She knocked on Maddie’s cottage door and then blew warm air onto her cold fingers. The door swung open and Maddie immediately exclaimed, “Keeley! Don’t stand there in the cold. Come warm yourself by the fire.”
“My thanks,” Keeley said as she pushed inside to stand by the hearth.
“What brings you out on a cold day such as this?”
Keeley grinned. “Mairin is at her wits’ end. She wishes for you and Christina to come sit with her and keep her company. The laird has forbidden her to leave the confines of the keep.”
“As well he should,” Maddie said with an approving nod. “In the snow and ice is no place for the lass to be walking in. She could fall and hurt the babe.”
“She offered no argument, but she’s not happy about it. She asked that if you weren’t busy with your own duties, would you mind sitting with her awhile?”
“Of course not. Let me get my shawl and my boots. We’ll stop by and collect Christina on our way back to the keep.”
In a few moments’ time, both women bundled back up and stepped into the biting wind.
“Have you all you need for the coming winter?” Maddie asked as they approached Christina’s parents’ cottage.
Keeley shook her head. “Nay. There are a few herbs I must look for. ’Twill require digging into the snow but I know what trees to look under. Many will come down with a cough and aching chest as it grows colder. Especially the children. There is a paste I make that eases the ache and helps with the cough. ’Twill be useful to have this winter.”
Maddie frowned. “When will you collect these herbs?”
Keeley grinned ruefully. “Not until it stops snowing and the wind dies down. ’Tis too cold to go digging about in the snow right now.”
“Aye, you’re right. Be sure to bring a man or two to help you. ’Tis no easy task for a lass to take on herself.”
“Now you sound like the laird with all his dictates,” Keeley teased.
Maddie stopped and knocked at Christina’s door. “The laird is a wise man. ’Tis no insult to be compared to him.”
Keeley rolled her eyes. “I was offering no insult.”
Christina opened the door and her face brightened when she saw Maddie and Keeley standing there. When they told her Mairin would like her to come to the keep, she pounced on the opportunity.
“I love my mother dearly,” Christina said as they hurried toward the keep. “But ’tis God’s truth, the woman is driving me daft. I can’t take being sequestered in the cottage with her any longer.”
Maddie chuckled. “Complaining about the weather, I imagine.”
“When doesn’t she complain?” Christina asked in exasperation. “If it’s not the weather, it’s my father, or me, or some imagined ailment. I was near to screaming before you knocked on my door.”
Keeley smiled and squeezed the young woman’s hand. “I’m sure the opportunity to see Cormac again never entered your mind.”
Christina blushed and Maddie hooted with laughter. “She has you there, lass.”
“Do you think he’ll ever try to kiss me?” Christina asked wistfully.
Maddie pursed her lips. “It seems to me that if he hasn’t been trying to kiss you then maybe you should take the matter into your own hands and kiss him.”
Christina’s mouth dropped open and her eyes widened with shock. “Oh I couldn’t! Why, that would be brazen. He’d think me … He’d think me …” she sputtered to a halt, clearly unable to voice the word floating through her mind.
“I wager he’d be too knocked off his feet to have such thoughts,” Maddie muttered. “Some men need a shove every now and again. A stolen kiss does not a harlot make. No matter what your mother might preach.”
“I agree with Maddie,” Keeley said.
“You do?” Christina turned to look at Keeley just as they stepped into the keep and were greeted by much warmer air. “Have you ever … kissed a man?” Her voice dropped to a whisper as she looked around to make certain they weren’t overheard. “I mean did you do the kissing?”
“Aye,” Keeley said softly. “I’ve kissed and I’ve been kissed. ’Tis not a shameful thing, Christina. If it doesn’t go too far. Cormac is a good man. He won’t take advantage, and if he does, you scream loudly and I’ll kick him betwixt the legs.”
Maddie dissolved into laughter while Christina looked so shocked that Keeley wondered if she and Maddie should have counseled the younger woman at all.
But then a speculative gleam appeared in her eyes and Christina’s expression grew thoughtful. As soon as they entered the hall, Mairin rose from her chair in front of the fire and hurried toward them.
“Thank goodness you’re here. I am driving myself daft with boredom. Ewan won’t allow me out of the keep but everyone else must still go about their duties.”
Then Mairin stopped and studied them curiously. “What is amiss? And Christina, why do you have such a peculiar look on your face?”
Maddie chuckled. “The lass is conspiring.”
Mairin’s brows shot up. “This, I must hear. Come, sit in front of the fire with me and tell me all. If there is mischief to be had, I want a part in it.”
“Oh sure, make the laird furious with us all for leading you astray,” Keeley grumbled.
Mairin grinned cheekily and settled back in her chair, her palm molding to her protruding belly. “Ewan won’t touch a hair on your head. At least not until our babe is safely delivered.”
“It’s afterward you need to worry,” Maddie teased.
Keeley sobered, for after she delivered Mairin’s babe, her future was indeed precarious. She had no idea if she even had a cottage to return to at this point. With her disappearance, naught would be known of her fate and her cottage would surely be taken over by someone in need of a sturdy shelter. She had no champion to back her claim, and in fact the cottage didn’t really belong to her. It was a McDonald holding.
“Did we say something wrong?” Mairin asked anxiously. “You look so … sad, Keeley.”
Keeley offered a valiant smile. “ ’Tis nothing. I was thinking of my fate after your babe is born.”
The other women looked shocked and a little appalled.
“Surely you don’t think you’d be turned out,” Maddie exclaimed.
Mairin shifted forward in her chair and clutched Keeley’s hand to hers. “Ewan would never allow such a thing to happen. You do know that, don’t you?”
“ ’Tis the truth I know nothing of my future,” Keeley said softly. “More likely than that, I don’t have a home to return to. Such as it was.”
“You don’t like it here?” Christina asked.
Keeley hesitated. Once Alaric married Rionna, ’Twas true that being here would take her further away from Alaric than returning to the McDonald land where she might very well be called to deliver Rionna’s first child. With Alaric. The thought was too much to bear. And yet staying here would also put her into close proximity with both Alaric and Rionna when they came to visit. ’Twas a conundrum that promised hurt for her no matter what the course of her fate.
“Aye, I like it here,” she finally said. “I never realized how lonely I was before I had all of you to laugh and talk with.”
“Keeley, will you tell us what happened to you?” Mairin asked quietly. “If ’tis none of our business, feel free to say so, but I wonder so why you no longer carry the McDonald name and why it is you say your clan turned their back on you.”
“ ’Tis shameful that,” Maddie offered with a scowl. “Family is family. A clan is all a person has. If they won’t stand behind you, who will?”
“Who will indeed?” Keeley asked ruefully.
She sat back and drew in her breath, surprised by how angry she still felt after so long. Resentment festered just underneath her skin, looking for a crack in which to spill out.