The people who had sheltered in the keep worked hard and quickly, putting the rooms and hall back to rights with an admirable speed. Then they began to leave, eager to get back to their homes. She was pleasantly astonished to find that even David’s bedchamber had been returned to what it had been before it was used as a nursery. It was now ready for Nigel who would, without question, become the laird of Glencullaich.
Assured by Joan that the meal was ready, Annys hurried to her bedchamber to clean up. Away from all the work, her worries returned, but she fought to shake free of their hold. This was a time for celebration. Sir Adam was gone, the threat to Glencullaich ended. Nigel, a man thought lost to them, had returned and Glencullaich had a laird again, one who was battle-hardened and well able to keep his people safe. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she started back down to the hall. The one thing she refused to think about, determinedly pushed deep down inside her mind, was what Harcourt would do if she did find herself freed of all ties to Glencullaich.
Harcourt sat on Nigel’s left when the man asked him to. When he then turned to have a quiet word with his second, Andrew, and that man left the seat on Nigel’s right empty, Harcourt knew who was going to be seated there. The head table was separated from the others enough that more private conversations could be held. Considering all that needed discussing now that Nigel was seated in the laird’s chair, Harcourt had a feeling that this could prove to be a very uncomfortable meal.
Annys came in and the look on her face when Nigel stood, waving her on to take the seat at his side, told Harcourt that she, too, saw the potential for a very uncomfortable confrontation. Nigel’s smile for Annys showed no hint of that possibility, however. What it did show was pure male appreciation for a beautiful woman and Harcourt abruptly experienced a new, even sharper concern. The simplest solution to the matter of Benet being named heir by David was for Nigel to claim the boy as the heir as well, but, perhaps the man would not mind claiming the heir’s mother, too. She had once been promised to him.
“Nigel, how is it that Adam could keep us from kenning that ye were alive for all these years?” Annys asked as a page filled her plate with the foods she chose but doubted she would be able to eat.
“Coin and a lot of it, freely given,” Nigel answered. “He paid to have me and my men tossed into a prison in a remote keep in the French hills. I believe he meant for us to die there. Two of my men did.” He paused. “Are ye certain ye wish to hear this as we eat?”
“I doubt anything ye can tell me can be too harsh for me to listen to now.” She looked around. “A few more days of seeing the hall returned to this, to what it should be instead of what it was but hours ago, and, aye, I might be shocked. But now? Nay.”
“Weel, the mon holding us wouldnae simply kill us and I am nay sure why,” he said, “but Adam may have hesitated to actually request aloud that it be done. Howbeit, they did naught to make certain we lived. Think on the worst of dungeons, little food and that bad enough to make a mon sick, little water and often foul, and, aye, ’tis a near miracle we didnae all die. And any attempt to get away, any sort of rebellion, nay matter how small, was punished harshly.”
“How did they get hold of all of you?” asked Harcourt.
“A trick. Thought we were to be hired to guard the keep. Sat down to a meal, woke up in a hole.”
“How did ye finally escape?” asked Annys.
“The keep was attacked and when the ones who won came down to free their companions, they released everyone, us as weel. All they asked from us was that we go home and dinnae fight their countrymen anymore. Or e’en fight for them as many used such as us to attack their own people and nay the enemy. They didnae like all the hired swords running free about the country, nay e’en the ones who wanted to kill the English as badly as they did.”
“They sent ye off sick and weak?”
“Nay. They allowed us to stay a wee while.” He smiled a little. “We were a pitiful lot and the mon who had taken the keep was disgusted by the reason we had been caged, e’en more so by how it was done. Once strong enough to ride, we left. By then we were friends of a sort and he readily replaced all that had been stolen from us. Nay free, for he asked us to promise that we would return to help him if he e’er needed it. For free of course. He didnae like hired swords in France but clearly had no trouble if they came to work for him if he had need.”
She looked at all the other men he had brought with him, scattered around the hall, sharing tables with the men of Glencullaich. “Ye return with more men than ye left with.”