Chapter 3

3

L ewis was absent from dinner that night, and Edina wondered why, although she was not surprised. Lewis was the most capricious man she had ever met, and she decided that nothing he did from now on would surprise her.

"Before you ask where Lewis is," the Laird said as he cut off a piece of meat from the roast on the table, "he is likely in his room reading, drawing pictures or playing chess by himself. He and Aidan used to play together a lot, and were very evenly matched. I know it may seem strange, but my two boys were very close, and sometimes Lewis misses his brother so much I think he wants to be alone so he can think about him and perhaps pretend he is here."

They are talking about Aidan as though he is dead, Edina thought, but she did not voice the notion, although it bothered her. The idea of him being so far away must leave such a hole in a close family, she thought. Edina looked at the normally happy faces of the Laird and Lady. They were suddenly a little subdued, but as she watched, Laird Findlay leaned over to kiss his wife's cheek, and she smiled at him with such love it was almost palpable.

However, the thought of Aidan did not leave her. She wondered what he looked like now. Judging by the reaction of the village woman, the likeness between Lewis and him must have been so strong, they were akin to identical twins.

"You will not see Lewis tomorrow, either," Lady Findlay said. "He will probably go hunting, and be up at the crack of dawn."

"Hunting?" Edina asked in disbelief. "On his own, Milady?"

"Only for small game," the Laird answered instead. "Rabbits, game birds, that kind of thing. He brings it to the pot, and nothing is ever wasted. Aidan was the one to seek bigger prey, but Lewis has always been humble."

"Ah!" Roy McCarthy cried, laughing. "My daughter is very frugal, too."

"There are a lot of people in the country who have nothing," Edina pointed out. "I am going to learn to hunt and fish, then help provide for some of the poor in the village."

"What else are you thinking of doing?" Bettina asked, smiling proudly. "Did riding with Lewis give you any more ideas?

"Yes!" Edina's voice was eager. "I see that there is an orphanage there, and they need some basic education, as do all the other children in the village, so I would like to start a school for them all if M'Laird permits it. As well as that, I can see that many of their clothes are in terrible condition. Very likely they have been outgrown by one child and passed down to the next, and gradually worn out, and I would like to do something about that, too."

"What do you suggest?" Lady Findlay asked, interested.

"I can do some basic sewing, Milady" Edina answered, "but too much needs to be done. I would like to employ some seamstresses and give them work. It need not be elaborate. If the clothes are hard-wearing and practical, that will be enough, and probably some of the village women can do it."

She paused for a second, then, warming to her theme, she went on.

"If they can make enough strong working clothes, perhaps we can begin to sell them to the workers of other villages at a cheap price. Is it wonderful, Milady?"

She clapped her hands in joy as idea after idea came pouring into her head.

"Before you go on," Lady Findlay leaned forward and grasped Edina's hands. "This needs thinking, planning and discussion with the villagers concerned. I admire your ideas and your strength and determination, but let's not get carried away. We need to start slowly and build up momentum, not try to run before we can walk."

Edina nodded, trying to calm down. "I want to do everything now," she cried, laughing even as she was filled with frustration.

However, they were right, and a proper strategy would have to be put in place before anything was done.

"Edina, you are such a good girl," her father said proudly. "Nobody I know has a heart as big as yours."

Contrary to what they had told Edina, Lewis had changed his plans for the day and decided to go out riding with the guards from the castle instead of spending the day by himself. However, even as he rode along in the company of twenty guards, all of whom were swearing, cracking lewd jokes and laughing outrageously, he could not wrench his thoughts away.

Presently, they came to the burn at the bottom of the hill and stopped to let the horses drink. Lewis would usually dismount at this point and drink ale with the rest of the company, but this morning he simply sat on his horse's back, staring into space.

"Ye look as if somethin' is botherin' ye, Master." The second-in-command of the guard, a tall, bulky redhead called Douglas Black, frowned at him. "Is anythin' wrong?"

"No, thank you, Douglas," Lewis answered, smiling at him. "I am a bit tired, that is all."

Thinking to distract him, Douglas asked, "Young Mistress McCarthy has turned intae a nice lookin' lass, eh?"

Lewis's heart lurched at the mention of Edina, but he merely said, "Yes, she is."

"Aye," the older man went on, laughing. "If I was a bit richer, I would tell my son, Ally, tae set his cap on her, but the world isnae like that, is it, Master?"

There was no resentment in his voice. The world was as it had ever been, divided between rich and poor, upper class and lower class.

"No." Lewis patted the other man's shoulder. "I wish it could be different, though."

Since her arrival, she had been all he could think about. The gloomy atmosphere in the castle had magically changed, and everyone's mood was lifted by her presence. The fact that Edina enjoyed everyone's attention gave him a small window to breathe on his own, having his parents off his back for a while. He was grateful for that, but his thoughts troubled him still; Those smoky, violet eyes haunted his mind like two mirrors that reflected his soul.

They stayed for another few minutes before heading back up to the castle, where, as luck would have it, Edina was standing watching some of the guards wrestling.

She looked very appreciative indeed. She was even shouting encouragement to the smaller of the two men, and Lewis realised that she was obviously one of those people who liked to see the underdog win, as he did.

He smiled inwardly, then checked himself. He was supposed to be trying not to think about her! Lewis was about to move away before she saw him, but she turned around, and her gaze met his squarely. He saw her smiling at him, then her expression became fixed, as if she could not look away.

However, Lewis was afire with jealousy as he saw the guardsmen casting appreciative glances her way and talking about her behind their hands. He felt angry enough to go and punch one of their smug noses, but as the Laird's son, he could not set such a bad example.

Instead, he strode across to the two wrestlers on the ground and hauled the smaller one to his feet. "Go and have a bath, Altair," he instructed tersely. The man looked puzzled, but obeyed his orders, then Lewis faced the bigger man with a savage grin.

"Ready for action, Geordie?" he asked. The man was so tall he could look Lewis straight in the eye, and now he smiled back at him. "On your feet this time."

"Aye. Ready when you are, Master," he replied with a grim smile.

The two men clasped hands, fist to fist, elbow to elbow, then began to fight. Lewis landed the first blow on Geordie's jaw, but the other man was a seasoned fighter and replied with a hook underneath his opponent's chin. Lewis's head snapped back, and he stumbled off-balance for a few seconds before righting himself and charging at Geordie, who sidestepped.

Lewis was not new to boxing, but he did not let it show. He had only picked the fight with Geordie to distract the men's attention, anyway. If they were watching him, they would not be ogling Edina.

Edina remembered the first time she had seen Lewis, his dark red hair the colour of flame in the sunlight, every sinewy line of his body so overwhelmingly masculine that she could hardly believe it. Now, seeing him sweaty and dishevelled, he was even more so, and she felt such a leap of desire inside herself that she wanted to throw herself into his arms.

What would it feel like to kiss those full lips, she wondered? She had never kissed a man before, but now she very much wished that Lewis could be her first.

Edina thought that boxing was not at the forefront of Lewis's skills. She had seen him on a horse, and by the grace and ease of his seat and the way he controlled the animal, she knew that his talents lay in that direction. As well as that, he was an excellent swordsman and archer, but boxing was always his brother's strong suit.

After a while, Edina realised that he was not even trying very hard, and wondered if he was acting like a very untalented boxer to encourage people to watch him get beaten. If so, he was succeeding, since everyone around the courtyard was pointing and jeering at them.

For a split second, Edina thought he had been knocked unconscious, then Lewis rose on his elbows and several of his men hauled him to his feet and took him away, every one of them in stitches.

Edina had just seen another side of this complicated man, one who was not averse to making a joke against himself for the amusement of others. He was not always the grim, temperamental creature she had seen so far. No—he could act in a way that made him look like a man with a self-deprecating sense of humour, just to bring out the best in other people, and her admiration for him increased tenfold.

Her maid, a young woman of seventeen called Mairi, watched him walking away and sighed.

"Dae ye mind if I say somethin', Mistress?" she asked.

"Of course not," Edina replied, smiling at the girl. "I am never going to be one of those employers who do not give you the freedom to speak your mind and ask me questions. Anything you say to me stays between us."

Mairi stared up at Edina adoringly.

"Thank ye, Mistress," she said happily. "As soon as I saw ye, I knew I was goin' tae like ye. I wanted tae ask ye if ye thought the Laird's son was a handsome man."

Her cheeks had gone a rosy shade of pink as she spoke, then she dropped her gaze from Edina's, embarrassed.

"I do, and I think most other young ladies do too, Mairi," she replied. "So you are not alone."

Mairi giggled. "A' the maids are in love wi' him, Mistress," she said in a confidential voice.

Now it was Edina's turn to laugh.

"I am sure he will be betrothed to some rich heiress soon."

"But no' you, Mistress?" Mairi sounded surprised.

"I have too much to do to worry about marriage yet, Mairi," Edina told her. "I have other plans. Let me tell you about them later, and perhaps you can help me. Now I must go."

She had just seen Lewis walking towards the room where the herbalist and healer did her work, and she ran to catch up with him.

"Lewis!" she cried as she reached him.

He turned around, saw her, and the expression on his face changed from being one of calm thoughtfulness to a sudden wariness, almost as if a shutter had come down over his face.

"Have you hurt yourself?"

She looked down at his right hand, which he was cradling in his left, and saw that it was bleeding.

"I cut it on his belt buckle," Lewis replied carelessly. "I am going to bandage it."

They walked in silence beside each other, but each of them prickled with awareness of the other, and by the time they arrived at the healer's chamber, Edina felt as if she wanted to scream with frustration. Why would he not say anything? It had only been a few days, but she had known him for years, and she still loved the little boy she knew was inside him as well as the big, desirable man.

When they reached the room, they saw that it was empty, and Lewis gave a grunt of irritation. Edina looked down at the cut on his palm and saw that although it was a couple of inches long, it was not too deep. In fact, it looked much worse than it was.

"I do not think it will need much medical skill to fix this up," she remarked. "I think I can do it myself. Come. Sit on that chair and let me see what I can do."

"Are you sure?" he asked doubtfully. "Do you have any training?"

"No," she replied, "but I am sure bandaging a cut does not strain the intellect too much." Then she laughed. "We were always patching each other up like this when we were children."

Lewis sat, and Edina took hold of his hand and gently swabbed it clean, washed it with vinegar, then wrapped it in a clean bandage. She had expected the hands of a Laird's son to be soft, but his skin was hard and calloused, like that of a workman, and it surprised her.

When Edina had finished, she stood back to admire her handiwork, and smiled at him.

"All done."

"Thank you," he said, smiling as he turned his hand around to see each side. Then he looked up and was immediately lost in her smokey grey-violet eyes.

"Why were you watching my father's men practise today?"

Edina looked at him with a strange expression that was half-smile, half frown.

"Why not? It is quite entertaining. But why are you asking me that?" she asked.

Lewis dropped his gaze to his hands again and began to inspect them minutely, then he shrugged and said nonchalantly, "I'm just curious."

Edina laughed heartily at that.

"Are you worried about my reputation, Lewis?" she asked mischievously. "Thank you for your concern, but you have known me for a long time. It surely has not escaped your notice that I simply do not care what people think of me. I like looking at the men practising. They have good, strong bodies and are exciting to watch, and I am a young, healthy woman. If they think I am looking for admiration, well, not especially, but it is nice to have, and nice to give."

Lewis kept silent for a few moments, and then he stood up abruptly.

"I will see you at dinner," Lewis said flatly, and giving Edina a polite nod, he walked away.

She watched him moving down the corridor till he was out of sight, then sighed and shook her head. Would she ever understand Lewis Findlay? Somehow she did not think so. He was a complete enigma.