Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“There certainly could be worse places to live while ye’re playing out this arrangement,” Eloise said, touching a long verdant vine that hung from a trestle overhead. “Imagine being betrothed to a man who lived in a leaky shack next to a bog.”
“Aye, but is it as cold and drafty as this castle?” Beatrice quipped.
“Find me a warm home in all of Scotland. I daenae think one exists.”
Eloise curled the vine around her finger, then let it drop and swing.
The pale morning light broke through the cover of leaves and growth overhead, but it never really made it all the way in. The garden, even at the zenith of noon, kept itself in cool shade.
“Me father is going to be the death of me,” Beatrice groaned, folding herself down onto a stone bench and pressing a hand against her cheek. “The way he talks and chides me about every little thing drives me mad.”
“Is he still going on about the rumors?” Eloise shook her head. “If there’s anyone talkin’ about ye, they’re nae talkin’ to anyone who matters.”
“Do ye think the rumors are true, though?” Beatrice asked.
Eloise froze in a pensive pose, but before she could say anything, a child’s voice called out from the courtyard, startling them.
“Bea! Bea!”
“What in God’s name is that?” Eloise turned towards the garden’s entrance. “Is something wrong? Is someone hurt?”
“Bea! Bea!”
“Nay, everything’s all right,” Beatrice laughed.
Effie, calm down. Ye’re giving us a fright in here.
Moments later, Effie burst into the garden. Her expression went from troubled and searching to exhilarated upon seeing Bea. She rushed towards her and then halted when she spotted Eloise.
“Bea, I was looking for ye,” she said, though her eyes kept drifting to the woman she had never seen before. “I went to the Great Hall, and they said ye had eaten and gone already.”
“Aye, we had, but ye found us.”
“I found ye,” Effie repeated, her tone turning shy.
Beatrice crouched next to her. “Effie, this is me cousin Eloise. She’s here for the betrothal ceilidh.”
“How do ye do, Effie?” Eloise offered.
“How do ye do?” Effie returned. “Do ye live at Whitmore Manor as well?”
“Nay, I live in MacAllister Castle.”
Effie’s eyes widened in delighted surprise. “Och, aye? I would want to visit there one day. If I’m allowed to.”
“Why wouldnae ye be allowed to?” Eloise asked.
“It is another castle,” Effie explained.
Beatrice could not help but laugh at her small child’s voice speaking so matter-of-factly.
“Well, if ye and yer father came to MacAllister Castle, I would host a big cèilidh for ye.”
Effie turned back to Beatrice, her lips pressed into an uneven line. “Have ye been to MacAllister Castle, Bea?”
“Only once,” Beatrice replied.
“And did ye like it?”
“Aye, very much so. But I will tell ye that it isnae as beautiful as MacSween Castle.”
Eloise muffled a snort, which made both Beatrice and Effie laugh into their hands.
“After ye marry me father, maybe we can go down to MacAllister and visit yer cousin,” Effie suggested.
Beatrice hid her dismay at this question, uncertain of the future and unwilling to lie.
“Effie, why daenae ye show us around the garden?” Eloise asked, tapping the girl’s shoulder and changing the subject. “Do ye ken all the names of the plants here?”
“I ken a lot of them,” Effie replied proudly, then began to point at each plant and utter random words in Latin.
It made Beatrice laugh to think of Effie just making up whatever she wanted and having them believe her.
Like she does with the fairies and magic.
“Ye look sick to yer stomach, Bea,” Eloise murmured, looping her arm through Beatrice's. “Are ye feelin’ all right?”
“I didnae expect to already be in love with the child,” Beatrice whispered, so Effie couldn’t hear her. “She stole me heart the moment I laid eyes on her. I daenae like havin’ to lie to her like this, but what else am I supposed to do?”
Eloise gave her arm a squeeze.
The possibility of hurting Effie hung above Beatrice like a dark cloud, the arrangement growing more tangled by the day.
I didnae mean to involve a child in all of this, and now look at me.
She watched Effie prance from plant to flower to overgrown bush, touching petals and leaves with the care and concern of a seasoned gardener.
“Would ye like to see where the fairies like to hide?” Effie asked Eloise, smiling like the sun. “Beatrice's already seen it. I told her everything I ken about the fairies when she first got here.”
“She did, indeed,” Beatrice confirmed. “There’s more magic and fairies in this castle than I could have ever imagined.”
“I daenae ken anything about fairies,” Eloise said, feigning surprise.
Effie led the two of them to a cluster of pink and orange flowers growing tightly on a bush of spiky leaves.
“Careful nae to hurt yerself, Effie,” Beatrice cautioned as the little girl reached through the branches to push them apart and expose the roots of the bush.
And here’s me soundin’ like a mother. Stop, Bea. Just stop talking.
“The fairies willnae let me get hurt,” Effie assured her.
Beatrice wished with all her heart that was true.
“So they live in there?” Eloise asked, crouching down to see better. She threw a sly smirk over her shoulder at Bea. “How many fairies live in this place, Effie?”
“They daenae live in the bush. They only hide there.” Effie released the branches and let them close up again.
“They live everywhere in the castle,” Beatrice chimed in. “There’s plenty of space for them, as ye can tell.”
“Very true,” Eloise said, standing up and returning to her spot next to Bea.
“Beatrice's seen them. She told me she did.”
Eloise faced her cousin, that smirk still on her lips. “Did ye, Bea? Where did ye see them?”
“One night, Effie came into me chambers when she couldnae sleep, and the next morning, she wasnae feelin’ well.
” Beatrice reached out a hand to Effie. The girl took it and let Beatrice pull her in.
“The poor lassie was feverish, sweating with the chills all at the same time. We were worried, we were. We thought she was too sick for us to handle her on our own.”
“Me father was on patrol,” Effie added proudly. “So nay one could tell him what was happenin’.”
“But that morning when I sat in bed with Effie curled against me, I saw a little fairy peek out from behind the hearth.” Beatrice pointed at an invisible fireplace in front of her. “I only saw her for a moment. All I heard was a laugh, and then she disappeared.”
“And I got better,” Effie said, hugging her side.
“Aye, better and stronger and bonnier than ever.” Beatrice kissed the top of her head.
The girl giggled and then skipped away, pointing out special spots and mentioning all the magic creatures she knew that spent their free time lounging in the plants and flowers.
Beatrice was so distracted by her that she hadn’t noticed the look on her cousin’s face. When she did glance over at Eloise, she saw a concern that twisted her stomach into knots and sent stabbing pain through her all over again.
If I ever have to leave Effie behind,, it will undo me.