Page 5 of Kidnapped by a Rogue
“What does George have against me?” he asked.
“I doubt even he knows, but there’s no changing his mind.”
Finn sensed she was not telling him all she knew, but George was an easy man to offend, so it could be anything. Most likely, George wanted some woman who had gone to bed with Finn instead.
“George would not harm ye while his father lived,” Mary said. “But now that he’s chieftain, he can do what he wants. No one will dare cross him.”
“Except his mother,” Finn said with a wink.
“I’ve given up on my son and his children, except for John,” Mary said in a choked voice. “There’s still hope for John.”
There was once. The two other boys had held Finn down while Barbara murdered his pup. When John found them, he tried to stop Barbara, but he was too late.
“His father mistakes John’s decency for weakness.” Tears glistened in her eyes.
Finn nodded, though he feared that John had been trying to win his father’s approval for so long that the good man he might have become was lost.
Despite Mary’s dire warning that his life was in danger, Finn slept like the dead until she returned to wake him in the middle of the night.
The old woman led him down a back staircase and into a small chamber, where she opened a secret door disguised as a panel. It opened onto a dank tunnel.
“This comes out in a cave above the shore on the next inlet,” she said. “My nephew is at Old Wick Castle now. He’ll give ye a horse.”
Her nephew, Sutherland of Duffus, had several castles. Luckily, Old Wick was just a couple of miles down the coast.
“Take care of yourself, Finlay,” she said, rising on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Though ye may fool others, and even yourself, I know ye have a good heart and an honorable soul.”
He had no notion why she thought that.
“You’ll return to the Gordons?” she asked.
“Aye,” he said, though he was not at all certain his father’s clan would take him back. Even if they did, the Gordons would not trust him after he’d fought for an enemy clan.
Finn had no notion what they would require him to do to prove his loyalty, but it was bound to be painful.
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Mary felt her age as she watched Finlay disappear into the darkness. She closed the secret door and rested her head against it, lost in her memories. Perhaps she should have told him what she knew. She was old and tired and may not have the chance again.
But what good could come of it?
Nay, ’twas best he never know.
CHAPTER 2
“Come, Lady Margaret,” the farmer said when she handed him two pennies for the apples, “I’ve told ye time and again ye mustn’t pay the first price I ask.”
“Why should I bargain when ye always give me a fair price?” she asked with a smile.
“Because others will take advantage of your good nature.” He thrust one of the pennies back into her hand and shook his head in exasperation.
They had this same exchange every week on market day. The man was widowed with five children to support, and yet he would not take an extra penny from her. As soon as the farmer turned to argue with his next customer, Margaret slipped a silver coin to his daughter, as she also did every week.
“Hello, Brian,” she called out to a rail-thin lad of about twelve as she approached the last stall.
The boy’s eyes lit up when he saw her—probably because no one else would buy the pathetic dolls his mother made from rags. Margaret bought one every market day, even though by now her nieces and every servant’s child in Blackadder Castle had at least two.
“You’re visiting Old Thomas?” Brian asked.
