Chapter Twenty-One
Liam was pleasedto see that Mairi was as good as her word…in that she helped Clara and roundly damned Liam. He didn’t mind. So long as Clara’s way was made smooth, then he would suffer whatever his old friend dished out.
It took Clara two more days to get the castle functioning again, though on a very restricted meal diet of stew, more stew, and stew after that. Still, two days to get most everyone doing their job was a tremendous accomplishment.
With his support and Mairi’s guidance, she wrote out everyone’s tasks and their pay. Then she required them to sign the first letter of their name as way of marking payment.
“Literacy is the first step to advancement,” she declared to anyone who would listen. “What cannot be taught person to person can be found in a book.”
No one cared what she thought except that they wanted to get paid. Many grumbled, argued, and complained, but she was uncompromising and a little insulting to those who refused.
“If you are too stupid to learn how to draw a single mark, then you are too stupid to do your work. Is that true?” And if the unfortunate soul persisted in their refusal, she added an extra kick, delivered in that flat tone of a bored aristocrat. “I have heard all my life how dumb the Scots are. Are you saying that the idiot English are correct? You cannot learn to make three strokes with a pencil?”
It made the daily task of paying people go on forever, but by week’s end, everyone had memorized the shape of the first letter in his or her name. Then she gave an extra penny to anyone who learned the next letter. And a twenty pence prize when the entire name was written by hand.
His people might be stubborn, but they knew the value of money. By three weeks, every soul could sign as a literate person.
To any who wanted more coin, she declared they must write the entire alphabet for more treasure, and after that, read a page in aBible. No one had accomplished that so far, but several souls were working on it, and that impressed Liam. He’d privately thought his people were incapable of such a thing in so short a time, but he was wrong and so he told her at night when they made their way to their private corner of the stream.
And she let him applaud her efforts in all sorts of delicious ways. So long as he didn’t require a lifelong commitment from her, that is. Which meant he refused to consummate their marriage, though they did everything else.
That left him frustrated, annoyed, and blissfully happy all at the same time. He had a woman who drove him mad even as she slowly set his house in order. He had the time free of his father’s interference to play, bully, and order his people to follow his dictates, and yet nothing was going as quickly as he wanted. No word had come from Aaron that he had a royal warrant for his whisky which left the market for his goods uncertain. Winter would come faster than he wanted, and the coin to build up their food stores was equally unclear.
He needed to go to Edinburgh to demand Clara’s dowry, but he was loathe to abandon her for even a day. For all that she had thrown herself into “learning and fixing the castle systems” as she called it, her authority flowed from his unflinching support. Who knew what would happen if he disappeared for even a day?
And then something happened that made him feeling even worse than before.
Her friends arrived.
They rolled up looking disheveled and grumpy. Clara leaped from her desk in their bedroom and ran outside with more glee than she’d shown since leaving England. Liam had just returned from working at the distillery and was looking forward to a quick trip to the stream with his wife. Instead, he hastily dragged a wet rag over his body before joining the squeals of delight in the bailey.
Mr. Russell looked as sour as an exhausted man could. Of average height, average looks, and average stamina, he appeared done in as he struggled to maintain his grip on a sketchbook while being embraced by Clara. Miss Juliet Adams was older than he expected, appearing to be in her thirties, with a soft face, soft eyes, and what likely started as a tight bun of black hair but was now an untidy mess of straggly curls. She had no problem embracing Clara, but her gaze took in her surroundings with unabashed curiosity. And clear dread.
“Well, this is quite a place,” she said after the introductions were made.
“It’s as bad as it looks,” Clara declared with glee. “But Mr. Russell is going to fix all that.” She squeezed the man’s arm. “You’re to make us a bath house.”
“So you said in your letter,” the man said, “but it’s not as easy as snapping your fingers—”
“I know,” Clara interrupted. “But you’ve always wanted to be taken seriously. Now’s your chance.” Then she grinned at Miss Adams. “Yours, too. They’re a clever people, these Scots, but they need education. That’s your job.”
“Clara, you’re quite overwhelming,” Miss Adams said in a dry tone. “As usual.”
“I’m excited to finally have company!” she cried. “Come take a tour while there’s still light. Mr. Russell, you can overlook the stonework while I show Miss Adams what’s to be her schoolroom. Then we can discuss what’s to be done.”
“Stop, stop!” Miss Adams said with a strained laugh. “We haven’t had a proper meal in days and I should like to use the privy, if you don’t mind.”
“Right,” Clara said, her voice dropping into a chagrined note. “That will be much more pleasant once Mr. Russell is done.”
“I cannot wait that long!”
“Of course. This way.”
Clara tugged at both her friends’ arms, all but dragging them inside with a happy giggle. She was already peppering them with questions about mutual acquaintances and events in London. She’d missed an important lecture on Roman architecture that Mr. Russell had attended. Miss Adams was privy to whether someone’s baby was a boy or a girl. She wanted all the details while Liam was left in the bailey to order the disposition of the luggage. He did his best when he had no earthly idea where her friends were supposed to stay, but it added to the irritation when he heard Clara apologizing—again—about the shabby state of their home.
It was a castle, for God’s sake, not the King’s palace. Just what did they expect?
It got worse when he realized that they only had one decent guest room. Why hadn’t Clara thought ahead and prepared for her friends? They had the chambers, of course, but none of the bedding had been refreshed since Aaron and Lilah had used the rooms. He could direct a servant to the task, but what few were on hand were busy with cleaning after the main meal or carrying the luggage. That meant he bent his own back to the task, and by the time he was done, he wanted a proper bath.
