Read Amanda Scott for Free Online Page A

now.”
    “Aye, sure, me lady,” Angus said. “But me duties now lie wi’ me laird.”
    “They do, and you may go to him at once. But no one in the lower hall must suspect the tragedy. I warrant most of them believe he just took too much drink.”
    “Beg pardon, me lady, but the laird ha’ kinsmen here, ye ken. Some o’ them will take it gey amiss an ye dinna tell them at once.”
    “Those who must be told will be told,” Lady Clendenen agreed. “But few if any members of his immediate family were able to come on such short notice.”
    “Aye, ’twas done in a blink.” He frowned. “We’ll take him home, o’ course.”
    “Arrange it as you will,” she said. “I know you’ll see it done as it should be.”
    Adela shivered at the thought that everyone would expect her to escort her husband’s corpse on its long journey home to Loch Alsh. “How … how
will
we manage that?” she asked.
    Angus was already out the door, but Lady Clendenen said briskly, “You, my dearling, will manage best by letting Angus look after Ardelve. I know I am not truly your mother, of course, but you would be wise to heed my advice.”
    “I am grateful for it, madam. You must know far more about such situations than I.” Meeting Lady Clendenen’s astonished gaze, Adela grimaced. “I beg your pardon,” she said. “I should not—”
    “Bless you,” her ladyship said with a chuckle. “You need not fret when you say just what you think to me. I am of that same ilk, myself.”
    “But I should not—”
    “No more apologies, for I mean to speak plainly myself,” Lady Clendenen said. “Your pallor alarms me, child. I know all about your dreadful abduction a few weeks ago. ’Tis because of it that I fear you might look on this tragic incident as an excuse to immure yourself in Ardelve’s castle. That will not do at all.”
    “But duty requires that I accompany him home, madam, and see him buried.”
    “I do not recommend it,” her ladyship said. “But may I suggest that you will feel better if you wash your face and hands? I am sure there is no hot water in here yet, but there must be cold water in that ewer on the washstand. Let me wet a cloth for you whilst you sit on that stool by the hearth. Despite the fire, it is chilly in here.”
    Deciding that matters had been taken out of her hands if, indeed, she had ever held them, Adela obeyed, realizing only as the fire’s warmth began to penetrate that her hands and feet were icy cold.
    Holding them out to the warmth, she said nothing until her ladyship returned to her with a damp cloth, and then only to express her thanks.
    “Here is a towel, too,” Lady Clendenen said, laying a small one across Adela’s lap before moving to the window. “Sakes, what happened to our sunlight?” she demanded, sweeping the curtains aside, “I swear I saw no sign of this murk approaching when we crossed the court-yard earlier.”
    Adela lowered the damp cloth to see curling wisps of mist outside the window. “How thick is it?”
    “Thick enough that Isabella will find herself with more overnight company than she expected.”
    “That won’t trouble her,” Adela said. “Hugo will be annoyed, because if it gets too thick, he’ll have to take the guards off the ramparts and send them and any number of others into the glen to keep watch over the approaches to the castle.”
    Lady Clendenen shrugged. “I’ve seen fog in these parts so dense that one could scarcely see one’s hand before one’s face even in daylight. ’Tis bad near any river, and especially so here with the Esk flowing right round three quarters of Roslin’s promontory. The lads will not find it so murky in the woods.”
    Adela pressed the damp cloth against her forehead. Despite the chill, it felt good against her face. And with the cloth over her eyes, she felt a sense of badly needed solitude, if only while her companion remained silent, gazing out at the fog.
    Hearing movement of her ladyship’s return to