Medieval Ever After (114 page)

“Let me introduce you to my wife,” Daniel said to Garrick.

Introductions were made quickly all around. Then Garrick collected a few small bags from the boat and the four of them made their way to the castle just as heavy raindrops began to fall.

As they entered the great hall, Jossalyn took Rona’s hand.

“That boat ride has sent my stomach spinning,” Jossalyn said. “Do you happen to have any chamomile and clove?”

“Um…I don’t know.”

Rona felt her cheeks flush. She didn’t pay any attention to household matters and instead left everything to Agnes and Elspeth, the castle’s head cook. Another of her failings as the lady of the keep.

“Let’s ask the cook,” she mumbled.

Rona and Jossalyn peeled off from Daniel and Garrick, who continued through the hall and to the stairs, likely headed for Daniel’s study.

“Elspeth, do we have any chamomile and clove?” Rona said bluntly as she pushed her way into the kitchen.

Elspeth, rotund and rosy-cheeked, turned in surprise at their entrance. Normally Rona stayed completely away from the kitchen, unless it was to quickly snatch a heel of bread or an apple for her treks into the woods.

“Aye, my lady,” Elspeth said with a quizzical look. She opened a narrow door at the back of the kitchen and stuck her head in.

“Oh, is that your storeroom? Do you mind if I have a peek at your herbs?” Jossalyn said, her eyes lighting up.

Rona deferred to Elspeth with a shrug.

“Of course, my lady,” the cook said.

Jossalyn poked her head in and immediately started muttering to herself. “Very good, very good. Hmm, low on fennel.”

“Do you…cook?” Rona said awkwardly, trying to make conversation. Daniel had told her so little about his family, and of course he hadn’t even met any of the new wives.

“Oh, no! That is, I do my best in the camp, but I’m not skilled,” Jossalyn replied, removing her head from the storeroom and turning to Rona. She had a few dried flowers in one hand and a jar in the other

“I’m a healer—of sorts.”

To Rona’s surprise, Jossalyn lowered her head and blushed.

“Of sorts?” Some of Rona’s nervousness ebbed as she motioned for Jossalyn to take a seat on a nearby stool.

“I haven’t been formally trained by a physician, of course!” Jossalyn said as she sat down. Elspeth brought over a pewter mug of already-hot water, apparently able to tell what Jossalyn was about with the herbs.

Jossalyn tossed the dried flowers into the hot water, then sprinkled in a dash of the ground contents from the jar.

“But I was trained by two medicine women,” she went on with a shrug. “I have a knack for it.”

“And you are the village healer where you and Garrick live?” Rona knew she was fishing, but she knew so little about her new family. She perched on the stool next to Jossalyn as Elspeth went back to the hearth to stir something fragrant in the large caldron over the fire.

Jossalyn gave her a curious look and took a small sip of the tea she’d made.

“Daniel hasn’t told you?”

Rona stiffened, simultaneously embarrassed that her husband hadn’t seen fit to explain more to her and angry at herself for not probing him further about his family.

Jossalyn must have noticed, for she placed a soft hand on Rona’s forearm.

“These Sinclair men are impossible, aren’t they?” she said with a sympathetic smile. “They’re about as talkative as rocks.”

Rona snorted, then quickly shot a look at Jossalyn, but she was grinning.

“And as stubborn as mules,” Jossalyn added.

Rona’s face heated, for she, too, could be mulish. She pressed on, though, too curious to let it drop.

“Daniel hasn’t told me anything of where you live, other than the fact that you all are coming from the Highlands.”

Jossalyn’s green eyes sparkled. “Perhaps we can discuss this someplace…private?”

So it wasn’t just Daniel who could be reserved and secretive. It was the whole family!

“Let me show you to your chamber,” Rona said, standing.

She led the way across the hall and up the stairs on the far side. Jossalyn and Garrick would be staying in her old chamber. Once they were inside, she closed the door behind them.

“Make yourself comfortable,” Rona said, trying her best to be a good hostess.

Jossalyn, still clutching her mug of tea, sat down on the corner of the bed and sighed contentedly. “I haven’t slept in a real bed in so long.”

Rona’s eyes widened. She really didn’t know anything about her in-laws.

“You see,” Jossalyn went on calmly, “Garrick and I currently live outside Inverness, though it changes.”

“Changes?”

“We reside in Robert the Bruce’s rebel camp. It moves from time to time to protect the secrecy of the exact location.”

“You…what?”

Rona knew in the back of her mind that she was being rude, but the shock of what Jossalyn had just said was too much.

Jossalyn smiled. “Garrick is one of the Bruce’s closest confidantes. And I serve as the camp’s healer. It’s unusual, I know, but it works for us.”

“But...but you’re English!”

“Yes. In fact, I used to live not far from here. Perhaps you’ve heard of Dunbraes?”

Rona nodded numbly, trying and failing to sort out all this information.

“I lived there for five years with my brother, Raef.”

Through the fog of confusion, Rona registered that for the first time since she’d met her, Jossalyn’s face dropped into a pained frown. Then the name clicked.

“Raef. Raef Warren. Raef Warren is your brother.”

Rona was vaguely aware that she slumped onto the bed next to Jossalyn.

Jossalyn nodded. “Your voice tells me you know something of him. At least Daniel told you that much.”

Suddenly the door to the chamber opened, and Garrick and Daniel entered.

“Sorry to interrupt, but we need you, Jossalyn,” Garrick said.

“This way to my study,” Daniel said, gesturing out the door.

Rona frowned in confusion.

“But surely our guests are tired from their journey, Daniel,” she said with more bite than she intended.

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest, a scowl on his face. Strangely, Garrick quirked an eyebrow at her in amusement.

“Rest will have to wait,” Daniel said curtly.

“Why?” Rona shot back. Why on earth would Daniel need both Garrick and Jossalyn in his study? And why was she being excluded?

Daniel’s face darkened further and he looked ready to bite something back, but Jossalyn stood.

“I hope we can continue our conversation later,” she said warmly to Rona.

Rona could only nod dazedly as Jossalyn rose and went to the door. Garrick followed her out. Daniel waited for Rona to rise from her old bed and exit the chamber. But as he turned up the stairs toward the study and she turned down, she couldn’t suppress a mutter.

“Mulish and rock-like.”

“What was that?” Daniel said, turning back to her.

“Nothing,” she said sourly, then descended the stairs to the hall once more. Now wasn’t the time to pick a fight with him, but as soon as the opportunity arose, she’d give him an earful and demand to know what was afoot.

She only hoped he’d tell her.

HIGHLANDER’S RECKONING

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Rona woke from
a restless night of sleep with a headache throbbing behind her right eye. She sat up and glanced around the dim chamber. Daniel must have already risen and left.

After she dressed and splashed water on her hands and face, she peeked behind the furs covering the window. Yesterday’s storm had abated to a dull, drizzly morning.

She tried to smooth the scowl on her face as she trudged down to the hall, but her foul mood was too deeply entrenched.

She hadn’t gotten an opportunity to talk with Daniel—more like demand information from him—yesterday, so busy were they with their guests.

The evening meal had passed pleasantly enough. Jossalyn and Garrick had joined them on the dais for the meal, which was a simple affair. Jossalyn had told Rona the remarkable story of how she’d met Garrick, escaped her horrible brother—Raef Warren, which still shocked Rona—and pledged her healing skills to the Bruce and his rebel camp.

Daniel and Garrick had mostly talked to each other during the meal, but every once in a while, Garrick would shoot Jossalyn a look, sometimes tender, sometimes heated, always adoring. Rona had felt a strange pinch each time she witnessed those covert looks. Garrick and Jossalyn were truly happy.

That thought had her mouth turning down again as she walked through the great hall, which was scattered with people finishing their morning meal. It wasn’t that she didn’t want those two to be happy. Was she…jealous?

She entered the kitchen and snatched a few honeyed oatcakes left over from the morning meal. Her stomach felt too sour with ire to eat, but she’d want the food later, once she was in the Galloway woods with Bhreaca.

She still hadn’t seen Daniel or their guests yet this morning, so she went to the yard to seek him out. She was going to pick a fight, and she knew it. But she didn’t care. At least the drizzle had halted, she thought sourly.

She spotted two large kilted figures standing atop the battlements along the curtain wall and marched toward them. They appeared to be deep in conversation, with Daniel pointing to the southeast as he spoke quietly to Garrick.

“Good morning,” she said tartly as she stepped from the stone stairs to the battlements.

They nodded to her without a word.

“Where is Jossalyn?” she asked with a brief glance around.

Garrick gave her a wry look. “She’s still soaking in the luxury of a real bed.”

“Oh. Well, I’m going to visit the Fergusons,” she said, turning to Daniel.

He frowned. “I won’t be able to go today, so we’ll have to find another time. The others will be here shortly,” he said, gesturing across the loch toward the village.

Rona matched his frown. More guests—more of Daniel’s taciturn, elusive, secretive family.

Garrick wasn’t so bad, and she was genuinely coming to know and like Jossalyn. But meeting and hosting them left her feeling tense and drained. She wasn’t exactly looking forward to another round of introductions and explanations of all the things Daniel hadn’t bothered to tell her. She just wanted to get away, to go to the one place she felt truly at ease, truly herself.

“Well, I’m going. You can stay here,” she said acidly.

Of course, she was going against what they’d already agreed upon when they’d negotiated—and made love—that day in the study. But she was in too foul a mood to care.

“You’re not going without me.”

Daniel’s voice brokered no argument, which only annoyed Rona further. She crossed her arms and leveled him with a hard stare.

“Aye, I am.”

Garrick suddenly chuckled lightly.

She rounded on him. “What’s so funny?”

Garrick raised an eyebrow at her and met her stare with one of his own.

“You remind me of Alwin,” he said simply.