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“She is not ten,” he muttered balefully. “And if she is, she is possessed by the demon of a well-versed courtesan.Yewould not believe the things she said to me as we rode down the ben.”
“Jeannie!”her elder sister said, scandalized by the young man's words. “What have ye done? And what did ye say to James Gordon?”
“Only that when I was older I wanted to lay with him,” Jean Hay replied sweetly. “He is verra bonnie, is he not, Fi?”
‘Jean Hay, ye will remain chaste until I find a good husband for ye,” her sister said in her most severe tones.
“Oh I don't mean to be his mistress like ye will be the laird's mistress,” Jean said blandly. “I mean to marry Jamie-boy one day, Fi. I think he will make a grand husband!”
“I'd never wed a bold baggage like ye!” James Gordon declared.
“Aye, ye will,” Jean told him calmly. “When I finally get my titties grown, ye'll not be able to resist me, Jamie Gordon. Just ye wait and see.” She smiled sweetly at him.
‘Jean Hay,” the laird said sternly, “ye'll behave yerself, or I will personally paddle yer skinny little rump. I can see ye'll need to be kept busy while yer in my custody, and busy I shall see yer kept. Now, follow along after Giorsal, who will show ye yer chamber. If yer hungry tell her, and she will bring ye food.”
“Thank ye, my lord,” Jean said, not in the least put off by the scolding she had received. “Good night, Jamie darlin’,” she said, and hurried after the maidservant carrying little Morag.
Rolling his eyes to the heavens, James Gordon disappeared toward the stables, and only when both of them were out of earshot did the laird burst out laughing. “He has not a chance against her.” He chorded.
“’Tis not a bad idea either, unless, of course, in the next four years either of them falls in love with another. Would ye accept James for yer sister Jean, Fiona?”
“If he learns to love her, aye. I’ve never known Jeannie to behave so boldly,” she said apologetically.
“She knows what she wants,” he told her with a smile, leading her into the house. “Still, she will have to obey me while she lives under my roof. How old was she when yer father died?”
“Five,” Fiona said, “but she remembers little about him. Ye see, he was disappointed when I was born, but I was his first child, and he loved me in his strange way despite the fact that I was not the son he so desperately desired. I think he felt a wee bit of guilt for the manner in which I was said to have been conceived. I was born nine months to the day my parents were married. I think he always believed I was the result of his rape of my mother, and I may have well been.”
“Ye know thewholestory?” the laird asked, a trifle shocked.
“Aye,” Fiona nodded. “Flora and Tarn were my mother's personal servants since her childhood at Hay House. They hated Dugald Hay with all their hearts for what he did to my mother. Because he loved me, they made certain that I knew his sins, for they did not want me growing up estranged from my mam. But my father was not so loving of any of his other daughters. Each one was a reminder to him that unless he sired a son on my mam, he could not have the glen. We kept my sisters out of his sight as much as possible,” Fiona told the laird. “If any of them came too close to him, he was just as apt to beat them for their mere existence as for any fault they might have. He slapped Anne so hard once that she lost a tooth, but she was young and another grew in its place, praise God! Jeannie and Morag, beingthe youngest, hardly knew him at all, and are not used to men in their lives. I think ye'll take some getting used to, Angus Gordon.”
He laughed again, escorting her into the Great Hall.
A tall, austere-looking man hurried forth. “Welcome home, my lord!” His bright blue eyes fastened upon Fiona Hay. “I understand that ye have caught the thief who was pilfering yer cattle”
“Indeed I have, Aulay, and I have been offered payment in full for the cattle. The matter is closed. This is Mistress Fiona Hay. She and her sisters are now in my custody. They were all alone upon Ben Hay with only two old servants in attendance. She and her two little sisters are safer here at Brae. Her servants will arrive tomorrow. They are elderly. See they are made comfortable” He then turned to the girl by his side. “This is Aulay, my steward, Mistress Hay. He will assign a maid to ye.”
“Nelly, I would think,” the steward said, his blue eyes twinkling. “She is a young lass, too, but she has more sense, I'm thinking.”
“Indeed?” Fiona said sharply. She would not be cowed by any man, but particularly not by a servant.
“Aye,” Aulay responded calmly.
“Don't try to get the upper hand with Aulay,” the laird warned Fiona. “He's been at Brae since the day of its creation, I think, and is the real power here, are ye not, old friend?”
“If my lord says so,” the steward said with a small smile and a bow.
“Are ye hungry, lassie?” the laird asked, and Fiona nodded. “Come,” he said, leading her to the high board and seating her.
Almost at once their goblets were filled with a finered wine such as Fiona had never tasted. It had a fragrant bouquet to it, and she drank half her portion before she even realized it. Platters were set before them. One held thinly sliced salmon on a bed of greens. Another contained a fat duck, and the third a haunch of venison. A loaf of hot bread was brought, along with a small tub of sweet butter and a half wheel of hard cheese. There was a bowl of small green peas. Fiona's eyes widened. She had never seen so much food and so much variety on a table in her life. Meals at Hay Tower had always been simple. One dish, bread, a vegetable if she could find one. She ate heartily and unabashedly, taking from each platter and dish, devouring half the loaf herself, and almost half of the sweet apple tartlet that was brought to conclude the meal. She downed two cups of wine without so much as a blink.
The laird watched her with a mixture of awe and amusement. He had never seen a woman of such good appetite. “Ye enjoyed yer meal?” he asked her with droll understatement.
Fiona smiled blissfully, her green eyes narrowing, catlike. “Aye! I've never had such a feast. Do ye eat this way every day, my lord?”
He nodded, and then said, laughing, “But ye canna, sweetheart, or ye'll grow as plump as the cattle ye stole from me.”
She laughed with him. “No,” she promised him. “The women in my family don't run to fat, my lord.”
