What he’s saying is ridiculous, and yet something in her chest gave an odd, traitorous twist. She blamed the cold. And the mud. Did exhaustion make compliments almost dangerously believable?
He laughed. “Ye’ve a lively look tae ye, almost as if ye’ve been enjoying yerself.”
“Mayhap, I have.” She cast him a mischievous grin.
One of the crofters appeared at his side.
“The lads would like tae have a word, Laird Kenneth, if ye can spare us a minute.”
“Excuse me.” He nodded to Selene and the assembled women and moved off to speak with several villagers.
She barely had time to breathe before a tiny, stooped woman with a weathered face and braided gray hair pushed forward.
The old woman fixed Selene with a bright-eyed gaze and took her hands. “Lass, ye’re frozen and ye need some warmth and drying.” Without accepting any argument, she hustled Selene along a muddy path toward her cottage – a warm, low-ceilinged place filled with the scent of peat smoke and drying herbs.
“They call me Old Nell,” she said, “and I ken ye are the Lady Selene.”
Selene nodded, smiling as Nell escorted her across the room to an oak table that was every bit as weather-beaten as the old woman herself.
There was a bowl of hot water on the table and several woven cloths. Nell fussed over her, refusing to allow her to lift a finger. She gently scrubbed off the worst of the mud, even smoothing Selene’s damp hair, as affectionately as if she was a visiting grandchild instead of an English stranger.
To Selene’s surprise she was not embarrassed by the informality of Nell’s attention, but found it… comforting. This was something she’d not felt for many years. After their mother’s death, she had taken on the role of caring for her younger sister. And Elsie, for all her deep affection for Selene, had always been the child to Selene’s adult. Besides, old Nell’s unabashed warmth was not something Selene was used to in England, where the people surrounding her were more distant and aloof.
Kenneth appeared at the door just as Nell was placing a length of woven woolen fabric around Selene’s shoulders.
“Come in, me Laird. I am seeing tae it that yer lady doesnae freeze tae death.”
“I am grateful fer yer kindness, Nell.” He glanced over at Selene. “We should leave,” he said. “There are more heavy clouds building. Another storm on the horizon.”
But old Nell was having none of it. She waved him off with a scolding in Gaelic that Selene could not decipher, yet her tone made it clear.
She thoroughly enjoyed Kenneth mildly obeying and taking his seat at the table next to her. Moments later Nell offered up two bowls containing boiled eggs and slices of something that looked like a like a coarse, dark-brown sausage.
Kenneth took out a small utility knife from a leather sheath at his belt and cut the sausage into bite-sized chunks.
Selene hesitated, her spoon hovering. Recalling some of the unappetizing meals she been forced to consume on her journey from Edinburgh, she regarded it with suspicion. “What is this?”
“Why, that is another Scots delicacy.”
“Hm. Daes it have a name? It is not haggis, I hope.”
Kenneth chuckled. “Dinnae fash, lass. ’Tis nae haggis. We call itmarag dubh. Black pudding.”
Was that a wink that passed between Kenneth and Nell?
Not wanting to offend the old woman, who had been nothing but kind, Selene mustered her courage and took a mouthful, chewing warily. “Why. It’s quite…pleasant.” She was surprised. “It tastes… well… rich.”
She glanced at Kenneth, expecting him to enlighten her. Instead, he appeared to be fighting off a grin.
“Oh, ye’ve tricked me intae eating something… awful.”
“Nae at all,” he said seriously. “On the contrary it is very good fer ye.” His lips twitched in a maddening grin. “Eat up.”
She narrowed her eyes and took another bite, and then another until she finished every morsel, determined not to succumb to his teasing.
Later, preparing to take their leave, they thanked Nell for her kindness and Kenneth proffered a coin from the leather purse at his belt. The old woman shook her head, refusing his offering.
“There’s nae need fer yer coin. Yer lady was rightgaisgeil.”Nell touched Selene’s hand gently. “She helped save our beasts with ne’er a thought fer her own comfort. She well-earned the nourishment.”
