AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I am certain. Please do nae make me wait,” Keira nodded, reassuring him. “I will expect to see ye soon enough at the inn, so it will be good if ye can solve the problem immediately.”
“I will try my best,” Christian promised. She knew he would be solving the matter and running back towards her.
“Thank ye,” she beamed.
“Ye can go with Josh,” Christian nodded, “ye need him more than I do, and I ken he will take care of ye.”
“I am certain he can,” Keira gave in finally, aware that her safety would give some semblance of peace to Christian. He worried about her needlessly, and she could not blame him for caring for her.
“Josh, ye are going with Keira,” Christian motioned towards him, and Josh immediately nodded back in agreement.
“I will be there with her,” he replied, and Keira turned around to smile at him. She had gotten rather comfortable with his presence and knew that if Christian could not be there with her, Josh would be excellent company, and she would truly love for him to meet her father too. She wanted to introduce her father to everyone in the clan and sit down and tell him that the MacPherson’s had shown her nothing but love and hospitality in its purest form.
“I will see ye soon, darlin’,” Christian said to Keira, softly grazing his lips on her knuckles when he kissed her, and Keira turned crimson at the affection she sensed in his voice.
“I can nae wait to see ye again very soon,” she replied, waving goodbye as she turned around and walked out of his study with Josh beside her. She was truly excited to see her father and knew that it was going to be truly overwhelming to see him after this long.
Keira could finally feel how things were once again settling perfectly in place, and she had certainly never been more grateful.
* * *
Harriet just stepped back inside the castle after making sure that Laird MacPherson and the soldiers he had taken along with him to solve the fight in the marketplace had left and did not need anything. She knew Lady Keira had also left to see her father along with Josh, and the castle had no one. She had already informed the cooks about preparing the feast tonight since the Laird O’Donnely will be dining with them and all she needed to do now was wait for everyone to return.
Just as she was heading towards her bedchamber in the servant quarters, she noticed a maid walking towards her.
“The butler just handed me this note which has arrived for Lady Keira,” the maid explained, “since she is nae in the castle, I am handing it to ye.”
“Thank ye,” Harriet nodded at the maid, who turned around and walked away while Harriet continued to look confusedly at the stamp on the envelope in front of her.
It had been sent from the local inn, where Lady Keira’s father was staying, and was addressed to Lady Keira only.Who could have sent it?Harriet wondered since she had just handed a note to her lady from her father, which, too, had apparently arrived from the very same inn. She did not know why she felt this way, but it certainly felt as if something was definitely not right as Harriet tore open the envelope to read the note inside:
Dearest daughter,
I am writing as I sit in a suite in the local inn of the MacPherson clan, which I hear is very close to the castle. I would have come to ye immediately, but I wished to rest and clean up a little before I came to see ye in yer new home. I will be at the castle soon and I can nae wait to see my precious. Make sure to have a feast prepared because yer faither is certainly expecting one.
Love,
Faither
Harriet’s breath hitched as she noticed how this note had the O’Donnely seal on it, which meant that Laird O’Donnely had truly written it. She could see how the other letter had been nothing more than a carelessly scribbled note while this one was neater and addressed directly to Lady Keira. Harriet could not understand what this meant, but she knew something was terribly wrong but she could do nothing about it as of now. She was simply glad Lady Keira had gone to the inn with Josh. Now all Harriet could do was pray for things to be alright in everyone’s favor. She certainly needed them to be alright.
CHAPTER20
“Give way! The laird is coming!”Christian heard people shouting as his horse reached the marketplace, stuck between the throngs and throngs of people crowding the area. He could not understand what it was about such feuds which people enjoyed that they decided to leave their own work commitments and stand around aimlessly doing nothing, simply to observe the ones fighting. His soldiers were right behind him as they slowly walked forward through the crowd, finally reaching the source of the feud.
“Might I ken what is happening here?” he asked loudly, startling the few men who stood facing one another, anger evident in their expressions.
“Me laird!” one man exclaimed, and Christian stepped down from his horse. He did not understand why he felt so annoyed and worried, but he decided to shove aside all of those emotions and simply focus on the problem at hand.
“I asked what is happening here,” he shouted again, sounding angry. He did not care if he came off as aggressive, but such everyday fights certainly angered him.
“He is refusing to give me my money, me laird,” the man who had walked towards him replied, his voice both angry and helpless at the same time. “I am a very poor man, and I sell clothes to make a living. This man here bought several clothes from me and did nae pay at the time saying he would pay later when he received his own money and is now denying that he ever even bought clothes from me.”
Christian turned to look at the other man, who was standing patiently at the other side as if waiting for the first man to finish. That struck as odd to Christian since usually, in such disputes, both parties were largely emotional and began to narrate their troubles almost instantly and altogether.
“Is that so?” Christian asked the other man just as he realized that he had seen the man somewhere before. He could not recognize him, but the man seemed familiar anyway.I must have seen him somewhere in the clan or the marketplace sometime,he thought to himself, once again shoving those thoughts away.
“Nay, me laird,” the other man said, making his way towards Christian, “I truly never bought as many clothes from him as he claims. I, too, am a poor man, and I only bought a few clothes from him and paid him for those immediately. He is simply looking to extract money from me and is making an entire debacle out of it so he can publicly embarrass me.”
