wasn’t sure I would be happy here at the Keep at all. I couldn’t believe it. Part of me wanted to go barging in and give him a taste of his own medicine, but it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t. I’d just have been thrown out for disrespecting the Laird.”
Riley chuckled. “Probably, yes. What did Delphine say?”
“Well, she seemed surprised. For one awful moment, I thought she’d give in. But she stood firm. She said that I was a goodhealer, that I had experience, and was a quick learner, and more to the point, shelikedme.”
“And what did hesay?”
Emma shrugged. “Not much. He kept saying that he would find someone more suited, and eventually, Delphine snapped and said something like, ‘Is this an order? Are ye telling me whom I can have as my own apprentice in my own healing chambers?’ He backed down after that. I don’t think they talked about it again. Me, I pretended that I’d never heard any of it. I wasn’t supposed to, after all.”
They sat in silence for a minute or two.
“I wonder why he wanted you gone?” Riley said, breaking the silence. “The other servants say that you’re the best apprentice Delphine has ever had.”
Emma shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he had a prettier lass in mind, one for him to chase around a bit. Or maybe a friend or relative wanted the position. Either way, he wanted me gone. And then, he had the gall to go on as if nothing was wrong. He still comes in, asking for his wretched hangover cures, as if he didn’t try to get me thrown out of the Keep. I’m afraid he’ll use Gregor’s attack as proof that it’s not safe for me here. If Delphine thought I was truly in danger… well, she might allow him to send me away.”
Saying it out loud made it seem more likely, not less so. Emma shivered, tucking her grey shawl tightly around her shoulders.The rain, which had begun hammering down shortly after she’d come home from Gregor’s attack, had eased off in the early hours of the morning, but the sky was still grey and full of rain. The wind was damp and cold.
They’d have more rain by the end of the day.
She eyed the white sheets flapping in the courtyard and wondered what Riley and the other laundresses would do if it were too rainy to dry the clothes.
On cue, the chief laundress appeared in the doorway, her brawny arms folded, and glared at the two of them.
Riley seemed to hunch over on herself, avoiding the woman’s eye.
“I’ve got to go, Emma,” Riley whispered. “But listen, I don’t think Laird MacPherson would try and get you out of the Keep like this. He’s a good man, everyone says so. You mark my words. I bet this awful Gregor person has been punished.”
“That’ll only make him angrier,” Emma mumbled.
Riley grinned wickedly. “That depends on the punishment. Dead men can’t take revenge, after all.”
“Riley McGuire, ye are shocking!”
