Page 26 of A Dangerous Highland Affair

“Nae, I’m fine,” said Teasag, wishing that Neacal would simply come from out of the bushes and explain they were together.

“Well, where are ye off to, can I be of assistance?” the man asked, looking around at her. “Is it Dennyhead?”

“Um,” said Teasag, furiously trying to make eye contact with Neacal, hidden in the depths of the undergrowth. She wished she could just tell the kindly man what he wanted to know. After all, he might be able to help.

But from deep inside the gorse bush, Neacal frowned, making it clear that he did not want to be seen.

“So, if it’s Dennyhead yer going to ye can travel wi’ me if ye like?” said the man, bringing his twinkling eyes over to her. “A lass shouldnae be on her own out here ye ken… this is brigand country!”

Unsure of what to do, Teasag bit her lip. “I um, maybe,” she said, cursing Neacal angrily. She sounded like a fool. And not surprisingly, the fat man stopped to give her a puzzled glance.

“Ye dinnae ken where yer going?” he asked, scratching his head and gazing at her as if she was simple.

Teasag glared at Neacal in the bushes and then smiled, “Well, nae quite at this moment, ye see,” she broke off, as she spied the cart that he was pulling. It was piled high with various bits of broken metal.

The man smiled at her, bringing his curious gaze closer. “So are ye from Dennyhead?” he asked, genially.

“Blackness,” said Teasag.

“Blackness! That’s where I’m from, an’ where I’m headed just after I make my rounds!” the man said, his face splitting in two with a wide beam.

Then he looked at her keenly. “Well, I must say, I dinnae ken ye, an’ I usually notice a bonnie lassie too!”

The man peered into her face, squinting a little in the light.

Teasag broke into a grin. “Och, well, that could be because I’ve nae been there for nigh on eleven years…,” she explained.

“An’ this is the first time ye’ve been back since?” he asked her, his bright eyes dancing.

For a moment, Teasag thought that he must have spotted Neacal, rustling in the undergrowth behind her, but from the way he smiled and continued talking, it seemed not.

“It’s the first time in many years, aye,” she said, smoothing down her arisaid as she talked. Overhead, the scurrying clouds blew drops of rain down onto them both.

“So where have ye been?” asked the man, genuinely interested. He semi-settled himself down by the withered tree stump close to where Teasag was standing.

“I worked in the McCallum keep. It’s quite a long way from here,” said Teasag, wondering suddenly if she knew the man. It was entirely possible. After all, Blackness was not a big place, and it was more than likely their paths had crossed at some point.

“The McCallum clan, ye say,” said the man, screwing up his face and thinking. “H’m, the only person I ken who went up there was a young lassie, about this high,” he indicated his shoulder level. “an’ that was a mighty long time ago, an’…”

The man stopped, looking at her quizzically. “Say, it’s not wee Teasag, is it?” he asked her, suddenly.

Teasag felt her heart leap in uneasy confusion. “Aye,” she said guardedly. “Do I ken ye?”

Curiously, she looked at the man again. He was strangely familiar.

The man guffawed. “Aye, aye ye do! Although I daresay ye maybe dinnae recognize me noo, I’ve put a few pounds on around the belt area!”

He patted his round midriff, which was well packed.

Teasag scanned his features quickly while trying to pretend she knew him.

“Och, of course…,” she said, hopelessly, scrambling through her memory for a rotund blond man with heavy five o'clock shadow, but drew a blank. However, one thing was for sure, he definitely knew her!

The man grinned at her, making her even more embarrassed not to be able to remember him.

“An’, ye live in Blackness too,” she said, hopelessly turning her mind inside out.

She drew a blank.