it is.” Ben didn’t reply, just stared down at his boy.
“Should we let him sleep? I can come back later and have a hold. Maybe we could bring Alasdair downstairs to spend some time with us in the great hall. I’m sure some of your clansmen would enjoy seeing him, too.”
The door to the chamber opened and in walked the wet-nurse, holding a bundle of what looked like freshly laundered clothing. “Did ye wish me to come back, my Laird?”
Ben tucked his son in some more and took Kenzie’s hand, holding it in his own. Kenzie noted the nurse’s gaze latch onto the embrace, but the woman masked whatever thoughts she had over the contact.
“Nay, we’ll let Alasdair sleep, but when he wakes and is fed, please have him brought down to the hall. I will spend some time with him there.”
“Very good, m’lord.” The woman bobbed another quick curtsy before going about her duties.
With one last look at his boy, Ben pulled Kenzie from the room, making their way downstairs. “Did ye wish for a tour about the castle and grounds, lass? Alasdair will be asleep for a while, so we have time.”
“I’d love a tour. I didn’t get to see much of it when I first arrived.” Other than Ben’s bedroom, and by the knowing smile on his face he understood the meaning behind her words.
“Well, this is the third floor, houses the nursery, Alasdair’s wet-nurse, my head housekeeper, and manservant. In the attic space live the other maids, if they don’t still live with their family or husbands in the village—a short walk from here.”
“We didn’t pass a village. I didn’t know one was so close.” Kenzie wondered what town it was, and then it came to her. “You mean Dornie. I would love to see what it looks like in this time. Not that it’s a bustling city in mine, but I would like to see what its origins were like.”
“We shall go there. I promise ye.” They went down one level and onto the floor that housed Ben’s and her bedchamber. “This level is for guests, and myself, of course. There are twelve rooms in total—most with the same layout. Although mine has a secret entrance that I’ll show ye one day. Just in case.”
Kenzie didn’t like the sound of that but could understand his need to show her. “Let’s hope that I’ll never have to use it.”
They walked along the corridor toward their rooms. He stopped before a narrow cupboard that sat against the wall. Opening its front door, he squatted and pushed at the back of the cupboard where a small twang was heard before the back swung open and showed the entrance into a stone room beyond.
“This is where I used to hide from my tutor.”
Kenzie knelt and looked into the dark space. Did you have candles in there? It looks awfully dark.”
“Aye, candles and animal skins. I can assure ye, it’s still habitable should the need arise.”
He closed the doors quickly as a servant came up the stairs. “Now, to the ground floor.” Like most castles, each floor was connected by a stone spiral staircase. The ground floor held the massive great hall, an entrance chamber with no purpose other than to stop the cold going straight into the great hall during the winter months. The kitchens were off one end of the great hall, while the other housed another ante room that was Ben’s private office, or solar, as he called it.
“Should we go outside? You could show me about the castle proper, and we’ll leave the town and outlying areas for another day.” It was marvelous to walk about Ben’s home and let him tell her stories of his childhood, all that happened within the heavily fortified walls.
“My mother had been considered one of Scotland’s most beautiful women, not noble by birth, but born into a farming family who’d made their fortune in cattle. A money source I still trade in to this day. Mother had been the sole inheritor of all her father’s holdings. Making her an heiress. She was an only child, ye see.
“And your father. What of his background?”
“My father was already the laird by the time he’d met mother. He’d been besotted from the day they met, and the marriage was hasty.”
Kenzie laughed, understanding why that would be, if Ben’s father had similar looks and temperament to his son. She found it hard to be around Ben and not have one part of her brain