his life.
A sound in the hallway made him race to the door. He threw it open and there was Anne. She was about to enter her room. Her dress was streaked with dirt and mud. She carried her shoes.
“Anne!”
She paused, a hand on the door handle. For a long moment they stared at each other, and he could almost imagine he was looking into the eyes of a stranger.
The expression on her face was strained, her complexion pale. His poor Anne.
He held out his hand. “Come, let us talk.”
She went in her room, shutting the door firmly behind her.
Frustrated, Aidan closed his own door. He’d let her sleep on it. In the morning, she’d see sense—even if he had to shake it into her.
Unfortunately, sleep was a long time in coming.
When he did wake, the day was more advanced than it usually was when he woke. Swearing softly, he started to dress and then stopped. Someone knocking on the door was what woke him.
“Who is it?” he barked, pulling on his breeches.
“Cora, my lord.”
He cracked open the door. “What is it?”
The maid appeared nervous. “Lady Tiebauld insists upon leaving.”
“Leaving for where?”
“London, my lord,” she answered with exasperation. “Deacon said you would want to know.”
Aidan opened the door wide. “Don’t let her leave.”
“We won’t. But when everyone refused to do as she asked without permission from you, she marched off to the stables saying she would saddle her own horse.”
She spoke to the air. Aidan was already getting dressed. He threw on his shirt, not even bothering to tuck it in, and shoved his feet into his boots.
He charged toward the stables.
Chapter 12
Hugh, Deacon, and Mrs. MacEwan waited for Aidan in the great hall. Even Norval worriedly paced a line from the dais to the staircase and back.
“It’s about time you woke,” Hugh snapped.
Aidan frowned at Deacon. “What are you doing here?”
His friend held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I was attempting to talk sense into your wife.”
Since when had Anne and Deacon become chums? “Get back into hiding. I’ll take care of my wife.”
Mrs. MacEwan rubbed her hands anxiously. “You will stop her, won’t you, laird? She is so insistent. I told her she couldn’t go riding off alone but she says she doesn’t need an escort.”
“She’s being stubborn,” Aidan answered.
“Aye, she is, but I wouldn’t tell her that to her face,” Mrs. MacEwan agreed, and then lowered her voice to add, “Not if you want her back.”
Aidan didn’t waste any more time on conversation—especially if they were going to become lectures! He stormed out the front door. Norval stepped back just in time or else he would have bowled him over.
Out in the courtyard, Kathleen Keith, Bonnie Mowat, the other women, the children, and even some of the men stood waiting. He frowned at having Anne’s tiff aired in such a public forum. “Don’t any of you have something to do with your time this morning?”
Mrs. Keith raised her chin and scowled right back at him. “We’ve been waiting for you to get your arse out of the bed and come stop her…my lord,” she added with belated respectfulness.
Aidan gave her a glare that sent her scurrying behind Mrs. Mowat.
“You will stop her?” Davey said, trotting alongside Aidan.
“I intend to.” He headed for the stables.
The others fell in behind him, following as closely as they dared. Aidan knew they were there—and he also knew he couldn’t prevent them from nosing into his business.
Not without making the matter worse!
His long legs ate up the path leading to the stables. He stopped in front of the double doors. Davey’s friend Jamie dashed forward, the dogs trailing at his heels.
“I kept a watch on her like Davey told me to, Laird,” Jamie reported. He confided, “She doesn’t know much about horses. If she leaves, she won’t go far.”
“Good lad. Now, run along with the others and let me talk to my wife.”
“She doesn’t want to talk to anyone,” Jamie informed him officiously.
“She’ll talk to me.”
“To burn your ears off,” the boy muttered, moving to join Davey, who stood on a stone wall.
Aidan took a step toward the door. The dogs went along with him. He stopped. “You stay here, too, laddies.”
Was it his imagination or did they actually act chastened? However as he approached the doorway, York pranced right past him and up to Anne, who stood in a patch of sunlight, her back to Aidan. She was having a devil of a time saddling an antsy roan mare,