“Oh, what a pair we make. If Conor came in right now, he would probably hang his head down and sigh with defeat,” Laurel said haltingly as she joined Makenna in fits of ill-repressed giggles.
“Oh, it feels good to laugh. I never thought I would say this, but I am glad you came.”
Laurel sat forward and smiled, no longer wondering why Colin asked her to come. Makenna needed an understanding female friend. “Do you know what I would love to do right now?”
“What?” Makenna asked, very curious to know what Laurel was thinking.
“I know this sounds completely crazy as I have been on a horse for days now, but you have no idea the infuriatingly slow pace we were going. It was maddening. For the past two days, I have wanted to ride like wind. Will you join me?”
Makenna hesitated and then nodded. “I’ll have to find Brodie or Gorten first. I promised Colin that I would no longer leave the castle walls without my guards.”
“You, too? I think Conor would be happiest if I were surrounded everywhere I went. He’s getting better, but the man practically defines overprotection.”
“Ha! Has your husband ever snatched you off a horse you were riding perfectly safe upon because of an irrational idea that you might fall off?” Makenna asked, snaking her way through the great hall to the large wooden doors.
Laurel followed Makenna outside. “That is bad, but wait until Colin orders a hundred men as escort when you come to visit us in the Highlands. Then you will see what I mean.”
Makenna swung around and shielded her eyes from the afternoon sun. “Good Lord, is that true?”
Laurel followed Makenna inside the stable. “Unfortunately, yes. And I love Conor so much that I pretended not to notice.”
Makenna sent two of the stabled lads for their guards and moved to prepare her brown mare. Laurel’s gray stallion was still bridled and enjoying some fresh hay in a stall.
“Come on, boy,” Laurel said, encouraging Borrail back out into the open. “This time I promise you we will run until we tire.”
Makenna helped the stable master bridle her horse and then waited with Laurel in the outer yard for her guard.
“Makenna!” came a gravelly voice behind her. Immediately, she knew who it was.
“Camus! How are you?”
Camus drew her in his arms and whispered quickly in her ear, “The item you requested is nearly finished. Give me a few more days for polishing, and it will be complete.”
“Thank you,” Makenna returned and then pulled back. “Laurel, please let me introduce to you the finest sword smith in Scotland. Camus, this is Lady McTiernay, Conor’s wife.”
Laurel beamed him a smile that showed true interest and appreciation for such a skill. “Please call me Laurel.”
“Aye, Laurel, I think I will. That is a fine dirk you are wearing, and my guess is that you are quite proficient with it.”
Laurel shrugged. “Some would say I have skill, others would say I need more practice.”
Laughing, Camus waved good-bye just as Gorten and Brodie and two other men under Conor’s command approached. Soon all six of them were free of the castle, the town, and its walls.
For an hour, they rode along the river and across the hills. Sensing each other’s readiness to stop, Makenna and Laurel slowed down near a brook so that the horses could drink.
Gorten met with Laurel’s guards, who agreed to stay back and give the two women privacy. Then he moved beside Brodie, whose brown eyes were filled with concern. “Was it just me, or was Lady Makenna riding with more restraint than normal?”
Gorten nodded brusquely. “Aye, and with much more care. At first, I thought her companion was slowing their gait. Now I am not so sure.”
“Maybe she’s afraid the laird will snatch her off her horse again.”
“Possible,” Gorten murmured, full of skepticism.
Laurel stroked the gray neck of her large friend. “There now, Borrail, was that not fun?”
Makenna slid off her mare and allowed the animal to drink and move about freely. She looked back and wrinkled her nose in disgust. No longer were there just four soldiers overseeing their safety but almost two dozen. Picking up a rock, she threw it into the brook and then sat down on the yellowing but still thick grass. Makenna arched her back and took in a deep breath. “It is so good to get out of those depressing walls. When I leave, I feel like an enormous weight has been taken off of me.”
Laurel joined her on the ground. She picked some nearby fall wildflowers and spun them in her fingers. “And when you return?”
“I just want to leave again. Is that not awful? Those are my people, my clan, and yet they seem so foreign to me. I both love and loathe them at the same time.” Makenna lay down and stared at the sky. “You probably think I am being ridiculous.”
Laurel didn’t know what to say. Lochlen was so very different from McTiernay Castle. The McTiernays were a loud, welcoming bunch that greeted guests with smiles. On the other hand, she was very familiar with the push, pull feeling Makenna was experiencing. “On the contrary, I quite understand.”
Makenna angled her head to see if Laurel was serious. “You mean…”
“No, no. McTiernay Castle is, well, very different from Lochlen, just as it is very different from the home I grew up in.”
“Colin says that you are English, yet you speak Scot very well.”
Laurel threw her flower into the breeze and watched it float away. “I’m half English and grew up not far from here in the Cheviot Hills of Northumberland. Most of the people speak Scot or something very similar. You have to go much farther south toward London to hear pure English.”
“Your English home, was it very bad?”
Laurel studied the folds in her gown. “Not when my mother was alive. Then it was warm and welcoming.”
“Isn’t it odd how one person can both add life to a home and take it away?”
Laurel nodded and picked another flower. “When she passed away, my father grieved terribly and kept himself distant from my stepbrother and me. I think my father mourned my mother until he died. It was like his grief permeated the walls, affecting all who walked them.”
Makenna searched Laurel’s face. “Is that why you left?”
“If things hadn’t changed, I don’t think I would have stayed. However, it was my brother, Ainsley, who actually initiated my leaving. He decided to marry the eldest daughter of our wealthy neighbor. I was clearly unwanted, and his attempts to marry me off were quite unsuccessful.”
Makenna considered that briefly. “I cannot imagine it would be hard to arrange a marriage to you. You are very beautiful.”
“Ah, well, Ainsley had little inclination to put down a dowry, and let’s just say I had little inclination to be ladylike when being introduced to prospective husbands,” Laurel answered, her voice laced with false innocence.
Makenna giggled at the thought and hugged her knees. “What did you do?”
“I left,” Laurel said softly, her mirth disappearing as she remembered her brother’s words of disownership the day she departed.
Makenna recognized the sadness in Laurel’s voice. “So you do understand about not being wanted by your own people.”
Laurel let go the blossom and wiped her hands on her bliaut. “In a way, but your situation is different. Only my brother made me feel unwelcome, and secondly, I am not at all positive that your people want you gone. On the contrary, I think the majority of them think very highly of you. Lochlen is well run and organized. You should have seen McTiernay Castle when I first came upon it. Nightmare is a soft way to describe such mayhem. And when I tried to help…well, you should have heard the rows Conor and I had. The man is very touchy about my making decisions he feels are only his to make.”
Makenna gave Laurel a challenging look. “Ha! I have met your Conor, and he was most agreeable and forthcoming compared to Colin. Sometimes I wonder if my husband actually works at making the most simple of conversations difficult. And his pride, his infuriating pride! It drives everything he does and says!”