“I am Simon,” the stranger said, smiling warmly. “Are you the tavern keeper’s wife?”
“I am his daughter.” Evanna turned to go. Something about the man was making her feel uneasy. “Yer meal will be brought to ye at sunset. Don’t expect anythin’ fancy. We serve very plain fare here.”
“As long as there is enough to fill my stomach, I don’t care how plain it is,” he answered. “Will you bring it?” This time there was no mistaking the suggestive tone of his voice. He stepped toward her, leering.
She rounded on him, her eyes dark with rage. “Ye know that there is a whole pack o’ Scotsmen out there who would cheerfully tear ye limb from limb an’ smile while they did it?” she asked. “I have yer money and I have nothin’ tae lose by lettin’ them all in. If ye want tae leave now, I will give ye yer money back an’ ye can go out the back door. There is a stable across the street ye might be able tae sleep in tonight. If ye want tae stay, keep yer mouth shut an’ don’t move out o’ this room.” Then, with one venomous glance, she left.
As Evanna walked back into the front of the tavern, she was throbbing with rage. There was no way on earth she was going to take that swine’s food into him! To add to her woes, in the few minutes she had been away, the tavern had filled up. It was now full to the rafters with farmworkers and laborers all wanting to be served ale and food at the same time. Flora, Donna, and Lexie were doing as well as they could, but they were hampered by Bruce Mulholland, who was shuffling behind the bar and getting in everyone’s way.
Evanna sighed. She was beyond exhausted, but the work would have to be done. She went over to her father and took him by the elbow, then led him out of the way and sat him down in an empty seat.
“Stay there, Da,” she told him. “I will bring ye some food.”
“Who are ye?” he asked, his eyes empty of all recognition. “I am lookin’ for my wife. Have ye seen her?”
“She has gone tae church,” Evanna replied quickly. “She will be back in a wee while.” Evanna was good at lying and thinking on her feet. She had to be.
She rushed into the kitchen to fetch her father’s chicken stew and bread. Lexie was standing by the oven, her broad face flushed and sweating as she dished up the food, which was being collected by Flora and Donna, the tavern maids.
“I have a guest in the room at the end,” Evanna said quickly, “an’ I don’t like the look o’ him, but we need his coin.” She quickly explained the situation to Lexie, who grinned mischievously.
“Don’t worry, Evanna,” she said soothingly, “I will take care of it!”
Evanna almost pitied Simon. Lexie was the same height as he was and could likely make mincemeat of him! As well as that, she always seemed to relish a fight, and Evanna had always wondered why she had wanted to become a nun in the first place. Perhaps it was to challenge God!
When Evanna went back to her father’s chair again, she found that he had gone. She looked around, panicked, before one of the men at the bar pointed toward the front door, and she found him wandering down the dusty street toward the church.
“Da! Where are ye goin’?” she asked anxiously as she caught him by the arm.
“Ye!” he snapped, yanking his arm away. His eyes were dark with rage. “Ye told me my Bettie was at the church. I am goin’ tae find her.”
“Come an’ eat first, Da,” she urged. “I have made this nice stew for ye.” She passed the plate under his nose and he sniffed, then smiled. “I have a lo puddin’ for ye as well.”
“What is it?” he asked eagerly.
“It is a surprise,” Evanna answered, trying to stop the tears she was holding back from spilling onto her face. It broke her heart to see him like this, a shell of the vital, vibrant man he had been before his decline. She hoped that Lexie had something sweet stowed away in the kitchen since she knew from experience that if he was denied what he wanted, he would turn into a petulant child.
* * *
The night seemed to take forever, and by the time it ended and the last customer had been shown the door, Evanna was so exhausted she could hardly stand up. Luckily Lexie had seen Evanna’s father off to bed, and now she stood looking down at Evanna slumped in a chair, trying to keep her eyes open long enough to make the short trip to her bedroom.
Lexie sighed and helped her to her feet. “Come, lass,” she said gently as she put an arm around the younger woman’s waist and almost dragged her to her chamber. She laid her down tenderly on her pallet, then kissed her forehead. “Poor girl,” she murmured. “There is too much weight on yer shoulders. Ye should let me stay with him and give yerself a rest.”
Evanna was about to answer, but at that moment her eyes closed and she fell instantly asleep.
Lexie thought for a moment. She decided that this was the last time she would allow the young woman to sleep in the same room as the unknown stranger. She was wearing herself out. She cast a glance at the figure on the bed and then poked a finger in his chest. “Ye are not helping,” she growled.
4
Rowan McLachlan was not a happy man as he dismounted from his horse and began to inspect the ground where he had expected to find the corpse of Fraser McLachlan. He wanted to remove all evidence of his foul crime since his aim had been to make the other man disappear entirely. There was a reasonable chance that the wild boars had eaten him, but he dismissed that idea at once since there would have been evidence in the shape of bones, teeth, and scraps of clothing there.
Despite minutely poring over the forest floor, he could find only footprints, one large and one much smaller, as well as an indentation of his body. There were also two sets of hoofprints. Next to them was a piece of the twine that he had used to bind Fraser’s hands, which had been neatly cut with a sharp blade.
He growled, cursing the interloper who had stopped him from completing his mission. He concluded that the small indents were those of a woman’s feet and wondered how on earth she had managed to lift a huge corpse like Fraser’s onto the back of a horse, and why.
“Why did ye lot no’ come an’ bring the body back straight away?” he asked, running his fingers back through his hair in an agitated fashion. “Somebody else has the corpse now.”
“Because ye wouldnae let us,” one of his men said grumpily. “We have tae follow yer orders, an’ ye were scared that somebody would still be here an’ might recognize us, then we would have had tae kill them as well.”