Read Onyx for Free Online

life. And I’m willin’ ta bet that wench you’re searching for is here somewhere too. The woman I let get aboard a ship that day had a chest with a dead baby in it. And I also heard her say her name was Fenella. And she wore the plaid of The MacKeefes.”
    “And why did you keep this a secret for so long?” grumbled the guard.
    “I told the king’s men the day it happened, but they didn’t want to chase her into Scotland,” said the man. “They paid me to keep quiet so they wouldn’t have to go to the Highlands trying to find her. But when Lady Lovelle came asking questions after all these years, I knew I had to tell her.”
    “You mean you knew it was another opportunity to make some money,” spat the guard.
    “Give him another coin for his troubles and find us a table,” Lovelle told her guard, Weldon.
    “But Lady Loveday ,” said Weldon under his breath. “We don’t need to pay the man anything else. We found who we’re looking for, so he’s of no further use to us.”
    “Please don’t call me Loveday. You know I hate that name and have been called Lovell e by everyone for years now, except for my mother. And just do what I say,” she ordered, noticing all eyes in the room were on them. “We haven’t actually found the woman yet, and we may still need him to identify her.”
    This was a pub occupied by mainly Scottish, and she knew the English were not really welcome here, and it was risky to be here at all. She could only hope that most the Scots in the bar tonight were Lowlanders, as they had a higher tolerance of the English than the Highlanders. Actually, the Highlanders were barbaric, and though she felt as nervous as a maiden on her wedding night, she wouldn’t show it.
    W eldon paid the man again, and Twine disappeared into the crowd looking for a drink. A table of Scots vacated their seats and quickly huddled together across the room, whispering and looking over their shoulders. The pub was very crowded, and she even noticed women and children inside. The place seemed well kept, but yet some of the occupants looked less than desirable, and she longed for the comfort of her castle and servants back home.
    “I think the faster we get out of here the better, my lady,” said Weldon. “After all, it is New Year ’s Eve and these Scots have been drinking heavily. And you, a noblewoman, shouldn’t even be in here at all.”
    “I agree,” she said, settling herself at the ta ble with her men all around her. “But I can’t leave until I find what I came for. I may have never known my father, but I plan on finding his murderer and setting my mother’s mind at ease, even if it has taken me twenty years to do it.”
    “My lady, you know as well as anyone that your mother’s mind has been slipping and h as been very confused for a long time now. There is nothing you can do to help her.”
    Lovell e knew the man spoke the truth, but she just couldn’t give up hope. If she could only find what she was looking for, there may be a way to help her yet. With the information her mother had given her recently about a stolen object, she knew she’d found what she needed. She only hoped the woman who’d stolen it still had it and hadn’t sold it for coin.
    “Y ou also have a young son to care for,” the guard added. “If something happens to you, he’ll have no one to raise him.”
    “Charles is safe,” she said, speaking of her young son of seven years. “He is in Blackpool being fostered by the earl. That is what my husband, Hugh wanted, bless his soul.” She blessed herself more for show than anything, as she didn’t miss her elderly husband at all. She’d been married at the young age of four and ten years, and just a year later she had bore the baron his first and only child.
    “Excuse me for saying, my lady, but your husband was nearly forty years your senior. You don’t have to put up pretense for me, as none of us liked the man, and I’m probably safe to say that you