Annys sighed as she watched the two girls leave. Having a sister who had blackened their names as deeply as Biddy had meant the girls were already being punished. She would not relent though for the people of Glencullaich had to see that she could be firm, forgiving but also ready to give punishment when it was deserved.
“That Davida bears watching,” said Joan. “She has a good sharp wit and backbone.”
“Aye, she does. And isnae easily fooled.”
“Nay. Florence has a tender heart and I suspect Biddy kenned how to use that to her advantage. Davida did what she felt a sister must but wasnae fooled for a moment.” Joan stood and brushed down her skirts. “I will go see if they need or want any help preparing the body after I make sure Benet is abed as he should be.”
“I could check on Benet if ye wish, Joan, so that ye can go to the girls,” said Harcourt.
Joan just cocked one brow at him and nodded. “Ye do that. And if he has that cursed lamb in the room be sure to take it back to the barn. Lad has been trying to keep it close because he fears someone might try to kill and eat it again.”
Seeing the look of motherly concern on Annys’s face, Harcourt placed a hand on her shoulder and held her in her seat. “I will, Joan.”
Joan looked at Annys. “Let him deal with it. Benet might still be little more than a bairn, but he is a boy, and maybe hearing a mon talk some sense into him will sink into his head and ease his fear for the beastie.”
Annys frowned as Joan walked out of the hall in search of Biddy’s sisters. What Joan said about letting a man talk to Benet made sense but she felt a little annoyed that she couldn’t fix everything for him. She looked up at Harcourt and inwardly sighed. She would let him go to Benet. At some point in his life Benet would have to learn about Harcourt. It would not hurt if he had a few good childhood memories of the man when that time came.
“Shall I go?” he asked, praying she would not say no.
“Aye, go on. I had not realized he was still doing that. And, after all, ye were right there when it happened and helped rescue him as weel. Might add some weight to what ye say. I think at times he just thinks I am being a mother and saying things to calm him down just as mothers should do.”
Harcourt laughed and kissed her on the forehead. She fought not to reveal her excitement tinged with a hint of embarrassment when he whispered the word later in her ear. A moment later he was gone, eager to do something to help the boy he could not claim.
“So,” said Gybbon as he looked at her after watching Harcourt leave, “I must assume that there will ne’er be a nice roasted lamb served at a Glencullaich table then.”
Annys gaped at him then clamped a hand over her mouth when Callum slapped him on the back of his head. She started to laugh and soon they were all laughing. It felt good and she welcomed it.
Harcourt walked into the room after greeting the guard outside Benet’s door and looked at the boy as he shut the door behind him. He could see no lamb in the room, just the cat sprawled rather obscenely on its back at the end of the bed. It opened one eye to look him over and closed it again. When he looked at Benet again, however, he noticed that the boy was sitting up in his bed, his small hands clasped and resting on his lap and an angelic look on his face.
“Benet,” he said, “ye ken ye are nay supposed to bring the lamb to your bedroom, dinnae ye?” He sat on the edge of the bed and pretended he did not hear the soft bleat coming from beneath it.
“Do ye see a lamb here?” the boy asked.
“Nay but it is here, isnae it?”
Benet sagged, his thin shoulders slumping, and he nodded. He reached over and banged twice on the bed frame. There was a brief scramble and the lamb appeared from beneath the bed. The fact that he had actually trained the lamb was astonishing, but Harcourt was not going to praise his skill this time.
“Why cannae it stay?”
“It is cute and small now, Benet, but it will grow. Ye have seen a grown ewe, havenae ye?” The child nodded. “Ye cannae have that expecting to join ye in your bedchamber every night, now can ye?” Benet shook his head. “Roberta needs to sleep in the stable.” He sighed when he saw the child’s lower lip wobble and his eyes turn shiny with tears.
“I dinnae want anyone to kill her and eat her.”
Harcourt moved to lie beside him on the bed and put his arm around his thin shoulders. “Benet, people do eat lambs, but there are a lot of them at Glencullaich. No one needs your lamb to survive. They also all ken that Roberta is your special lamb and not one person here would e’er think of hurting it. Those men were bad men, mean men. They didnae care whose lamb it was or that it was making ye unhappy to see them trying to kill it. We dinnae have those kind of men here.”
“Nay, we dinnae. I just get afraid for her. What if someone thinks my lamb is one of the ones they can eat? She looks like some of the others.”
“That is easy enough to fix.”