She laughed softly. “Pretend I am one of your sons, only prettier and nicer.”
He chuckled along with her. “I will try to remember that,” he said. “Welcome to our family. I pray you find us agreeable.”
Cathlina cocked an eyebrow. “Agreeable or not, we are all going to get to know each other very, very well over the next few days, I would suspect. I will tell you now that I like flowers and hate the taste of fish, that I can cook somewhat, and that I demand a clean and orderly existence. My mother taught me to be a frugal chatelaine so I do not like to spend money unless it is absolutely necessary. Is there anything else you wish to know?”
By this time, all three of them were looking at her with varied degrees of amusement. Sebastian was even snorting.
“I did not even know those things about you and I am your husband,” Mathias finally said.
She shrugged flippantly, although it was in good humor. “That is the risk you take when you marry someone after having only known them a week. Now, you will tell me something about you that I do not know so I can see what I have gotten myself into.”
Sebastian burst out laughing as Mathias fought off a grin. “I like to spend money, I love the taste of fish, I hate flowers, and I demand everything around me be as disorderly and smelly as possible.” His grin broke through when he saw her laughing. “Sebastian has a temper and fists of steel, my father likes to complain, and I believe we are all a big, bloody mess. Will you help right us, my lady?”
Cathlina shook her head at him. “It sounds as if you are all quite hopeless.”
“That is true.”
Mathias winked at her, took her elbow and, with his brother and father, escorted her to the door of the tavern. It was raining outside, turning the road into a great boggy mess. The humor faded from Cathlina’s face when she saw the state of the weather but she didn’t say a word. She simply pulled her hood over her head and allowed Mathias to lead her out into the rain.
Two steps into the soupy avenue and Mathias handed her satchel over to Sebastian so he could pick her up. He swung her into his arms and carried her across the road to where the horses stood, tethered beneath the shelter of a big oak. He placed her on his saddle as Sebastian and Justus went to their horses to prepare them for departure. As Cathlina pulled her cloak more closely around her, Mathias dug around in his saddle bags and came up with a length of oiled cloth, a rain cloak, which hewrapped tightly around his wife. Then he mounted behind her and collected his reins, motioning for his father and brother to follow.
And so they were off, riding north into Scotland as the gentle rain fell and the soft wind blew. The roads were in fair to poor condition because of the rain so it was slow going as they went. The road had a few travelers on it, mostly farmers moving their stock or wagons, but they stayed well away from the party of three big men and one small lady. With the cold gray mist over the landscape, it was a quiet and lonely journey.
Early on in the ride when the rain had turned to mist that was far wetter than the rain, Cathlina had covered her head up with the oil cloth in a vain attempt to stay dry while she dug around in the basket that the innkeeper had given her.
Surprisingly, there was a nice variety of food and she nibbled at the brown bread with currants, oatmeal pies that had some kind of meat mixed in with them, cheese, small apples and several pears. She ate until she could eat no more, offering Mathias something to eat and having the pleasure of feeding him because he had both hands on the reins because the charger was still rather skittish. He would eat whatever she fed him and try to steal kisses in between.
Unused to games played by men, or anything having to do with romance, Cathlina was rather embarrassed at his affectionate attempts in front of his father and brother, so she ended up burying her head under the oil cloth so he couldn’t get at her. Mathias laughed long about that antic.
It was near sunset when the rain finally let up and the waning afternoon produced deep blue skies. The sun came out and, although cool, shed light upon brilliant green fields that glistened with moisture. The River Esk ran off to the east, a wide expanse of watery ribbon that snaked its way through thelandscape and just as the sun went down, they passed through a small berg that sat on the river’s edge.
The temperature had dropped with the clear sky and it had turned very cold as they came to a halt in front of one of the many taverns that lined the river. Cathlina could see at least three others down the avenue with laughter and drunken people spilling out of their glowing innards. Mathias handed her down to Sebastian, who carried her to the threshold so she wouldn’t get her boots muddy in the puddles that smelled like urine. She thanked the redheaded brother, her basket of half-eaten food from the morning still in her hand as he put her on the ground.
Justus and Sebastian escorted her inside as Mathias went to see about securing two rooms for the night. The inn wasn’t very busy, at least not like the other ones in town, and Mathias soon realized it was because the man’s prices were fairly high. Moreover, the inn was one-storied and fairly small, and they didn’t have rooms to let for the night. They did, however, have small cottages down by the river’s edge that cost a decent amount of money for just one night’s lodging. Mathias didn’t care at that point. He paid for two cottages and four meals.
The inn was on a slight rise and the cottages tucked down below next to the water. They were constructed of sod and rock, which made them little more than a cave, but Mathias quickly discovered that they were dry and surprisingly comfortable. The innkeeper and a serving wench brought down buckets of wood and peat for the fires and soon enough, Sebastian had two blazing fires smoking in the hearths.
It was warm in the little caves quickly. Both of the cottages had one rather small bed and a small table with stools instead of chairs. Dried grass and straw were thick on the mud floor to provide some insulation. Not strangely, Cathlina was very comfortable inside the little cottage because anything was better than being on the back of the skittish charger, so she veryhappily settled in, checking the bedding and making sure there was water in the basin and a chamber pot under the bed. When the meal was finally delivered by two serving wenches, she had them set it upon the table in her cottage.
The smells of beef drew the men into the small cottage as Mathias, Justus and Sebastian crowded in to eat. Just as if they were back home in their smithy shack, Justus and Sebastian grabbed the stools and settled in around the table where huge knuckles of beef awaited them. There were also an abundance of carrots boiled in brine, turnips, and big hunks of warm brown bread. It was a feast and they dug into it with gusto as Mathias pulled off big pieces of steaming beef for his wife so she wouldn’t be left out. She had been crowded out by the hungry men.
Cathlina giggled as he handed her a slab of bread with the beef piled on top because he was rolling his eyes at the manners of his brother and father and even went so far as to smack his brother on the side of the head because he was eating like a barbarian. Food was flying everywhere. Mathias took his own meat and bread, sitting down beside Cathlina on the bed.
“How far do you plan to take us tomorrow, Mat?” Sebastian asked as he stuffed meat in his mouth. “If I recall this road, there isn’t a tremendous amount of civilization until we reach Edinburgh.”
Mathias nodded as he chewed on his meal. “A positive aspect,” he said. “Hopefully it means less Scots to question us and wonder what we are doing in their lands.”
“What will we tell them if we run across any?” Justus wanted to know. “With a woman along, I do not suppose you would be inclined to fight your way out of a confrontation.”
Mathias looked at Cathlina, shoving bits of bread in her mouth. “That would not be my first choice,” he said, his gaze lingering on her sweet beauty. “The armor and mail we have is limited from what we could scavenge. Sebastian and I split thearmor I used for the tournament and you have an old mail coat that hardly fits. It will make a fight even more dangerous.”
Sebastian shrugged. “At least the weapons we have are superior.”
Justus sighed faintly. “There is an old baron somewhere who will wonder what became of the sword I was making for him.”
Sebastian snorted. “We have more weapons on us than a small army,” he said. “We stripped the stall of anything valuable before we left it– hammers, blades, or tools. Woe betides the idiot foolish enough to attack us.”
“Cathlina, can you use a weapon, lass?” Justus asked, half in jest. “We are speaking of battles and not including you in the conversation. Mayhap you can fight as well.”
