He frowned at the ensuing laughter. “I saidI take your point!”
Chapter Sixteen
As promised, Veronica began teachingage-appropriate Kalari techniques to Moira and Catriona the verynext morning. Lachlan was out training his men; she was insidetheir bedroom teaching her female students. She had given ordersthat nobody was to enter the chamber. The soldier posted outsidedidn’t know it was because all their bliauts had been removed andthey were wearing nothing but chemises to make it easier to moveabout; he just knew to let no one enter.
She started the lesson off by giving thewide-eyed women a small show of what they could accomplish if theyknew Kalari. Veronica performed a small routine of sorts, punching,kicking, and leaping through the air. She rolled into a somersaultbefore jumping to her feet, weapons in hand. Her students gasped,amazed.
“’Tis fatal mayhap, yet beautiful too,”Catriona breathed out.
“Aye,” Moira seconded. “I’m in agreementwith my daughter.”
Veronica modestly smiled at her eagerapprentices. She spent the next forty-five minutes or so teachingthem basic techniques. “The next thing I want to show you is how touse your eating daggers as weapons,” Veronica told Moira andCatriona. “A dagger is quite an effective way to take down anassailant.”
“Oh my.” Moira looked both intrigued andscandalized. She patted her perfectly coifed hair. “’Tis unseemly,but do teach us.”
Veronica demonstrated how to wield thedagger and helped the other women hold theirs in the properfashion. “Remember the warrior pose? Now we just put the twotogether—careful how you hold the dagger, Catriona—and strike.”
The threesome practiced the moves again andagain. Hold, pose, and strike. Hold, pose, and strike.
“Go for their eyes or penises,” Veronicainstructed, “depending upon which part is closest to you.”
Catriona gasped then giggled. Moira blushedfrom head to toe. Both women kept practicing.
“It helps,” Veronica continued, “if youthrow out a warrior’s cry when striking. Yaaaahh!” she exploded onher next strike. And, “Yaaaahh!” again on the next. “Somethingabout a warrior’s cry gives you more energy to take down youropponent. It makes you feel stronger and deadlier.”
Before she knew what was what, Moira andCatriona piped in. Hold, pose, and strike on “Yaaaahh!” Thethreesome kept practicing, making it impossible for them to hearwhen the bedroom doors were opened.
“Yaaaahh!”
“Yaaaahh!”
“Yaaaahh!”
“What’s this aboot me not being permittedwithin my own bedchamber?” Lachlan’s surly voice boomed at the sametime the doors crashed shut behind him. “I—"
“Yaaaahh!” Veronica stopped after her finalbattle cry and, breathing heavily, turned to face Lachlan. Hisface, she noted with much amusement, was as red as a beet.
“I—uh—excuse me,” Lachlan muttered, turningback to the doors. His discomfort was palpable. “I’ll take myleave, but I’ll be back in fifteen minutes time. Be dressed!” hegrowled over his shoulder. “I wish to eat!”
After he left, Veronica couldn’t helpherself. She burst into laughter. Moira and Catriona followedsuit.
“Oh dear,” Moira chuckled. “I do believe‘twas more than my son could bear, seeing his mother in her chemiseas it were.”
“Whilst screaming ‘Yaaaahh!’ Catrionagiggled. “And striking with our eating daggers!”
Veronica couldn’t stop laughing like aloon—a welcomed occurrence that hadn’t happened at all since theoutbreak of DR-71. She had chuckled a time or two now and again,but not a strong, hearty belly laugh. It felt good. If she wasn’tcareful, she might just get used to it.
Then again, would allowing herself toexperience happiness be such a bad thing? She knew it wouldn’t; shealso knew it was going to take her mental walls a while to comedown though. She had been through a lot and seen more death thanany person should ever have to face. Veronica had been jaded beforethe plague broke out, but after everything she’d been through sincethat fateful event? She inwardly sighed, hoping she could just letit all go. The sooner the better.
The next morning when the trio of womenpracticed Kalari, Veronica was amazed at how well they performed.If she didn’t know any better—and in actuality she didn’t—she wouldhave thought her mother-in-law and sister-in-law had continuedpracticing the techniques she’d shown them yesterday even aftertheir session had ended. Maybe they had.
For his part, Lachlan did not enter thebedroom during their second lesson. Having learned the hard way, hesettled on waiting to see the threesome until they emerged from thebedroom to partake of lunch. His eyebrows rose upon seeing them,but he didn’t inquire about their lesson. Perhaps because Finn andRamsay were with him. Or maybe, Veronica thought on a stifled grin,he simply didn’t want to talk about anything that would remind himof his chemise-clad mother.
The men rose as the women entered. “Goodday, miladies,” Finn and Ramsay offered.
“Wife,” Lachlan nodded. “Catriona. Mum.” Henodded again. “Do join us.”
Victor was the last to arrive. Everyone tooktheir usual seats at the head table. The food and mead wereserved.
