“I’ll search all the rooms,” Tormod said grimly.
He started to turn away, but paused when Cameron stepped up beside Edith and asked, “Could she be the one who started the fire in the laird’s room?”
“What?” Niels asked with surprise.
Before Cameron could speak again, Edith explained, “Yesterday as we waited fer me bath to come, Moibeal, the lads and I went to take a look at the laird’s chamber to see what would need doing should we decide to move there. But when we got there we found evidence that someone has been using the room.”
“Aye, the room was warm, so I checked the fireplace,” Cameron announced. “I thought all there was in the hearth were ashes, but they were warm, some still embers.”
“And the bed is made up with linens and furs and had obviously been slept in,” Fearghas added.
When Niels immediately turned and headed up the hall, Edith followed. She didn’t realize everyone else was trailing her until Tormod barked, “Fearghas, get back to the stairs and guard them. Let no one up or down.”
The man sighed at missing out on all the excitement, but stopped at once as the rest of them continued to the door to the laird’s bedchamber.
“Is that lavender?” Rory asked, sniffing the air as he followed Edith and Niels into the room.
“Aye,” Niels said, running a boot over the dried petals strewn over the rush mats.
“’Tis warm,” Tormod commented.
“Aye, there are embers in the hearth again,” Cameron said, kneeling by the fireplace to poke around at them as he had the day before. Straightening, he looked to Tormod and assured him, “I saw no one enter or leave the room while Fearghas and I stood guard.”
“Tearlach and Wallace stood guard in the hall last night. They’ll be abed—go wake them and fetch them back here, Cameron,” Tormod ordered, moving to Niels’s side as he tugged the bed curtains open to reveal the disarranged linens and furs.
“Moibeal opened those yesterday, and we left them that way when we returned to me bedchamber,” Edith said solemnly. “Someone must have been here since.”
“Ye should have told me about this,” Niels said with a scowl as he turned to glance at her.
“I intended to,” she assured him, and then blushed. “But I did no’ really get the chance, and then quite forgot all about it until Cameron brought it up.”
“It did sound as if ye distracted her quite thoroughly,” Geordie said with amusement when Niels continued to glower.
“Aye, well, mayhap we should let some light in here,” Tormod muttered, hurrying to the nearest window to open the shutters.
Happy for the excuse to hide her face for a moment, Edith opened the shutters on the second window, and then glanced up with surprise when Niels was suddenly beside her.
“I’m sorry. I should no’ have snapped at ye,” he apologized, rubbing her back soothingly.
Edith smiled crookedly. “Ye did no’ really snap, m’laird.”
“Ye just growled like a bear,” Rory added as he passed them on the way to examine the water in the basin on the table between the two windows.
Scowling after him, Niels added heavily, “And I apologize for me brothers’ embarrassing behavior.”
“Our behavior?” Geordie asked with a hoot. “We are no’ the ones who kept everyone in the castle up half the night with our howling.”
Groaning, Edith closed her eyes and leaned her head on Niels’s chest, muttering, “Sorry. I’ll try to be quieter in future.”
She’d meant that for Niels and had said it low enough that she thought only he’d hear it, but Geordie said, “Oh, lass, ye’ve nothing to apologize fer. Yer voice was like a bird singing. ’Twas wondrous to hear. Now Niels on the other hand . . .”
“He sounded like a wounded bear,” Rory finished dryly. “Scared the little ones sleeping in the great hall near to death.”
“I’ll just wait in the hall and watch fer Tearlach and Wallace,” Tormod said loudly, obviously uncomfortable with this conversation.
“Now, see what ye’ve done,” Niels growled. “Ye’ve embarrassed me wife and Tormod.”
“Aye,” Rory said with a sigh and turned from the water to meet Edith’s gaze as she lifted her head and glanced toward him. Grimacing apologetically he said, “I’m sorry, lass. But truth to tell, we’ll probably do it again repeatedly over the years. Yer family now.”
“Aye,” Geordie agreed. “And that’s how we are with family.”
Much to Edith’s dismay, their words brought a sudden lump to her throat and tears were quickly filling her eyes.
“Oh, lass, do no’ cry,” Geordie said with alarm. “We’ll try to behave better.”
“It’ll probably no’ work, but we will try,” Rory assured her with concern.
Pulling back abruptly, Niels caught her chin in his hand and raised her face. He scowled when he saw the tears threatening to overflow her eyes, and Edith found herself suddenly pressed firmly to his chest as he began to thump her back as if burping a babe.
“I hope ye’re proud o’ yerselves,” he snapped. “Grown men making a wee lass weep.”
A burble of laughter slipped from Edith’s lips, and she pushed away from his chest. Shaking her head, she said, “’Tis fine. I’m no’ crying.”
“Actually, aye lass, ye are,” Rory said gently as she dashed away the tears that had spilled over onto her cheeks.
“Unless yer eyes are just leaking,” Geordie said hopefully. “But it does look like we made ye cry.”
“Nay,” she assured them, and then added, “Well, aye, but only because I was touched by yer considering me family.”
“Ah,” Rory said with understanding. “Well, I’m afraid yer stuck with us. Ye are family now that ye married our brother.”
“Aye,” Geordie growled, and then teased, “But the fact that ye agreed to marry him proves yer touched.”
Niels glowered at his brother, but Edith chuckled and then glanced toward the door as Tormod stepped back into the room to announce, “The men are coming.”
The first didn’t return to the hall then, but paced briefly in the center of the room as they awaited Cameron’s arrival with the guards who had been in the hall outside their chamber during the night.
Edith bit her lip and eyed the two men sympathetically when they hurried into the room on Cameron’s heels. Both men had obviously been rousted from a deep sleep and looked a bit panicked, as if they thought they were in trouble. It appeared Cameron hadn’t explained things and had simply rumbled them from their beds in the garrison and rushed them back here.
The moment they paused in front of Tormod, he asked, “Did ye see anyone coming or going from this room last night?”
“Nay,” they said in unison, both obviously surprised by the question. That more than anything said they hadn’t.
“Fine.” Tormod nodded. “Ye can find yer beds again.”
The two men looked more bewildered than when they’d entered, but nodded and turned to leave.
“That fire did no’ start itself,” Niels said now. “There must be a secret entrance. We should search the room.”
Tormod hesitated and then said, “There’s no need to search. I ken where it is.”
Edith glanced at him with surprise. “There’s a secret entrance?”
“Aye.”
“Where?” she asked, glancing around curiously.
Tormod hesitated and then said stiffly, “Only the Laird and Lady o’ Drummond ever ken where ’tis.”
“And you,” Niels added.
“Aye. Laird Drummond told me when Lady Drummond died. He felt someone besides him should ken in case he died unexpectedly before passing the secret on to his son,” Tormod explained.
Niels nodded solemnly and said, “If ye’d rather only tell Edith, my brothers and I can leave.”
She glanced to him with surprise at that, and opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, Tormod said, “Nay. Ye’re laird here now. Ye should ken.”
Edith relaxed and beamed at Tormod. The man had just given most definitive approval of her husband. Her people must have accepted him. It wasn’t something she’d even worried about ere this, but she was glad not to have to.
When Tormod still hesitated to speak, Niels said quietly, “I trust me brothers with me life.”
Sighing, the man nodded and turned to Cameron. “Close the door on yer way out.”
The soldier nodded smartly and slipped from the room, pulling the door closed behind him.
The moment it had shut, Tormod walked to the candle ledge to the left of the fireplace and pressed on the smallest stone in the middle. The wall on the left of the fireplace immediately shifted, a portion of it about seven feet tall and three wide sliding open about an inch. Tormod caught the raised edge and pulled the hidden door open into the room.
“Where does it go?” Niels asked as he, Geordie and Rory crowded into the opening to peer into the darkness revealed to them.
“This one leads to hidden stairs.”
“Stairs to where?” Edith asked, fascinated.
“They go both up to the wall and down to a passage at ground level with several hidden doors. There is one in one of the garderobes off the great hall, one in the pantry off the kitchens, one from the gardens and then another to a tunnel that runs out under the bailey and outer wall to a cave in the woods at a spot about halfway between where the woods start and where the loch is.”