Full Mackintosh

by Deb Kemper

  ****

  Garth walked quietly into the nursery and listened to Mallow, with the smaller children for a moment, before entering the play room. “Well, then, how’re yer charges doing, Mallow?”

  “We’re quite happy, Da.” She stood and stretched before moving to his side. “Mam went to rest, before supper.”

  “Do ye think ye can leave the children with nurse? We want to organize a fishin’ trip fer the morrow.”

  She shrugged. “What’s that to do wi’ me?”

  “Edmund asked that ye accompany us. I thought we might pack a picnic and bring the youngsters along, later in the morning.”

  “Ye want me to go fishin’ with ye men?”

  “Aye, we’ll go to the loch after we break our fast and fish awhile. Ye’re the best fisherman in yer family. I thought ye might appreciate the break. We’d enjoy a spot o’ genteel company.”

  She bit her lip and frowned. “Must I pretend not to be the best fisherman or may I just be myself?”

  “Nay, be yerself, lass. I’d never ask ye to act like someone ye’re not.” He smiled. “Edmund’s a horseman. He asked if ye ride. I told ’im ye do.” He scrubbed his chin with his knuckle. “If ye’d like to ride ahead of us to the loch, ye may.”

  Mallow still considered him doubtfully. “Are ye tryin’ to fix me up wi’ the Englishman, Da? ’Cause I just as soon marry a Campbell.”

  Garth hissed. “Ye don’t mean that, lass!”

  She nodded. “I think I do. I don’t wanna leave Badenoch. I always want to live here, near my family.”

  Garth sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward. “Think on the fishin’ trip, then. Let me know after supper. Would ye feel more comfortable if Amalie goes as well?”

  Her face brightened as she crossed her arms. “That I would, sir, though it’s doubtful. Mam’s spent.”

  Garth quietly entered his bedroom to find his bride awake. “I was told ye were restin’.” He sat on the bed nearest her.

  “I’m lyin’ here, doing my best to settle my mind and soul, Garth.”

  He reached for her and slowly rubbed his hand over her soft exposed skin, pushing the fabric of her gown back to reveal more creamy flesh. “Mmm…wha’s the trouble, my heart?”

  Tears escaped and ran into the curls on her pillow. Garth leaned up to kiss her temples. “There now, that won’t do, Amalie. Talk to me, please.”

  She shook her head and wiped her face. “Tis nothing, sir, just a touch of melancholy.”

  “Heath made a suggestion, if I may, that we invite yer family here as ye canna travel. What say ye to that, love? Yer Papa and Kay-Kay could be here, when the bairn’s born. I’ll send tickets, the whole family can come.” Garth smiled and hoped for the best.

  “You’d do that even though….” She hesitated.

  “Wha’?”

  “We’re Jews, Garth. We dress differently. The food we eat is different, though honestly it puzzles me that the kitchens here are set up like at home. My secret, as you call it, would be out. Can you bear that? To declare to the world your wife’s a Jew?” She moaned, when he lifted her into his arms.

  “That suits me fine, Amalie. I’m not ashamed of ye. It was yer secret, not mine. I protect it fer yer sake, not my own.” He kissed her neck as she wrapped her arms around him. “Mmm…we have guests, my heart—but I suppose we have a little time.” He lifted her gown and loosed her undergarments.

  She laughed then, the deep throaty sound of arousal. “You’re incorrigible, Mackintosh.”

  “I’m doing my best, milady.” He shed his clothes and joined her in the warmth of their bed. He rested his face between her breasts and murmured, “Oh, my sweet, ye’re delicious.” His tongue traced a path up to her mouth.

  ****

  The following morning, Mallow led her mare from the stable, awkwardly waiting about for Edmund to join her. As soon as he was in sight, she mounted her horse. She loosed the reins to give the mare her head and led the way, out of the barmekin, at a trot.

  Edmund pulled alongside her and smiled. “Thank you for offering to show me around your land.”

  Her beautiful eyes landed on the young Englishman, her head dropped coquettishly, spilling dark hair to frame her face. Then she smiled. “Well, Da tells me ye’ve nothin’ in England to compare to the beauty of Scotland. I felt only pity fer yer lack, Edmund, and decided to remedy the problem. Do try to keep up.” She turned her horse, bent low in the saddle, and left him in the dust.

  ****

  Garth noticed the glances Edmund tossed Mallow’s way, every few seconds.

  Finally the young man sidled over to her site by the loch, as she snatched in her line, with another fish. She shot a sideways glimpse at Edmund’s advance on her territory. She unhooked the fish and tossed it into her creel, latching the wicker top quickly.

  Edmund smiled and offered commentary about her fishing skill, pointing to her nearly full creel and his empty one.

  Garth heard a few words, as his daughter faced his direction and raised her voice.

  “Aye, I am a good fish catcher. It’s why Da wanted me to come along. He was concerned there wouldn’t be enough on the morrow fer breakin’ our fast.”

  Garth looked away, feeling his face flush. He couldn’t keep the smile or pride of his daughter hidden. He continued to eavesdrop on her side of the conversation.

  She laughed, her head thrown back. Edmund watched her, amused.

  “Are all Englishmen as conceited as ye, Edmund?” Mallow taunted him.

  He responded confidently, though Garth couldn’t make out his words, his voice pitched low. The drift of the loch’s rushing water smothered all voices but Mallow’s.

  “Well, in Scotland, if a man wishes to impress a woman he must write lovely sonnets, fight bravely, and ride verra well.” Mallow turned her attention back to the fish, in the loch, awaiting her hook.

  Edmund snatched his line in, with a fish attached. He wrestled it off the hook and into his creel, enduring Mallow’s taunts.

  “I’ll help ye, if ye like. I can take ’em off the hook fer ye.” She smiled sweetly. “Have ye trouble baitin’ the hook? No? Alright then.” She snatched her line, but lost her fish.

  Edmund gave her a long look, before turning his attention back to his own line.

  Garth scrubbed his chin with his knuckle and checked his line. I don’t know that I’m ready to lose my daughter to another man’s fancy.

  Chapter 34

  Following supper in the great hall, Mallow took Jessie, Ewan, and the Livesey girls back to the nursery, for nurse to tend. The adults and Edmund lingered at table with wine, as the minstrels entertained the few hundred villagers who partook their last daily meal together.

  “So, Edmund, what are your plans? Heath tells me ye’re at university.” Garth pushed back his chair and crossed his ankle over his knee.

  “I’m attending Oxford for the next two years, sir.” Edmund responded with a smile.

  “What do you study?” Amalie folded her hands on the table and watched the handsome young man.

  “Medicine, although I believe I’ll teach rather than practice.” Edmund warmed to the subject.

  “Do you enjoy education?” She persisted, wishing Mallow would return.

  “I do, ma’am. I find I’m at my best when sharing my knowledge with others. I do a bit of tutoring underclassmen.”

  “A few summers ago, the kirk school closed, upon the death of the headmaster. Mallow and I took it over and opened a school here for the children of the village. We have forty enrolled currently. Perhaps she’ll take you on a tour of our classrooms.”

  Edmund’s attention drifted past Amalie toward the door. “Aye, ma’am, I’ll be sure and mention it to her. I’d like to see where she teaches.” He stood as Mallow climbed the stairs, to the dais.

  Mallow stopped to find her family and guests watching her. “What did I miss?” She’d changed her frock and pinned her hair up. She took her place on Garth’s left side across from Amalie. E
dmund held her chair for her, then returned to his seat beside her.

  “I suggested you show Edmund our schoolhouse, Mallow.” Amalie smiled.

  “On the morrow, perhaps.” Mallow agreed. She turned to Edmund. “Do ye dance?”

  “Aye, fairly well.” He grinned. “Do you?”

  “Aye, very well. Ye may ask me, if ye like.” She suggested sweetly.

  “Will you dance with me, Mallow?” Edmund maintained his confident composure.

  Mallow glanced at Garth. “May I, Da?”

  “By all means, do.” He smiled at Amalie, one brow raised.

  ****

  “This is impressive. Where’d you find such a library of books?” Edmund ran his fingertips over the titles, lined on the shelf, just above his head.

  “Da has a fleet of ships. He trades all over the world. I ask for what we need. He has his captains find and fill the requests. They bring it home to me, and Mam and I teach from them. She’s fluent in five languages. I’m fluent in three, but can read and cipher two more.” She folded her hands together in front of her creamy butter yellow gown. Her dark gold sleeveless kirtle buttoned, under her maturing bosom, flattered her figure and made her hazel eyes seem greener.

  “Really, I had no notion your father was in the shipping business.” Edmund stuffed his hands into his pockets.

  “I imagine ye were surprised to find we can even read.”

  Edmund blushed, recalling his first impression of the barmekin. “I wouldn’t go that far, Mallow.” He glanced back at the bookshelf to avoid her piercing gaze.

  She stepped closer to him. “Who’s yer favorite author, Edmund?”

  Edmund turned bright red. Her nearness almost undid the young man. “Um, well there’s Jonathan Swift. Have you read The Battle of the Books?”

  Mallow pulled a book from the shelf. “Aye, and his A Tale of a Tub.

  She handed both books to Edmund. “Who else?”

  Edmund, clever to the game, responded haughtily. “There’s a new chap about by the name of Daniel Defoe. I’m reading his novel, Robinson Crusoe. I brought it with me, in fact. Shall I leave it when I go, Mallow?” His lively dark eyes delighted in her amusement.

  She curtsied and conceded. “Tha’ would be very kind of ye, sir.”

  “My father tells me that someday you may be The Mackintosh. Does that concern you?” Edmund clasped his hands behind his back.

  They strolled on through the school.

  “I spent my whole life trainin’ fer the business.” She smiled up at him. “When Da was away, as a guest of His Majesty King George, I presided judgment over the clans. Mam sat with me as advisor, but she kens it’s my job.”

  Edmund’s voice gentled. “In England, titles and estates are entailed away from women. It’s understood yours is the fairer, weaker sex.”

  Mallow flared. Her cheeks and neck burned. “If ye were Scottish sayin’ somethin’ so stupid, I’d slap ye. But as ye’re an ignorant Englishman, I’ll have to forgive ye straight away. Ye have no way to ken what strength lies in a woman’s spirit.”

  Edmund held his palm outward. “I meant no offence, Mallow. My own mother comes from sturdy, intelligent stock. She manages our estate, but her livelihood is dependent on my succeeding my father. If I were to die and there were no other male heirs born to her, she’d be at the mercy of my father’s cousin.”

  Mallow calmed. “Sounds like an injudicious system to me. Women are people and we can work as hard as any man. My own mórai considers it a sin to educate women, but she’s Catholic, so we try to overlook her witlessness.” She whirled away and headed toward the door. “Come, then, we’ll return to the others. I’m through amusin’ ye with my passion.”

  Edmund’s long stride caught her quickly. He grasped her arm. “Mallow, please, I did not mean to insult you. You said you forgave me.”

  She stopped and looked back at him.

  He dropped to one knee on the stone floor of the schoolhouse and bowed his head. “Please accept my humblest apologies.” His hand slipped down her arm to her hand.

  She glanced at him. “Ye’re a pitiful sod, at times, but at least ye’re not senseless.”

  He peeked up with a timid smile. “Does that pass as forgiveness in Scotland?”

  “Aye, it does.” She swung her gaze around at the work she and Amalie had poured into the school. “There’s no way ye could ken what this place means to me. I believe I was born to teach. I love it with all my heart and the only person who seems to ken is Mam.”

  “I understand, Mallow, really I do. I feel the same. I love the medical field, have spent countless hours, in hospital, with my father, yet I long to teach.” He kept her hand and rose. “There are so many new techniques on the horizon. Not to mention natural cures and remedies, that have been overlooked. I aim to link the ancient ways of healers with new discoveries of modern medicine.” He led her along the hallway between classrooms, tucking her hand into the crook of his arm.

  She allowed him to set the pace, as they moved along walls covered with paper art work, from her elementary class. “These are my students.” She waved a hand at the pictures. “Mam teaches the older children and I teach the younger, fer now.”

  “Do you think of marrying?” Edmund held the door to her classroom and followed her inside.

  “Aye, I do. Part o’ me hopes Ewan’ll want to run The Mackintosh legacy. Another loves the power and chance to champion justice, fer those who canna help themselves.”

  “What if the man you married lived somewhere other than Scotland?” He knew he tread on hallowed ground.

  “Why’d I do tha’?” She smiled and dropped her head, again with that coy look. “Edmund, are ye venturin’ to discover wha’ my plans are? Are ye wonderin’ if I’m already betrothed?”

  His face was afire as he nodded. “It’s crossed my mind, Mallow.” His back remained ramrod straight.

  She enjoyed his embarrassment. “I’m no’ betrothed. My da says I can marry whomever I please….but…I don’t wanna leave home.”

  “Have you been anywhere other than Scotland?”

  “Aye, I went to Ireland with Da twice and once to Norway on buyin’ trips. My aunt wants me to tour the continent with her daughter, next summer, but I don’t ken if I want to do that, as my cousin isn’t very smart.”

  “You’d be bored rather quickly.” Edmund smiled.

  “Aye, before the boat could clear the quay.” She studied the handsome young man before her, for a long moment. “It seems to me that marryin’ an Englishman would be too much like makin’ alliances with the enemy.”

  Edmund nodded somberly. “Aye, I see your point, yet….” He took her hand in his. “I’m not your enemy, Mallow, or your family’s. I thought it odd that Father wanted to renew his old friendship with your da, though now that I’m here and with the two of them…I understand. Friendship—even love crosses boundaries that cannot be breached by war. While our loyalties are to our respective countries, I choose to view it as more like a game of lawn bowls. We each want to win, but losing shan’t destroy our affection.”

  Mallow’s lovely head cocked to one side, as she considered his idea. “I’ll think on it, Edmund. I canna promise ye anythin’.”

  He smiled confidently. “Your consideration is adequate, Mallow.”

  Chapter 35

  Three months later

  Amalie rested her hand under the bulge of her great belly as she watched Garth dance with Mallow. What a beauty she’s become. No wonder Edmund’s smitten with her. She moves like a willow caught in the wind. I felt more like a puppet, at sixteen.

  “She’s lovely isn’t she?” Larena Macgillivray perched on the empty bench beside Amalie and flipped her long black tresses over her shoulder.

  “Aye, and so mature. I don’t remember bein’ so grown up at her age.”

  “Nor I. It’s a sign of the times, I suppose.” Larena frowned. “Is that Lady Cameron-MacGregor?”

  Amalie looked around for the buxom blonde. “A
ye, that’s her, alright. I haven’t seen John, have you?”

  “Nay.”

  Mallow left Garth behind, when Lady MacGregor petitioned his attention. Their daughter headed straight for Amalie and Larena, glowering. Amalie patted the seat beside her for Mallow to sit, and smiled.

  “Oh my, that loathsome woman is about to make a scene.” Larena observed.

  Lady MacGregor clutched Garth’s wrist, all the time smiling sweetly into his stormy face.

  Amalie watched her husband closely. “He’s verra angry. I wonder what she has to say, to the laird, that’s upsetting him so much.” She leaned forward as though she might catch a word or phrase.

  Mallow climbed the steps to the dais and stiffly tramped toward the ladies. She clenched her hands and growled. “Mam, that woman….”

  Larena laughed. “She has that effect on all of us, pet.”

  Daniel left the council room and arrived at his wife’s side in a few steps. “I’m spent. Shall we tuck it in and head home, love?”

  Larena rose and laid her hand on her husband’s arm. “We must thank our host, do ye not think?” Her smile was a touch wicked.

  Daniel spotted Garth on the main floor. “He appears to be busy.” He turned to Amalie, bending low over her hand. “Milady, we’re going home, it’s a long ride yet.”

  “It was good to see you both. Are you comin’ to meet my parents? They’ll arrive in two days.” She struggled out of the chair.

  “We wouldn’t miss it. Send us notice when ye want us and we’ll be here.” Larena leaned to her cheek for a kiss. She patted Amalie’s belly. “And ye, wait ’til I get back to be born, little ones.”

  “Hopefully, a few days yet.” Amalie grinned.

  The Macgillivrays left by the side door and Amalie turned her attention back to Garth. He peeled Lady MacGregor’s hand from his wrist. His sardonic smile indicated the words pouring out his mouth were anything, but friendly.