Page 26
One week later…
Craig looked at the view of the River Lochy and Loch Linnhe and the lands beyond, from the parapet of the northern wall. He breathed the chilly air in deeply and breathed out a cloud of steam.
“Anythin’ troubling ye?” asked Owen, standing at Craig’s side.
Craig cocked his head. “I’m in trouble, man.”
“Oh, the almighty Craig Cambel is in trouble?” Owen chuckled.
Craig threw him a sideways glance. “Aye. I am. I’ve never run a household, least of all a castle. And ’tis bloody obvious.”
Owen cocked an eyebrow. “If ye refer to the campfires in the courtyard and men grilling their own game, aye, I’d say ’tis nae very traditional for a grand castle. But I havna heard anyone complain.”
“They wouldna complain. But they wouldna do anything about it, either. The problem runs deeper, Owen. Bruce’s army took a lot of the supplies when they left, which is understandable. But what we have won’t last us through the winter. I have about a hundred men. All of them warriors, none servants. We dinna have a cook, no boys to carry water from the well, no one to bake bread, cut vegetables, and make cheese.”
“Aye, well, ye ken they aren’t used to having a cook. They’re happy to get out every day to hunt and fish.”
“But everyone needs to cook for themselves. Time for training is wasted, and the courtyard is littered with campfires. ’Tis simply unsafe. Especially if the enemy arrives suddenly.”
Owen shrugged. “I suppose. Ye’re still a good constable.”
“Supervising the patrols and the men-at-arms, training, and planning the defense in case of a siege, aye, mayhap. But the household suffers. No one cleans, washes, or mends clothes. Besides, we need carpenters, masons, and simple manpower to repair the damages from Bruce’s catapult.”
“But ye dinna want a local mason.”
“No. Ye ken my position about the locals.”
Owen shrugged as if to say, Then what do you expect?
Well, aye. Then he also shouldn’t mention there was the matter of the stables. He needed a blacksmith to make horseshoes and mend the weapons, as well as farriers and stable boys to take care of the horses and clean the stables.
“Maybe letting go of all the servants wasna such a great idea,” Owen said.
“I need people I can trust. I sent a messenger back home to hire people from Cambel lands.”
“It’ll take weeks until he’ll find people and bring them back. Maybe even months with the winter coming.”
“Aye. And I need someone now. Someone to organize the men into cooks and cleaners and oversee them while I’m busy training warriors. And someone to coordinate the watch as well as the cleaning and maintenance of the weapons.”
He looked to his left and saw Amy MacDougall walk up onto the parapet, and Hamish with her—her guard today. She nodded to Craig and stood by the tower, looking at the view.
She was dressed now in a lady’s attire, probably tired of her hunting clothes. And watching her now, with her hair spilling over her gray woolen cloak, her cheeks and nose rosy from the chill, she took his breath away.
He’d moved her to the only private bedchamber—the lord’s bedchamber in the Comyn Tower—and he slept downstairs in the lord’s private quarters, along with Owen and other Cambels. Craig was used to the simple life of a warrior—sleeping on the ground while on the road with his father and his uncles. At home he shared a bedchamber with his brothers. But he could imagine Amy, the only woman in the castle, needed some privacy.
For the last week, he’d been catching himself staring at her, glancing around the castle, hoping she’d walk nearby or want to ask him something. Even demand something from him, protest against her guards. But she barely spoke to him unless spoken to. And he hated to see Hamish near her, bringing her an apple or an oatcake.
No, he wasn’t jealous. There was nothing to be jealous about.
“Ye want someone to run the household,” Owen said. “There she is.”
Craig stiffened.
“Ye can marry her,” Owen said. “’Tis what Bruce asked of ye, innit?”
Marry her—again, the thought that had tormented Craig.
“It would break the MacDougall and Ross alliance,” Owen insisted, “which would weaken Bruce’s enemies but also be revenge against the MacDougalls from us Cambels.”
