She nearly jumped out of her skin when a loud rap came at the door.
Another pair of maidservants appeared just as Cora had said they would, one carrying thick towels while the other held her bag of belongings. Both women stepped aside as three brawny men followed them into the room lugging buckets of steaming water.
Magdalene wanted to rush past them and run downstairs to try and find Gabriel, but she sensed they would stop her if she tried. Every one of them seemed to eye her with uneasiness as if unsure of what she might do.
“Earl Seoras’s own sister…Mad Maggie,” one of the maidservants whispered to the other, a plump girl with red hair, who nodded at her pock-faced companion and shifted nervously while the men poured the water into a wooden tub.
“Aye, she spit upon him—can you believe it? She doesna look so mad to me, though—och, what’s she doing?”
Magdalene had closed her eyes and spun slowly in place, humming to herself as Cora’s words—a warning, truly—rang in her brain.
It’s wise that Seoras believes you mad.
Aye, it was wise that everyone she encountered from then on believed her mad, just as she had promised Gabriel. If it might help him in any way…
Magdalene opened her eyes and began to flap her arms like wings.
A crazed grin on her face that made the maidservants gasp and the men grab their empty buckets and lunge from the room.
Then she began to laugh, a shrill, earsplitting sound that she hoped would reach every corner of the fortress as the wide-eyed women inched forward…no doubt wondering how they were ever going to get her into the tub.
Chapter 21
Whatever happens, husband, your path is my path.
Gabriel stared blindly at the parchment map of Argyll spread out in front of him, the babble of masculine voices in the great hall doing little to pull his mind from Magdalene.
My loyalty is tae you, not Seoras. Never Seoras.
Such love swelled in his chest that it felt almost painful, and he glanced in the direction of the tower that housed her, wishing he hadn’t been forced to leave her so abruptly.
That thought brought him back in sharp focus to the discussion around him even as Seoras’s irritated voice rose above the din.
“Are we distracting you, MacLachlan? Mayhap you might offer your view of our plan tae capture Robert the Bruce.”
“It’s a good strategy,” he said tightly, knowing all eyes of Seoras’s barons and their captains were upon him. His own men stood not far behind him, and he sensed tension emanating from Alun, Conall, and Cameron as he tried to bridle his own. “A surprise attack as soon as your scouts arrive with news of King Robert’s whereabouts—”
“Not aking, man!” Seoras cut him off with an outraged roar. “Dare you say that in my presence? A usurper! A murderer more deserving of his head skewered on a pike than the Scots throne! As soon as he’s dead,Iwill stake my claim to the crown and all of you will do well tae support me! That is, if you value your lands and titles and wish for more of the same. Your loyalty will be rewarded, I vow it—by myselfandKing Edward.”
A startled murmur moved through the assemblage at this pronouncement while Gabriel felt the hair prickle at the back of his neck.
Had Seoras’s lust for the throne spurred him to strike some bargain with Longshanks to make him king while Scotland, long struggling for independence, would remain a vassal of England?
From the smug look on Seoras’s face, Gabriel judged it to be so, no doubt a signed letter from King Edward with a blood red seal in his possession. He glanced around him at the nods from the barons—but not all looked pleased.
Not all. Meanwhile, Seoras sat down heavily in his chair, a buxom maidservant rushing forward to fill his cup with red wine.
The earl had put on weight since Gabriel had last seen him, an air of dissipation enveloping him as he drank deeply, gesturing for his barons to join him.
Power and ambition, a dangerous combination for even the most level-headed of men…but in Seoras, it felt like looking upon the devil himself, Gabriel’s own bargain with his overlord to wed Magdalene paling in comparison.
Now he couldn’t imagine his life without her, but his disposition that night when Seoras had sat smirking at him with his courtiers laughing all around had been cheerless indeed.
He’d had no choice but to agree to marry her, and in exchange he had sworn to protect Seoras’s lands from Robert the Bruce and his followers—yet treason burned ever brighter in Gabriel’s heart with this news of King Edward championing Seoras’s cause.
Was it true? Gabriel couldn’t say, but dangling lands and titles before the barons appeared to be enough for them to stand with Seoras…though again, not all. Some showed their reluctance by the somber looks on their faces while Seoras shoved the map aside and waved for everyone to join him.
“Let’s drink tae our victory! That usurper canna stand against our might! MacLachlan, grab a cup or I’ll think you’ve no desire to be among us! Surely that lunatic you call a wife hasna bewitched you somehow—och, did you hear that?”
