Unwary Traveller - Chapter Three

She overslept, only waking when the sun hit her in the face and she got the sense of someone sitting on the foot of her bed. Elizabeth jerked awake, staring around herself wildly before she recognized her surroundings. Not her bedroom like she’d dreamed of but an unfamiliar four poster bed. And she wasn’t alone, Jamie was sitting cautiously on the edge of the mattress with his staff across his lap. Cinaed was sitting on her haunches over by the door, tail wagging.

Elizabeth drew the coverlet up over her chest reflexively. “What are you doing here, Jamie?”

It was hard to read his expression, he was too skilled at hiding his feelings from her. He looked up, rubbing a hand across the blindfold. “I counted the doors.”

Elizabeth grimaced, sliding out from under the covers as she gathered shift, dress and corset. “I kind of figured that. And you didn’t tell me what you’re doing here.”

A shrug. “Alan told me to find you, he says that we could be at the manor inside of an hour if we leave now. And you missed breakfast.”

He dropped a bannock on the bedspread. Elizabeth looked down at it, deciding to save it for later. Or throw it away when she had an opportunity not to hurt Jamie’s feelings. A cold roll was not her idea of a decent morning meal. “Thanks. I’ll eat it later.”

The grin he gave her, made Elizabeth force a smile of her own and take a bite of the cold bannock. It was cold but not rock hard like she’d feared it would be. “Mhm…”

It was enough to persuade her to finish the biscuit like creation. “Do you know how to put this all together, Jamie? The dress I mean.”

Looking at the heap of cloth was intimidating, she’d had help piecing together the first time now she wasn’t sure if she could do it herself.

He shook his head, shoving at a dark lock of hair that had fallen into his eyes. “I don’t have much to do with my sister’s dresses. Mother helps her, I think.”

That was disappointing, Elizabeth bit down on her lower lip just as a knock sounded on the closed door. “Uh, come in?”

A maid walked into the room and gave Jamie a light swat on the rear. “Out with you, laddie. Blind or no, I think Mistress Stanton would like privacy while she dresses.”

Elizabeth bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. Jamie just looked so cute in that moment. Almost like a brother she wished she’d had. “I’ll find you later, Jamie. I promise.”

He nodded wistfully and patted Cinaed on the head. “Come, lassie.”

The dog barked once and got up, putting her nose to a spot between Jamie’s shoulder blades. He squeaked, spinning around and cuffed Cinaed alongside her head. “Dinna do that.”

She whuffed and walked around him, tail held high. Jamie sighed and left a moment or two later, shutting the door behind him.

Elizabeth snickered, covering her mouth and nose with one hand. “He’s cute, you know.”

The woman helping her dress smiled briefly. “I don’t know this word ‘cute’ but the laddie is endearing, aye. I reckon his brother and sister are already waiting for you by the stables. Be sure to come back in time for the gathering.”

As told, the three were already waiting for her, Alan was already mounted. His brother and sister weren’t, playing keep away with Cinaed.

Elizabeth blushed under the look of approval that Alan gave her. She hadn’t thought much of the choice of color of her dress but apparently he liked it on her. Now the question was how she was going to ride with so many layers on. Not astride without ruining the skirts. “Uhm, Alan…”

He eyed her critically and then let his reins lay across the horse’s neck. “Give me both hands and jump.”

She hesitated before deciding it was the only way to do things. How else was she going to get on the stinking animal in a dress? Adele’s decision to steal her brother’s clothing made much more sense to her now. At least as far as riding a horse went. She stifled a squeak as he all but hauled her up in front of him, seated sideways rather than astride. It didn’t look like it with his height, she was a full inch bigger than he was but he was stronger than she’d expected him to be. “Out of curiosity, how tall are you?”

A shrug, one that might have been copied from Jamie or more likely the other way around. “A little above middling, I suppose. Five feet and six inches or thereabouts. Why?”

“Just curious.” Elizabeth grimaced, looking down at her suddenly exposed boots. “Are we ready to go now?”

“Impatient, are we?” There was no hint of a smile in his expression but Alan’s words suggested otherwise.

“Yeah, I mean yes.” She blushed, feeling the warmth stain her cheeks. “Let’s go meet your parents.”

Alan’s mother was not what she’d expected. She had been expecting a slim dark haired woman, maybe a streak or two of silver just beginning to show in her hair. Reality was far from it. Iseabail had the look of a woman ten years older than she was and was worn out from it. Elisabeth winced, half turning away as the older woman smiled, showing a lack of several important teeth.

It didn’t seem to bother her children though. Alan embraced her and then took a step back, letting his brother and sister take their turns. Iseabail gave a light swap to Adele and ruffled Jamie’s hair, saying something in Gaelic that Elizabeth missed completely.

She hung back, seeing the small girl lingering on the stairs. “Hi there.”

This must have been the unknown sister that Alan had mentioned. The girl ducked out of sight again but not before her mother caught sight of her out of the corner of her eye.

The only word that she got out of the whole sentence was Teasag, Jean. Alan laughed suddenly, grabbing hold of one of Teasag’s plaits. “Don’t be afraid, Teasag. Elizabeth is a guest, not a stranger come to take anyone away.”

He dropped to one knee to pick her up. “She doesna speak Scots or Gaelic so it’s plain English I think.”

Teasag rested her head against his shoulder, murmuring something. Alan smiled fondly and set her down again. “Aye, she’s a Sassenach but not one liable to bite.”

Elizabeth felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment. “Thanks?”

“That’s enough of you, Ailein.” Iseabail cuffed him alongside the shoulder. “Show our guest around while I get dinner on the table. Jamie, laddie. There’s horses needing to be fed and watered. See to it.”

She switched back to Gaelic, somehow managing to herd Teasag and Adele into the kitchen. The older girl looked sulky at being forced to do housework. Elizabeth bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt not to smile.

Alan led her out of the house and into the front yard before leading her over to the small stable. Inside was cool, dark and smelling strongly of horse manure. The blanket he spread out on a pile of hay was welcomed after the ride. Elizabeth sat down on it gratefully. “She called you… Ailein?”

“It’s my name in Gaelic.” He hoisted himself up onto the half gate, petting the nose of the horse that poked its head out of the stall opening. “Some of the older men call me Ailein duinn on account of my hair.”

Elizabeth wrinkled her nose as she struggled to make sense of the wording. “What does that mean?”

Alan leaned back, bracing himself on the support beam. “Dark haired Alan in English. My mother often used to wish that she’d had hair like mine as a young woman.”

“Your parents weren’t dark haired?”

“No, mother was what you would call mouse brown. A bonny thing when she was younger, Father said. Ewan was a dark brown but none so dark as me or my siblings.” Alan slipped off his perch, landing lightly before taking the wooden pail from his younger brother and helping him with the latch of the stall door. “Go in, Jamie. I’ll finish your chore.”

Jamie sighed, sweeping his gaze around the area. “You just want to steal a moment or two alone with her.”

Alan laughed again, wrapping an arm around Jamie’s shoulders. “In a year or two I’ll take you to Inverness. You can have your first taste of female company there. You may be a man now but you are still too young to understand relations between men and women.”

Jamie flushed, ducking his head. “I ken about that. I’ve seen horses at it. Take them from behind and hope they don’t get away.”

Alan pinched the bridge of his nose briefly. “Ah, it’s a wee bit more complicated than that, Jamie. You don’t take the woman from behind usually. They like to see their partner face to face.”

Elizabeth nearly put her hands up to her ears and started humming. Sex was not something she cared to talk about in public. Particularly when it related to the method used or as if she was a horse to be ridden. “Can we change the subject? Who’s hungry?”

Almost as if her words had been a summoning, Teasag came into the stable with a resentful looking Adele trailing behind her. Elizabeth exchanged a wry look with Alan and stood. By the look of things, the fourteen year old had been forcibly persuaded into a deep green dress and had a brush run through the tangles in her long hair. Like Teasag’s it was now plaited into submission. Unlike the younger girl, she did not look happy about it. “Mother says you’re permitted in the house now.”

Dinner was a chaotic affair once the prayer was out of the way. Iseabail had no sooner set the food on the scrubbed wooden table that the younger children rushed for it first. Elizabeth hung back, holding the hand that Jamie had given her, uncertainly watching and trying to figure out who belonged to who. The dark haired lot were obvious, she’d met them earlier but the rest. A couple blondes and a red head she couldn’t identify, she didn’t know who they belonged to. “Assorted cousins, maybe?”

Alan tossed her a piece of bread before handing a second to Jamie. “Something of the kind. Mother has brothers and sisters of her own, four of them and their children. Some of which have bairns of their own. And hospitality being what it is, Mother would have wanted them all to meet you. Or near enough anyway.”

He frowned wading into the pile to separate a squabbling pair from each other. “Kitty, Gavin…”

His words were lost to Elizabeth as he switched from English to Gaelic. By the time he was finished, Kitty was in tears and sniffling while Gavin had earned himself a swat to the rear end and the bannock had ended up in the possession of Cinaed who was chewing on it contentedly in a corner of the room.

The rest of the meal was calmer if not quieter than it had been half an hour ago. Most of the adults had gotten their respective offspring under control and seated tidily at the table. Or on wooden benches when the table ran out of space to hold everyone.

It was so different from what she remembered of meals at home in London. Elizabeth bit down on her lower lip, inexplicably wishing for a brother or sister to share a dinner with. It had just been the three of them at the flat, her parents and herself respectively. And none of this warm, chaotic meal.

There was a lull in the conversation as people dug into the meal. Alan handed her a plate and used the opportunity of relative quietness to speak again. “No siblings of your own, I take it?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Not really, my mum had this thing done to herself after I was born. She didn’t want any more kids after me, so… how did you guess?”

“It was easy enough to read, the way you were watching everyone.” He swept his gaze around the gathered crowd.

“Am I that easy to read?”

“No,”

He was being kind, sparing her feelings. Elizabeth grimaced, gingerly picking at the food she’d been served. The bannock she recognized but there was something that looked like an unidentifiable organ. “I’m sure.”

A quick count had ended at several assorted adults and kids where she had thought there were more earlier. “Where did they go?”

“Anywhere they could find a place. Out of doors, most likely where it isn’t so crowded. Thankfully, it’s just the immediate family and one or two of my aunts and uncles most days.” Alan didn’t have as much objection to that odd specimen she’d left alone on her plate as she did. He snagged it from her and took a bite or two of its contents.

Elizabeth wrinkled her nose, trying to look anywhere but at the grayish lump he left behind on the wooden plate. “Do I want to know what that is? Venison, I think I can tolerate despite being… an herbivore but this…”

“English sensibility.” Alan looked at her bemused as the volume slowly increased again. “Or the lack thereof. The bairns will be put to bed soon enough and we can leave the washing up for the women to do. I think you’ll like the main gathering back at the castle.”

The idea of the gathering sounded like fun but she wasn’t so sure of letting the Alan’s mother and aunts take care of the remnants of the meal by themselves. “Shouldn’t we help them?”

“We’ll just be in the way if we try.” Alan was looking at her puzzled as if he was trying to figure something out about her. “Come with me.”

He raised his voice just enough to be heard over the general chatter. “Jamie, Adele. Do you want to come or not?”

The twins were over to him in a split second, Adele pleading and Jamie looking hopeful. Alan ruffled their hair with a smile. "Shall we?"