Weather eye, my arse, Aila thought.
This would be much simpler if she didn’t have two of the most hyper children in history in her charge.
“Niall Keeley! Out of that tree right now.” He stuck out his tongue at her and kept climbing while his sister found a foothold on the lowest branch and scrambled up behind him. “Effie! Come down this instant! Dinnae think I willnae come up there and get ye!”
Their hoots and hollers dared her to do just that. If she were in denims and a jumper rather than encumbered by layers of long skirts and a weighty velvet cloak, she would have obliged them and dragged them down one by one.
Option two: bribery.
Aila dug into her pocket and withdrew the candy bar she’d retrieved before setting out from the castle. She always kept a few in her purse. An emergency stash to stave off bouts of hangriness between meals.
This one was about to provide more satisfaction than ever before.
Rab swerved around at the familiar crinkle of the wrapper. He trotted over and sat at her feet with a look that told her he expected a treat. He might as well have held out a paw, he was so obvious. “Sorry, sweet lad, ye cannae have this.”
Awash with guilt over his disappointment, Aila turned her back on the dog and broke off a bit of the bar. She popped it in her mouth with an only partially feigned moan of delight. The food here was hearty, but there’d been no signs of sweets thus far. With a sweet tooth as powerful as hers, the absence of a nightly pudding had been a blow worse than her first encounter with the garderobe.
“What are ye eating?” Niall called down with open suspicion.
Effie didn’t wait for a response. She slid off her branch and ran to Aila’s side with the instincts of a bloodhound on the trail. Or a child to chocolate. Her eyes darted from the candy to Aila’s face, then back again. “What is it?”
“Sweets.”
“Let me see,” Niall bellowed as he skinnied down the tree and to her in a matter of seconds. “Let me see.”
“That’s hardly a polite request.”
The lad swiped his palms down the front of his breeks — as if that somehow made a difference — and clasped his hands before him. “May I please see it, Mistress Marshall?” The words were drawn out with exaggerated courtesy and a too-broad smile.
Aila held out the candy to their round of exclamations. “Tunnock’s Care…am…eel,” Effie read off the red wrapper. “What is that?”
“Caramel,” she corrected, “is gooey goodness.” She pointed to the end of the bar where she’d broken off her bite. “It has layers of wafers, caramel, and chocolate. It’s like pudding after dinner but better.”
They both looked skeptical. Niall’s nose wrinkled. “Dinnae look like much to me. No’ as good as marzipan.”
“Our cook used to make it into the shapes of animals for us.” Effie clapped her hands at the memory.
“She’d make them into tall towers —” Niall stabbed a hand into the air with a leap to match “— or top them on cake, or at Christmastide she’d—”
“It’s far better than that,” Aila interrupted before he could talk her ear off again. Sugar was probably the last thing the boy needed, but since she needed compliance and cooperation to keep her sanity, she let it slide. Breaking off two small bites, she handed one to each of them. They eyed the offering with dubious frowns. “Go on then.”
The moment they put it in their mouths and their eyes began to widen, Aila turned and strolled toward her destination with a smile…and another piece for herself before tucking the remainder back into the wrapper and into her pocket. A second later, she had a child hanging off each arm.
“Whatisit?”
“I’ve never tasted chocolate like that before. It’s ever so tasty,” Effie sang out. “May I have more, Aila?”
“Aye, more!” Niall demanded, then descended into a series of pleas designed to drive an adult mad. Or into complying for no other reason than to regain peace.
“Ye may have another if and only if ye behave for thirty minutes.” Their expressions fell into disbelief. Aye, perhaps that was asking a wee bit much. “Twenty then, and no’ a peep from ye or ye’ll no’ get another bite.”
They stared up at her, wide-eyed and lips sealed. Bribery might have been the wrong approach to take, but the blessed silence was its own reward.
“Brilliant! Come along then.” Aila set off again at a brisk pace.
“Where are we —” Niall elbowed his sister in the side before she could finish the question which set up a wail of injury. In turn, the lad defended himself. And chaos was once again master.
So much for that. At least they followed her instead of running off again.
