“Ye should have seen the house in which we quartered in Berwick,” she began, and pointed at her aunt’s central hearth, where the smoke curled up to slowly creep out the small venting hole in the thatched roof. “It didnae have a center hearth but one set against the wall. The smoke didnae go through a wee hole in the roof but through a stone—”
“Chimney. Aye, lass,” Sorcha drawled. “I ken the things. Your uncle has promised to build me the like. Ye willnae divert me with that. Tell me how ye came to be with this fine, braw knight.”
Sighing with resignation, Jennet gave her aunt a succinct account of all that had happened since she and her father had parted in Perth. Once finished, she saw only a touch of sympathy in her aunt’s pretty round face, no hint of condemnation or anger. She also saw that the talking-to she had tried to avoid was still to come.
“So ye and that fair-haired lad have been lovers since Berwick.” Sorcha collected up the wooden trenchers, spoons, and goblets. “Nay, sit,” she ordered Jennet who had risen to help. “Pour us each some wine. We are going to talk.”
“Oh, how nice,” Jennet muttered as she refilled their goblets.
Sorcha sat down after tossing the dinnerware into a large cauldron of water. “Why did ye act so surprised when your mon said ye are to stay with him?”
“He ne’er told me that I was to stay with him.” Jennet admitted to herself that she was highly annoyed about that.
“But he has kept you with him since Berwick. ’Tis clear he set ye in his bed then and means to keep ye there.”
“Ah, weel, aunt, he didnae exactly set me in his bed at Berwick.”
“Ye were his captive. Are ye saying he didnae take his pleasure of you right away?”
Blushing faintly, Jennet explained how and when she and Hacon had become lovers. She was not sure she liked the way Sorcha studied her so intently. Jennet suspected her aunt thought much like Elizabeth did.
“Weel, that news will please your uncle.”
“Uncle will be happy that his niece was seduced?”
“Ye could have been taken the moment Hacon set hands upon you and weel ye ken it. Ye were spoils of war.”
“I still am, it would seem. He hasnae wed me, has he, nor spoken of doing so.”
“Nay, lass, ye mean more to him than plunder and I think ye ken it. That mon doesnae treat you as naught but some bed warmer. And what of marrying him? If he asks, what would you say?”
Jennet was unable to answer and looked away. “Weel, he hasnae asked, so what does it matter?”
Sorcha grasped Jennet’s chin and made her face her squarely. “’Tis a simple question requiring but an aye or a nay. Why do ye hesitate? And if ye cannae answer, why did ye let him seduce you?”
“Because he makes me feel verra good,” Jennet grumbled.
“Wheesht, any mon a wee bit fair of face, with a hint of skill and a pintle that works as it should, could do that lass.”
“Aunt Sorcha!” Jennet was shocked by such blunt talk.
“’Tis true, and weel ye ken it. And ’tisnae enough to make your mother’s daughter bed down with a mon.”
“Do ye forget? I am my father’s daughter too.”
“Who could forget when those eyes and that beautiful skin bespeak it with each look? Yet, ’tis Moira’s spirit ye hold in your heart. As she would, ye would ne’er let a mon bed you unless ye had some feelings for him. So, I ask ye again—why do ye hesitate?”
“He is a knight.”
“Aye, and a good one—honorable and skilled, from what I can see.”
“Can ye not see the rest? He is a mon who gains from the killing of others. War is his way of life.”
“’Tis the way of life of nearly every mon, lass, and child in Scotland. Since Scotland decided to shake off the cursed English, we have been at war. Before that, we fought the English for other reasons, or the Norsemen. Aye, and if there is ever a lack of enemy from without, we turn upon each other. Do ye wait for peace in the land?”
Stung by the scorn in her aunt’s voice, Jennet leapt to her feet. “And what is wrong with wishing for a little peace?”
“Not a thing. But one cannae stop living while doing so.” She watched Jennet begin to pace the large main hall that made up nearly the whole lower floor of her home. “Do ye condemn the mon for his skill at arms?”
