The MacNaughton Bride (17 page)

Chapter
9

He got up and got dressed
quickly, hoping to find her downstairs at breakfast, or at least somewhere in
the house so that he could try to arrange his day so that they spent at least
some of it together.
 
He would move
or put off anything that he could if he could just spend some time with her,
hopefully showing her that he wasn’t as bad a man as she no doubt thought he
was.

She wasn’t anywhere to be
found.
 
He searched the house from
bottom to top – and stopped for a moment in the attic to glance over all
the furniture there.
 
That was his
surprise for her for today – if she wanted to redecorate, or change
things, or take some things for her office, then she could use anything of what
was up there.
 
He just had to find
her to give her the surprise.

He checked around the
courtyard and asked some servants, who said she had headed out of the house
early in the morning.
 
Figuring
that she
 
might have had some early
patients, he returned to the house and ate his usual hearty breakfast, intent
on visiting her to see exactly what it was that had the people around him so
enamored of her.
 
He couldn’t go
two feet in town without someone singing her praises to him – it had been
annoying before he’d know the truth about her.
 
Now it made his heart swell – with guilt.
 
She was doing more for them than he
was, and he hadn’t appreciated it.

Until now.
 
With a set face, he put down his napkin
and stalked out the door, only to catch his wife as she climbed down out of the
loft in the stables.
 
What in
bloody hell was she doing?
 
Was she
meeting a lover up there?
 
Was she
cuckolding him under his nose in his own stable?

The accusations filled his
mind before he had a chance to stop them, and he knew they were wrong as soon
as he thought them.
 
She wasn’t
that type of person.
 
He knew it
now.
 
She wasn’t.
 
Kell
did his
best to keep the accusation out of his voice.
 
“What were you doing?”

She looked very nervous.
 
Unusually so for her, especially for a
woman who had braved his wrath with out so much as turning a hair.
 
She fidgeted, and sidled away from him,
as if trying to diver his attention away from the ladder.
 
“Nothing.”
 
Aislinn
almost rolled her eyes at
herself.
 
How could she possibly
look or sounded any guiltier?

Kell
sighed.
 
He wasn’t going to trust
her on this. He knew it.
 
He just
had to see what – or who – was in that loft, especially since he
could hear something rustling around in the hay.

As he climbed the ladder,
Aislinn
nearly bit her lip off, and tried not to think
about ways to stop him.
 
She wanted
to jump on his back and pull him down, but she knew she didn’t have the
strength.
 

When he got to the top of
the ladder,
Kell
saw what had been making the
sound.
 
It was a young woman
– one he didn’t recognize.
 
She wasn’t someone from the town or even any off the offspring of the
house servants.
 
He knew everyone
around.
 
Moving closer to her, his
hand outstretched as she shrunk back, he was entirely lost until she pulled her
hair away from her face.

It was
Aislinn
.
 
She looked just like
Aislinn
.

His wife was busy sneaking
up the ladder behind him, then skirting around him to go to her sister, who was
visibly frightened at this hulking, if unintentionally threatening man.
 
Keeping his voice very soft so as not
to scare the girl further,
Kell
nonetheless never
took his eyes off her, “Who is this,
Aislinn
?”

Aislinn
hugged the other woman tightly, staring at him as if she expected him to attack
them or otherwise hurt them.
 
Swallowing hard, she answered, “She’s my sister.”

Kell
sighed, running his hand over his face and up into his hair.
 
“I want to hear all about this when we
get back to the house.
 
But first I
want to take her back there and get her cleaned up.”
 
He watched as she did some sort of organized movements with
her hands, and then the girl did the same thing back at her.

“She’s not sure she wants
to go with you.”

His eyebrow rose.
 
“She told you that?”

“Yes,”
Aislinn
answered indignantly.
 
“With her
hands.
 
That’s how we talk.”

He looked extremely
doubtful, but didn’t say anything more.
 
Apparently, the girl wasn’t in her right mind, and although he wasn’t
sure that she belonged in the house or could be trusted to behave herself there,
he wanted
Aislinn
to know that he wouldn’t shy away
from doing whatever was necessary to take care of her sister.

Hours later, they were all
in the salon – all of the brothers,
Aislinn
,
and her sister, as well as Jenny, who corroborated
Aislinn’s
story about the need to hide her sister.
 
Kell
was appalled at the idea, and he quickly
explained that there was no longer a need for
Adelle
to live in the stables.
 
She would
be given her choice of rooms – hopefully close to her sister – and
everyone who would be close to her would need to learn the sign language that
she and
Aislinn
used.
 
Furthermore, he stated that
Adelle
would be given every possible privilege, and was to be treated with the utmost
respect.
 

Aislinn
couldn’t believe her ears.
 
She had
been almost single handedly been taking care of her sister for so long, keeping
her away from prying, rude eyes and pitying looks, that this turn of events
seemed like she must be in a dream.
 
To not have to hide her away, to pretend she didn’t exist . . . it was a
miracle, and she couldn’t believer her eyes or her ears that her husband was
being so wonderful about it.

Kell
couldn’t believe that she had felt that she needed to keep her sister’s
existence a secret from him, although, after hearing her story he supposed he
understood it a little.
 
If he had
been in her place, he probably would have done the same thing with either of
his brothers.
 
But he was glad to
take that burden off her slim shoulders.

“So she’s been living in
the stables all this time?” he asked, still not quite believing that someone
had managed to stow away on his estate and he’d had no idea she was there.
 

“You can talk to
Adelle
, Milord.
 
I’ll translate for you,”
Aislinn
offered.
 
She was anxious that he like her
sister, for some reason.
 
It really
didn’t matter – he’d been generous to a fault as far as she was concerned
that he hadn’t once mentioned putting her into some sort of asylum, as she’d
known so many men – and women – would have wanted to.
 
That was why she’d kept
Adelle
to herself as much as possible.
 

“Well, it’s you I really
want to question, more so than her.
 
She just seems to have been dragged along by you.
 
You’re the one who kept her in the
stables instead of introducing her to me, right?”

Aislinn
didn’t like his tone or his accusatory words.
 
“I did what I felt was necessary.
 
I had no idea you’d be as accepting of her as you are, and I
didn’t want my sister – who, by the way, is at least as intelligent as I
am if not more so – ending up in some filthy asylum.
 
She’s not crazy or retarded; she’s just
deaf and mute.
 
But she can
communicate, if you’ll just take the time to learn the signs we use.”

“I’ll go further than
that,”
Kell
said, walking over to
Adelle
,
who although she shrunk a little, stood her ground against the giant.
 
“It’s very nice to meet you,
Adelle
,”
Kell
executed a courtly
bow, to which
Adelle
responded with a beautiful
curtsey. He could see her look to her sister for a translation of what he had
said, but she looked at him as her hands and fingers flew in response.

“She says she’s very happy
to meet, you too, Milord,”
Aislinn
repeated for her
sister.

“As I said,”
Kell
continued, patting
Adelle’s
arm awkwardly then turning back to the collected audience, “I shall make it
mandatory for anyone who works in the house to learn
Adelle’s
language, so that she’ll never have any problem making herself known if
Aislinn
isn’t available.
 
Furthermore, I’ll have someone sent from Edinburgh to help
teach
Adelle
how to read lips, then she’ll be able to
understand anyone she meets.”

“Read lips?”
Aislinn
had always wanted
Adelle
to have that skill, but she’d never trusted anyone enough to find a
teacher.
 

“Yes.
 
How much schooling has
Adelle
had?”
 
He was asking very intelligent, practical questions, but
Aislinn
was having a bit of a hard time dealing with them
just the same.
 
All of the
decisions regarding her sister had been made by her alone, from a very early
age.
 
And here he was, trying to
take over, not even consulting her about what she thought should be done.

But he was being incredibly
wonderful.
 
“She’s gotten the same
schooling as I have. I used to teach her anything I learned once I’d mastered
it.”

Kell
nodded.
 
“Good.
 
Then there’s no need to hire a tutor,
also.”
 
He turned to his wife.
 
“Find a suitable room for her, near us,
I would think, and have it aired out.”
 
He extended his hand to her and guided her up the stairs.
 
“I was going to show you this today
anyway, but you can use it even more now.”
 
He helped her up a somewhat rickety set of steep, narrow
stairs up to the attic of the huge house.
 
Aislinn
couldn’t believe her eyes.
 
It looked like a furniture store.
 
There were settees and chairs and desks
and books and bookcases and vanities and bedroom furniture . . . several whole
houses could be outfitted from top to bottom just from this room.
 
“Feel free to use anything you’d like
from here – decide what you want and have the servants clean it up for
you.
 
If there’s something you find
you want that you don’t see here, come get me, and we’ll think about a trip to
the city.”

Aislinn
felt like he’d just given her the keys to the kingdom.
 
She loved to decorate and arrange
things, and she was having a hard time containing her glee at being given such
a generous gift.
 
And she might
even get to do a little traveling and see Edinburgh, which she would also enjoy
doing . . . despite the fact that she thought he was probably going to insist
on accompanying her.

Within the next few days,
Adelle
had settled into a beautiful room just a couple of
doors down from the room that
Aislinn
was being
forced to share with her husband, and was blossoming under all the attention
she was receiving.
 
Everyone seemed
to love her as much as they loved her sister.
 

Aislinn
had, of course, broached the idea with her stubborn husband that married
couples didn’t generally sleep in the same rooms – that she needed her
space for her own things, and he would, naturally, need his own room for his
own possessions.
 
The problem was
that that line of reasoning didn’t really work with either of them – at
least at this point.
 
Kell
didn’t much care what he wore – beyond the fact
that there were certain functions at which he had to appear in full Highland
gear.
 
Other than that, when he was
just working about his lands, he had several kilts and shirts that were
interchangeable, and that was perfectly fine with him – he had less than
no interest in owning anything more than that for any reason whatsoever.