“Aye, comb it out and put it up as befits a lady of yer status.”
“What exactly is my status?”Jessa wondered what everyone had been told about her presence.
Molly went still, standing there with a pair of long ivory stockings in one hand and a pair of dark green ribbons in the other.“Are ye not here to wed Himself?”she asked, sounding as forlorn as a lost toddler.
“I have no intention of marrying anyone at the moment.Why would you think that?”
“I dinna ken,” Molly hurried to say, her tone chilling with a distance that wasn’t there before.“And besides, ’tis not my place to say.”She nodded at the footstool again.“If ye’ll be good enough to sit, I’ll help ye with yer stockings.”
Jessa lowered herself to the pillowed stool, determined to find out more.“You don’t know or you won’t say?What is it not your place to say?I told you to speak freely around me, remember?”
On her knees, Molly looked up with a pleading expression and whispered, “If Mistress Mairwen brought ye here to wed the MacAlester, it would be unwise of ye to refuse.”
“I can handle Mistress Mairwen.”In fact, Jessa had a few choice words to share with that conniving old woman who had turned out to be an accessory in kidnapping.
Molly glanced around as if someone was eavesdropping and taking notes.“Dinna say such things, mistress.It is nay wise.”
Jessa wondered what Mairwen had done to put such fear into the young girl.Of course, if Molly was sticking to the eighteenth century mindset, then maybe she was playing the superstitious young Scot.Jessa wished the poor girl would just be honest with her, but she totally understood the situation where a paycheck was a paycheck.Choosing not to be difficult, she rubbed a finger across her teeth.“Do you have another washcloth I could use to clean my teeth?They feel icky.”
Molly froze in the middle of tying a ribbon above Jessa's knee to keep her stocking in place.“Icky?”
“You know.Slimy.Gross.My mouth tastes bad.”
The maid’s mouth formed a smalloof understanding.“I brought ye a freshly boiled toothbrush and some powder, but I thought ye’d nay need it till this evening.”
“I like to brush my teeth in the mornings too,” Jessa said slowly, wondering why the toothbrush had been boiled and what the powder was for.
“Here’s yer slippers.While ye put them on, I’ll fetch everything for ye, and then we shall do yer hair.”
Molly seemed relieved that Mairwen was no longer the subject of their conversation.Jessa stored that away to think about later.If she found out that Mairwen or MacSexy was mean to this girl, she’d report them to whomever she could find and get Molly some help.Surely, Scotland had an equivalent to social services or resources for at risk women and children.
With a glass of water in one hand and what looked like a brush to scrub bathroom grout in the other, Molly glanced back at the pitcher and basin on the washstand.“I dinna have enough hands.”
“I can stand at the washbasin and brush my teeth.You don’t have to drag everything over here to me.”
“Mrs.Robeson said I was to fetch everything ye need.A lady is nay supposed to be bothered with getting her own things.”
“Yeah, well this lady is not helpless, and I don’t mind doing some things for myself.”Jessa took the grout brush from Molly and went to the basin.“So, this is the boiled toothbrush?”
“Aye, mistress.Brand new boar bristles and freshly boiled.”
Jessa swallowed hard and stared down at the source of Molly’s pride.They expected her to brush her teeth with pig hairs?“Alrighty then.Brand new.That’s great.”Gingerly, she started toward her mouth with it.
“Nay, mistress.Wet it first, so’s the powder will cake on it.”Molly prepared the toothbrush for her and handed it back.“Do ye not usually use powder?”
“No,” Jessa said while eyeing the coated brush that now smelled like a pumpkin spice latte.“I’m used to a minty paste.”
“I see.”Molly opened the jar of powder and showed it to Jessa.“Mrs.Robeson uses cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove along with the eggshells and salt she grinds with her mortal and pestle.She says it’s good for yer teeth and gums.”
Eggshells and spices.Interesting.Determined to power through, play along, and not show weakness, Jessa scrubbed her teeth and tongue, surprised when it wasn’t nearly as unpleasant as she’d expected.After rinsing her mouth, it felt a great deal better than before the brushing.“Thank you, Molly.Now my morning has been started right.”
“Well done, mistress.”Molly tugged her back to the footstool.“We’ll finish yer hair, and then ye’ll be ready to join Himself and see to yer breakfast.I’m sure Mrs.Robeson will have yer coffee ready by now or the MacAlester will be demanding to know why not.”
“I can hardly wait.”Jessa looked forward to seeing the rest of the keep and discovering the lengths the man had gone to all in the name of the eighteenth century.
Chapter 8
“If you don’t take me to her, I’m contacting Interpol, Scotland Yard, the U.S.Embassy, and anyone else I can find who will listen to me.”Emily charged across the meeting room toward Mairwen.
