Page 66 of Highlander’s Haunted Past

As the pair of men turned down a new hall, Rob heard a chorus of voices and laughter behind them. He turned and saw a small alcove at the end of the hall that was filled with women.

Florence’s inner-circle, Rob understood, for he had watched these girls trail his sister like ducklings trailed their mother goose ever since they could all walk.

Rob despised these women. Though they were kind and playful with Florence, some of them had grown particularly arrogant and catty after years of close friendship with the Laird of Lovat’s daughter. Not wanting his sister’s time, wealth or favor to leave them, they had made a habit of treating other castle women with a cool distance. Even Ellen had been kept at a distance when she had arrived and, as far as Rob knew, they were yet to fully warm to her.

So, it took Rob by surprise when he saw Kenna, seated across the alcove from Florence, with two of the women braiding ribbons into her hair. They were talking animatedly with each other, their eyes all wide as they surely relayed the rumor of some scandal or another. Rob heard one of the women call Kenna’s attention to her embroidery, which she held out in front of her. Kenna cocked her head and flashed one of those teasing smirks that Rob knew would be preceding some sharp comment.

Sure enough, he watched her lips move, and then the entire alcove of women roared with laughter; the one who had held up the embroidery seemed to be laughing the loudest.

The steward followed Rob’s gaze before commenting, “Lady Kenna has settled in remarkably quick. I know it can be a difficult transition fer a bride, especially one from a different clan entirely, but she has handled it with particular grace. I am yet to hear any speak a single ill word about her. Thus far, she has proven to be a fine addition to the castle.”

Rob thought about his chambers, about the strange sensation he had felt when he comprehended that it was no longer something of his own, but something meant to be shared. It had not been an unpleasant feeling, but he had not known what to call it. Now, seeing Kenna sit with the women as if she had been doing it all her life, he finally understood what it was.

“Of course she is a fine addition,” he told the steward. “She was always meant to be here.”

* * *

Rob raised the ax and threw it down with a deep grunt, letting it land with a loud crack onto the log, splitting it cleanly into two. With a satisfied huff, he bent over and picked up the pieces, tossing them to the side to join a small pile now forming in the middle of the forest clearing. A cold wind slipped through the trees, one that should have made him shiver, but Rob felt a sense of relief as the air pulled his damp shirt away from his skin. With a satisfying stretch, Rob cast a glance to the east, down the narrow dirt path that would lead them back to Dounie.

“How many days have we been out here again?” Rob asked.

“Three,” Hugh said as he lifted a few of the split logs and hauled them to a cart. “Three bloody days of chopping wood.”

“At least we are almost done.” Rob sighed, though, now that he looked at the massive stack of logs yet to be split, he wasn’t so sure they would ever be allowed to return.

Three days ago, when Hugh had finally been found and brought to his father’s solar, they had been informed that the castle wood supply was dangerously low. With no men around to keep pace with the castle’s use during the fall, the stock had just kept dwindling. The solution his father had come up with was to send his already exhausted sons out into the woods to fell a few large trees and split them apart.

“If ye sleep out there,”he had said, “rather than come back to the castle every night and return every morning, I ken ye’ll get it done all the sooner. And it must be done all the sooner.”

And so, Rob and Hugh had packed their tents and ridden away. Hugh, at least, had been in a fairly good mood. He, after all, had found his wife. Rob, on the other hand, was more than a little resentful. If he had known he was to be banished to the woods for a few more days, he would have rushed at Kenna when he found her sitting in the alcove and stolen her away for at least a few quick kisses.

“Do ye think we will even be able to burn all of this?” Hugh asked as he arranged the logs in the already full cart, trying to find space for a couple more.

“Aye. And if the winter is long, we will likely be back out here splitting logs in the snow.”

Hugh grimaced. “I suppose that is proper motivation. Hey, I think I hear our lunch coming up the road.”

Rob paused and listened hard. Sure enough, he heard the faint sound of wheels coming up the path. Every day, three times a day, a pair of men would bring an emptied cart to the clearing, trading it for the cart that the brothers had filled. They would also bring some food—most likely scraps from whatever had been eaten in the Great Hall.

Moving as quickly as they could, Rob and Hugh worked on rearranging the cart they had, loading it with as many of the split logs as they could before the cart pulled into the clearing, led by Murtagh and Jacob, who cast them both amused and pitying looks.

“Ach, don’t give me that look, ye bloody bastards, or I’ll be sure that ‘tis yer arses out here the next time this happens,” Rob shot at them with a grin.

“Why, my Laird, such crude talk,” Murtagh said, clapping his hand to his chest. “Such a wicked thing to say before a lass.”

Rob and Hugh both looked eagerly over at Jacob and Murtagh’s cart, where, to their surprise, Ellen was riding, a covered pot in her hands. Hugh walked out to meet her, taking the pot from her and leaning in for a kiss.

Rob forced himself to look away. He always felt like an unwanted observer of his brother’s relationship. It was something about the way Ellen would look at him after expressing some love for Hugh. As if she was daring him to finally yell and curse at her for choosing Hugh over him.

“What are ye doing here?” Hugh asked her, his voice light and giddy.

Perhaps he thought Ellen was there for a quick tumble in the woods. Rob would have given an arm for a quick tumble in the woods.

“Well, I brought ye two lads some stew; ye’ll need to heat it back up over yer campfire. But I also have something I would like to discuss with ye, if we could find someplace private?” Ellen slid out of the cart and began to march her way through the clearing and into the thickness of the woods beyond.

When the couple was well out of sight, concealed by layers and layers of thick trees and brush, Jacob whistled. “Say prayers fer yer brother.”

“Ach, what are ye on about? Probably just a love tumble,” Rob said. “Ye just think every husband is in fer it because yer wife has taught ye nothing else.”