Just Beyond Tomorrow by Bertrice Small Read Free Book Online Page B

already killed one royal Stuart. Ye know how to manage a household, for we’ve all struggled to teach ye the rudiments of housekeeping. Despite yer stubbornness ye’re quite clever. Whatever else there is, ye’ll learn.”
    â€œTake my daughter to her chamber and see that she’s properly prepared for her wedding,” Lachlann Brodie ordered the women.
    Immediately her brothers’ wives and their daughters gathered around Flanna and led her off. Her maidservant, Aggie, pressed near Flanna.
    â€œYe’ll take me wi’ ye, mistress, won’t ye?” she said nervously.
    â€œAye, ye and Angus will come to Glenkirk wi’ me,” Flanna replied. She turned suddenly, speaking directly to the duke. “I may have Aggie and Angus, may I nae? I’ll nae go wi’out them.”
    â€œOf course yer servants may come wi’ ye,” he assured her. She had given him a very determined look when she importuned him, although the truth was she had no authority in the matter. Still, it was little enough, and all the brides who came to Glenkirk had come with their own personal servants.
    Flanna felt numb. She stood, unprotesting, as her sisters-in-law pulled her clothing off her and hustled her into a hot tub. “We’d best start wi’ my hair,” she said low to Aggie, who nodded in agreement.
    â€œWe’ll pack yer things for ye,” Una said, “though I doubt much of it will be good enough for Glenkirk Castle. Still, ye know how to sew. Ye and Aggie can make some pretty new gowns, I’m sure. The duke will nae be tight wi’ a bride. Ask right away before he grows bored wi’ ye, Flanna. I’m certain he’ll gie ye the key to the storerooms where ye’re certain to find silks and other fine stuffs.”
    â€œI want nothing from him,” Flanna said coldly. “He will hae the only thing I ever truly wanted, and that is Brae.”
    â€œDinna be a fool,” Una said sharply.
    â€œThe old man should hae taken the five hundred crowns,” Ailis said. “Imagine Flaming Flanna a duchess,” she tittered.
    â€œShut yer mouth, ye mean shrew,” Una snapped. “If old Lachlann had taken the gold, do ye think ye or any of us would hae seen any of it, Ailis? I’ll remind ye that my Aulay is the old man’s heir. Yer Simon is but the next to youngest son. The land belonged to Flanna, through her mam. The luck is hers, nae ours, although I’m as surprised as any of ye that Lachlann Brodie passed up five hundred pieces of gold. Still, he loved Meg Gordon dearly, and she loved him despite the disparity in their ages.”
    The chamber grew quiet then. Una was the matriarch of the family. Though a hard woman with little patience for fools and a quick temper, she had a good heart. There was none, even her own father-in-law, who could say she was needlessly cruel, but she ruled the women of Lachlann Brodie’s house with an iron hand, demanding instant obedience and chaste behavior. She swiftly punished any who flaunted her authority, even Flanna, for whom she had a small soft spot.
    Una Brodie had lost her only daughter in the same winter epidemic that had killed Flanna’s mother. While she had four sons, her daughter had been the child of her heart. She had been ill herself, and it was Meg Gordon who had nursed both her and her child, thereby contracting the contagion that killed her. Flanna, though nothing like Una’s Mary, was a daughter without a mother; and Una, a mother without a daughter. Though nothing was ever said, she took the child over, raising her as best she could, for Flanna had never been easy, even from her birth, and Meg had spoiled her.
    Properly scrubbed, Flanna stepped naked from the oaken tub to be dried. Her thick hair was toweled and then brushed by the fire until it was soft and shining. A snow-white linen shift was brought, and the bride dressed in it. A small wreath of heather and