Realizing that his captor was not going to let him go, the boy started to cry. “I only did it to feed me family, mister. A man paid me a half crown to steal it from yer lady,” he sobbed, tears carving tracks through the grime on his face.
“What? Ye mean to say someone bribed ye?” Edan demanded, exchanging a glance with a stunned Olivia. “Who was it? Tell me!”
“I dinnae ken who he was,” the boy replied, his voice shaking. “He had on a big cloak with a hood. I couldnae see his face.”
“Are ye sure about that?” Edan demanded, giving the lad a shake.
“Aye, aye, I just took the money,” the little thief cried. “I needed it to buy food for me braithers and sisters.”
“Och, the poor lad,” Olivia murmured, feeling sorry for the boy. “He’s awfully young!”
“All right, lad,” Edan said, letting go of the boy’s collar.
“Here, missus. I’m sorry I stole from ye. Here’s the money back,” the child sniveled, thrusting the coin purse at Olivia.
She stepped back, refusing to take it.
Edan folded his large hand over the ragamuffin’s small one. “Keep it, lad,” he told him, pushing it gently towards him. “Go and buy some food for yer family.”
The boy’s eyes widened with surprise, not to say shock. He stared between Edan and Olivia in disbelief. “Do ye mean it, mister?”
“Aye, go on. But dinnae steal again,” Edan warned.
“Thanks, mister, missus,” the lad said, his grimy little face splitting into a wide grin, tucking the coin purse into the folds of his rags.
Olivia, thinking quickly, put her hand on Edan’s arm and pulled him down so she could whisper in his ear. “That money will only last so long. Why do ye nae find him a job at the castle? That way, he’ll be earnin’ money to support his family and stay out of trouble.”
The boy must have heard, because he looked up at them hopefully.
Edan thought for a moment, then he ruffled the lad’s hair. “Would ye like a job?” he asked.
“Och, aye, mister! That would be grand. And like the lady said, I wouldnae have to steal at all. Me maither would be so happy!” The boy looked genuinely delighted and amazed.
“All right. Come and see me at the castle tomorrow mornin’. I’ll see what I can do,” Edan told him. “What’s ye name, and how old are ye?”
“Me name’s Bobby Minto, and I’m eleven. Thanks, mister! Who shall I ask for?” the little ragamuffin asked, his face alight with excitement.
Olivia smiled at his joy.
“Just ask for the Laird,” Edan told him. Then, hoisting the packages and taking Olivia’s arm, he walked off.
Olivia hurried along, her heart glowing with pride at her husband’s generosity. She glanced back over her shoulder at Bobby and chuckled to see him gaping after them.
“Ye’ve made his year,” she said, beaming up at her husband, deeply touched and impressed by his actions. “And his family’s as well. That was so kind of ye, Edan.”
“I cannae take all the credit. It was yer idea to give the lad a job,” he told her.
“But ye agreed, and ye have the power to do it.”
She could not help being pleased that he had acted on her suggestion. It seemed their second outing was going far better than she could have hoped for.
Every time his wife smiled at him, Edan felt the walls around his heart crumbling bit by bit, and it frightened him. He knew what she had done for him back in the marketplace, deliberately showing his people that his scars did not make him an ogre but a man a rare woman like her held in high affection.
It had been as extraordinary to witness as it was unexpected. She was not at all intimidated by his scars, which was unfortunate. He had imagined they would keep her at bay.
He was totally unused to the elation that filled him by just having her walk alongside him, hanging onto his arm, beaming up at him with affection and admiration in her eyes—a proper, loving wife. He kept glancing at her covertly as she tripped along, powerless to stop marveling at how fresh-faced and lovely she was. Her sweet face rose out of her fur collar like a flower in the sunshine, with the cold putting roses in her cheeks and painting the tip of her nose scarlet.
It shook him to realize that although theirs was an arranged marriage, he had somehow gotten a wife who was not only strikingly beautiful but also clever and compassionate. She was a perfect wife for a laird. But for him, she spelled disaster.
