Cailean nodded and left, prowling the courtyard. Duncan, his apprentices, the blacksmith, and Elayne appeared engaged in work. Cailean observed the grooms leading the horses back to the stable. The grooms returned, bringing the next horse.
Cailean had worked in the stables when he was a lad. In their clan, his father wanted his sons to appreciate the work of the tradespeople. There were many talented tradespeople the clan relied upon for their welfare. Cailean stayed in the dark shadows, careful not to be seen. He could have stood and stared at Elayne’s form and face for hours. She captivated him as no other woman ever had.
Finally, he saw her stride back to the forge. It would take her a few minutes to wash and meet him. Cailean ambled casually in the courtyard, belying his focus and keen anticipation of reuniting with Elayne.
He drank from a cup at the well as Elayne strolled up. Cailean whispered to her, “Follow me.” He strode to the castle’s far side, opening a gate and leaving it open as he waited inside the garden. As soon as Elayne entered, Cailean shut the gate behind her and took her hand in his.
“Ye are amazing, lass. Ye are skilled and can do many things. Yet ye still want to keep learning. Did yer father like the tarts?”
“Aye. When I said I made them with lessons from Bessie, Papa and Mrs. Logan were surprised. I told them I had run into her at the market, and she invited me to the kitchens to teach me how to make tarts. My father and Mrs. Logan were grateful for all the meat too. My father took a large portion to the farrier, and he put it on the spit to roast. As I left, the men were eating and drinking. Ye ken the apprentices are always hungry. What are we doing in the gardens?”
“First, I have a surprise for ye. Here’s a blue ribbon to wear in yer hair. I thought it might be the color ye would like for a dress.”
“Thank ye. It is pretty and ye are right. It is the color I hope to find. Like the color of a robin’s egg in the spring.”
“Next we are going to dance. I will teach ye how.”
“Here in the gardens?”
“Aye, here in the gardens where we will have privacy. Nae one will see ye but me. Ye will nae need to worry and feel foolish as ye learn the steps. First, I will show ye a country dance and its steps. Afterward, I will show ye a slower dance.”
While they stood side by side, he executed each step, and she imitated the steps. They repeated the series of steps several times. As they joined hands, he led her in the dance from beginning to end. Elayne smiled throughout. She was a quick study and graceful as she danced.
Cailean breathed in her scent of heather and rose as they danced under the stars and in the moonlight on a lovely spring night. He praised her dance steps. “With practice, ye will do it all by yerself. We can practice at the fishing hole.”
Elayne thought that a hilarious proclamation and giggled in his arms.
Cailean was thrilled to hold her close as he taught her the finer steps of the slow dance. At the end of the lesson, he wrapped her in a close embrace and kissed her jaw. Cailean licked her seam of her lips and when she gasped, he thrust his tongue inside and tangled with hers. He longed to do more. Teach her more and keep her to himself all night.
“Lass, ye need to return home before it gets too late. I don’t want yer father to worry. It’s best ye are home and in bed before him.” Cailean kissed her sweetly this time. As he opened the gate and stood in the shadows, he watched her return to the forge. After William walked from the farrier’s home to the forge, Cailean released the breath he didn’t ken he held.
He had two fathers to deal with, hers and his. He didn’t ken which would be the fiercer opponent. After returning to his chamber, Cailean settled under the sheets, naked. Thoughts of holding and kissing Elayne had heated his blood, and he needed time to cool his mind and body.
Cailean arose before dawn and headed immediately to the blacksmith’s home. There, he heard pounding inside the forge as he carried lengths of timber on his shoulders through the door. Thoroughly surprising Elayne, who remained speechless as she gazed at him.
“Here I am to help yer father and enlarge yer garden and the pen for yer animals. Someone very intelligent and kind told me the laird should help those in need, so I heeded their advice.”
Cailean gave her an entrancing smile as he turned and left the forge to go begin his work. William met him in the yard as soon as he heard pounding on wood. They discussed the expanded sizes of the garden and pen. And William agreed with Cailean’s recommendations.
Before the blacksmith went to start his day’s work, he said, “Help yerself to cool water to drink in the kitchen anytime. Let me ken if ye need anything. I left ye a shovel there.” William pointed to where the tool stood leaning against the house.
“Aye, I will.”
From where he worked, he could hear the incessant pounding in tandem from the forge. Cailean developed a new appreciation of Elayne’s patience with all the noise the beating and hammering caused. After several hours of work on the pen, he wiped the sweat from his brow and stepped inside the house to drink water.
As he did so, he observed the small but spotless kitchen. He spied the small bed in the kitchen that must be Elayne’s. The house had only one chamber, and the clothes on top of the bed belonged to her father. The lass didn’t even have a chamber of her own. If William had other children, they would sleep on the floor.
Cailean realized how fortunate his family was. He hadn’t seen how others in the clan lived and ken he had much to learn to help his clan. Cailean returned outside to shovel the dirt and enlarge the garden. He removed sticks and stones and put them to the side. Elayne never took a break, continuously toiling in the forge over the anvil. She had claimed to work from sunrise to sunset; now he fully realized the literal truth of her words.
He looked forward to joining her for dinner. In the meantime, William invited Cailean to join him for lunch of a hearty and delicious stew with fresh warm bread. Elayne did not join them for lunch. No wonder she appeared so thin. He recalled how she had called chicken, bread, fruit, and dessert a feast on their picnics in the forest by the loch. Revelations like this were surprising to Cailean, whose friends didn’t face these plights and whose family always had plenty. He was seeing another side of life, and it opened his eyes.
Working the entire day, he didn’t see Elayne as much as he would have liked, aside from venturing into the forge after lunch to get more nails.
Late in the afternoon, Elayne’s father joined Cailean in the garden and observed he had finished. The blacksmith offered him ale, and he joined him in the kitchen, where Mrs. Logan put the finishing touches on their dinner they had invited him to. She greeted him as he entered the kitchen.
“It smells wonderful in here,” Cailean said appreciatively. The men chatted about the issues facing the clan. Cailean told William of his task to forge business alliances and asked him about his recommendations.
Soon Elayne arrived, and Mrs. Logan ushered her into her father’s chamber so she could wash and change her clothes. Even under the soot on her face, he could see her blushing. They must not have told her about his being invited to dinner. Cailean had assumed they would have. He didn’t want to cause her any embarrassment.
