“Do ye really wish to hear it all explained again? Hear about what Lucette did to ye, how your mon in France lied to ye and mistreated ye? I would have thought ye fair sick of it by now.”
Arianna turned to look at Sir Fingal. His words had been spoken in his usual grouchy tone but there was sympathy in his eyes. She thought over what he had said and sighed. The very last thing she wanted to do was talk about Claud, the Lucettes, or the DeVeaux again. She did not want to be facing her cousins when they heard all about how Claud had deceived her, either. Arianna had not yet recovered from the humiliation of it all.
“Fine then, I will tend to the beds and baths like a good wee lass,” she said, and ignored the way his lips twitched in an almost smile at her cross words. “If they have anything to ask me they can come and find me.”
“I will be sure to tell them to do just that. Let the lassies in the kitchens know that we will be needing a lot more food.”
By the time Arianna reached the kitchens her annoyance over being excluded from the talks between her cousins and Brian had receded. She knew her cousins were not going to take the news Brian had to tell them very well and she would rather not spend time in a small room with four angry kinsmen and Brian. Arianna just hoped that Brian had the time to tell her what was said before she met with her cousins again. As her father was fond of saying, kenning the facts can keep ye from doing or saying something witless.
Brian moved away from Arianna’s four large kinsmen and poured each of them a drink of ale. The barely contained anger of the men made the ledger room feel even smaller than it was. Their impatience to know exactly what danger their kinswoman was in and their suspicions about him were clear to see on their faces.
All their very handsome faces, he thought, with a tug of jealous anger as he served them each a drink. The jealousy he had felt when he had seen Arianna being hugged by young Callum had thoroughly surprised him. He had wanted to tear Callum’s arms off.
“What has happened to Arianna?” demanded Callum as he sat on the edge of Ewan’s large worktable. “The message we got didnae give us many details.”
“Did any of ye ken that her husband had a mistress?” Brian asked instead of answering Callum. “That the two wee lads we need to help are his sons by that woman? Or that he ne’er once turned away from that woman?” He nodded in full agreement with the fury that darkened all their faces.
“She ne’er told anyone in the family,” said Brett. “Such news would have spread swiftly and Claud would have found himself facing some verra angry Murrays.”
“Weel, those Murrays would have been even angrier when they kenned the whole truth,” said Brian, and proceeded to tell them about the false marriage and the way Claud, as well as the rest of his family and retainers, had treated Arianna.
“She should have told us all this!”
“She did, but those letters never left France.”
Callum cursed long and viciously with a style that Brian had to admire. “So Arianna believes that we just didnae care how she was treated, doesnae she?”
“Nay,” replied Brian, and then he shrugged. “Weel, mayhaps she did, now and then. I think she was more puzzled o’er it all than anything else. Then, when we realized that her letters had all been read and the ones the Lucettes thought too damning tossed into the fire, she did feel guilty about her moments of doubt. Howbeit, Claud is dead now, murdered by his own brother.”
“Tell us who threatens her now. We saw what looks to be an army forming but a day’s ride from here. Were those the men doing the hunting that ye mentioned?”
“Aye. Lord Amiel Lucette and Lord Ignace DeVeau. Lord of what, I dinnae ken and dinnae care. There is even a question about which Lord Ignace we have chasing us but I dinnae care about that, either. They want those lads and your cousin.” He told them everything that had happened to Arianna since she had left France, all that they knew about Lucette’s plans, and all that they had surmised. Then he told them what had been discovered about Michel and Adelar, something he had not yet told Arianna.
“Jesu!” Harcourt dragged a hand through his long black hair. “We should have brought more men with us. None of these Frenchmen can leave here alive. What they ken about Arianna and those wee lads has to die with them.”
“Agreed,” said Brian, “although I would like to ken who else might have learned the truth about the lads. I suspicion the king and his first cousin ken the truth, but who else? DeVeau would have that answer. S’truth, I doubt he has told Lucette for that mon was still speaking of killing the laddies.”