Page 26 of Keepers of the Highland Crown
Chapter 13
“Callum, how is it the Benefactor sends his regards to us?”
“Perhaps Sir Brayden may provide the answer to this with those he tracked,” Callum replied, eyeing her a moment. “I know the purpose you inquired about the Benefactor’s regardsfirst. You seek to turn my attention elsewhere. Nella, what were you considering?” Callum’s tone weighed by anger rang her ears while they bolted through the keep, for the garderobes and Sir Brayden. “The enemy could have charged back toward you instead of taking leave through the iron-barred door in there.” Her knight thrust his arm at the passage behind them where they had come from the kitchens. “You swore to me!”
“I nodded.” She raised her chin. “I never spoke any sort of promise.”Flimsy at best.
Both his hands flew up by frustration. “Oh, well, there is logic. How may I keep you safe if you do not mind what I say?”
Her eyes narrowed while they separated when a chamberlain walked between them holding candlesticks. “Whenever a choice presents, I am going to keep Abbot and Abbess safe first, not me. And mind what you say? Am I a hound to fetch what is required for my lord? Shall I seek scraps from your hand or—”
Callum pointed at her. “This you shall not turn around upon me.Twice, I have sought for you to step away from chanceand yet twice you charge both feet in with a leap toward danger. How is it you are so rash?”
“I happen to recall a time long ago you rather cared for my ‘rash’ tendencies, Callum.”
“Nella, you are trying—”
“Callum!” Sir Brayden’s yell broke the battle in wills when he appeared around the far corner.
“Nella, we shall speak more upon this matter later.”
No, they wouldn’t! “Woof,” she retorted, his step half tripped at her brash reply.
“My lady and Callum,” Brayden panted, reaching them, “they have vanished!”
“Vanished?” both of them said at once.
“Aye.” Brayden shot his shoulders up. “Lord Kolson and the pair of slayers were not at the garderobes. I have searched the passageways lining the area. Gone, the lot of them.”
“Lady Fawnella,” a stern voice sounded behind her. She turned, finding a thick-necked warrior she had seen with Alaina’s husband, the laird. “You are to come with me, at once.”
Callum stepped nose to nose with the warrior’s bearded face. “My lady shall not journey one step with you.”
“You are the lady’s guardsman from the kitchens?”
“Aye.”
A brown-toothed grin appeared. “The laird cares to speak with you as well.”
Oh, hell no. Lady Alaina’s husband.
***
“Months!” Nella heard the laird roar at Callum and Brayden in the solar. “Months in planning for a joyous feast with nae clan feuds nor battles and less than one eve here I have been told by my servants that you” – he jabbed his finger onto Callum’s torso. Not a smart move if the laird meant to keep the finger – “Callum Scott of Clan Scott have charged the passagewaysarmed with a bow appearing prepared to kill those within my keep. My keep!” The laird’s round face turned part crimson shade with a vein popping up on his temple looking the same as a red grouse.Wretched laird.That was the same look he threw at Alaina a year past when her friend had dared speak about the warriors she had thought best to guard the drawbridge.
The Laird turned his attentions at her as she stood beside Callum. “What manner are these guardsmen, Lady Fawnella?”Ten more times the character than you, wretch.“If not for your efforts regarding my lad’s survival the day from drowning, you and your guardsmen would be in my keep’s dungeon!” He raised his palm at her. Was he going to poke his finger on her shoulder too?
The laird gasped, when he descended his finger at her, after Callum’s hand shot up in a blink to grab the laird’s toadstool-like wrist. The warrior with no neck stepped forth while Callum stepped before her.
“You dare to touch her or threaten her once more there shall be a consequence of the grandest measure you have never seen before,” Callum snarled. “Step your guards from this chamber, at once. The matter I have to discuss with you forthwith shall be for your ears alone.”
The laird gave a low-pitched cackle same as a red grouse. “Ohhhh, laddie, you dare to dictate how I treat a lady or my guards?”
“If what I have witnessed before me this moment shows any inkling about how you treat a lady you are ill at best. Your guards? If you fail to step them back in your next breath, your hand will never point at another again.” Nella saw Callum’s shoulder move; the laird’s features went from crimson to blanched in a blink.
“S… step to the passageway,” the laird demanded his guards with a speckle from spit landing his beard at sputtering the words. Why had the laird suddenly changed his demands?
No neck began to approach. “My lord…”
