Highland Wolf (Highland Brides #10)(80)

“’Tis fine, Mhairi,” Claray assured her, catching the woman’s hands to stop her and then getting to her feet. “Do no’ fret yerself. Accidents happen. I’ll just go change.”

“Oh, I am sorry, m’lady,” the woman repeated unhappily.

Claray patted her arm and then glanced down to the wolf when he started to rise. “Stay, Lovey. I’ll be right back.”

The wolf hesitated, but then dropped back to the floor and laid his head on his paws to watch her walk away. Much to her annoyance, Hendrie and Colban didn’t stay though. The two men immediately leapt up from the trestle tables where they’d been watching her work, and hurried to take up position on either side of her to escort her across the great hall.

While she no longer had to put up with four men following her everywhere, Conall still wanted two guarding her until they were sure all was well. He had also agreed to keep Roderick and Payton with him as guards for a while too. Claray understood his concern, but felt silly being followed about by the two younger soldiers inside the keep.

“I am only going to change, gentlemen. There’s no need to come with me. I’m sure ye can see the door to me bedchamber from here,” she said with a touch of irritation.

“But from down here we could no’ stop someone from givin’ ye a push as ye descend the stairs, could we?” Hendrie asked quietly.

Claray scowled at the suggestion. One, because she hadn’t thought of it, and two, because it wasn’t nice thinking that someone might want to do that to her. Sighing, she just shook her head and made no more protests as she headed up the stairs to the bedchamber she shared with Conall.

She was caught by surprise when she reached the landing and Hendrie rushed ahead of her. Claray thought he was just going to open the door for her, and he did, but then he held up his hand to keep her from entering, and stepped inside himself. She watched with disbelief as he peered around the empty room, knowing he was looking about to be sure there was no one in there, but she thought it was ridiculous. Claray didn’t say so, however. She just shook her head, and then proceeded into the room when he stepped back out and waved her in.

Hendrie pulled the door closed for her once she was inside and Claray started across the room, but found her footsteps slowing before she’d got halfway across. She also began glancing nervously around the chamber. It was empty, and silent and still, yet the hair on the back of her neck was prickling with unease. Which was silly, she told herself firmly. There was no one there. The men’s ridiculously overcautious behavior was just making her paranoid. Still, she had that creeping sensation that she often got when she knew someone was watching her, even though there was no one there to do so.

Claray gave herself a little shake to try to chase off the feeling, and then made herself move to the chests of clothes along the wall opposite the door. The one closest to the window held her older gowns, the ones she preferred to work in because she didn’t mind them getting soiled or ruined. Opening that chest, she fetched out the pale, yellow gown that lay on top, and then peered out the window and down at the bailey below as she closed the chest.

Spying her husband by the wall, Claray paused to watch him. He was standing talking to Roderick and Payton, and she found herself comparing the three men and smiling to herself as she thought her husband was the fairest of them all. Not that she was biased or anything, she assured herself with amusement, and then made herself turn her back on the pleasant view, and walk to the bed.

High up as she was, Claray wasn’t concerned that anyone in the bailey might see her, but that creeping feeling running down the back of her neck still had her on edge, and she looked around the room again as she undid her lacings. Still, there was nothing and no one to see, so she quickly shrugged out of her gown, and reached for the other one even as the first dropped to the floor. In her rush to don it, Claray got a bit tangled in the cloth when she pulled it over her head, and at first stuck her arm out through the neck opening.

Muttering under the gobs of smothering material gathered around her head and face, she tugged the cloth up and her arm down to fix her mistake and then poked around until she found an armhole instead. Claray then did the same with her other hand and shimmied a little to get the cloth to drop down into place, allowing her head to pop out of the neckline. She then tugged the material of the skirt down and scowled when she saw that she’d got the damned thing turned around and had pulled it on backward.

Sighing with exasperation, Claray started to tug on the sleeve of one arm, intending to pull her arms out and turn the gown without having to pull it off altogether. But before she could, pain exploded in her head, followed quickly by unconsciousness.





Chapter 24




“They’ll be done with the wall soon.”

Conall grunted in agreement as he watched the men work. Three or four of his men had worked as stonemasons for a while before joining him in mercenary work. They were directing the others.

In truth, many of his men had started in different professions before joining his forces. Aside from the stonemasons, he had men who used to be blacksmiths, millers, armorers, plowmen, metalsmiths, carpenters, a baker, a chandler, a cooper and a brewer. One had even been a gongfarmer. Conall hadn’t chosen them for what they did; he’d merely approached any man he encountered, or heard of, over the years who was a MacDonald, and had made an offer to them. Join his mercenaries and he would train them in battle, pay them more than they could make at their present jobs, and someday they would reclaim Deagh Fhortan and become a clan again.