They knew nothing of her change of heart about Gabriel, her pulse racing anew as she wondered where he had ridden off to in such a furor.
Something worrying was afoot, she could feel it as the soup suddenly seemed tasteless to her just in thinking that he might be in danger. One by one, and then in somber groups, the great hall began to empty as if no one wished to linger over their meal, all hearts and minds focused upon what might be happening somewhere outside the castle walls.
Grania, too, pushed away her bowl and stood up while Rhona seemed purposely to be eating her soup at a snail’s pace, the bowl still almost full.
“Go on, child, finish up and we’ll go outside for a walk—”
“Oh, aye, a walk!” Rhona blurted, glancing from her nurse to Magdalene. “Will you come with us, Maggie?”
Feeling a strange pang not to be called Mama any longer, Magdalene met Grania’s gaze that seemed to have narrowed, appraising her.
There was something unsettling about the older woman, though Magdalene couldn’t put her finger upon it—och, she knew nothing about the nurse other than Grania had been with the MacLachlans for years. Mayhap it was her faded beauty or how she carried herself, as if she wasn’t a servant at all but a member of Gabriel’s family like a cousin or an aunt, but there again Magdalene imagined the nurse had always been treated as such.
“Aye, Maggie, do come with us,” Keira urged softly, a hint of wariness still clinging to the girl—and Magdalene couldn’t blame her.
After all, the last time Keira had seen her, she was howling and dumping stew all over herself!
Yet why not go for a walk with them? It might ease Keira’s lingering guardedness and take her own mind off what might be happening with Gabriel, if only a little. Magdalene smiled and nodded, which made Rhona clap her hands with delight while a smile burst across Keira’s face, too.
Only to fade an instant later when Grania rapped her knuckles sharply upon the table and gestured to Euna and Donella close by.
“Will you not take this madwoman in hand? Walk with the laird’s own nieces? Indeed not! She canna be trusted any more than a fox among chickens—Rhona!”
The child had sprung up so suddenly and rushed around the table to grab Magdalene’s hand that she couldn’t help but jump up, too, Keira quickly following her sister’s example. It seemed within a blink, the three of them were running through the great hall, laughing, while Grania’s raised voice echoed behind them.
“Stop them! Euna, Donella, do something!”
“Dowhat?” came Euna’s shrill response. “Laird MacLachlan said she’s tae have free run of the castle—aye, and there she goes!”
Indeed, Magdalene felt such a sense of exhilaration not to have the maidservants attempting to stop her, and Keira and Rhona skipped gleefully beside her. It seemed the bairns needed some freedom, too.
Giggling, breathless, they burst outside into the sunshine only to stop short, people running toward a finely clothed young man who reined in his lathered horse just inside the bailey.
“Where is your laird?” he demanded, waving a rolling parchment high in the air. “I’ve an urgent summons from Earl Seoras—enough! Will you all stand and gape at me?Wherethe devil is Laird MacLachlan?”
Chapter 17
“Calm yourself, man!” Gabriel bellowed, riding in on the heels of what he had judged to be a messenger from Seoras, just as Finlay had predicted. “I’m Laird MacLachlan and you’re disrupting the peace of my home!”
The rider wheeled his mount around to face him while those gathered in the bailey scattered to make way for men and lathered horses. Yet Gabriel’s gaze wasn’t on the messenger dressed in finery that identified him as a courtier, but on Magdalene standing off to one side with her arms around the shoulders of his young nieces.
Her beautiful face flushed, her eyes as wide as Keira’s and Rhona’s, the girls clinging to her like ducklings to their mother. No doubt they had been startled by the commotion, which made Gabriel swear under his breath and focus again on his unexpected guest.
“The summons, if you please,” he grated, wondering if this pompous-looking fellow had been one of those laughing at him on the night Seoras had offered him Magdalene.
At once the messenger stiffened and thrust out the rolled parchment, which Gabriel took with a brusque nod. He didn’t read it, though, but dismounted along with his captains and the dozen other men who’d rode out with him earlier, as stable boys rushed forward to lead away the horses.
The messenger, meanwhile, remained in the saddle and glanced around the bailey, his gaze alighting upon Magdalene.
His slow smirk made Gabriel’s irritation flare into fury, and it was all he could do not to grab the man and throw him in the dirt.
“Your name?”
“Allan MacDougall, Laird, an aide and second cousin tae Earl Seoras. Will you not read the summons he entrusted me tae deliver to you?”
“Aye, when you get down off your horse.”
As if realizing from Gabriel’s tone that he had no choice in the matter, Allan dismounted, looking quite nervous now as he held tightly to the reins.
