“Can I help ye?”
With a startled yelp, Elise spun around. Phillip MacClelland was standing in the doorway, a stack of papers clasped to his chest.
Elise pressed a hand against her thumping heart. “Jeez! You made me jump!”
“My apologies,” he replied smoothly. “But I didnae expect to find ye in here.” His gaze roved over the room as thoughchecking she hadn’t knocked anything out of place. A faint frown on his forehead showed he wasn’t best pleased by her intrusion.
“Sorry,” she said with a shrug. “The door was unlocked.”
“So it was.” He smiled at her, perhaps trying to put her at ease, but the smile seemed brittle. “How can I help ye?”
“Jamie said I should talk to you about the information I need.”
“Oh? And what information would that be?”
“I’m looking into these pirate attacks. I need to know when they started, where they’ve taken place, any eyewitness accounts of what happened.” She shrugged and gave a rueful smile. “Anything you have actually, because to be honest, I haven’t got a clue where to start.”
Philip sighed and nodded. “Aye. Well. Ye aren’t the only one. I’ll dig out everything I can find and have it brought to yer room. Would that suffice?”
“It would. Thanks.”
Silence fell, and Elise found her gaze returning to the bowl of water on his desk. Following her gaze, Phillip noticed her interest and waved a dismissive hand. “Would ye look at that? The maids have forgotten to clear away my washing bowl again. My own fault for hiding down here I suppose. Now, was there anything else?”
“Um. No. Thanks for your help.”
He bowed stiffly. “Ye are welcome, spellweaver.”
Elise left the room. As she walked back through the winding corridors of the castle, her thoughts flittered like butterfly wings. She felt a strange disquiet, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Her spellweaver instincts tingled, warning her that something wasn’t quite right. It rubbed against her senses like a discordant note in an orchestra. Yet for the life of her, she couldn’t pin down what it was.
She found herself drifting back towards the great hall. Inside, she found Andrea sitting at a table polishing a set of pewter goblets.
“Did ye find Phillip?”
“I did,” Elise answered, taking a seat on the bench opposite Andrea, chewing her lip.
The older woman stopped her cleaning and put down her rag. “Oh dear. That’s a pensive look if ever I saw one. Is there something I can help with?”
Elise blinked and looked up. “What? Oh, no. Although…” She straightened as her thoughts crystallized a little. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. “Can I ask you something?”
Andrea cocked her head and smiled. “Of course.”
“What do you think of this marriage proposal between Jamie and the king’s niece?”
Andrea picked up the rag and began wiping at one of the goblets again. “It isnae my place to comment on such things. It is the laird’s business, not mine.”
Elise laid her hand over the older woman’s, stopping the movement of the rag. Almost reluctantly, Andrea looked up and met Elise’s gaze. “But I want to know whatyouthink. And I need an honest answer, Andrea. I promise whatever you say will go no further.”
Andrea’s nostrils flared, and a quick expression of anger flashed across her features. “I dinna think he should do it,” she said, her voice laced with the same anger Elise saw in her eyes. “The freedom of the Kingdom of the Isles was hard-won. Our ancestors shed their blood and gave their lives so that we might be free. It would be a betrayal to trade that away.”
“What do you mean trade it away?”
Andrea glanced around to make sure they were alone. “Nobody says it aloud, but we all know what the laird’s marriagewould mean. Should he marry the king’s niece, we would become a vassal of the Crown, free in name only. After that, how long would it be before the king’s troops are stationed here for our ‘protection’? How long before we pay taxes to the Crown? How long before we are beholden to the king’s laws? How long before we are swallowed entirely to become naught but an unimportant backwater of a larger kingdom?”
Elise blinked, taken aback. She was reminded of how little she knew of this place, this time, these people. She hadn’t even considered the political ramifications that a union with Scotland would engender. Oh yes, she was out of her depth all right. How was she even to begin to pick her way through all of this?
“But wouldn’t it be worth it to be safe?” she pressed. “The king would send his ships and rid you of these pirates. Isn’t that worth the trade-off?”
Andrea didn’t reply for a moment. Then she shook her head and gave an exasperated sigh. “Aye. Mayhap it would. I dinna know. Like I said, these matters are beyond me. Such things are for the laird and his advisors to decide.”
