“I almost feel sorry for her,” Margaret said.
“Sybil is in danger,” Rory interrupted. “Excuse my bluntness, but can we rely on your household to keep this visit a secret?”
“Of course!” Margaret said. “Sybil will be safe here with us.”
Rory darted a piercing glance at Sybil. Before she could discern why, she was distracted by a voice behind her that made her cringe.
“Well, if it isn’t the scheming court beauty herself.”
Her brother-in-law. Sybil barely had time to wipe the sour expression from her face before he joined them.
“Ye look well, Sybil,” he said, raking his gaze over her.
His brazen assessment made her want to plant her dirk between his eyes. Though he was only two and twenty, he already had three children that Sybil knew of who were born on the wrong side of the blanket, which made Margaret suffer all the more for her childlessness.
“Congratulations,” Sybil said. “Ye must be pleased to have a child on the way.”
“This one will be a boy, and I’ll not tolerate losing him,” he said. “Praise God the two Margaret lost were only girls.”
Margaret drew in a sharp breath as if she’d been slapped. As her sister blinked back tears, Sybil felt such an explosion of rage at William’s callousness that she truly would have taken her dirk to him if she did not believe that would upset Margaret still more. Rory had moved away to lean against the wall in a relaxed pose, but his clenched fists told her he felt the same way she did about William.
“May this be the first of many healthy children,” Sybil said, taking Margaret’s hand between both of hers. “No woman will make a better mother.”
And no man will make a more miserable father.She glared at William, who filled his cup from a flagon on the table and showed no concern for the anguish he caused his wife.
“If Archie thought it was safe for ye to travel, that is good news,” William said, lifting his cup to Sybil in a mock toast. “I take it he’s back in Regent Albany’s good graces.”
Before Sybil could blurt out the news, Margaret intervened.
“My dear, I’ve neglected to introduce our guest,” Margaret said. “This is Rory MacDonald, who very kindly escorted Sybil to us.”
“Archibald sent ye here with a Highlander?” William shouted at Sybil. “Have you and your brother lost all sense of propriety?”
“We did not travel alone,” Rory said in hard tone that sounded as though he was dangerously affronted. “I brought a guard of twenty men. My men are camped a mile up the river.”
Sybil was a trifle disconcerted to discover that Rory lied under pressure as well as she did.
“What you need,” William said, wagging his finger in her face, “is a husband who will make ye behave as ye should.”
Usually it took years for a man to become such a pompous ass, but William had achieved it young. For her sister’s sake, Sybil bit back a reply.
“Please, William, not in front of our guest,” Margaret said under her breath.
William ignored his wife and continued questioning Sybil. “Ye brought no maidservant?”
“Under the circumstances, I gave no thought at all to propriety.”
“Ye never concern yourself with priority,” he snapped. “What’s your excuse this time?”
“My life was hanging by a thread,” Sybil said. “The queen’s men were shooting arrows at us.”
William’s eyes bulged and his arm halted midair with his cup halfway to his mouth.
“Ye haven’t heard yet?” Sybil asked. “Our brothers and uncle are banished for treason and have fled to France.”
She took a great satisfaction in shocking William, who spilled his wine down the front of his tunic, until she saw the distraught look on her sister’s face. As usual, Margaret attempted to smooth the tension.
“What a poor hostess I am,” Margaret said, and gestured for them to sit at the table. “You two must be hungry and thirsty after your journey. I’ll send for refreshments at once.”