Much Ado about a Scot by Gerri Russell

Author:Gerri Russell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781952560897
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2020-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

After the excitement from the early morning died down, and before they would spend the rest of the day making preparations for the feast, Xander, Isobel, Jamie, and other members of Gladmuir Hall had made their way to the local parish and attended the late-morning Sunday service and the fiery sermon given by the local minister, Reverend Brown.

Several times during the service, Xander caught the gazes of the villagers not upon him, a stranger in their midst, but on Isobel. When they left the church building, he heard whispers the villagers thought he and Isobel could not hear about her being a witch. Jamie ran ahead of them, exploring anything along the way that caught his eye as they made their way home.

“Does this happen to you often? The villagers calling you a witch?” Xander asked with a frown.

She shrugged, but the panicked look in her eyes told another story. “Only when I go out in public. They all believe I used magic to rid myself of Rory and Ezra. Most likely they are waiting and watching to see if I will do something to rid myself of you.”

His past experience with his brothers-in-arms and their wives and charges of witchcraft brought a cold terror to tighten his throat. She wanted to brush off the accusations, but he knew they could bring her terrible harm if reported to the right person. Perhaps he could petition the king on her behalf. It would be best to find a solution before the situation escalated further. “I’m not going anywhere. If they try anything, they will have to go through me first. I’ll protect you and Jamie.”

She stared at him. Bewilderment filled her gaze. “You hardly know me. Besides, defending me could cause you harm as well.”

“Do not add me to your overwhelming list of worries, Isobel. I can handle myself.”

Frowning, she turned away. “Come, let’s catch up to Jamie, then we won’t have to hear what they say at all.” Isobel picked up the front of her skirt and set a brisk pace that Xander immediately adopted.

Isobel had tried to hide her fear, but he’d seen the panic in her eyes when the villagers had called her a witch. Xander stewed over her situation while Isobel, Freya, and the workers he had hired started preparations for the feast. He was no help in the kitchen, and needing something else to occupy his mind, he opted for physical labor. He spent the rest of the morning until the afternoon sealing off the passageway in Isobel’s front parlor. He’d taken the ladders down from all the entrances, and destroyed them, making using them again impossible. Then he sealed the wall in Isobel’s parlor with wattle and daub. The mud, straw, and manure mixture would take a few days to dry before it would effectively work as a barrier, but since there was no way to access the passageway any longer, Xander wasn’t too concerned.

Another conversation that concerned him was the one he had heard between the Earls of Atholl and Gowrie.

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