Chapter Twenty-One #2
“Fine, we’ll start at sun up,” Jake said through clenched teeth. After all, his sire hadn’t even allowed them to explain. True, he and Jamie had decided not to tell the whole story, but he could have asked them.
“Sun up? Nay, it will be finished by sun up. You’ll start now. And if it takes all night, so be it. You had plenty of energy to be randy, you’ll have enough energy to move boulders.”
Jamie emitted a groan, but then squelched it.
Jake wouldn’t give his sire the satisfaction to see him upset about his task. “Fine. I’ll get the cart.” He walked past his father and headed back up the hill to retrieve a cart from the bailey.
“Lad,” his father bellowed.
“Aye?” Jake halted, his hands on his hips.
“No cart. With your hands.” Alex finished his statement and spun around to head to the keep.
“What?” Jake yelled after him.
His sire came back and stood face-to-face with Jake. “I said no cart. You have until dawn. If you decide to quit, I’ll settle your punishment with my fists, and I’ll be sure your mother will not see your bruises.”
Jake murmured a few cuss words after his sire left, but then returned to Jamie’s side. “Come along. We need to get started. ‘Tis not a big concern.”
Brodie and Robbie snickered.
Jamie asked, “Why are you laughing?”
“If Jake thinks moving all those rocks that far by hand is not an issue, then he’s a bigger fool than I thought.” Uncle Robbie chuckled as he cast a sideways glance at Brodie, who had his hand over his mouth. “Were we that foolish at their age?”
“You’ll see by day break,” Jake said as his uncles headed back toward the keep. He reached down to pick up his first rock. “This will not be that difficult.”
Jamie followed him. “Somehow, I think you’ve just made a big mistake.”
By morning, Jamie and Jake were barely moving.
They’d almost finished when his father, Uncle Brodie, and Uncle Robbie came along to check their progress.
Uncle Robbie whistled when he saw how hard the two of them had worked all night.
Barely moving due to exhaustion, they continued until they had moved the last stone.
His hands trembling, his muscles twitching from the stress, Jake wiped his sleeve across his forehead, then nodded to his sire before making his way back toward the keep.
“Jake, I did not say you were finished yet.” His father’s booming voice would awaken everyone in the keep.
He turned back in bafflement. “We moved the rocks just as you said. Now I think after that chore that we both deserve to break our fast.”
“No breakfast. I’ll have water brought out to you.”
“What must we do now?” Truth was, he hadn’t thought he was capable of doing anything else.
Alex’s gaze narrowed as he stared at his firstborn, his hands held behind his back. His voice came out as a whisper. “Move them back.”
Jake could not believe that he’d heard him correctly. “Move them back? Those boulders? All those ones we just moved?” He thought his head would explode from the rage coursing through him. His father had to be jesting.
“Aye. Do you have a hearing problem?”
“Nay. I just cannot believe you would tell us to do something so ridiculous. It took us all night to move those boulders, and now you want us to move them back?” Jake’s voice had almost become a roar.
But his sire roared louder. “Aye, ‘tis what I said. Now get started.”
That was all it took for Jamie to run over to the pile and pick up two boulders.
Jake shouted to his brother, “Nay, Jamie. I’ll not do it.”
“What did you say?”
The look in his sire’s eyes told him to run, but he stayed rooted to his spot, vowing to stand up to his father.
Jamie froze as his father rushed up to Jake and lifted him into the air. Squeezing Jake’s throat, he bellowed, “Repeat what you said, son!”
Jamie came to his brother’s defense. “Papa, we were trying to help them. Aye, we’d agreed to the plan at first, but when we saw the lasses had changed their minds, we tried to pull the other lads away from them.”
Alex did not move, still holding his son in the air, though Jake was now big enough that he had to use his other hand to keep him balanced. “Jamie, you are excused, return to the keep.”
“Papa, I’ll stay and help him. I want to.”
“Jamie, your laird ordered you to go to the keep.”
Robbie and Brodie brought a horse over and helped Jamie onto the horse. Jake had always been a little stronger physically than his brother, and he was so physically exhausted he could barely walk. They left the area with him.
Jake, red in the face, ground out, “I’ll do it. And I’ll hate you for the rest of my life.”
His father let him down and spun on his heel to go back to the keep.
Fortunately, the day was cloudy, and by mid-afternoon the rain came and drenched the sweat off his body, but the slippery rocks did not make his chore any easier.
He could tell he had pushed himself too far because his thinking had become hazy.
Uncle Robbie had brought him water on two occasions, but other than that he’d seen no one.
Apparently, his sire had kept everyone at bay to prevent the chance of him being fed by onlookers who might have felt sorry for him.
Darkness fell and he continued on, finally noticing that the pile was dwindling.
He could barely feel his legs moving, but they functioned on their own, dragging his body from one place to another, barely able to carry one rock at a time.
He slipped several times in the mud, picking himself up before he continued.
His father would not win this one. He’d show him how strong he was, that he could not beat him. He’d move every last stone.
When he had the last two stones in his hands, he slipped again. This time, he couldn’t get up. He lay face down in the mud and closed his eyes. A pair of arms picked him up and tossed him over a shoulder with an oomph from him. He knew it to be his sire.
“Foolish lad.”
“I did it, Papa.”
“I know you did. Stubborn lad. I hope you’ll remember it.”
“You needn’t have done it. I learned my lesson before moving all those rocks. But I wanted to prove to you how tough I am.”
His father snorted. “I had to come up with a way to make it sink into that thick skull of yours. When you’re older, your mother will never survive it if you attack a lass or disrespect one. How did you learn your lesson? What got through to you?”
“Mama’s eyes. I never want to see that look in Mama’s eyes again either. You could have asked. ‘Twas worse than moving the rocks. How can I ever make it up to her?”
Chapter Eight
Jake learns how his father handles his anger.
Jake paced the lists. Every once in a while, he’d swing his sword at one opponent or another, but then he’d return to his pacing.
His sire came along mounted on his horse and said, “We trust Ashlyn, or we would not have sent her.”
“Aye, but can I not go after her? She should be on her return voyage by now.”
“Nay, ‘twould endanger her cover. I have a job for you.” He tossed the reins of a second horse over to him.
“Now?” Jake gritted his teeth as he stared at his sire. He wished to go against everything his sire had just said, but he could not.
“I need a few trees cut down.”
He motioned for Jake to follow him, so he did. They moved out through the forest, moving in the direction that Ashlyn had gone, which only made him even more eager to ride out to greet her.
He galloped behind his sire, feeling the wind in his hair, something he did love, so that helped a bit.
His sire brought him through a maze until he finally came to a stop in a clearing.
Jake dismounted, staring at his sire. “This is where you go to chop trees when you are upset?” It had long been his sire’s habit.
Alex always went alone. The twins had oft begged to go along with him, but he’d always denied them.
He’d return a few hours later with a smile on his face.
Now his sire had finally brought him here.
Jake was stunned, completely stunned, taking everything in about the special place.
“Aye,” his father said with a grin. “Do you not approve?” Once he dismounted, he walked over to a large, flat rock that sat atop a hill overlooking Grant land, quite a steep drop beneath them.
Once Jake stood next to his sire, he took a deep breath, shaking his head at the beauty. He’d never seen anything like it.
Alex Grant pointed at all the tree stumps in the clearing. “I judged this to be the best vantage point on our land, and there are plenty of trees to handle my anger when I feel the need.” He glanced at his son. “Did I judge well?”
Jake stood next to his father, looking him straight in the eye. “Papa, when did I get to be as tall as you?”
“Och, you’ve been the size of me for a while, lad. What do you think of my clearing?”
Jake whispered, “Brilliant and beautiful, Papa. All this time, you came here?”
His sire nodded, a smug smile on his face.
“Aye. I learned long ago that my bark was too loud for your mother, so when I could feel it building inside me, I came out here. It took me a year to find the exact spot, but ever since then, I’ve come here to trim trees.
” He nodded toward all the stumps in sight.
“I always go back with a smile on my face. This location also has another advantage—it gives me a perfect view of anyone who’s fool enough to try attacking my land.
‘Twas time to invite you along. Your mother wouldn’t allow me when you were a laddie because of the steep drop. ”
“I could spend hours here,” Jake commented, almost in a trance as he took in everything about the place.
His sire clasped his shoulder as they stared out over the land, and Alex pointed. “My eyes are not the same anymore. Do you see anyone on the rise?”