Free An English Bride In Scotland by Lynsay Sands Page A

blank at this news, because Seonag explained, “Liam is his second. He’ll be filling the laird in on what happened while he was away.”
    “Oh, aye, of course.” Annabel nodded.
    Smiling, Seonag shifted behind the tub again, but this time to rinse away the soap she’d applied. As she finished, she said, “I’ll wash yer hair now and then leave ye to finish while I sort through the gowns. There must be one or two we can make do with until the merchant comes around with cloth we can buy to make ye a wardrobe.”
    “Gowns?” Annabel asked with interest, glancing around. Her gaze landed on the chest that had been carried in last.
    “Aye. The laird said as how he didn’t even give ye time to pack a chest to bring with ye and ye’d need new gowns so I had the boys bring in Lady Magaidh’s chest.”
    Annabel bit her lip, but was saved from having to comment when Seonag had her lean back so that she could dampen her hair. She was very aware, though, that there had been nothing to pack. The gown she’d worn to Waverly had been burned. She wasn’t even sure whose gown she’d worn to be married in. In all the panic of the situation, she hadn’t thought to ask. She assumed, though, that it had been the wedding gown made for Kate to wear to marry Ross. It certainly hadn’t been made for her. Her mother’s servants had needed to add panels to the sides to make it large enough to fit her and had worked feverishly to get that done while Annabel had been bathed and prepared. Fortunately, Kate was apparently taller as well as thinner, and the three inches that had been cut from the hem of the skirt so that she didn’t tread on it had been long enough to make two panels, one for each side.
    “Who is Lady Magaidh?” Annabel asked curiously as Seonag soaped her hair.
    “The laird’s mother,” Seonag answered, and explained, “She passed five years ago, so the gowns aren’t new, but surely there will be something that will do.”
    Annabel nodded silently.
    “The two o’ ye are of a size too, so there shouldn’t be much need for alterations except to modernize them a bit,” Seonag added cheerfully. “And that is grand.”
    “Aye,” Annabel agreed as Seonag began to rinse the soap from her hair. But she couldn’t help thinking this was the first time anyone had thought her over-generous curves were a good thing. Her mother had made several disappointed comments as they’d prepared her for the wedding, obviously wishing she’d been tall and slender like her sister, Kate, had apparently grown to be. Certainly the abbess had done nothing but criticize her for the gluttony she felt Annabel’s size revealed.
    “There ye go. All done,” Seonag said lightly, urging her to sit up in the tub again. “Ye finish up and I’ll go start sorting through the gowns.”
    Annabel accepted the cloth she was offered and began to run the soapy swath of linen over her arms and chest, but her gaze was on Seonag as she bustled over to the chest and opened it to reveal a collection of colorful material. She watched her lift out the first gown, a deep red creation that she examined briefly before laying it across the foot of the bed. It was followed by a dark forest green gown before a burnished orange one with a large stain on it was dropped to the floor.
    Several more gowns were laid across the bed before Annabel finished her bath, but the moment she began to wring out the cloth she’d been using to wash with and started to stand up, Seonag dropped what she was doing and rushed to grab a large dry linen to wrap around her.
    “Thank you,” Annabel said with a crooked smile. She simply wasn’t used to being tended to like this and was uncomfortable with it. But she didn’t admit as much. The woman would probably wonder what was wrong with her. Annabel supposed this was how ladies were treated . . . when they weren’t oblates in a nunnery.
    “Here now, come sit by the hearth and I’ll brush yer hair,” Seonag said, taking