“I ken it,” Annys said as she leaned against him. “I have kenned it from the start, or, mayhap I should say, have feared it from the start of all the trouble. After all, I was ne’er going to give Sir Adam what he wanted, was I? What allies I might turn to are ne’er going to interfere in what they would see as a familial argument over an inheritance. E’en Adam’s own kin willnae stop him for, in their hearts, they want him to succeed. Glencullaich has always been the jewel of the family’s holdings. The greed for what it has was always there.”
She looked at him. “There were times when I thought David was wrong to give his kin so much, as if he owed some tithing to them just for sitting in the laird’s chair. I cannae help but think that he was feeding their addle-brained belief that they deserved this place, nay him.”
“That is verra possible. He was doing what he needed to do to keep the peace and they saw only weakness.” He kissed her cheek, ignoring the way the cat moved to sit on her lap. “David did the right thing. He wasnae a warrior; he was a scholar. He could fight but he was ne’er one who wanted to.”
“Ye want to?” she asked, doing nothing to hide her disbelief.
“Nay, not truly. If Sir Adam came to offer a truce, I would be willing to hear him out. But, I willnae say I dinnae feel a wee bit of, weel, anticipation. ’Tis the nature of a mon.”
“But he willnae come forward with any offer of a truce.”
“Nay. He is determined to claim this place, so determined he doesnae care how much blood he needs to spill or how much of it has to be destroyed to get what he wants. Nay, I dinnae want to fight, but I do want verra badly to make certain Sir Adam MacQueen doesnae win.”
Harcourt leaned down to kiss her, pulling her closer as he brushed his lips over hers, immediately getting the taste for more. Before he could deepen the kiss, however, something moved between them. He pulled back just enough to look down at the cat now sitting on her lap between them. A quick look at Annys revealed her placing a hand over her mouth, her eyes alight with the laughter she tried to hold back.
“I think he may be jealous,” she choked out and started to giggle.
Under better circumstances Harcourt would have shared her amusement. He loved the sound of her laughter, an innocent, musical sound that begged anyone who heard it to share in her joy. Being denied the kiss he was craving made the situation a lot less amusing for him, even though her laughter made him smile. He narrowed his eyes at the cat.
“It should be in the stables,” he said and watched the cat’s ears flatten.
“Which is where he is constantly put,” she said as she gently picked up the cat, scratched its ears, and then set it down on the other side of her. “Yet he always finds me.”
“My brother’s wife has a wee girl who has a cat named Clyde and he always finds her as weel.”
Annys thought Harcourt spoke as if that was the worst fate to ever befall his brother, but decided not to tease him about it. “’Tis verra like a dog, isnae it?”
Harcourt did not think the world needed such an oddity, but said nothing, simply stole a brief kiss from Annys and stood up. “I must get back to work. When I saw ye watching out the window here I but thought to see if ye had anything to say about what ye were seeing, about what we are doing?”
“If ye think I have any advice, I fear I must disappoint you. All I ken about battle is that women best be ready to tend wounds or, if the need demands, grab the bairns and run.”
“And from all I have seen ye have prepared admirably for both needs though I will pray that ye dinnae have to meet either of them.”
Annys stood to watch him leave and heartily cursed Sir Adam MacQueen. She was weighted down with guilt for having pulled Harcourt and his friends into this. She could claim she had never forseen the risks he would have to take, but that was only partly true. The danger Sir Adam had presented had been clear enough that she had sent for Harcourt. Despite that, she had never truly felt she was placing the man in a dangerous position.
“That was some harsh language,” said Joan as she walked into the room carrying a stack of linens in her arms.
“I just realized that I may have been lack-witted enough to think that just having a few seasoned knights here might be enough to discourage Sir Adam.” Annys waved her hand toward the solar window she had been looking out of. “That was nay what I had envisioned when I sent for Sir Harcourt.”
“Weel, I did a lot of praying for Sir Adam to be struck down by lightning or smashed by a falling drawbridge or trampled by a horse. . . .” She winked at Annys when she laughed. “I decided God would forgive me for such prayers as Sir Adam means us harm and I am nay good with a sword.”
“I am nay sure but I think ye may be nudging blasphemy.”