by Alisa Adams
Young Robert’s eyes traveled up to the rider on the horse’s back. His mouth fell open, for it was a woman. He could not help but stare. She was the most beautiful girl that Young Robert, in all his few years, had ever seen. Surely she must be a lady.
Kaithria smiled down at the young boy. She dismounted from Dummernech very slowly as she looked around, handing Dummy’s reins to the shy boy.
“Thank ye,” she said quietly to the boy as he took the reins with shaking hands while he stared at her silently. “Dummy willnae hurt ye. He’ll walk beside ye like a gentleman,” she said in her husky, soothing voice.
The boy blinked a few times, then turned his head a bit to look at the horse. “Dummy is yer name, big beast?” he asked.
Cat handed him Old Inch’s reins. “Aye, he is Dummy, and this is Old Inch. They are renowned battle horses.Treat them well, Young Robert!” Then she pointed to the donkey. “That is Bunny. She is their friend. She goes wherever they go.” Cat shook her finger at the boy. “Dinnae try to separate them!”
The boy looked up at her and smiled. “Aye, milady!” he said with all seriousness as he gave her short blonde hair a quick glance. Then he began leading the two horses, who towered over him, towards the stables, one on either side of him. The donkey followed along amicably, stopping to nibble at grass now and then.
Young Robert kept looking back at the little donkey with a happy smile, calling out, “Come Bunny, come along noo!”
Catriona and Kaithria watched them go. The horses let the small boy lead them without making a fuss. Bunny was a different matter. She did as she pleased.
“Dinnae be afraid, Lady Kaithria,” Cat said as she turned to Kaithria.
“Is there a reason to be afraid now that we have arrived?” Kaithria asked quietly.
“Aye, Aunt Agnes is sure to be back. Well, she is really me great aunt, but all call her just Aunt Agnes. Except for Keir, of course. She can be quite terrifying, but ye mustnae mind her!” She put her finger to her lips and stared at the ground for a moment. “I havenae spoken with her in such a long time, and she doesnae even know what I look like now,” she mused quietly. Then she looked back up at Kaithria and smiled broadly. “Och, I am so pleased that ye came with me!” She threw her arms around Kaithria’s neck and gave her a hug.
Kaithria stood there frozen, her eyes wide, arms stiffly at her sides, unsure what to do.
“Ye can hug me back Kaithria!” came Cat’s laughing, muffled voice against her shoulder.
Kaithria patted her stiffly and uneasily on her back.
Cat pulled back and grabbed Kaithria’s hand. “Come, let’s go inside!”
Kaithria stood steadfast, awkwardly taking her hand out of Cat’s. “Lady Catriona. A moment if ye please?” she asked softly and waited, still and quiet, until Cat turned back to her. When Cat looked at her with a questioning look on her face, Kaithria said, “I am not a lady like ye. I am just Kaithria. I have no title.”
Cat tilted her head to one side. “Sister Kaithria?” she asked with a teasing grin.
Kaithria let out a barely perceivable sigh as her cheeks tinged faintly with pink. “I am not a nun,” Kaithria said in her husky, quiet voice. “I told yer uncle this as well.”
Cat clapped her hands. “Finally! An answer! Weel noo, ye are like those new puzzles! We must fit all the pieces together to see the whole of Kaithria!” Cat stifled a laugh as she saw the serious look on Kaithria’s face. She tapped her lips with one finger as she studied her friend. “Though if ye were a nun, I think me great aunt would not be quite so terrifying for ye. Indeed, mayhap she would be the one terrified of ye!”
Cat laughed lightly and grabbed Kaithria’s hand once again as she led her inside the castle.
Cat went straight into the big, towering house, right past the castle’s man-at-arms, who had opened the door for them. Cat sailed past him with a cheeky grin and a wave of her hand.
“Hello John! ’Tis good to see ye again!”
The surprised man-at-arms could only smile and wave awkwardly back at her.
Kaithria came to a stop and pulled her hand out of Cat’s. She lowered her hood and looked around. She quickly shut her mouth, which had dropped open in surprise.
She looked down the great hall. It was bright and filled with sunshine pouring in from the windows on the back wall. On either side of her, about halfway down the great hall, there were two staircases. They curled up and around to meet in the middle of the second-floor balcony.
Kaithria stared at them. “Do the stairs form a heart?” she asked in a quiet voice to Cat.
Cat stopped and looked at them. “I suppose they do. I had never noticed that. How lovely! Come along!” She grabbed Kaithria’s hand again and pulled her over to a door at the left side of the great hall. “’Tis Aunt Agnes’s solar. I am sure she’ll have hurried back to greet Uncle Keir. I must introduce ye or she’ll have me head.”
Kaithria nodded her head, “We mustnae let that happen,” she said calmly in a serious tone.
Cat opened the door and peeked inside.She turned quickly back to Kaithria and spoke in a whisper, “She’s here! Dinnae be nervous or frightened!”
Kaithria leaned toward Cat and said in an even softer voice, “I am not. But it is clear that ye are, Lady Catriona. All will be well,” she added quietly as she motioned to Cat to open the door.
Cat walked through the door and stopped, her hands demurely in front of her.
“Great Aunt Agnes, ye are looking vera well,” Cat said politely.
Kaithria followed behind Cat into the lovely, small room, and stopped. The room boasted pale blue walls and dainty-looking feminine furniture. It also had a small, elaborately decorated white fireplace.
A figure stepped forward.
She saw why Lady Catriona had been so nervous.
It was the large woman who had been on the huge draft mule.
In person she was even larger than what Kaithria had thought. For before her stood the tallest and widest woman Kaithria had ever seen. She was a very old woman with hair as black as night in a grey skirt and somber grey blouse. Gone were her breeks. She wore a tartan shawl of grey and black over her shoulders. She stood at least six feet four inches tall with very broad, very wide hips.
Kaithria guessed her to be over seventeen stone.
This was Catriona’s Great Aunt Agnes Gunn.
Aunt Agnes was smoking a long-stemmed clay pipe with some carved decorations on the barrel.
The room was filled with the strong aroma as well as the hazy smoke of her pipe.
Kaithria wondered briefly which of the dainty furniture in the room this woman could sit on.
Cat let out a delicate cough as she tried to casually wave the smoke from her nose.
“Catriona!” her great aunt called out in a high, authoritative voice. “I thought ye were dead,” she said as if Catriona was disobeying her by being in her solar at this very moment, very much alive and well.
“I am well, Aunt Agnes. I am here with Uncle Keir, and may I introduce me friend, Kaithria?” Cat said without being able to suppress the tremor in her voice.
Kaithria stepped forward and curtsied deeply. “Lady Gunn,” she murmured politely. She stood up slowly and smiled respectfully at the very regal Lady Agnes Gunn.
Agnes looked Kaithria up and down, her dark eyebrows shooting into her hairline as her dark eyes narrowed to suspicious slits. She puffed furiously on her pipe. Leaving it stuck in the corner of her tight, wrinkled lips, she made grunting sounds as she studied Kaithria from her booted feet to the black cloak she wore. And then she came to Kaithria's eyes, which stared unabashedly back at her. Finally, she took her pipe out of her mouth and pointed it at Kaithria accusingly, with a horrified expression on her face.
“Who—or rather what—is this...person?” she demanded.
2
“Shame on ye, Aggie, ye enormous old frighter!” came Keir’s deep, jovial voice as the big warrior strode into the room. As he passed by his niece C
atriona, he gave her a reassuring squeeze on her waist. Then he glanced quickly at Kaithria with a crooked grin.
Kaithria got a whiff of fresh air, leather, and horses as Keir walked past them. He turned slightly, giving the two of them a wink.
He strode up to his aunt and kissed her loudly on her cheek. “Is that any way to be treating a guest of mine! She’ll be running for the door the way ye are glowering away at her!” Keir said in his rich, deep voice. Then he laughed and hugged his blushing aunt as she fussed at him with her hands.
“I thought thot one was dead,” Agnes whispered under her breath, as she nodded her head towards Cat.
Cat lifted her shoulders and opened her mouth to say something but Agnes plowed right on.
“I see ye went to the stables first before ye came to see yer poor, lonely, old auntie,” Agnes said peevishly, trying not to smile at her handsome nephew.
Keir said in a low whisper back to his aunt, “Of course she’s alive.” He gave a quick glance with a wink to a red-faced Cat. “Now then, of course I went to the stables first, I had to give ye time to change out of yer breeks and into a skirt to receive me and the ladies noo, dinnae I? Och, Aunt Aggie,” he said, holding his big hand up, not giving her a chance to complain more. “No more dithering. I had to rummage aboot in me saddlebags fer yer gift. I couldnae come home without something for yer large self, noo could I?” he said as he bussed her cheek with a kiss once again.
“Shame on ye Keir!” the large woman said as she put down her pipe and swatted playfully at him. “Talking to yer auntie that way! Just because Lord Lyon declared ye laird finally, doesnae mean ye can call yer aunt such names.” Aunt Agnes gave him an attempt at a glare. “Tell me ye are home for good this time, Nephew? No more war. No more being a hero for the king. Look at ye—ye have had enough. Ye are as big and as rugged as a mountain, but ye look used up from fighting. Ye are even going grey! How many scars now, Nephew? How many?” she demanded.
Keir shook his head and laughed gruffly. “I am home, Aggie. For good.” He did not like the worry that was behind his aunt’s eyes.
Aunt Agnes Gunn let out a rusty giggle. “Noo then, what did ye bring me this time?” she asked eagerly in a high-pitched girlish voice.
“Weel...ye are as big as a giant! Ye are almost as big as me, Aggie, though ye are prettier!” He laughed and winked at her. “Noo, what can a nephew get for his great aunt that has everything?” Keir said charmingly. He slowly and dramatically pulled an object out of the sporran that hung down on the front of his dark green kilt. He held the object out to Agnes with a careful flourish, balancing it on both open hands.
Kaithria and Cat tried to get a look at the slender object resting in his hands.
It was a clay smoking pipe like the one Aunt Agnes was smoking when they came into the room. But this one was vastly different. Kaithria saw that the stem was a woman's long, elegant arm, ending in a feminine hand that held the barrel of the pipe. The barrel was shaped like a lovely goblet or drinking cup. The cup rested in the tiny, elegant, female hand. All of it in delicate white clay, with an inlaid silver rim on the tip of the cup.
Kaithria could not help the soft sound that escaped her lips.
Aunt Agnes took the proffered gift carefully as she too was soundless in her reverent admiration for the delicate smoking pipe.
“Och, Nephew! Ye have outdone yerself this time, ye have!” she enthused in her high voice. She blushed brightly as Keir kissed her cheek once again.
“Anything to tame the giantess!” he laughed as he swatted her wide bottom.
“Och, go on with ye!” Agnes said to Keir as she waved her big hand at him.
“Now then,” Keir said, “I noticed ye are still riding that ill-willie big mule. Ye know I breed horses, Aggie. Tell me ye are ready to ride a horse instead of that mule?”
“Och, ye call me mule ill-willie?” Aunt Agnes said, sounding insulted. “Nay, he is not ill-tempered, ye gallus man! He is a fine mule and I will be riding him, not a horse, and thank ye vera much!” She looked at the two silent women in the room. “I noticed the big, black-feathered horses ye rode in on. Fine-looking animals, though badly scarred. Old warhorses I assume. If ye girls are able to ride them, they must be vera old and nae good for much.” She did not give them time to answer but simpered at her nephew. “I wouldnae mind one of their horses.”
“Aggie, those big black horses are vera difficult to ride,” Keir said as he strode over to the tall glass windows. He turned the curled latch and pushed the glass sashes open wide. “Ye have used a great deal of me money to put all these lovely glass windoos in. Let’s open them and get the smoke out of this room so the ladies can breathe!”
“Nay, ’tis not smokey,” Agnes said petulantly. “Nor did I spend a great deal of yer money Nephew! I had the men take doon the perimeter wall to build these newer apartments. Very frugal, ye see?”
Keir looked over his shoulder at her from where he stood by the window and growled. “Aunt Aggie, ye have done a lovely job on the house. But please tell me ye dinnae take down all the perimeter walls?”
Aunt Agnes preened a bit. “Aye, it looks like a house that belongs to the finest! And nay, I only took down the front perimeter wall. The rear of the house still has the wall.”
Keir stared hard at her. He had been away for so long fighting, and so much had happened. Aunt Agnes had run the estate the whole time. He had two other castles—ancient castles—that were so decrepit they were no longer fit to live in. Not to mention that they were hard to get to. Both of those castles stood on large chunks of rock that jutted out into the sea with sheer cliffs all around. A bridge was needed to get to Castle Clyth, as the very high, flat rock upon which the castle was built, stood by itself as if it had broken off from the cliff face.
The other was Halberry Castle, which only had a narrow piece of land that still connected the lonely rock to the land. Both castles were for defense only as they sat on tall sheer pieces of rock out in the sea. One had to tie their children with ropes if they went outside to play in case they fell over the side of the flat rock the castle sat upon and into the sea.
“Ye know I love ye Aggie, but why would ye take doon the front curtain wall and leave the rear?” Keir asked. “The river abuts the steep hillside rocks that frame Kinbrace on all three sides in the rear of the house.”
Aunt Agnes looked stunned for a moment. “Och, who is going to attack the Gunns? The Keiths? Nay,” she laughed with a nonchalant wave of her hand. “They are led by that fool Ronan. He is too busy dealing with his sheep. And I am busy making sure those sheep dinnae come onto Gunn land.”
Kaithria stilled, her shoulders going rigid as the room froze in front of her eyes. She reached out and grabbed the back of a chair nearby, to steady herself. She heard Cat murmur something and step beside her. Kaithria made a barely perceptible shake of her head and stood up straighter.
Keir glanced over curiously, watching Kaithria and Cat.
Aunt Agnes continued. “I left the rear wall because I was thinking I didnae want yer children falling into the river.”
Keir turned his attention back to his aunt. He looked at her with one brow raised.
Agnes peevishly added, “When ye have children, that is. And I hope ’tis soon. Now is the time for ye to find yerself a wife!” she declared loudly. “Ye are laird now and ye are home!”
Agnes looked at her nephew. He was a handsome man, just like his father and his father's father before him. He also had the irresistible charm that all the men of the Gunn family had. Even she herself had not been immune to it when she had married his father’s brother.
“I’ll marry when I am ready, Aggie,” Keir said sternly. He watched his aunt's face. “Ye are up to something. What have ye done, Aggie?” he demanded in a growl.
Aunt Agnes pouted her wrinkled lips. “When I heard ye were on the way back from those weddings,” she said, saying weddings slowly and meaningfully, with a scowl at her nephew, “I planned a small gathering her
e.”
“How small?” Keir demanded in his deep voice.
“Small,” Aunt Agnes insisted. “Just a few friends...and their daughters.” She saw Keir's angry look and stepped forward. “Ye will be pleasant and welcoming to these young ladies, Nephew.” Her voice dictated no argument.
Keir growled low in his throat and glared at his meddling aunt.
Agnes scowled meaningfully over at Kaithria. “Noo then, tell me who this girl is?”
Keir glanced over to Kaithria. But it was Cat’s expression that drew his eye. She was staring at Kaithria worriedly. He looked back at Kaithria, who looked very pale. She must be tired, Keir thought. He turned back to his aunt.
“Aunt, let the ladies retire to their chambers. Ye can speak with them again over the evening meal,” Keir said pointedly as she started to open her mouth.
Agnes saw his expression and shut her mouth, nodding. She walked past Kaithria and Cat, giving Kaithria a long stare out of the side of her eye as she walked to the door. She put her head out the door and called loudly for one of the castle maids to show the ladies to their chambers.
Keir talked quietly with the chambermaid, then stopped Cat with a hand on her arm as he whispered something into her ear. She nodded with a bright smile. Then she quickly grabbed Kaithria’s hand and led her out of the room, following the little chambermaid up one of the heart-shaped staircases.
Aunt Agnes stepped out of the solar and watched Kaithria until she disappeared into one of the bed chambers with Cat close behind.
Kaithria walked into the room and sunk down onto a chair.
She was stunned.
They were close to her father. Too close.