“If you agree to it, they can join you for lessons and learn how to read and write Scots. Since they’re young and are now my brother- and sister-by-marriage, they can grow up as nobles if you wish. If you’d rather they didn’t, they can still learn just Gaelic with you.”
“Won’t people talk about them? They’re not nobly born. Neither am I.”
“Birth and marriage are the ways into the nobility. Ellie, you’re Lady Elene now. That’s how people will address you. One day it will be Lady Mackay. We have basically adopted them. If you wish Katryne to carry the title ‘lady,’ then she can. If you and she don’t want that, then she doesn’t have to. It’s your choice,mo chridhe.”
“Can I think about it? Talk to her and Johan?”
“Of course.” Liam wrapped his arm around Elene’s shoulders as they walked back into the keep. They made their way abovestairs where they shared a bath. Liam respected Elene’s need to reflect on the day. He didn’t press her to talk more. It wasn’t long before they were both distracted by the feel of their bodies pressed together in the wood and copper tub. Once they’d scrubbed one another, Elene turned to straddle Liam’s hips. He guided her onto his length as they kissed.
The passion existed as it always did, but their coupling was slow and gentle. The water rippling around their bodies added an erotic aura. They were both lost in sensation and love. The rest of the world seemed far away. They existed in a bubble where they were all each other needed. As they lay together in bed afterward, Elene couldn’t remember being more content after an emotional day. Before Liam, her mind would have jumped from one worry to another, until she was too exhausted to remain awake. With Liam, she felt calm and fortified to handle whatever the days ahead presented. While neither spoke it aloud, they knew there was much still unresolved about their new lives.
The next sennight passed in a blur for Elene. Liam would accompany her to the Great Hall where they would break their fast together. He would leave to join the men in the lists, while Elene shadowed Siùsan, who taught her about managing a keep. She knew Mairghread would take over her lessons at Varrich, but it was Siùsan’s household to lead. The other aunts continued to help Elene with her wardrobe. By the end of the week, she had six new gowns, four chemises, and three pairs of stockings.
Throughout the day, Elene added to her Gaelic vocabulary. She repeated words over and over until she encountered a new one. She strung them together as best she could in her head before she practiced speaking them aloud. A few attempts garnered snickers from the servants, but a piercing gaze from Ceit soon subdued the women. Elene discovered most of the Sinclair clan members were patient and kind to her. She’d feared being an outsider after her initial encounter with the merchant at the village market. But she had no such experience again. If people talked about her, they did so well behind her back and those of her family-by-marriage.
Some days Liam returned for the midday meal, but he remained in the lists for most. In the afternoons, Mairghread gathered the three Isbister siblings in her father’s solar and began teaching them to read and write Scots and to speak Gaelic. It embarrassed Elene how much more easily her brother and sister caught on. There was a strong Scots influence in Norn, so she already understood and spoke proficiently. But it frustrated her she couldn’t learn to read and write with her siblings’ ease. Mairghread patiently reminded her that it wasn’t a competition. Mairghread’s reassurance mollified her.
But it was the early evenings that Elene enjoyed most. Liam took her for walks near the loch or out to the beach. They shared what filled their days between kisses. It surprised Elene when Liam asked her opinion about an argument between two men he’d watched. She weighed in, and Liam said he would share her suggestion with Tristan. She came to a compromise Liam hadn’t considered.
During the evening meal, Elene slowly joined in more. She found she comprehended more Gaelic by the day. When she couldn’t respond in the language, she used Norn or Scots. Among the three languages, she could take part more. Much of her anxiety lessened. At night, Liam and Elene escaped to their chamber, where Elene far more enjoyed her linguistic lessons with her husband than with anyone else. She soon became well versed in all their body parts and how they liked to use them.
It was with a heavy heart that she left Dunbeath. She’d found an extended family she’d never imagined. She’d always felt out-of-place in her village; her mother’s behavior isolated her from others. Her need to work in the fields from sunup to sundown kept her from mingling with other people her age, and caring for her siblings often made her feel older than her years. But among the Sinclairs, and the Mackays who’d traveled with the laird’s family, she finally felt like she belonged. It scared her to imagine starting over at Varrich when she’d just found a place that made her happy.
Elene impressed her parents-by-marriage and the guardsmen who traveled with the Mackays when she easily fished with her bare hands in rivers and lochs. Johan and Katryne worked alongside her, none of them thinking their strategies particularly special. She quickly learned how to make bannocks from oats rather than beremeal, so she helped Mairghread each morning. Her first attempt when she traveled with Liam and his men had been passable, but now she mastered them. She liked Alec and Hamish, but they were young men more interested in spending their time with their guards. She discovered she and Ainsley had much in common with their interests and their temperaments. She prayed her introduction to Clan Mackay went as smoothly as their journey.
When they skirted Clan Gunn’s land, Mairghread explained the ongoing animosity between the Mackays and Gunns, as well as the Sinclairs and the Gunns. Elene had never imagined such rivalry or fierce hatred between neighbors. It was unlike anything with which she was familiar. She took to heart Liam’s and her parents’-by-marriage warnings that she should never walk or ride out alone.
When the Mackays reined in their horses on their fourth day of travel, Elene, Katryne, and Johan caught their first glimpse of their new home. Elene’s chest swelled as she gazed at the castle with a sturdy tower and a barmekin that appeared impenetrable. She could smell the salty air blowing toward them from the Kyle of Tongue.
“There was once a Norse fort where the keep is now,” Liam explained. “There are caves below where the Mackays made their homes while they built the castle. It was also a place where Norse pillagers hid their plunder. Nowadays, we keep naught down there.” Liam drew closer to Elene as the party nudged their horses closer. “There is a tunnel from the keep down to the caves. If ever you must flee, there are three birlinns always kept within the caves. The birlinns aren’t a secret among my clan, but no one outside the laird’s family and the clan council knows where the tunnel begins or ends. It’s imperative that it always remain a secret, or it will no longer be a safe escape.”
“I understand.” Elene nodded as she peered at the castle that grew larger with each step their mounts took.
“Do you see the third window from the right? That’s our chamber, Ellie.” Liam reached out to take Elene’s hand. He guided Urram with his other hand while Elene held the reins to the mare she rode in her free one. It was an awkward position to ride in, but it felt intimate despite the five members of the laird’s family and the two-score warriors who accompanied them.
“Where will we sleep?” Johan chirped, interrupting the couple’s moment.
“There are chambers for you and Katryne on the other side of the second floor,” Mairghread explained.
“Chambers?” Katryne asked. “We each get one?” They’d shared a chamber at Dunbeath since it was bursting at the seams with the added Mackays in residence. The children had shared a pallet their entire lives that was off to the side in their family’s croft on Rousay. Elene’s pallet was next to theirs, and more recently, Katryne began sharing Elene’s.
“Yes, you each get one,” Tristan confirmed.
“You need your own,” Ainsley chimed in. “Boys are disgusting.”
Hamish, the youngest of the Mackay brothers, leaned over and not so subtly belched in his sister’s ear. He barely dodged her elbow as it came perilously close to his windpipe. Ainsley cocked an eyebrow and was the mirror image of her mother. When Elene turned to look at Mairghread, she nearly laughed aloud. Mother and daughter bore the same unimpressed expression. As they drew close enough to hear the bells announcing their approach, the family and their guards spurred their horses. They entered the bailey with a clatter of hooves and clouds of dust.
Elene swept her gaze around the bailey as people poured forth to greet their returning laird and lady. Liam dismounted and hurried around to help Elene. His strong hands branded her waist, and he skimmed her body along his as he lowered her to her feet.
“I have never wanted to see my bed more than I do now. Our bed.” Liam wrapped his arm around Elene’s waist, steadying her as her exhausted legs threatened to give out. She was unaccustomed to so many hours on horseback. Her plow horse at home in Skaill hadn’t trotted in at least a decade. He barely plodded through the fields. She’d ridden hard when they traveled from Dingieshowe to Kirkwall, but it hadn’t been a long ride.
“Can I have a bath first?”
“Are you in pain,mo chridhe?”
“A little,” Elene confessed.
“You should have ridden with me. I should have insisted. Then you could have sat with your legs over one side.”
