“The King has his eye on you”, said Veda casually, picking up a basket full of turnips. After spending some time together, the initial awkwardness had passed, and they’d begun to relax and talk a little more.
Nessa sighed. “I know. He has me watched constantly, but I swear Veda, I don’t mean him any harm. I don’t meananyof you any harm. I only wish that you could believe me.”
Veda gave her an appraising look as she piled a few more turnips into a basket. “I know you don’t. I can read people, you see. Though the King would never takemyword for it. I don’t know your story, nor do I expect you will tell me, but I at least know you don’t wish to harm us.”
Nessa offered her a genuine smile. “Thank you, Veda. That means so much to me.” And it did. She picked up a few turnips for the basket. “Didn’t we just pull these yesterday?”
“No, those were the new turnips; these are the old, from last season. They have to be used up now.”
“Oh, that makes sense. Like rotating stock at the market.”
Veda gave her a curious look as if she didn’t understand.
“Don’t you have markets?” Nessa prompted. If there was a Pictish word for market, there must be markets. Or was she misusing the term somehow? “Where everyone comes together to trade? Buy and sell things?”
“We trade for gold with the tribes to the south. Is that what you mean?”
“Well, not exactly.” Nessa could sense that Veda wanted to ask her so many questions, but more than likely Bridei had threatened against it. “It’s more like lots of people trading different things all at once, in the same place.”
“Oh. No, I’ve never seen anything like that. The king arranges trades, mostly.”
Nessa took one handle of the basket and they carried it between them, and Veda leaned in to speak softly, obviously burning to gossip, even if she couldn’t ask a lot of questions herself.
“And I didn’t mean the King ishavingyou watched. I meant hewatchesyou; everyone has noticed. Everyone is talking about it. It’s an honor for you”, she said, and Nessa felt her foolish heart start to beat faster and those damn butterflies…they seemed to have woken up again. It was suddenly hard to breathe, and she felt as if she were back in high school and someone had just told her the boy she’d had a crush on all year actually liked her back.Get ahold of yourself, Nessa.
“Aye, well if it’s true, which it isn’t, that’s very flattering. But I’m of course not interested in the king. I have a life to go back to, as soon as I can.”
“Then you’d better either change your mind, or leave, because by law the king can choose any woman he wants to be his consort, and then she will be bound to him. He already has Lair, but he can let her go easily enough if he decides to.”
Nessa tried to ignore the sudden stab of what could only be jealousy. She had seen Lair. She had also seen Lair riding Bridei like her own personal stallion at the festival of Beltane. The woman was beautiful and probably knew all kinds of ways to please a virile man like Bridei. For these reasons alone, Nessa felt an instant dislike for her. And then she felt guilty for not liking someone that she didn’t even know, and who was only going about her life as it was before she had gotten here. Not that she evenwantedto be here.Not that she even wanted King Bridei.
“I…no, I don’t want to be the King’s consort.”
“Oh. Well, if you’re hoping to be Queen, I happen to know that he has no plans to wed until his campaign to unite the north is finished. You might better start as consort and then see how things go from there.”
“Um…that’s good advice I’m sure, but I’m really not planning on being here that long. I have to find my uncle, then I need to find a way to go home. I don’t belong here, Veda.”
Home. Home to Nate, and the future they had been planning together. Or that he had been planning…she hadn’t been completely on board yet, but if she ever made it back to him, she’d change that.
“Have you thought about it?” Nate was propped on one elbow, looking down at her with an expression so intense it made her squirm uncomfortably.
“Hmmm? Thought about what?”
He rolled his eyes in obvious frustration. “Nessa! Moving in together. You said last week that you’d think about it.”
“Oh…aye. I just…I’ve been really busy all week and my uncle…”
“Is one card short of a full deck. You can’t let him keep holding you back from your life, Ness. I’m ready to move forward in this relationship. I want you with me all the time, not just on weekends.”
“That would mean being with Angus all the time too”, she pointed out.
He gave her a teasing smile. “Not in the bedroom, I hope.”
She slapped his arm playfully. “That’s gross Nate. Look, I just need a little more time to get my life together, then I’ll be ready.”
Oh, Nate. Would she ever see him again? He was comfort, and stability. Certainty. All of the things she had taken for granted until recently, and would never take for granted again. Little did she know of the heartbreak still to come, because one day soon she would realize comfort and stability were never enough when your heart seemed to have a mind of its own, and your fate was never in your hands to begin with.
“Whyis there a cloud of dust over there?” It rose over the tops of the houses, thick enough to blot out the green of the hills in the distance.
