by Jane Stain
Leif twinkled his eyes at her in open admiration, and his half smile made having eye contact with him almost unbearably wonderful.
She had to keep reminding herself she was on a trip someplace and she would never return here. But she wanted to lean into those wonderfully twinkling eyes and plead with her own until his lips met hers …
She forced herself to stand up straight and withdraw a bit before they made a spectacle of themselves.
He looked away toward the smithy.
"’Tis good if I introduce ye tae as many o' us as possible. Mayhap it would help if ye telt me some o' yer ideas, sae I could explain tae him the type o' help ye desire."
When he said ‘desire,’ she could have sworn he meant a double meaning. But that was just her imagination, of course. Which remodel first? The wooden water closet, of course.
"First, I wish him tae make nails, ye ken?"
He nodded.
"Aye. How many will ye be needing? They take a fair amount o' work, being sae fine."
It was odd to think of nails being something dear that required a lot of work.
"Nay, I shall hae tae send Lauren doon tae work oot the details. We shall need a woodworker as well."
Leif nodded, eyes back on the smithy. They were almost to the door.
“We shall visit the cooper next.”
The smithy and his two helpers — obviously his sons, from their resemblance to him — were hard at work in the shop when they entered. Work didn't stop until one of the helpers nudged his father with his elbow.
"Da, Leif’s come tae see ye."
The helper spoke in a friendly tone, but Leif kept hold of Jessica’s arm and held her close beside him.
She didn't mind that at all. In fact she was starting to dread the time when Leif pulled away from her. And she chided herself for it. He was just being a gentleman, a very fine gentleman who could have any woman he wanted.
"Jessica, this is Gilly the smith and his sons, Connor and Malcolm. Gilly, Connor, Malcolm, this is Jessica. She is ceàrd-ruadh, and she is under my protection. She and I," he said ‘I’ with great emphasis, "request your assistance in improving the way we dispose o' human waste, instead putting it out in the compost pit."
Gilly wrinkled his brow, but his sons listened to Jessica with keen interest as she explained her plans.
Leif showed her all twenty-six buildings in the village, nineteen houses, six shops, and a small church. This tiny village that he called a town was charming, in an old-fashioned sort of way.
But Jessica couldn't help but be distressed by the unhygienic atmosphere that pervaded the otherwise pleasant place. When they were headed back up the wooded trail to the manor house after a good hour of paying visits and making introductions, she got up the courage to get to the nitty gritty.
"How many died from disease this past year?"
His smile was instantly gone, and pain showed in his eyes.
"Seven including my parents, in a toon o' 130. There are whispers o' a new plague among us."
She showed her sympathy for him in her face and patted his arm.
"Sae sorry I am tae bring up that wound. I dae have a point, I promise. How long since the last plague, and how many did that kill?"
His face was grim as he surveyed the village below.
"Seven is na quite a plague. The last plague, I was a wee one. Six and thirty died that winter. Every winter syne then we hae lost a person or two, but always the verra young or the verra auld, never people still hearty and hale such as my parents were. This is the reason a new plague is whispered o."
All the rest of the walk back to the manor house, Jessica worried that people she had met today would die this winter. Sure, there were a few bad apples, but most were like Devany.
And then she remembered.
"So why dae the men call ye ‘Captain’?"
Leif produced a set of smallpipes from his large sporran and presented them to her.
"I use these tae call the toon militia. 'Tis captain ower it, I am. This afternoon I shall lead them through their drills, as I always dae. We need tae be ready when the Wolf o' Badenoch calls us tae battle. ‘Twill be soon."
They expected to fight soon.
Jessica tried to make her face impassive at this news, but it was difficult. Her mind teased her with recollections of the druids back at the castle asking about the outcome of the coming battle.
Chapter 9
It pained Leif in his heart to let go of Jessica, but they were home now. She was safe. There was no longer any reason to hold her. No sensible reason. He chided himself for getting attached to a woman he hadn’t known a full day and who would be gone before summer, most likely, but nevertheless when the two of them touched, he felt a connection to her.
Senga had the breakfast laid out on Mother’s mahogany buffet, and everyone was leisurely eating around the hearth fire in front of the furs where the women had slept. All the wash they had hung up to dry was absent, including the featherbed.
“I see ye hae returned all the laundry tae my parents’ room."
Katherine nodded as she buttered one of Senga’s delicious oatcakes.
"Aye, 'tis all put away and tidy. The room has aired out now, and we hae agreed that once we finish eating, we will go up and each choose one outfit. Then we can return Alvin’s wife's things tae him sae that he can be on his way about his merry day."
Amena was jumping up and down with excitement in front of her empty breakfast plate.
"Lauren says ye are na longer airing the upstairs now, Leif. Will ye come up and hang the furs back ower my window for me?"
Taran jumped up.
"I wull go. Leif is just sitting down tae his breakfast."
The way Jessica watched Amena walk up the stairs took some of the joy out of the breakfast plate Leif had just dished up for himself.
"Surely her room is safe now?” he asked Jessica. “Ye scrubbed it and we aired it oot as ye said."
Jessica finished chewing her bite of scone.
"Aye, 'tis safe for whoever goes up there now. Howsoever, I still worry ower the brief time she spent in yer parents’ room before."
Leif looked over at Katherine in order to gauge if this was an extreme reaction on Jessica's part, and a heaviness overcame him. Katherine's eyes were downcast as she sipped daintily from her tankard of ale. She raised them to him, and he could see tears.
Next to her, Luag took his time and carefully dabbed the food off his mouth. He looked at Jessica kindly and with encouragement, smiling his winning smile.
"The wee lassie is hale and hearty. Nay harm has come tae her. Dinna borrow trouble, lass."
Puzzlingly, Jessica disliked what he said. Oh, just like the lady she was, she showed her disfavor subtly, so that even Luag the banterer didn’t realize she was reproving him. But Luag wasn’t watching her every expression.
Jessica dabbed the crumbs from her mouth daintily.
“How nice of you to decide that.”
And then Luag made one of his comments that Leif knew from talking with the man were supposed to be funny, but that mostly just made people uncomfortable.
"If we all dropped everything every time a child did some aught foolish, nay bairns would ever be born!"
Leif met Jessica's eyes and cringed, trying to tell her he was sorry for his friend’s lack of manners and would speak to him right away about making such jests in front of ladies.
But to his surprise and delight, Jessica grinned the tiniest bit and nodded her head over at Katherine.
Leif followed her gaze and was astonished to see Katherine holding her mouth closed to hold in perhaps the only un-dainty gulp of ale she'd ever taken in her life.
Visibly desperate not to let the ale spring out of her mouth with her laughter, Katherine slapped the table with her palm, she was so overtaken with mirth. When at last she did recover, she made a comment in kind, aimed straight at Luag with no apology in her eyes at all.
"And if utterances did any good at a
ll, ye and I would be king and queen!"
Her face was merry for a moment after she said it, gratified to hear Luag’s laughter, but then she sobered and brought her eyes up to where even now they could all hear Amena walking about her room merrily, playing at some game or other.
Everyone else looked up as well, putting a quick stop to their laughter.
Taran came down the stairs. He had not closed the upstairs hallway door, and they could hear Amena talking to her imaginary friends the way children do. Her different voices for them had brought a smile to Taran’s face, but when he saw the somber mood in the room, he wrinkled his brow.
“What's amiss?"
His appetite gone now, Leif scooted away from the table and stood, straightening his woolen leine. Just in time, he remembered his manners and the lasses’ bargain with Alvin.
"Lasses, go on up and choose from Mother’s things sae that Alvin can be on his way, eh?"
They nearly flew up the stairs, and it was so fun eavesdropping on their talk of the clothing that the men remained silent and smiling until the lasses returned.
Jessica had chosen Mother’s brown leine and the matching brown and blue plaid arisade. Katherine was now in Mother’s red, orange, and yellow plaid leine with bits of white in it and the orange and yellow striped arisade. Lauren beamed smiles at both of them, clearly glad to see them in finer garments.
Jessica looked happier in these nicer clothes, but she handed Alvin his wife’s clothes with care.
The man practically skipped with happiness, and no wonder. He was going home with not only his wife's clothes, but also the earring used to buy the clothes.
Katherine must have noticed, because she said something to Alvin just before he left.
"See that ye use some o' the money that brings tae buy yer wife at least two dresses that are all the same cloth, mind. She will be sorely disappointed otherwise, expecting as she did tae get these we now wear. I will be here long enough tae check up on that, and I will na forget."
“Aye,” Alvin agreed, but his step was still light as he left.
Only later that evening, when Amena had been tucked into bed and Senga was washing the supper dishes, did Leif address Taran’s look of concern at the solemn room he had entered after breakfast.
"Jessica and her friends believe strongly there is still a chance that Amena could come doon ill."
Leif welcomed his brother when he came to stand close to him, and the two of them shared a worried look.
Taran spoke again, addressing Jessica with a tone Leif didn’t like.
“Sae all the measures we hae taken were for naught? How can this be? Either ye hae removed the contagion from the upstairs, or ye hae na. Which is it?"
But Leif didn’t hear Jessica’s response to Taran.
A distinct sound distracted him, a rattling and banging.
Thank God Almighty, the shutters were closed and the doors were barred for the night. Was someone testing one them, or had it been the wind?
Leif quieted his brother with a hand on his arm, and he raised his hand up to quiet the others.
There.
He distinctly heard the clatter it made when you went to open the shutter by the chimney, having forgotten it was latched. Only he didn’t think whoever was trying to open it this time forgot anything. No, they had been testing to see if it was latched.
There went the clatter of the shutter by the front door.
Silently, Leif signaled Taran and Luag to take up their positions at the two doors.
Taran heard it too now. He grasped up his claymore from where it hung on the wall near the front door and took his position.
Luag got his two-handed weapon from the wall near the back door and stood to the side, guarding it.
Leif took the stairs two at a time to get Amena. There was a window in her room, and he remembered with shame how he had argued with his parents about giving up the room closest to them, when she was born.
“But I hae all my targets lined up, Da. ‘Tis important for me tae practice with the bow. Ye said as much yer ownself.”
Leif’s heart was already strained to the brink of breaking by the death of their parents a few months ago. If anything happened to dear sweet wee Amena...
Thank the Lord Almighty, the wee lass was safe in her bed asleep. He quickly picked her up — blankets and all — and took her into the hallway, calling out to the lasses below as soon as he opened the door to the stairs.
“Go intae the kitchen. It has na windows and ye wull be safe.”
But the lasses had vanished. Good. Senga must have already beckoned them into the kitchen. She appeared, and he handed her the sleeping Amena to take in there with her.
Just in time, too, for the noises had changed.
The intruders were testing the back door.
Leif met Luag’s eyes as he took up his own Claymore and went to the other side of the door, both of them at the ready should anyone have a ram capable of blasting through. Unlikely, but not impossible.
The back door rattled, but the intruder was a fool if he thought he could dislodge the heavy bar that held it. The shutters were all barred as well.
Leif shared amused looks with first Taran and then Luag, reasonably certain the intruders wouldn’t get in. Howsoever, they wouldna be Scots if they just sat by, now would they?
And then someone was singing out there. The man's voice was sometimes high and sometimes low, but with a strong melodic quality. He sang a tune they hadna heard before. It was good, and despite his scorn for these intruders’ notion of coming into his house unbidden, Leif found himself admiring the man's skill at song. The song turned melancholy and sad, and the next thing Leif knew, he, Taran, and Luag were all sinking down onto the floor. Desperation filled their eyes as they looked at each other in horror at the prospect of going to sleep now of all times, with intruders outside! Why were they going to sleep? Why… Didn't want to go to sleep… Can't go to sleep… Must not…
Leif opened his eyes to see Lauren cleaning that blade she carried at her hip. It was blood she was cleaning off the blade, wiping it with one of Senga's kitchen rags.
Oh no.
"Amena! Lauren, is Amena safe?"
Looking every bit the competent warrior and not at all affected by the blood, Lauren finished wiping her blade clean and put it in her scabbard once more, then dusted off her hands and put them on her hips.
"Aye, all are safe: Amena, Senga, me, Jessica, and Katherine. And ye three sleepy heads."
The wooziness was only slowly leaving him, and Leif was barely able to sit up and look around.
Sure enough, Katherine and Jessica were sitting at the table in the places where he'd left them, not a hair mussed. How odd. They hadn’t been there when he came down the stairs with Amena…
Luag still lay beside Leif, staring at Lauren. Taran was down as well, over by the front door.
Still woozy, Leif stretched out a hand toward Lauren.
"Can ye help me get up?"
It was an innocent request, but Lauren jumped away from his touch as if he had the plague, her hands palm-out by either side of her face.
"Luag is waking,” she sputtered, for al the world sounding afraid. “The two o' ye can help each other up." She nodded as if to punctuate what she'd said, then turned around and walked over to sit down once more at her place between Jessica and Katherine at the table. Their chairs had been drawn verra close together, within an arm’s reach of each other.
Leif looked over at Taran, afraid his brother had witnessed this embarrassing exchange.
Oh, his brother had seen it. And he was stifling a laugh at Leif's expense over it.
Taran’s eyes said, “The lass put ye in yer place, did she not? Gave ye what for and all that.”
Leif said with his own eyes, “Aye, that I suppose she did, and I suppose she has the right o' it. I was wrong tae ask a non-clan guest tae help me up. ‘Twas improper.”
Sure enough, Luag was sitting now as well, and the two of
them were able to help each other up.
Leif searched his memory. Why had he fallen asleep? That singing was the last thing he remembered. So the intruders must have been druids, and that song must have been part of their magic. What could they want here? The answer presented itself to him as he opened the door to go down the stairs. The lasses were what was new here.
He reappraised Lauren as he approached the table and sat down.
"Lauren, I owe ye a debt. I give ye my thanks for defending my home when I succumbed tae sleep. I assume it was the druids who attacked, aye? How long was I asleep?"
Lauren nodded.
"Aye. All o' ye men fell asleep a few moments only, howsoever it was long enough. We lasses were left tae defend ourselves, which was likely what they intended. 'Twas a good thing they did na count on me being able tae actually dae that."
Only a few moments? But how did the lasses come out of the kitchen so quickly and sit back down in their places? I must be mis-remembering… or… something…
Leif looked at Jessica to see if she had kenned Lauren’s fighting prowess, and he saw that she was just as shocked as he was. As was Katherine. Both lasses were a bit white in the face and trembling slightly.
He turned back to Lauren.
"What happened?"
Lauren got up and play-acted everything as she spoke.
"Once the four druids sang the three o' ye tae sleep, they magically opened the back door here. It glowed with an odd blue glow and then swung open wide. I rushed ower with Gal—”
She choked here, likely feeling the weight of killing a man.
“I rushed ower with my dagger and stopped the foremaist man I saw with a stab tae his gut.”
Aye, verra likely feeling the weight, as a stab to the gut almost always ends in death.