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Murine paused at the bed and tossed the bit of cloth next to the sacks Acair had set there and then opened the first bag, the cloth soon forgotten. It didn't really matter whose it was. It wasn't like she could sew it back in place. With the pleats they put in the cloth to don it, they probably hadn't even noticed the piece missing.
As she had guessed, there were several gowns crammed into each sack. It meant that each one was a mess of wrinkles as Murine pulled them out. She tugged all the gowns out of each bag, then examined them quickly before choosing the least wrinkled one, which was still terribly wrinkled. But there was nothing she could do about that, so Murine simply tugged off her nightgown and donned the dark blue gown that was the best of the lot. She then carried the others over to the window and hung them from the shutters, hoping the damp air would help remove the worst of the wrinkles in them.
Leaving the room then, Murine moved to the top of the stairs and glanced around the room below. It appeared Acair had managed to calm his nephews. At least they weren't rolling around on the floor below anymore. Actually, they weren't even there. The room was completely empty.
No doubt they were outside, unloading the supplies Acair had mentioned, Murine supposed, and grasped the railing to start down the stairs. She'd only managed the first step when the door burst open and Dougall entered. His brothers, uncle and the other man who had brought the supplies followed him in. Each of them was carrying a crate, a sack or a barrel, and Murine paused, her eyes going wide. Good Lord, how long did they think to be here? she wondered and started to step down to the next step, but froze when Dougall spotted her and barked, "Stop."
Still carrying the chest he had perched on his shoulder, Dougall jogged up the steps and urged her back onto the landing. He then led her back into the bedchamber.
"There are more gowns in here fer ye to choose from," he announced as he set the chest at the foot of the bed.
"Oh," Murine moved toward the chest, thinking he wanted her to go through them now, but he caught her arm to halt her when she moved toward it.
"Ye can look at them later," he announced, ushering her back out to the landing.
She peered at him with a combination of irritation and confusion. "Then why did ye stop me from going below?"
Dougall scooped her up into his arms, careful to avoid her injury, then started down the stairs with her, saying, "Because ye were wavering like a candle flame in a breeze. Ye're still too weak fer managing stairs. I'll no' ha'e ye toppling down them and breaking yer neck."
Murine merely grimaced, aware that she had been shaky on her legs as she'd started down the stairs. It was really a bit of a relief that she hadn't had to manage them on her own, she thought as Dougall carried her to the table and set her on the end of one of the benches there.
"Here ye go, lass," Acair said gruffly, setting a mug on the table before her almost before Dougall had finished setting her down. "Drink up. 'Tis cider. 'Twill build yer humors."
"Here, Murine, ye should ha'e soup too," Alick announced, setting a trencher of the steaming soup before her. "This'll help build yer strength as well."
"And mayhap some cheese," Conran announced, cutting some off a large round he pulled from a sack.
"And bread," Geordie added, slamming down a loaf beside her and digging out his knife.
"An apple." Niels set it in front of her soup.
"And if ye eat all that, ye can have one o' Cook's pasties," Dougall announced, settling on the bench beside her to dig through a sack he'd retrieved. He withdrew another, smaller sack, from it and opened it to reveal the promised pasties.
Murine glanced at all the offerings. Her gaze then narrowed as it slid over the faces of each man. "What is amiss?"
The forced smiles each man was offering immediately slid from their faces to be replaced with grimaces, and defeated sighs as every man looked to Dougall. The silent message was that it was his place to tell her what was what.
Dougall muttered what she suspected was a curse under his breath, and then shifted unhappily in his seat and shook his head. "Ye should eat first. Then we'll talk."
"But I want to know," she protested with a frown.
He shook his head. "Upset affects yer appetite and ye need to build yer strength. Eat and then I'll explain."
"How can I eat while fretting over what ye ha'e to tell me?" she argued. "'Tis better to know what is wrong, than to worry over what might be wrong. Me worries may be ten times worse than the truth."
"Eat, Murine. Ye--"
"Yer brother arrived at Buchanan yesterday," Acair announced.
"Dammit, Uncle," Dougall snapped.
"'Tis better to tell her," Acair said with a shrug. "Ye were jest getting her upset with yer arguments."
"He's right," Murine said soothingly, patting Dougall's arm as she spoke. "Besides, this is not such upsetting news. This was to be expected. Montrose kens Saidh is a friend and does not ken she's married. Of course he would come to Buchanan in search of me." She paused and reconsidered briefly, then admitted, "Well, actually, he might ken she's married and living at MacDonnell if he's been waylaying me messages and reading them."
"Aye," Conran agreed with a frown. "I'm sure Saidh would have written ye with the grand news."
"Which means he stopped at Buchanan because he suspects us o' helping ye escape," Alick said with dismay.
"O' course, he does," Murine said calmly, picking up her spoon to dip it in her soup. "If ye hadn't, I most like would no' ha'e made it out o' England alive. He and his men would ha'e found me body on the side o' the road, a victim to bandits or other ne'er-do-wells."
"And yet ye risked fleeing Danvries anyway," Dougall said quietly. "Despite thinking ye'd die in the attempt."
Murine shrugged. "Well, I was hoping I would no' end up dead. But I suspected I probably would," she admitted. "That's why I wouldn't let me maid come with me. Me dead was one thing, but I wasn't going to be responsible for her death too." Pausing, she lowered her spoon and turned to Dougall to say. "Which reminds me, we must send for Beth the moment we're married, Dougall. The English were terrible to her at Danvries, and I'm not entirely sure my brother might not have taken his anger over me escape out on her."
"Aye," Dougall agreed on a sigh, but then added, "But that is the second part o' what we ha'e to tell ye."
"Oh?" She set her spoon down to give him her full attention.
"Conny and the boys were supposed to bring the priest back along with the supplies."
Murine glanced around at the men in the room. "I see no priest."
"The boys had to camp out in the woods surrounding Buchanan while they waited for yer brother to leave. When he did this morning, they rode in to gather the supplies and fetch the priest, but . . ." Dougall grimaced. "The priest is missing."
Her eyebrows flew up. "Missing? Are ye sure he has no' just gone to tend to someone in need? Our priest at Carmichael was often called upon to tend to the sick or dying."
"Aye, but we asked around and no one kens o' anyone in such a state," Alick argued, and then scowled and added, "'Sides, 'tis most suspicious that he disappeared just when yer brother and his men left."
"Ye think Montrose took yer priest?" she asked with surprise. "Why would he do something like that?"
"So Dougall can no' marry ye," Alick said as if that should be obvious.
Shaking her head with bewilderment, she pointed out, "But he does no' ken we were going to marry. And I doubt he would have guessed we might. He offered me to Dougall and Dougall refused."
"He did no' offer ye in marriage," Dougall said grimly, and then waved all of that away and said, "We'll sort out what happened to the priest later." Taking her hands he added apologetically, "But the fact is that while I intended we marry right away, we can no' do so without a priest."
