Epilogue
Laird Blaine McCaskill lifted the small bedside table, twisting it this way and that. He looked underneath, then set it down and opened each drawer, pulling them all the way out and looking inside. Finally, he assembled it back together and patted it firmly.
“Good quality,” he said. “Verra good, in fact.”
Mathe nodded. “My thanks.”
“How’s the leg?”
He looked down with a grimace. “Much better, although it looks like I’ll always have the limp. I guess I’d better get used to carrying this,” he said, waving his walking stick in the air. “Perhaps I should look at it as the price that I paid to learn a verra important lesson.”
“And what lesson was that?”
“One could say the lesson was to never get involved with the lairds of the McCaskills,” Mathe said with a faint smile.
“One could,” Blaine said with a shrug. “But I dinnae think that’s the lesson at all.”
“Aye,” Mathe admitted. “I know what the lesson was, and it’s one that I willnae forget. Family comes first.” As he said it, he looked over to the edge of the room, where Lilidh stood, and gave her a smile.
“Good,” Blaine said. “Because, ye know, I could always use a skilled craftsman here in the castle.”
“Is that so?”
“Aye. We have something of a shortage of woodworkers up here, and my list of furniture that needs fixing or replacing is growing alarmingly long.” Blaine looked at Mathe for a long moment. “Why dinnae ye come and work for me?”
Mathe looked down. A job in the castle was certainly something that he should have aspired towards; as Lilidh knew, it meant security and a regular income. But it also meant working for the McCaskills once more, and Mathe feared what that would do over time. He believed Blaine to be a good man, very different from his father, but Mathe was on his own journey of growth.
“I thank ye for the offer,” he said, “but I would prefer to work for myself, for the time being.”
Blaine nodded as if he expected the answer, and glanced at Lilidh. “Ye know it would help with the town accepting ye both once more, Mathe. If it was known ye worked for me, people might be more inclined to believe ye’ve changed.”
“Aye, it could, but I have to hope the town will accept me through hard work, if it’s all the same.”
“They might never accept ye.”
“Ye”re right,” Mathe said. “But I need to try. For Lilidh and Fynn, and for the debts I have to this town.”
Blaine looked at him quizzically. “I thought yer debts only extended to yer wife and son?”
“Well, I’ve realised that being a good man means more than just being good to them. It’s time I started being a good man to everyone.”
“A good man in truth, ye mean.”
“I suppose I do.”
“Ye”re already halfway there,” Blaine pointed out. “If ye”d asked how I would feel about sitting down and offering Mathe MacBrennan a job, well, let’s just say it wouldnae have received a warm reception. And yet here we are.”
“Here we are.”
“And what about ye, Mrs MacBrennan?” Blaine asked, turning to Lilidh.
“Me?” she asked, and Mathe saw her eyes widen.
“Aye. Margaret is more than happy with ye, and I’m inclined to reward ye for showing faith in me. We seem to have a happy ending, but I know ye made some verra hard decisions to get here.”
“I… I have everything I need,” she said, looking back at her husband with a smile of her own.
“No” even a promotion? I know the kitchens are hard, and the chamberlain tells me ye are at odds with one of the other women there. How does a new role sound? One with a little less strain on the hands.”
Lilidh hesitated, and Mathe knew what thoughts ran through her mind. She’d spoken to him of Cora, and the motivations that drove the woman’s anger. She was almost a symbol of the town itself; a coalescence of the hatred of the myth of MacBrennan, and if she could be swayed, somehow, then so too could Dun Lagaidh itself. And then there was the matter of Torrey, and the friendship that Lilidh was building with her. Mathe knew his wife struggled with friendships, and could see the pleasure she gained from the slow blossoming of one. She would be hesitant to leave that behind, even for the lure of an easier life.
“I feel like I’m about to be rebuffed for the second time,” Blaine observed.
“I thank ye,” Lilidh said, “I truly do. But I’m working hard and being rewarded for it in my own way. I’d love to get out of the kitchens eventually, but I’d rather that it’s done the same way that the others do.”
The laird nodded. “I ken, and I respect ye for it.” Then he turned back to Mathe. “I’m happy for ye and yer wife, but my furniture still needs replacing.”
“Ye seem to be in quite the conundrum,” Mathe answered with a smile.
“Aye. So if ye willnae work for me, Mathe MacBrennan, then will ye consider taking a commission, instead?”
Mathe nodded slowly. “Aye, Laird McCaskill, I think we can work something out.”