Tamed by a Laird (18 page)

But, so far, she had defeated him at every turn without even raising her voice.

Bad enough that she stirred him to contemplate behavior he thought well outside the scope of his character. Worse for one
who knew he was an able leader of men was the fact that his powers of persuasion, long held to be one of his greatest strengths,
seemed to have no effect whatsoever on the stubborn lass.

She listened to him. At least, she appeared to listen. But no matter what he said to her, she continued to insist that she
preferred to stay with the minstrels.

Such a life could not be comfortable for her; yet she made no complaint. Indeed, she seemed sincerely to be enjoying herself.
As to the nonsense about running her own estates and protecting herself, he blamed her father. Clearly, the late laird had
been a man of little sense, or he would have married again to provide her with a mother to teach her how to go on in life,
and to give him a proper heir.

They were approaching the sleeping area, and he saw Peg waiting for Jenny. As he glanced down at his silent companion, his
earlier thoughts echoed through his mind. He could imagine her derision had she been able to hear them.

All very well for him to talk about her father and his own easy certainty that the late Lord Easdale ought to have remarried.
But what about
him
? Despite the urging of his sister and others, including Dunwythie, he had not given remarriage a thought. After all, he reassured
himself, he did have a male heir.

He glanced at the lass again, knowing how she would respond to that. Indeed, she
had
responded to it, and he had to admit that she had made an excellent point. He had done naught to teach Reid his responsibilities
as heir to Thornhill, and yet he had assured her that Reid would quickly learn to run Easdale.

She looked up and met his gaze, raising her eyebrows. “Is aught amiss, sir?”

“Only that I owe you an apology, lass, if one can apologize for arrogance.”

Her eyes twinkled then. “Arrogance, sir? How so?”

“Having acquaintance with your intelligence, minx, I am disinclined to explain what I am sure needs no explanation. However,
I promise you that Reid will learn something about estate management before he takes the reins at Easdale.”

“Faith, sir, the parson cried our banns in Annan Kirk this morning. Our wedding will take place just over a fortnight from
now, yet you still assume
Reid
will take the reins. How do you imagine you can teach him anything about a place you have never seen, let alone do so in
so short a time?”

“I cannot, of course. But I can recommend that he seek guidance from his lady wife, and that I certainly will do.”

The light faded from her eyes, and her soft lips pressed together again. A moment later, she licked them and said flatly,
“You do not know your brother at all, sir, if you think he would ever accept advice from a mere woman.”

“I do not think you ‘mere’ at all, lass.”

“Well, Reid does. He has often said so. So, pray, do not try to help me. I do not need your help. I
am
Easdale of Easdale, and so I will remain, Reid or no Reid. If you mean to teach your insufferable brother anything, see if
you can teach him
that
.”

Hugh struggled for a moment against a base inclination to shake her soundly and order her to heed him. Even as he did, though,
he knew she was right again.

Her rank was equal to his, and had anyone suggested that he let someone else run things at Thornhill, he would have reacted
more fiercely than she had. Even so, a woman was less able to enforce her commands than a man was, and was thus less able
to run a large estate. She would do better with a good man at her side.

She continued to look at him, studying him, as they drew nearer to Peg.

At last, Jenny said, “You don’t mean to ride to Threave tomorrow, do you?”

“I don’t,” he said shortly. “Goodnight to you, lass. Sleep well.”

With a nod to Peg, he turned on his heel and strode away into the woods. As he did, he heard a sound that he suspected was
a most unladylike snort.

His irritation evaporated, and although there was none but the moon to see it, Hugh grinned.

W
here the devil are they then? Tell me that,” Reid Douglas demanded of his sister and brother-in-law as they broke their fast
that Monday morning. “Just thinking of all those folks in the kirk yester-morn, staring at me as the priest cried the banns…
All of them were wondering where she was! I tell you, I won’t stand for such antics after we’re wed.”

“No more should you,” Phaeline said soothingly. “But you will be her husband then, Reid dearling. She will have to submit
to your authority.”

“You said she’d do as she was told now,” he reminded her.

Fiona, sitting near the end of the table, said musingly, “Jenny is accustomed to running her estates and doing as she pleases.
So one does wonder why anyone should think she would submit to Reid’s authority when he has never run anything.”

“That will do, Fiona,” her mother said. “If you cannot remember to wait until someone addresses you before speaking, you will
have to leave the table.”

“I apologize, madam, but one cannot help wondering about such things.”

Reid said, “I think you
wonder
just to see if you can stir mischief, my lass, so take care that you don’t find yourself well slapped for such comments.”

“I’ll thank
you
to remember that she is my daughter, not yours,” Phaeline said. “Although he does have cause to be irked with you, Fiona.
You will oblige me by remaining silent until you are excused.”

“Yes, madam,” Fiona said.

“So much for her silence,” Reid said grimly.

Mairi said, “I don’t mind admitting that I’m growing more anxious about Jenny. She has been gone for two days and three nights,
yet she cannot have got far on foot as she was. Should not Sir Hugh have found her by now?”

With an air of relief at this return to the primary topic, Dunwythie said, “First Hugh had to discover which way she went.
Although Sadie suspected that Jenny went with the minstrels and Peg’s continued absence gives credence to that opinion, Hugh
had to be sure. We know only that they intended to go to Dumfries and to Threave. In troth, they may have gone anywhere from
here.”

“Well, I for one do not mean to sit here awaiting their pleasure,” Reid said, getting to his feet. “I warrant
I
can find them easily enough. What that wench wants is beating, and I am sure that as her betrothed husband, I have—”

“Sit down, Reid,” Dunwythie said.

“Damnation, sir, she is mine! That you sent Hugh after her is bad enough. But now, when nearly three whole days have passed—”

“I said sit down, sir,” Dunwythie snapped. “I can think of only one reason for Jenny to run from her betrothal feast—that
you
did something to upset her.”

“
I
? I did nowt, and well do you know it! I left the table before she did!”

“He was pawing at her throughout the feast, my lord,” Fiona said with a grimace. “Poor Jenny kept twitching to keep away from
him. Indeed, one time—”

“Fiona, I warned you,” Phaeline said angrily. “Leave the table at once, and without another word!”

“One moment,” Dunwythie said as Fiona got up. “What did you see, lass?”

“I think she pinched him, sir. At all events, he snatched his hand from under the table and looked as if he wanted to murder
her. Mairi and I both saw it.”

“Sakes,” Reid said, rolling his eyes. “A man has every right to touch his betrothed. And I’d say she has a duty to allow it.
In any event, I shall certainly go after her. She deserves—”

“We will not discuss here what she deserves, sir,” Dunwythie said. “Nor will you leave this house unless you want to incur
my strongest displeasure. You asked for my reasons, so I will tell you that you are too hot-tempered. I cannot trust you to
avoid scandal. By my troth, I cannot trust you not to
create
one.”

“If there is to be scandal, my lord, it will be of Jenny’s making.”

“We will not discuss blame here, either,” Dunwythie said. “I have said all I mean to say. But as you seem unwilling to hear
my words, I shall send an order to the stables that you are not to take out any horse until Jenny returns.”

“You cannot do that!”

Dunwythie met Reid’s angry gaze with his own cool, steady one.

“Oh, very well, of course you can,” Reid snapped. “But you cannot mean what you say, sir. Sakes, what would the stable lads
think?”

Silence.

“My lord, please,” Phaeline said. “You are upsetting me, and I fear—”

“I am sorry for your upset, my lady. Mayhap you would do better to go upstairs and rest, because I do not mean to let this…
your brother… raise a riot and rumpus that could spread who kens how far? He will give me his word that he will not leave
Annan House, or I
will
send that order to the stables.”

She looked at Reid. “Please, laddie?”

“Oh, very well,” he said, sitting down again. “You have my word.”

Fiona, still standing at her place, said sweetly to him, “How wise of you. But one cannot help wondering if, having given
your word, you will keep it.”

“Fiona!”

“Aye, madam, I’m going,” Fiona said, demurely making her curtsy.

“Where be ye a-going, lass?”

Jenny turned to find wee Gilly behind her. “Faith, how do you walk so quietly, and with bells on your cap?” she asked him.
“Things crackle under my feet with every step I take.”

The little man chuckled. “When ye look as I do, it be safer to walk softly lest ye wake a tiger sleeping under a bush. Sithee,
Gawkus isna the only man who has hung me by me coat from a tree branch after I’ve angered him.”

“I didn’t know that anyone had done such a thing to you. How dreadful!”

“Aye, ’tis aggravating, to be sure. But ye shouldna be out and about on your ownsome, Mistress Jenny.”

“Just Jenny, sir. I’m nobbut plain Jenny.”

“Aye, well, dinna be calling me ‘sir,’ then. Ye’ll have all them others a-doing it and making mock o’ me when they do. I be
Gilly to me friends. But still ye should turn back, Jenny, or find some o’ the other lasses to walk wi’ ye.”

She sighed. “Cath was with me, but she went back. ’Tis such a fine day, I thought I’d walk until I could see the town and
mayhap go in and have a look at it.”

“Nay, then, ye mustna do that,” he said. “Sure, and I’ve me doots that ye’d do such a thing at home, either, wherever your
home may be.”

“I expect you are right,” she admitted. “I’ve not spent time near any town or roamed such streets alone. And Dumfries is large.”

“Not as large as Edinburgh or Glasgow, though Dumfries be a royal burgh, too,” he said. “Still, ’tis a fair-sized place, withal.
We could find Gawkus and ask him does he want to go into town with us.”

“Are you not sufficient protection for me? I warrant you can handle a dirk as deftly as Gawkus does.”

His eyes twinkled. “I can, and all, but walking alone wi’ me would only add to your woes. ’Twould doubtless bring trouble
down on both of us.”

A thought occurred to her. “Could you teach
me
to throw a dirk, Gilly?”

“If your eye be as fine as your voice, I can,” he said.

“How can we find out if it is?”

He looked around, then pointed and said with a grin, “See that tree yonder?”

As she nodded, a dagger flew from his other hand, striking the trunk of the tree about five feet above the ground.

“I’ll fetch it,” she said.

“Nae need,” he said, flipping a second one so that he held it by the blade with its hilt toward her. “Take hold o’ that and
get a feel of it. Dinna cut yourself.”

Having watched the Joculator juggle six daggers at once, she had thought they must be light. But the one Gilly handed her
had weight to it.

As she hefted it, another appeared in the little man’s hand.

“Faith, how many do you carry?”

He laid a finger beside his nose, saying, “Nay, now, that would be telling. Now, hold the dirk on your finger with the blade
toward ye, so, till it balances. That’s it. Now, hold it there wi’ your finger and thumb, step forward so, and fix your eyes
on yon dirk stuck in the tree. Dinna take your eyes from it as ye bring your hand back and then forward, so. Look right down
your arm to your thumb and the end o’ the dirk’s handle, then to the tree. Aye, that’s it,” he said approvingly.

“It feels awkward,” she said.

“Aye, it will for a time. Now, do that all again and let fly, so.” He threw his, and it stuck beside the first one.

Hers missed the tree.

Disappointed, she said, “Clearly, I lack the eye.”

Gilly chuckled. “Nay, then, ye were off by only a foot. The first time I flung one, it stopped flying halfway to the tree.
Ye’ll do, but ye shifted your gaze to watch the dagger as ye let it fly. Dinna take your eyes off your target.”

Three throws later, her dagger hit the tree a few feet below his with a thunk that thrilled her to the bone. “I did it!” she
cried.

“Aye, ye did, but ye’ll need much more practice afore ye’ll hit it every time. And, mind now, ye canna practice in camp, nor
yet anywhere too nearby, lest ye unintentionally put an end to some unfortunate soul.”

“Intentionally is all right?”

He chuckled again. “Throw again, mistress.”

She looked at him.

“Throw it again, Jenny.”

With a smile, she did, and it hit the tree again… barely… catching in the bark on one side, evidently without adequate force
to dislodge the bark altogether.

“Good enough,” he said, unbuckling the sheath he wore strapped to one thigh. “Fix this belt round your waist,” he said. “It
should be loose enough so the sheath can slip betwixt folds o’ your skirt. Other lasses do as much wi’ their eating knives,
so it should cause nae great stir. But dinna try to defend yourself with it, because any man wi’ the slightest training will
be able to take it from ye.”