Page 71 of The Beast

“A wonderful idea,” Ella said and meant it. She’d admired Beatrice’s penmanship and was excited at the prospect of improving hers.

Beatrice went down the corridor to find her mother. Hopefully, they’d not left for their weekly trip to the village. The sitting room was empty, so she hurried down the stairs. Upon hearing voices, she went to the dining hall.

Her father, mother, Lady Mariel, and Darach sat around the table talking. Upon her entrance, the conversation ceased, and everyone seemed surprised to see her.

“Did something happen?” Beatrice asked nearing the table.

Darach held what looked to be a letter that he placed his hand over. The discreet movement didn’t fool her for one moment.

“Tell me.”

Her father motioned to a chair. “It is a message from Stuart about yer husband.”

Knees buckling, she lowered to a chair. “Did something happen to Duncan?”

Darach began reading, but after the first few words, Beatrice did not wish to hear anymore. Apparently, Gideon and Ewan had given up trying to find him. They’d found a place that he’d been living at for the last months, but he’d left by the time they arrived.

“The weather is much too cold for them to be out looking for someone who does not wish to be found,” Beatrice said meeting Darach’s gaze. “Why would ye put yer brothers’ lives in danger?”

Lady Mariel placed a hand over Darach’s to stop him from replying and spoke. “Because he is my first-born child. They did it for me. Despite doing my best to remain strong, every day I am aggrieved at not knowing his fate.” A tear trickled down the woman’s face and she wiped it away. “However, Ewan and Gideon are also my sons, and I am relieved they have returned to Keep Ross and will remain there safely for the winter.”

The frivolity of asking for journals and quills disappeared and instead Beatrice left the room and walked past the kitchens to the inner courtyard. Once there, it still felt confined. So instead, she hurried up the outdoor stairs until reaching the rooftop.

There were only two guards on duty. One of the guards neared greeting her with a cheery smile. “Miss Beatrice, it is very cold up here. Ye should have worn something heavier if ye plan to remain for long.”

She shook her head. “I feel a bit overheated; the cold does not bother me right now.”

Seeming to sense she needed time alone, the men went to the far corner and kept watch. Beatrice wasn’t sure why she’d gone there, but the view from there had always calmed her. Perhaps it was why these men seemed in good spirits. In the distance she could see the seashore, the huge expanse that seemed to go to the end of the world.

When she turned to the opposite side, green mountains made for a beautiful background to the village and farms they sheltered.

On the winding road, a wagon pulled by a horse made its way toward the keep. The guards immediately moved to keep watch, tracking its progress. One of them called down to another who then called to the men who guarded the outer courtyard gates.

No longer interested in who the people were that headed toward them, Beatrice decided to go back inside. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, somehow the news that Duncan remained gone was not bad news. It would have been worse to hear he’d returned home and not to her.

When she opened her eyes, a lone rider appeared. He headed from the seaside in the direction of the keep.

“A rider,” Beatrice called over her shoulder to the guards, who hurried to her side.

Whoever he was, he seemed to be in a hurry, urging the horse to gallop at full strides.

The guard once again called down to another, who informed those at the gates of the rider approaching.

Beatrice turned away, it mattered little to her who came and went. If anything, she planned to go to her bedchamber or perhaps Ella’s and stay there until whoever it was left.

Then something made her look back. The rider wore Ross colors. The green and black standing out from the usual red and yellow of her clan.

The closer the rider came, the harder her heart thundered in her chest. It was him.

Duncan had come to North Uist.

Beatrice hurried to the stairs, raced down them, and then through the great room. She went up the stairwell to the second floor, to her bedchamber, and slammed the door behind. Her hands trembled as she fought to insert the metal key into the lock, but she managed to lock the door firmly. Once that was complete, she pushed a table in front of it, and not satisfied with that, a chair joined the blockade.

Unable to form a thought, she couldn’t keep from rushing to the window to look out. Despite her view of the opposite side, she could glimpse the side of the inner courtyard where visitors had to pass to enter the house.

The guards would stop Duncan, of that, she was sure. He would not be allowed to enter until Evander allowed it.

“Oh no,” Beatrice said out loud. Her brothers would not be happy to see her husband. There would be a fight. She had absolutely no doubt about it.