Page 62 of Highland Spy

“I dinna ken,” said Caleb, pulling her back into his arms. “I’m sure it’ll be all right.” He kissed her atop her head.

“I wish I could believe that,” she said, wiping a tear from her eye. “I’ve had a horrible day and I canna wait for this competition to be over. I just want everyone to leave me alone.”

“Leave ye alone?” Caleb suddenly wondered if she was talking about him. “Bridget, please dinna tell me ye are regrettin’ our time we spent together.”

“Oh, nay! I didna mean ye, Caleb. I’m sorry.”

“Then who did ye mean? Is someone else givin’ ye trouble?”

“No’ really,” she said, wrapping her arms around her and looking to the ground.

“Bridget, I can tell ye’re lyin’. Now come, sit by the fire with me and tell me what’s troublin’ ye, please.” He pulled up a bench and they sat on it together.

“I saw Valan again,” she told him.

“Damn him!” spat Caleb, jumping to his feet. “Did ye touch ye, lass? Because if so, I’ll kill him, I swear I will.”

“Nay. Now sit down and be quiet and I’ll tell ye more.” She reached up and pulled him back down to the bench. “He didna say much to me because Sorley interrupted.”

“Sorley? That chronicler? I dinna like him either,” said Caleb. “He seems sneaky, or as if he’s hidin’ somethin’.”

“He wants to be the king’s chronicler and has admitted it, Caleb. I also think he kens my faither’s secret. He was goin’ to write about him today in his book but I believe I stopped him.”

“Really? What did he say?”

“It’s what I said to him that made me realize that I dinna want to write the chronicles anymore. And I dinna want to continue this game.”

“Please explain, lass.”

“Caleb, I ripped out the pages about ye,” she told him, looking up to him with glassy eyes.

“Guid,” he said with a smile and a nod. “I didna want anyone to read those bad things about me.”

“I got rid of all the guid things I said about ye, too.”

“Ye did what?” His eyes opened wide. “Bridget, why?”

“Because, I realized that what I wrote might no’ exactly be the truth. It was the way I saw ye, Caleb, and what I thought about ye. I wrote in the book how ye look in my eyes.”

“Well, isna that what a chronicler does? Did ye really have to get rid of it? The king liked what ye wrote.”

“Now, Caleb,” she scolded him. “Ye ken as well as I that I might have stretched the truth a little when I wrote those things about ye. Ye said yerself that it was too guid. Did ye really want me to leave it in there?”

“Nay, I suppose no’,” he said with a sigh. He took her hands in his. “Ye did the right thing, Bridget. I was just happy to finally be mentioned in the chronicles, that’s all.”

“But ye are mentioned in the chronicles and, this time, everythin’ I wrote was true. Come see.” She took his hand and led him over to the book where he read about the finalists in the competition, and also about how he won the broad jump and the archery event. She wrote the facts, and that’s all. Caleb liked it. He had finally gotten a mention in the book and it wasn’t a lie and neither did he have to write it himself.

“I’m glad ye did the right thing, Bridget. And I’m sorry I ever wrote in the book to begin with, because it wasna the right thing to do.”

“Caleb, I need ye to help me convince the king to replace my faither with Sorley as his new chronicler.”

“What? Nay,” said Caleb, in surprise. “Why would I do that? Why would ye even want me to?”

“Because I believe in my heart that Sorley would be a guid chronicler. Besides, my faither can no longer do it. And I dinna want to play this game anymore.”

“Well, it might be a guid way to solve all yer problems, I suppose. However, we dinna even ken a thing about Sorley. What if he kens the truth and will tell the king? Or what if the man is the saboteur?”

“Sorley? The saboteur?” asked Bridget. “Why would he care who wins the competition?”