"Aye, husband," Averill murmured, moving forward to join the other woman.
Smiling widely, Evelinde drew her arm through her own, and the two women put their heads together, chatting and laughing like old friends as they made their way up the keep stairs.
"I see you like yer wife well enough," Cullen said with amusement, as they watched the door close on the two women.
Kade shrugged, and explained, "Kissing her stops her stammering."
"I see," Cullen said slowly, then, face solemn, suggested, "So ye kiss her for medicinal purposes."
"Aye. Ye could say that." He felt his lips twitch with amusement.
Will snorted at the claim, and the three men started laughing as they turned to walk across the bailey.
"Nay!"
"Aye. Numb as a dead hen," Averill assured her hostess wryly, and while she could feel herself blushing, she was also grinning at her new friend's horrified amusement over the tale of last night's debacle.
"Oh dear!" Evelinde gasped. "And he was, too?"
"Aye," she said on a forlorn sigh. "And he shriveled up like an old man in a cold bath."
"Oh no!" Evelinde squealed, and burst out laughing.
Averill immediately joined in, seeing the humor of the situation now that it was a day past. She wasn't sure how they had got onto the topic. They had started out talking about Cullen's reputation as the Devil of Donnachaidh. Averill had curiously asked Evelinde what her reaction had been to learning she was to marry the man. After a hesitation, Evelinde had blushed and told her about her first meeting with the man, a rather risque tale that had set Averill laughing, and she had suddenly found herself blurting out her own calamity last night.
She supposed it was surprising that they were revealing such intimate details of their married lives to each other so soon after meeting, but Averill had felt comfortable with Evelinde from the start, and after several hours of chatting over cider, felt as if they were old friends.
"What has the two o' ye cackling like a pair o' old witches?"
Averill and Evelinde stopped laughing abruptly at that question from Cullen Duncan, exchanged a wide-eyed glance, then turned those same wide, guilty eyes toward the men now approaching the trestle table where they sat.
"H-husband," Averill gasped, leaping to her feet with alarm at the possibility that he might have overheard.
The curiosity on Kade's face and the way he raised an eyebrow as he, Cullen, and Will crossed the last of the distance to join them reassured her he hadn't; but she still fluttered nervously where she stood.
"Well?" Cullen prompted as he paused behind Evelinde and bent to press a kiss to the petite blonde's forehead. "What is it ye find so funny?"
Averill's panicked gaze sought out Evelinde, but she needn't have worried. Her new friend merely smiled sweetly, and said, "Oh, 'twas just a silly old wife's tale."
That answer made Averill eye her new friend with some respect. The woman had told the truth. It was a wife's tale, hers, and yet the way Evelinde said it made it sound like something else entirely. The men immediately lost interest in hearing about it.
"Is something amiss?" Averill asked uncertainly, wondering why they were already returned.
"Nay," Cullen assured her. "We merely came in for the nooning meal."
"Oh!" It was Evelinde's turn to jump up with alarm. "I did not--Oh," she breathed with relief as the door to the kitchens opened and maids started out, food and drink in hand. "Bless Biddy. She, at least, is thinking."
Averill smiled faintly, knowing her new friend was speaking of Cullen's aunt Elizabeth, whom everyone called Biddy. She'd met the woman briefly after Evelinde had led her inside, but then Biddy had disappeared to the kitchens, and Evelinde had explained that Cullen's aunt loved cooking and spent a good deal of time in the kitchens doing it.
The maids reached the tables, and they all settled down to eat. The men were quick about it, then up and gone back to the business of bartering for and packing supplies. Averill and Evelinde got up to take a walk around the gardens behind the kitchens but were back sitting at the tables talking away when the men returned the second time.
Averill smiled at her husband as he approached, but her smile turned down when he raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Are ye ready to go?"
"Already?" she asked with dismay. The time had flown by so that it seemed they'd only just arrived.
Kade's expression softened as he took in her disappointment, and he slid an arm around her waist as he growled, "We'll visit again another day...if 'tis all right with Cullen and his lady wife?"
When Kade glanced to their host and hostess, Evelinde launched to her feet, nodding eagerly. "'Tis definitely all right, is it not, husband?" She didn't wait for him to respond, but added, "And we shall ride over to visit you as well once things settle down at Stewart."
"Oh, aye, you must," Averill said at once. "We would like that."
"Then 'tis settled," Kade said abruptly. "Let's go."
He used the arm around her waist to turn her to start across the great hall.
Averill frowned at what she considered a rudeness and craned her neck around, scowling at Will when she found him directly behind her, blocking her view.
Her brother shook his head with amusement, but promptly moved aside so that she could see Evelinde and Cullen trailing them to the doors.
"Thank you so much for everything," Averill said then. "Lunch was lovely, and I enjoyed our visit."
"As did I," Evelinde assured her, smiling. "I must write to Merry and tell her how lovely you are. Mayhap she and Alexander will visit once the babe is born, and we could all get together."
"That would be lovely," Averill agreed. Evelinde had assured her that Merry, Kade's sister and sister-in-law to both her and Evelinde, was as nice as pie and not at all deserving of the title the Stewart Shrew. Averill had been relieved to learn this though she'd never heard the woman called that. After hearing this and meeting Cullen Duncan, the supposed Devil of Donnachaidh, and seeing how sweet and gentle and considerate he was with his wife, it did seem to her that the Scots were fond of giving people inaccurate nicknames. It made her wonder if Kade had a nickname she did not know about. She pondered the matter as they said their final good-byes and mounted. They were headed out of the bailey before she even noticed that the wagon was now piled high with goods Kade had purchased from Donnachaidh, then merely paid it passing attention.
"What has ye lookin' so pensive, wife?" Kade asked, breaking the silence that had fallen between them all as they'd left Donnachaidh territory. Before that, Averill had been as chatty as a child, twittering on about how nice Lady Duncan was, and how much she liked her, and how she had enjoyed the visit. Every second word had been Evelinde this and Evelinde that for some miles after leaving Donnachaidh.
"Nothing," she said at once, then asked curiously, "Do you have a special name too, husband?"
"A special name?" he asked with surprise.
"Aye, like Cullen is called the Devil of Donnachaidh and your sister, Merry, is the Stewart Shrew," Averill explained.
Kade grimaced at the title his sister had been saddled with. He knew she'd gained it purely from trying to keep their father and brothers from drinking themselves to death...and it was probably their father and brothers who had given it to her, he'd guess. But she didn't deserve it.
"Nay," he said at last.
"Why not?" She looked terribly disappointed he noted as she staunchly argued, "From all Will has told me, you are as fierce a warrior as Cullen. So why has no one given you a special name, too? Mayhap we should think of one ourselves."
Kade shook his head with amusement at the suggestion but then glanced around with surprise when Will spoke up.
"I have a name for him."
"Do you?" Averill asked eagerly and leaned forward in the saddle to peer past Kade to her brother in question. "What is it?"
"The Stewart Saint," Will responded at once.
"The Stewart Saint?" Averill echoed uncertainly.<