by Alisa Adams
Gillis pursed her lips and adjusted her hanky for the hundredth time over her mouth and nose. “If she was worried about getting your sickness, she would have gotten sick by now. Why is she wearing a mask now, and not then?” Gillis asked as she studied Cat’s face. “Did she wear a mask when you were sick all those many months before you went adventuring to Brough Castle with Lady Kaithria and Lady Neely?”
Cat studied the bed coverings, deep in thought. “Nay,” she said, looking at Gillis. “Never.”
“And Rhona never sickened, though she was the only one taking care of you?” Gillis asked firmly.
“Aye,” Cat whispered.
“There you have it!” Gillis exclaimed as she scribbled away in her book again with the small rectangular pencil which she then stuck in her hair.
“I still dinnae understand,” Cat said in confusion. “I am sorry, the sickness makes me confused at times. That is what Rhona tells me, anyway.”
Gillis grabbed her pencil and wrote furiously away in her book again.
“Where are all yer dresses, Cat?” Kaithria asked suddenly in a soft, thoughtful voice.
Cat pointed across the room. “In that wardrobe. Why?”
Kaithria got off the bed and walked across the room. As she passed the tall elegant windows she stopped to open the curtains and let in more light. When she did that she noticed the shutters behind the curtains were also closed. Kaithria tried to open them again, and then again, but she could not. She placed her hands on her hips and studied them quietly. She looked meaningfully back at Gillis with a small shake of her head. Then she walked over to the wardrobe and pulled it open.
“As I thought,” Kaithria said musingly.
“What is it, Kaithria?” Cat asked.
Kaithria moved to the side of the wardrobe.
It was empty.
“Where are all me dresses?” Cat said with surprise on her pale face.
Gillis looked at Cat and snapped her fingers. “I am thinking they are in your housekeeper's wardrobe.”
“What?” exclaimed Cat. “That makes little sense. ’Tis a glaikit thing if she took me clothes, but whatever for? Perhaps she is washing the sickness from them?”
“She is wearing one of yer dresses at this moment,” Kaithria said quietly. And even quieter she added, “She received us as the lady of the house.”
Cat’s mouth opened and she blinked rapidly as she looked around the room, at her hands, anywhere but at her friends. “Perhaps she felt she had to dress better to see to the villagers’ questions about the harvest or other problems…so they would be open to her guidance in my absence...”
Kaithria shrugged. “Perhaps.”
“Nonsense!” Gillis said crisply with a snap of her fingers.
“Gillis,” Kaithria admonished her softly.
“Tell me Gillis, I can take it,” Cat said and heaved herself up straighter, trying to get comfortable against her pillows; she was left shaking and trembling at the effort. Beads of sweat poured down her face. She rubbed her stomach. It was starting to hurt again and she did not want to panic in front of her friends.
Kaithria immediately fluffed the feather-filled pillows up against the headboard for her friend and pushed her gently back against them. She noticed Cat rubbing her stomach.
“Have ye eaten?” Kaithria asked softly.
Cat frowned and wrapped both arms across her stomach. She shook her head. “This morning...some porridge, with kale in it, as usual. Rhona left me oatcakes on the table there in the tin beside my bed. Can ye hand me one?”
Kaithria took one of the little cakes she remembered that Cat liked to nibble on when they were traveling to Brough Castle. She had run out of them on the way to Kinbrace, however. She handed an oatcake to Cat, who immediately started to nibble delicately on it.
Gillis watched Cat with interest. She took a breath when she saw that Cat was comfortable. “Back to Rhona. I am assuming she thought we were just ladies taking a trip to the shore, for before she knew who we were and why we were here at Sanside House, she served us tea and complained about the lack of help in the house. Evidently you have no cook and she has been doing it, or overseeing your chambermaid in doing it. Swan and Neely were given the same treatment and the same complaint.”
“I dinnae understand,” Cat stammered.
“You do not mind that she plays the lady in your stead?” Gillis asked.
“I appreciate her handling matters here while I am so sick,” Cat said as she raised her hand tiredly. “She did the same at MacKay Castle for me when I was sick there,” Cat said quietly in defense of her housekeeper.
Kaithria looked down at her friend in the bed. “Something is wrong here, Cat.”
“Aye,” Gillis added. “It feels wrong.” She studied Cat’s pale face, her darkly shadowed, dull eyes, and her very thin frame. The girl she met at Kinbrace who was so passionate about life was gone.
“How were ye able to see me if she said ye couldnae?” Cat asked as she continued to take small, cautious bites of her oatcake.
Kaithria and Gillis looked at each other and grinned. Their eyes crinkled merrily over their hanky masks.
“We brought Aunt Agnes,” Kaithria said.
4
“Aunt Agnes?” Cat squeaked fearfully, picturing her stern, disapproving, giant Aunt Agnes Gunn.
Agnes Gunn was the matriarch of the Gunn clan. She was an imposingly tall and wide woman with pitch-black hair who always had a pipe in her mouth. Cat had always been terrified of her.
Kaithria smiled. “Aye, she is wonderful!”
“Aye!” Gillis said gleefully.
“Och my…” Cat whispered. “Wonderful? She frightens me. Where is she?”
“She is here. Now,” Kaithria said calmly.
“But I still dinnae understand,” Cat said in confusion as she bit her lower lip. “Did Aunt Agnes frighten Rhona into letting ye see me?”
Kaithria and Gillis grinned at each other.
Kaithria spoke first. “Nay. As I said, Lady Swan and Lady Neely wrote to me. They told me their observations of yer housekeeper. They said she was acting very strange and nervous. They also said that Rhona told them ye were much too sick to have visitors.” Kaithria looked at Cat, who was nodding her head in understanding or agreement, Kaithria was not sure. Kaithria paused, thinking, and then she leaned forward. “Aye, all normal ye may think. But Cat, she was wearing one of yer dresses then as well.”
Gillis broke in and started talking rapidly. “Swan and Neely thought that your housekeeper was a lady, but Swan remembered seeing you in the very same dress your housekeeper was wearing, and the hem was taken up quite crudely. And then your housekeeper was apologizing for the lack of oatcakes, saying she had no help, as if she was the lady of the house.”
Cat looked back and forth between the two of them, then she frowned, looking over at her tin full of oatcakes. “So, this is all aboot me dresses and the oatcakes?”
“Nay, not quite,” Kaithria said quietly and calmly.
“I feel terrible that she has no help. She has to take care of me all day,” Cat worried aloud. “And giving me all the oatcakes she makes. She needs more help, obviously.”
Gillis snapped her fingers and interjected, “We brought her help!” she said with a broad grin.
Cat looked at her and was about to ask what she meant. “Wait, ye dinnae mean Aunt Agnes do ye?” she said aghast.
Kaithria and Gillis looked at each other and grinned.
“Aye, we certainly do!” Gillis said with excitement. “She is below stairs now discussing the position with your housekeeper Rhona. Hesitate and you will be lost!”
Kaithria put her hand to her mouth. “He who hesitates is lost, ye mean?” she asked softly with a smile.
“Nae,” Gillis said to Kaithria. And then at Cat’s questioning look, she added, “But we must act, we must do something…”
“Och, I feel sick again,” Cat whispered. “Why? Why would Aunt Agnes come here as a chambermaid or
cook or...or….?” She looked at them with her mouth agape. “To work? Why?”
Kaithria said calmly, “She cares aboot ye, Cat. We all do. As help in the house, she will be free to look around. She will hear things, see things. She says she will be yer spy. And perhaps she wanted an adventure.” Kaithria smiled at her friend, knowing that she had met Cat for that very same reason. Cat had been sick for so long, she had wanted an adventure.
“A spy? I dinnae know if I need a spy,” she mused. “I am just sick.” She missed the look Kaithria and Gillis gave each other as she stared at the bed coverings that her fingers were clutching. Then she looked up at Kaithria in alarm. “But what if she gets sick?”
“That woman is too terrifying to get sick,” said Caden as he strode into the room. His dark eyes went directly to Catriona. He was carrying a pitcher. “I brought you some fresh water,” he said in his gruff voice.
“Och, thank you! I am so thirsty all the time it seems,” Cat said as she reached with trembling hands for the cup of water he handed her.
Caden looked around at the women. “Wearing masks are you?” he said with narrowed eyes. He ran his hand through the hair at his forehead and sighed. “There is a change to our plan, ladies. Aunt Hextilda is here as well,” he said with chagrin.
“What?” Gillis exclaimed.
Caden crossed his arms across his chest. “Evidently she was trying to catch up with us on her pony, the aptly named King Bobby,” he said with a rueful grin and a shake of his head. “She is with your Aunt Aggie and that housekeeper, discussing her skills.”
Cat’s hand shook violently and she almost dropped her cup of water. “Sards, both of them?” she whispered.
Caden made a sound low in his throat. “I cannae tell if Hextilda is brilliant or half-witted…and why did neither of those two aunts follow the plan I laid out?”
Gillis immediately reached forward to help Cat. She steadied Cat’s hands on the cup of water. Gillis looked down at Cat’s fingers and narrowed her eyes as she bent to peer closer.
“Two extra sets of eyes and ears can only be a very great help, Caden,” Gillis said in a quiet matter-of-fact tone as she studied Cat’s fingers intently. “You have some green to your fingernails, Cat. Were you painting something?” Gillis asked curiously as she touched Cat’s hands and studied her nails. She then wrote something in her book and slowly untied the hanky over her mouth and nose. She signaled Kaithria that she may do the same.
“Nay,” Cat said and handed the cup to Kaithria’s outstretched hand. “I have done nothing but lay here in bed.” Cat glanced quickly at Caden and then away again. He was grinning at her, the cheeky man! “I haven’t the strength for much more than that,” Cat said. “Perhaps from the bed coverings?” she said as her fingers worked nervously in them.
Gillis looked down at the pretty, feminine green bed linens and then at Cat’s hand, which she picked up and held in her own hands, looking her nails over carefully once again. She moved her hand down to Cat’s wrist again.
“Are you feeling very weak, Cat?” Gillis asked curiously. She let go of her wrist and reached for her little book again.
“Aye, weakness has plagued me.” She glanced at Gillis and Kaithria. “You have taken your handkerchiefs off,” Cat said weakly as she laid her head back against the headboard. Her stomach was threatening her again. I will nae panic, she said to herself. I willnae let Caden, or the girls, see me vomit. I willnae! She concentrated on watching Gillis scribble more notes in her book to take her mind off the rising pain and nausea swelling in her stomach.
“Where have ye been all this time, Caden?” Kaithria asked as she looked at her brother. She was giving Gillis time to examine Cat surreptitiously. But she was very curious about her brother, for she had seen the look that passed between Cat and Caden.
“I went in search of fresh water for Catriona,” he said as he turned away from Cat to speak to his sister. “They left her with almost no water,” he said in a rough tone. “And the glass and pitcher was on the other side of the room, away from her bed,” he said and clenched his jaw.
“Ye saw the windows?” Kaithria said very quietly.
“Aye,” he growled. “Secured from the outside.”
Kaithria’s eyebrows rose.
Gillis had heard what they said. She smiled reassuringly at Cat and went to stand next to the siblings. “There’s trouble here.”
“Aye,” Cat said painfully as she wrapped her arms around her stomach again. “Terrible trouble. I am dying. I feel it.” As the pain increased, so did her panic.
Caden stepped away from his sister and Lady Gillis to stare narrow-eyed at Catriona.
“You will not die!” Caden ordered her with his brows furrowed. “I will not have it.”
Cat gasped and looked up at him angrily. “Ye may be a prince in yer mither’s country but nae here, yer Highness!” Cat shot back at him. “Ye cannae just order someone not to die!” Cat was breathing heavily, her eyes bright with unshed tears as she gripped her stomach tightly.
“Catriona,” Kaithria admonished her softly and hastily. “Dinnae fash so, ’tis not good for ye.” She hurried to Cat’s side and put her hand on her forehead.
Caden took a step closer to the bed and looked down at her. “I am a Scot. Just like you. I am no prince.” He took a breath and schooled his face to relax, seeing that she was in pain. “I will not have you die, Catriona,” he said in a calmer tone. “I vow this to you, just as I did earlier.”
“Earlier?” Kaithria said with great interest as she dropped her hand from Cat’s forehead. She and Gillis turned to look at Caden, who had edged past Kaithria to stand beside Cat’s bed.
Gillis was grinning. She snapped her fingers. “I knew it!” she said quietly to Kaithria. “He was here with Cat while we were arguing with Rhona!” She looked at Kaithria. “Didn’t I tell you on the way here? I predicted this!”
“Hush Gillis,” Kaithria said softly, though she smiled. “Not now.” She nodded her head toward Cat and Caden; they were staring at each other as if they were alone in the room. It was Caden who had his hand on Cat’s forehead now.
Gillis leaned in and whispered to Kaithria, “I hope Aunt Agnes has secured herself and Hexy a position in the household.”
Cat drew her eyes away from Caden’s intense stare. “Why not just come for a visit? Why must my two aunts be spies? Ye never finished explaining that tae me,” she said as her voice grew weaker.
Gillis stepped up and sat gently on the bed. “We feel something is wrong in this house that is making you sick. Swan and Neely said the same.” Gillis looked up at Kaithria and then back to Cat. “I cannae match your symptoms to any sickness, Cat,” Gillis said slowly.
“You mean someone in this house is making me sick? You think me loyal housekeeper is up to nae good?” she said with an angry frown. “Because of some dresses?” She breathed harshly. “Arnae ye studying to be an animal licentiate, Gillis?” Cat said in a hoarse voice.
The pain was stabbing sharply into her again, the claws digging in and tightening their hold on her abdomen like red hot knives. Cat felt heat such as she had never felt before creeping up her body and into her head, behind her eyes. At the same time, the nausea grew even stronger. Her head started to hurt as well. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut a moment and then opened them to look sadly at Gillis.
“I know ye want to help me, Gillis,” Cat said weakly. “I am truly grateful, but ’tis different from animal medicine.”
Gillis snapped her fingers. “Nonsense, darling.” She bent and peered into Cat’s eyes as she softened her voice. “I can tell the pain is upon you again, isn’t it?” Gillis saw Caden come closer out of the corner of her eye.
Cat could barely nod. She shut her eyes tightly as she tried to swallow.
Gillis added, “And you are nauseated, correct?”
Cat then nodded rapidly with her eyes closed. Swallowing again and again.
“Take deep breaths, fierce one,” Caden’s voice ru
mbled as he bent over Cat. He stood up and looked at Gillis and his sister. “Do something!” he said in a hoarse whisper. “She is in pain!”
Kaithria hurried over and climbed on the bed and put her arms around Cat. “I am here, Cat. Breathe. Slowly, in and out. Vera slowly. There now, that is it,” she whispered in her soothing, husky voice. “Go to a place that makes ye smile. Perhaps when we fought that man at the Devil's Pool at Kinbrace. We were on our old warhorses; ye on Old Inch and me on Dummernech. Do ye remember? Can ye picture it? It was a lovely day and ye wanted to go for a swim in the Devil's Pool and I wouldnae let ye. Can ye picture it all again?”
Cat let out a shuttering, painful whimper.
Kaithria tightened her hold as a tear ran down her face at Cat’s pain. Kaithria felt helpless. She looked up to see Caden glaring angrily with his fists held tight at his sides. He was breathing heavily as if he was trying to take Cat’s pain into his own body. Kaithria looked over at Gillis. She was rapidly flipping through the pages of her little book, frantically looking through her notes.
“Cat,” Kaithria crooned as her voice broke. She started rocking the whimpering girl in her arms.
Caden sat down on the bed on the other side of Cat and wrapped his big arms around her as well. Caden nodded at his sister. “Go on, keep talking to her,” he whispered gruffly.
“Cat?” Kaithria began again. “Remember on the road to Brough Castle when we ran into the twins? Remember how thick the fog was?”
Kaithria wiped the sweaty curls away from Cat’s face.
“Remember how it was raining? It was cool and wet,” Kaithria said softly. “We were soaked, but it was cool, so very cool.” She felt Cat take a shuddering breath. “It was raining and foggy and the mists were rising off the bogs and Neely said to get ready because she heard something coming towards us in the fog,” Kaithria said in a velvety singsong voice. “Ye were ready and eager, thinking ye would be able to finally fight someone with that big claymore sword ye brought along.”
Kaithria laughed softly as she rested her head against Cat’s head and rocked her.