“Will she stay?” Bettie said, and looked down the table at Grandmamma without meaning to, then back at Alex.
He kept his face plain. “She is very nice,” he said.
It was the safest ground. It gave the girls something, and gave Grandmamma nothing at all. However, it did not keep the older woman still. He knew she would waste no time in asking questions he might just hesitate to answer.
“When did ye meet her?” she asked. “Was it at the festival?”
He took a sip from his cup. “Aye.”
“Who are her people, and why am I only hearin’ of this now?”
Katie set her cup down and leaned forward. “Is she the one ye danced with?” she said.
“I didnae dance,” Alex said.
“Then how did ye find a bride without dancing?” Bettie said, logical. “Did ye draw straws?”
“Is she tall?” Katie said. “Because if she is tall, we can play with her shoes.”
“Ye cannae play with her shoes,” Grandmamma interjected, not taking her eyes off Alex. “Answer me, please.”
He lifted his gaze to hers and let her see what he meant to show. “I daenae intend to.”
There was no anger in his words, but he sounded final enough for his grandmother not to pry further. The look had stopped men with swords. It would most definitely stop her questions.
Grandmamma did not lower her eyes. She did not soften. She accepted the look for what it was and adjusted her chair by a thumb’s width, as if to say the board had shifted and she would still play. Her mouth pressed thin.
“Ye should introduce us properly,” she said. “And do it with the respect due this house.”
“Aye,” Alex said.
“Ye will also eat,” she said to the girls. “If ye stare at the door, ye will miss yer porridge, and I willnae save it when it clots.”
“We arelookingat Da,” Bettie said.
“We arelisteningto Da,” Katie said.
“Then hear me instead,” Grandmamma said. “He will say what he means to say when he is ready.”
“Which is never,” Bettie murmured to her oatcake.
Alex cut another slice of beef and chewed. He did not taste much.
The girls exchanged a look that had a dozen plans in it and then glowed with questions, the kind that would come in sideways all day. He would parry them or ignore them. Or he would give them as little as he could and still keep the house easy. It would cost him, but not as much as explaining.
Grandmamma set her cane against the board and leaned her elbows on the wood, as if she meant to climb into his morning. “Is this a matter of council?” she asked, soft enough for the girls to miss it.
“Aye,” Alex replied.
“Good God. Now those shriveled-up old men will want to spend days in the castle preparing for the wedding,” she said. “I daenae ken if I’m ready for that just yet.”
He said nothing.
Katie swung her feet and hummed a tune, then stopped. “If she is nice,” she said, “can she sit by me?”
“She will sit where yer faither tells her to,” Grandmamma said.
“Which is by me,” Katie said, hopeful.
