Read Online The Saint by Monica Mccarty - Free Book Online Page B

with Magnus. “My bride probably won’t even have a chance to miss me.”

Three

    “Gone?” Helen echoed, stunned.
    Bella frowned. “Aye. The men were called away late last night on a mission for the king. Did William not tell you?”
    Helen fought to control the rise of heat to her cheeks but failed. She shook her head. “I … I must have been asleep.”
    Christina ascribed her reaction to maidenly modesty. “He probably didn’t want to wake you. You must have been exhausted after such a long … day.” She smiled.
    “Aye, no doubt he was just being considerate,” Bella agreed, although it was obvious she was concerned.
    Helen took another piece of bread from the platter and smothered it with butter to cover her embarrassment. She’d stayed awake most of the night anxiously waiting for the door to open to give William her answer. She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she remembered was waking to an ice-cold room. The young maidservant who came to light the fires in the morning must have been told not to disturb them. A consideration that had proved unnecessary.
    Why hadn’t William returned? Was he giving her more time to decide or had something prevented him? Fearing the reason might have something to do with Magnus, Helen had hesitated to leave her room. But hunger and curiosityhad gotten the better of her, and she’d made her way down to the Great Hall to break her fast.
    The success of the celebration was evident in the number of guests still sprawled out on the floor sleeping. Bella and Christina, however, were awake, and—much to Helen’s surprise—had immediately expressed how sorry they were on her behalf that the men had been called away right after her wedding.
    “Did your husbands go as well?” Helen asked.
    “Aye,” Bella answered. “A number of the men were called away.”
    Her heart jumped. Magnus? Did he go, too? Bella must have guessed the direction of her thoughts because she nodded in response.
    “Where did they go?” she asked.
    The women exchanged looks. “I’m not precisely sure,” Christina said carefully.
    Too carefully. Helen sensed there was something they were not telling her.
    “They never tell us exactly where they are going,” Bella added dryly.
    Helen frowned. “Does William usually fight with your husbands?”
    “Not all the time,” Christina offered in another vague response.
    “When will they be back?”
    “A week,” Bella said. “Maybe longer.”
    Helen knew she shouldn’t feel so relieved, but she was. William’s departure gave her plenty of time to prepare herself for what was to come. For she did not delude herself—if she took William’s offer, it would make all her previous “wayward” decisions pale in comparison.
    “It seems odd that they would be called away in the middle of the celebration like that,” she said. Especially the groom. According to Kenneth, William had been a man-at-arms for his uncle Sir Adam Gordon—the head of ClanGordon. When they’d had a falling-out, he’d joined Bruce, then the Earl of Carrick, in his rebellion. That William had distinguished himself on the battlefield was evidenced by the king’s insistence that the wedding be held at his recently acquired castle of Dunstaffnage. But beyond that, she knew little about his place in Bruce’s army. “What is it exactly that William does for the king?”
    Both women appeared decidedly uncomfortable—even nervous—about her question. “It’s best if William explains it to you,” Bella said.
    Christina leaned closer, so as to not be overheard. “I know you have questions, but try to keep them until William returns. It’s safer that way. Questions sometimes have a way of reaching the wrong ears.”
    Helen didn’t understand the warning, except to know that she’d been given one. She decided to let it go—for now.
    She would recall it, however, a short while later when her brothers and Donald Munro entered the Great Hall. Dreading their