A perfect sitting room for guests, she reasoned, leaving the library available as her private space. She sighed with pleasure. “So far, so good. Let’s go scout out the kitchen and see what we have to work with.”
“Okay.” Emily turned away from the mural. “I hope there’s a room big enough for a huuuuge table.” She held her arms out as far as they would stretch.
“Absolutely,” Tessa laughed.
Several empty, dusty, non-descript rooms later, they walked into a large room perfect for Emily’s proposed table.
“This is it,” Em declared, running to the middle to spin in dizzying circles, arms flung wide.
Several small flurries of dust swirled around her, rising to trigger a sneezing fit. Odd, Tessa thought. One small child shouldn’t be able to disturb that much dust.
“Let’s move on so we can get back to the library,” Tessa said huddling inside her jacket. “For some reason, it’s suddenly a lot colder in here than when we started. Hopefully, Darach’s had some luck with the fire.”
“Itiscolder,” Emily agreed. “Maybe Jack Frost lives here and likes to keep things really cold.” She smiled up at Tessa. “He won’t like Darach building a fire, will he?”
“There goes that imagination again,” Tess teased, heading to the next room. “Hopefully,Jackwon’t begrudge us one measly room with a fire, to take the chill off.”
When they passed through a small anteroom, into the large room at the back of the house, Tessa stopped short, sweeping the beam of her flashlight around the space. Her breath hitched when she saw the enormous walk-in fireplace and broad stone hearth. Splintered pieces of what might once have been a worktable littered the floor. Despite the charm of the centuries-old fireplace, she moaned her disappointment when all she saw were the remnants of plumbing, poking through one wall. It looked like someone had started a remodel, then abandoned it halfway through.
The row of boarded windows promised good light, but right now it felt overwhelming to think of turning this cavern into a modern kitchen. Depressingly so. Maybe, if she wasn’t so cold, she could better envision the possibility.
She needed to get Emily warmed up. Without more light, it was impossible to detect the source of the sudden icy draft of air swirling around them. She swore it had been warmer outside in the snow.
“Come on, Em, it’s freezing! Let’s go see if Darach had any luck with a fire. After we thaw out, we can explore some more.”
“Okay,” Em agreed, hunching into her coat.
“Your teeth are chattering,” Tess teased. “Maybe we should consider living on a beach somewhere instead of this drafty old mausoleum.”
“We just need hot chocolate,” Emily muttered, pressing her gloved fingers to her face. “We brought some from the hotel, didn’t we?”
“We did. And I can’t think of anything that would taste better, right now.”
“And then, after we warm up,” Emily urged, “we can go upstairs. I want to see the rooms so I can pick mine out.”
“Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself?” Tess laughed. “We haven’t decided to stay, yet.”
Emily shrugged. “You always tell me it pays to plan ahead.”
* * *
Darach addedseveral more pieces of the broken window-board to the flames, satisfied the fire was coming along nicely. As soon as he had a good bed of embers, he’d add some coal.
With the library doors closed, the room had begun to warm. Beams of light shot through the uncovered windows despite the grime, brightening the room while revealing its sad state of disrepair. Even so, ’twas still much grander than anything he’d experienced in his former life.
He settled back against the carved wall panels and closed his eyes. Something about the warmth of the fire, and the coziness of the room soothed him into allowing thoughts of home, for the first time in centuries.
Though his was the humblest of homes, he remembered most the vibrant life inside its walls. Ma had a way of filling the place with bounteous love. He’d grown up with the shared laughter of cousins, uncles, relatives and friends. All had been welcome, no’ only in his home, but to partake of whatever his mither had stewing in the pot. She had the uncanny ability to turn a single rabbit into a feast for a crowd.
Many a discussion of weather, crops, livestock and ultimately the Jacobite cause, had taken place over her rabbit stew in the evening or a spot of oatmeal in the morning. He’d often awakened to sleeping forms wrapped in clan colors, sprawled on their floor in front of the hearth.
’Twas in that verra room he’d hatched the idea of talking his two best friends into joining him in that bold quest to defeat the British and come back heroes, bursting with tales of valor to boast over, for years to come.
And all the while he plotted his daring deeds, his ma worked silently to see to his needs. Ne’er a complaint. Ne’er a thought for herself.
How could he have been so blind? So selfish?
Och! How he missed her. The ache inside him for abandoning her for the sake of glory was a raw, wretched thing. If he had a life left to give, he’d give it to ken what happened to her when he dinnae return.
