“My lord, is aught amiss?”
He blinked a couple of times and said, “You have surprised me, Lady Agnes.”
She had? “How so, my lord?”
“You have ridden for days on end and with no complaint. I do not know any other lady who would have done so.”
“It is the only freedom I have, my lord. I did not choose this path.”
He paused for a moment. “I know you have not. And you have not ranted or portrayed victim of your circumstance. I have noticed you staring off about the countryside and smiling.”
His quiet contemplation had clearly been about her, at least for part of the time, and she hadn’t realized.
“I have been recounting some of the stories I have been told over the years about the legends around this part of the country.”
“Which ones?” he asked appearing genuinely interested.
“I wondered if the sea creature of Loch Ness would win in a battle with our Bregdi.”
When he smiled and his dimples appeared, she was transfixed. He had an air of power about him, but he did not abuse it. She’d seen plenty of other people puff themselves up because of their title undeservedly, and even in her uncle’s case do the same without the title.
But this man was different. He’d not badgered her to see his side of the situation over the past days, rather, kept watch overher, but did not try to interfere with her. She admired him for that.
“We have some legends of our own at Mugdock Castle,” he said. “Would you like to hear about them?”
“Aye, my lord, I would very much.”
He told her of a gray lady who roamed the halls of the castle in search of her lost bairn. “Mugdock Castle is built on the ruin of a much older place, said to have existed long before the Gaels moved here and farmed the land for their own.”
“Have you seen her?”
“Aye, that I have when I was a wee lad myself.”
“Tell me about it, please,” she said and shifted a little so she could see him better.
“I was about seven or eight summers and had been sent to my chamber for stealing sweet buns from the kitchen.”
She could almost envision this beautiful wee lad with a mop of curly brown hair being scolded by the cook.
“Were ye not stealthy as a lad then, my lord?”
“I held my own. Are you saying you were never caught taking something you wanted?”
“Aye, I am saying just that. I would be in and out of that kitchen before the cook could turn around. I’m saying I’m stealthy and quick,” she said with a smile.
His smile mirrored her own and she realized they were staring at one another again. Not that she minded, but one moment they could be arguing and the other like this.
“And so you were sent to your chamber hopefully with your sweet bun.”
“Alas, that was confiscated, but aye, I was on my way to accept my punishment when I saw a shadowy image walking toward me. The hallway leading to the children’s chambers was long and so I was on one end and this figure approached from the opposite end.”
“What did you do?”
“I did what any young lad would do. I froze,” he said and laughed. “The hair stood on the back of my neck as I watched this thing come toward me, seeming to look straight at me and just before it reached me, it disappeared.”
“My lord, did you tell anyone?”
“I believe I would like you to call me William when ’tis just us, Lady Agnes.”
