Chapter Twelve #2
Caelus grinned. Sitting up straight, he reined his horse back toward the rear where horses to replace the ones pulling the wagons and the carriage were tethered.
His brother, Lucan, was guarding the rear of the escort along with about fifty soldiers, and he came forward when he saw Caelus heading in his direction.
Lucan was one of two brothers in the family that had a shade of red hair.
In Lucan’s case, it was auburn and flowing, and, coupled with his pale hazel eyes, made him quite the handsome lad.
He had Mabel’s bold temperament and a stunning intellect.
There wasn’t much Lucan didn’t know or couldn’t figure out, and he had women chasing after him from one side of Scotland to the other.
He met his brother near one of the provision wagons.
“What’s amiss?” Lucan asked.
Caelus threw his thumb back in the direction of the fortified carriage. “Mama and Zora are uncomfortable in the carriage,” he said. “Pick a couple of horses and bring them forward. They want tae ride.”
Lucan turned around and went to work. Soon enough, Mabel had an enormous, stocky horse to ride comfortably, while Zora had been given a younger mare who had a good deal of energy.
Soon, Zora was galloping up and down the column, howling with pleasure, delirious with the freedom of being outside of the carriage.
The men in the army were grinning at her as she rode up one way, singing and squealing, and then back down the other way doing the same thing.
She was having a marvelous time.
Mabel was riding in the front with her husband, plodding along companionably and watching their daughter ride around as if she’d lost her mind. Lares was smiling as he watched Zora, his baby, while Mabel thought that her daughter would sleep well tonight with all of the activity.
Sometimes, a girl just had to have a little fun.
“Should I stop her?” Lares asked, watching Zora charge across the road and down an incline, spraying mud as she went. “I dunna want the lass tae fall and hurt herself.”
Just as he said that, the horse slipped and tossed Zora off into more muddy grass. She landed on her side, rolled to her belly, and slid ten or twelve feet down, laughing the entire time. Lucan went after the horse as Caelus, riding beside his mother, shook his head with disapproval.
“She acts like a child,” he said. “Mae, ye need tae do something about her or no man will ever want tae marry her. Ye’ll never be rid of her.”
Mabel started to chuckle while Lares frowned. “What if I dunna want tae be rid of her?” he said. Then he pointed an imperious finger. “Go down there and help her. Dunna let her lie in the mud.”
Rolling his eyes, Caelus did as he was told.
As Mabel and Lares watched, Caelus reached a hand down to his sister, who was just picking herself up.
She placed her hand in his and he lifted her onto his horse behind him, complaining because she was getting him muddy.
That caused her to hug him tightly from behind, coating his entire back in the dark, rich mud.
Greatly irritated, he spurred his horse up onto the road, taking off at a run as she screamed and held on tightly.
Mabel and Lares watched them go.
“He’s trying to punish her,” Mabel said. “If she falls off and hurts herself, Caelus and I will come to blows.”
Lares growled. “I’ll bloody well murder him,” he said. “He shouldna be so rough.”
“Lilliana was never like that,” Mabel said, thinking on her eldest daughter, who was quiet and elegant. “We never had to worry about her.”
“Nay, we did not. But Zora…”
“She’s a lively one.”
The parents could both agree on that. As they debated whether or not to try to rein in Zora’s wild nature, for Mabel was in favor of it and Lares wasn’t, Caelus and Zora were thundering down the road as Zora squealed with delight.
The road was still muddy from the rain and they probably shouldn’t have been going as fast as they were, but Caelus trusted his mount.
He was very sure-footed. However, after about a mile, he slowed down to a walk and Zora slid off the horse, rubbing her buttocks.
“That hurt,” she grumbled. “Ye tried tae throw me off, Caelus.”
Caelus fought off a grin. “If I were trying tae throw ye off, ye’d be lying on our back somewhere back on the road.”
Zora frowned, but she didn’t snap back at him. She could see the party from Ashkirk in the distance. It would be a while before they caught up to them. Still rubbing her arse, she began to walk with Caelus plodding alongside her.
“We’re going back tae the Hydra rather early,” she complained. “I was hoping tae stay at Ashkirk at least intae the autumn season.”
Caelus knew why. “Ye’re the daughter of an earl, Zee,” he said quietly. “Ye canna marry a blacksmith.”
Zora stopped rubbing and scowled at him. “I dinna say I wanted tae marry him.”
“Dinna ye?”
“Nay!” she nearly shouted. “I simply found him interesting. He’s English, ye know.”
“I dinna know,” Caelus said. “What’s wrong with a good Scots lad?”
“Nothing,” Zora said. “Except sometimes they’re just so… Scots.”
He looked at her suspiciously. “What does that mean?”
She shrugged. Off to her left, blue flowers were growing on the side of the road and she went to pick them. “It means that most Scots lads never even leave their village,” she said as she ripped flowers out of the ground. “They spend all of their time in Scotland. They dunna know anything else.”
He was growing offended. “I spend all of my time in Scotland, ye know.”
She waved him off, blue flowers clutched in the other hand as she resumed her walk. “But ye’ve been places,” she said. “Ye trained in England, Cae. Ye’ve been tae London. Ye’ve even been tae Paris. Ye’ve fought in Flanders. Ye’ve seen the world a little. That gives ye a broader sense of life.”
He wasn’t so offended by the time she was finished. “So ye want a lad with a broader sense of the world?”
She nodded. “And the blacksmith that Papa and Mama are so opposed tae is an educated man,” she said softly. “His grandfather was a cleric. He can recite poems from memory. He just happens tae be a smithy, and that’s nothing tae be ashamed of.”
She had a point. Caelus looked down at his little sister, a smile playing on his lips. “And so, my little Zee is growing intae a woman of substance,” he murmured. “Just like that.”
Zora looked up at him, seeing the warmth in his eyes, and she smiled. “I want the man I marry tae be a man of substance, too.”
Caelus nodded, thinking about his father and how he was going to handle Zora being married at any time before she was fifty years of age. “Someday,” he said. “When the time comes, we’ll help ye find someone worthy.”
“Will ye?” she said earnestly. “Well, ye and Darien and Aurelius, mayhap. Even Estevan. He’s very smart. But not Cruz and not Kal. They’ll simply beat on the man and I’ll never be married.”
Caelus started laughing, mostly because she wasn’t wrong. Cruz had a temper, all fists at times, and Kaladin was simply big and frightening and liked throwing that around for the reactions he would receive.
“Dunna worry about them,” he said. “When the time comes, we’ll make sure they leave yer lad alone. We did it for Lily and we’ll do it for ye.”
“Thank ye.”
“Ye’re welcome,” Caelus said. He started looking around, at the landscape around them, feeling the sun on his face. “Do ye want tae ride with me now? Mae will swat me if I let ye wear yerself out.”
Zora saw more flowers on the side of the road, yellow this time, and ran to them. “In a moment,” she said, tearing the yellow blooms out of the earth. “Where are we, anyway?”
Caelus had to think a moment. “We left Annan this morning and are taking a wide berth around Douglas lands,” he said. “We’ll run intae the mouth of the River Nith as it meets with the sea and then head north tae Dumfries.”
“How long will it take?”
He shrugged. “We should be in Dumfries by nightfall.”
“Are we going tae see Estevan and Kal?” she asked. “They left before us, but mayhap they dinna travel so fast.”
Caelus paused before answering because the first thing that popped into his mind was the fact that The Butcher’s was in Dumfries, and if his brothers had spent more than a couple of days there, then Mabel was sure to spy their horses and those two would be in for a row.
There were two things going against Estevan and Kaladin right now—the fact that all of the dun Tarh brothers knew about The Butcher’s, and enjoyed gambling there, and the fact that hardly two days had passed after they’d departed Ashkirk that Mabel and Lares and the entire army had departed behind them.
They weren’t supposed to leave for weeks, but Lares was homesick and wanted to get back to the Hydra.
So… here they were.
Caelus had a mind to send Lucan up ahead to Dumfries to warn Estevan and Kaladin if they were, indeed, at The Butcher’s. Caelus knew that was where he would be. The last thing they needed was for Mabel to bust into the place and drag them out by their ears.
Not a good look for a grown man.
As he was pondering that very scenario, something caught his eye down the road. It took him a moment to see that it was a rider, so he called over to Zora.
“Zee,” he said quietly. “Come over tae me. Now.”
Zora had finished pulling the yellow flowers but had spied some white ones.
She heard her brother, looking up at him to see why he was giving her orders.
He nodded his head in in the direction of the incoming rider and it took Zora all of a split second to realize what he meant.
Flowers in hand, she darted across the road to him.