Tender Feud

Feeling despondent and incredibly foolish now for brandishing a knife she had no intention of using—and resenting him for that fact—Katrine nevertheless forced herself to keep her head high as she stiffly returned the sgian dhu to the table. “I would settle for leeks,” she mumbled, naming the first vegetable that came to mind. That it also happened to be the crop she associated with her home in England struck her as farcical. Her fierce desire to break free of the farming community where she had grown up and to try her fortune in Scotland now seemed totally daft. Yes, she would settle for leeks. If she could ever return home, she would settle for a quiet chair by the hearthside with her tambour frame.

“Leeks?” Raith echoed, interrupting her brooding reflections. He was looking at her curiously, plainly not understanding her obscure thought process. “Very well, I’ll tell Flora.”

He gazed at Katrine for another moment, as if trying to fathom the workings of her mind. Pushing his shoulders from the doorjamb then, he turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Katrine’s hackles rose another notch at being so summarily dismissed. Staring after him, she muttered a word that placed grave doubts upon the legitimacy of Raith’s birth, and as an afterthought included his cousin, Callum, and his clansman Lachlan in the reference. But as she returned to her task, she focused her resentment solely on Raith.

She was taking her anger at him out on the dough when Flora came into the kitchen.

“The laird says you’re to have the same fare as the others,” Flora said matter-of-factly, sounding neither pleased nor disturbed by the new orders.

“How generous of him,” Katrine grumbled, not particularly delighted about being granted the same rights as his other minions. “The insufferable arrogance of that knave!” she added under her breath. “I should have run him through when I had the chance.”

But Flora heard, and her sharp blue eyes narrowed. “We’ve a saying in the Highlands—if ye canna bite, dinna show your teeth.”

“I haven’t tried biting him yet,” Katrine retorted, giving the defenseless bannock another punch, “but I assure you I’ll keep it in mind.”

Only then did she remember her intention to question him about his ward.

Chapter Six

No doubt, Katrine decided, it was because she had raised two younger sisters from an early age that she couldn’t banish the MacLean’s raven-haired ward from her mind. No matter what task occupied her hands, no matter how intently she concentrated on solving her own problem of oversetting Raith’s plans for her and effecting an escape from Cair House, she kept seeing those haunted dark eyes in a pale little face.

That was why Katrine thought her imagination was playing tricks when she felt the child’s presence later that day as she was engaged in sweeping the stone-flagged floor of the servants’ workroom.

But she wasn’t imagining things. When she turned around, she found those solemn eyes watching her. Meggie was standing just inside the doorway, clutching at what seemed to be a ragged doll stuffed with straw. Her face and hair were no less unkempt than the previous day, though she wore a different frock that was marginally less soiled.

Katrine left off sweeping at once. “Hello,” she said with a smile. “Meggie, isn’t it? See, I discovered your name.”

Meggie only stared back.

“I’m honored that you should pay me a visit.” Especially after Flora ordered you away, Katrine added to herself. But she received no response to her greeting. Her smile faded a bit as she surveyed the little girl. The child was so quiet…unnaturally so. But perhaps, like the scullery maid, she spoke only Gaelic.

Remembering the incident that morning in the kitchen, Katrine cast a quick glance at the doorway, half expecting the MacLean laird to be lurking there. But neither he nor his cousin was anywhere in sight, nor could Flora be heard in the kitchen.

“Do you understand English, Meggie? Do you ken Sassenach?”

The child at least understood the word, for she took a step backward, a look of alarm flashing in her young eyes. Katrine realized she had said the wrong thing, and slowly resumed plying her broom. She didn’t want to push the child into accepting her.

Keeping her movements steady and slow, she occasionally darted a look at Meggie, expecting any moment for her to run away. When she didn’t, Katrine began to hum softly under her breath, a song she had learned as a child about two crows discussing the fate of a fallen knight. Seeing Meggie cock her head, like a small, curious bird, she put the words to the song:

As I was walkin’ a’ ma lane,

I heard twa corbies makin’ mane…

A hint—the scarcest hint—of a smile touched the corners of the child’s mouth, and touched Katrine’s heart as well. Her broom went still as she sang the rest of the verses. By the time she ended the last line, Meggie’s dark eyes were shining.

In the silence, Katrine felt her heart grow full. Whether or not they spoke the same language, she had reached the little girl.

“Would you like to sing with me, Meggie? There are a good deal of words to remember, but you look to be a clever girl. The first line is simple. Can you say it after me? ‘As I was walking—’”

“That will be quite enough, Miss Campbell.”

Katrine jumped at the harsh sound of Raith’s voice. The hard edge in his tone, she saw as she whirled to face him, was reflected in the grim set of his features. But the absurd leaping of her pulse had nothing to do with surprise at his sudden presence or fear of his dark expression. It was simply the sight of him that affected her thus.

Such an unsettling realization only added strength to her angry words. “Must you always sneak up on me without warning? You and your cousin both frighten me out of a year’s growth every time you come in here, and my longevity is in question enough as it is.”

But Katrine instantly regretted raising her voice, for Meggie shrank back, inching away from her as she clutched her straw doll tighter. The child didn’t seek out Raith for protection, either, but instead cast a frightened glance up at the unsmiling, silent man, apparently thinking she was to be scolded for disobeying orders. Katrine thought so, as well, and came fiercely to the girl’s defense.