To Marry A Scottish Laird by Lynsay Sands Page A

surprise. “The tavern owner’s wife?”
    “Aye. I have stopped here many times and there is a village a short walk away with a tavern that always has delicious food. Rather than hunt up our meal, and clean and cook it, I thought I’d simply buy it from the tavern keeper’s wife and fetch it back. Fortunately, while she was offering stew to the customers, she had a roast chicken for herself and her husband that I was able to convince her to sell me. A lucky thing since I had no idea how I would have fetched stew back here. It would have soaked through the trenchers before I could make it back.”
    “Aye,” Jo murmured, her face practically buried in the bag as she examined the contents; roast chicken, dark bread, cheese and two ripe apples. It all looked and smelled divine.
    “Well, what are ye waiting fer?” Cam asked suddenly. “I’ve been smelling that all the way back from the inn. Get the food out. Ye must be hungry. I ken I’m starved. We’ve no’ eaten since last night.”
    Jo hesitated, and then set down the bag of food to reach for her medicinal bag. Aware that Cam was watching her with bewilderment, she quickly pulled out some clean dry linen and set it on the ground. Only then did she start to unpack the food from the inn. The strips of linen might not usually be used this way, but she hadn’t wanted to set the food on the ground and be spitting out dirt all night. Besides, the linen could be washed afterward.
    “How’s yer head?” Cam asked, breaking off a drumstick from the chicken and passing it to her.
    “A little sore but fine,” she answered. She then took the offered meat and murmured, “Thank you.”
    She waited until Cam had broken off a leg for himself as well and was raising it to his mouth before taking her own first bite of the meat. The moment she did though, her eyes closed on a little moan of pleasure. She’d thought the rabbit was good, but this was positively heaven. Jo swallowed with a sigh and opened her eyes, the drumstick already rising to her mouth again. She wanted to go slow and savor, but didn’t think she could. This was possibly the best thing she’d ever tasted in her life. The truth was, while her mother had been a fine healer, she hadn’t been much of a cook, and Jo had learned everything she knew from her mother. Even had they been able to afford a whole chicken to roast, which they wouldn’t have, she never could have produced a bird as moist and well seasoned as this. And the bread and cheese were just as good, she found as she sampled those. It must be a popular inn indeed if it served such fine food, she decided.
    Hungry as they were, and good as the food was, it didn’t take them long to clear away the chicken. Joan was done first and settled back to watch Cam finish off the rest of the bird. There was no sense saving any, it would only go bad. That wasn’t true of the cheese and bread though, so after a bite or two each, they’d decided to concentrate on the chicken alone and take the cheese, bread and apples with them to eat on the horse at nooning the next day.
    “Well,” Cam said, swallowing the last bite of chicken. “That was well worth the walk and wait.”
    “Aye,” Jo agreed with a small smile. “Thank you.”
    “Me pleasure,” Cam said and then raised an eyebrow when she got to her feet. “Where are ye off to?”
    “To wash chicken grease off me hands and . . . er . . . tend to other matters,” she muttered, aware that a boy would have said they were draining the snake or some other such thing.
    “How’s yer head. Will ye be all right on yer own?” Cam asked with concern.
    “I’m fine,” she assured him. “My head barely aches anymore.”
    “Hmm,” Cam muttered, and then shrugged and said, “Shout if ye need help.”
    Jo merely grunted and headed off into the woods around the clearing. She hardly needed help relieving herself. Her head wound really wasn’t that bad. The bump was a good size, but not alarmingly