Chapter 6 Alexandria #2
I nodded. “I think it was just plain wood, you know, and now there’s this paper on the inside... I feel like I never noticed that before.”
I touched a bit of the paper that was peeled up in the small corner. “But it looks so old, like the paper has been here for decades, I don’t know when we did that.” I chewed my lip. “I must be misremembering. I just...”
Torin said, “Ye just... what?”
“I keep doing that, it’s like I don’t trust my memories anymore.”
He nodded. “Tis as if somethin’ has shifted.”
I pulled one of the last few things from the chest, a dried lavender sachet and some ribbon.
“We had our handfasting with that old yarn and we could have used this ribbon that I stored away for my wedding day.” I laughed.
“Ironically, that will make a good story. This ribbon is likely three quarters of a century old and…”
He was still looking through the Bible and prayer book with his brow drawn down. “What was yer great-grandmother’s name?”
“Mildred, they called her Millie.” He was looking over the page near the front. “But it might have been passed down to her, let me think… her mom was named Nancy, I think?”
I leaned over, making sure I didn’t dislodge anything piled in my lap. “What are you seeing?”
“This prayer book is verra auld, it looks much like the ones the ladies carry at Glume. The front page reads…”
I said, “You can read Latin?”
“Aye, I can speak it and read some, I was tutored alongside Max.”
Reading over his shoulder the plate on the front page looked like this:
Ex Bibliotheca
Dominae Gailae, Ducissae de Awe,
in Castro Kilchurn,
Anno Domini MDCLVIII
And under it this:
Ora pro anima mea et pro Regali Domo Awe,
ut lux aeterna nobis in aeternum fulgeat,
et ab omni tempestate semper tuti ac protecti maneamus.
He read, translating, “The year is 1658. It means, tis from the library of Lady Gail, the Duchess of Awe. Here it says she is livin’ at Kilchurn Castle.
Tis their stronghold. I hae been tae that castle, sent with a message tae the laird, Sir Colin of Glenorchy, all call him Grey Colin. Hae ye heard of him?”
I shook my head.
“But this book is from a hundred years after my time.” He frowned, “Tis unsettling.”
I asked, “What does the bottom say?”
“It says: Pray for my soul, and for the Royal House of Awe, that eternal light may shine upon us for ever and ever, and that we may remain safe and protected from every storm.”
“Oh.”
“Ye haena ever heard yer connection tae the Duke and Duchess of Awe?”
I shook my head again. “Never. And because I didn’t know how to read Latin I never really even thought about it. Do you think this might be from my real, royal ancestors?”
He nodded. “Aye, I ken it, Princess. Max told me often of his connection tae Kilchurn castle, yer father was once the Duke of Awe. Twas a hard thing for him tae visit the place, walkin’ the halls of his own birthright and nae bein’ able tae claim it as laird.”
“So, what are you saying, she’s...?”
“I think this Lady Gail might be Max’s ancestor and therefore yers.”
I blinked.
He passed the prayer book to me and I leafed through it. “I guess I should do some research on her.”
“Aye, she is yer family, twould be good tae learn her history.”
“Anything good in the Bible?”
He thumbed through it, while I looked at the last few things in the chest.
Finally he said, “This is a more recent book. Tis not related tae Scotland.”
He showed me the main plate.
I said, “That’s my grandmother’s surname. On my father’s side.” I flipped to the middle where there were pages that listed births, weddings, and deaths. One of the last names under births was that of my grandmother. “This is definitely her book and is about my family based here in North Carolina.”
I closed it and picked up the prayer book again. “This one is much, much older.”
“Did ye ken yer family here had a connection tae Kilchurn castle in Scotland?”
I said, “No one ever mentioned it.”
He nodded.
I held it in my arms, surrounded by all my best, most beloved treasured possessions. I couldn’t believe I never realized that the prayer book was from a different person, different ancestors, a whole different branch of my tree.
I sighed. I would need to research.
I looked at Torin. “I want to do some research, but first I wonder if we ought to go back to bed... I’m feeling kind of overwhelmed and tired and… I could let you wander in my gardens?”
He frowned a bit. “Alas, mo leannan, I canna go back tae bed as I must see tae the horses.”
I teased, “You’re already using the stables as an excuse not to go to our bed, Torin? Are you already tired of me?”
“Och nae, how could I grow tired of ye? Ye are bonny and invitin’ and I want ye again, but the horses canna tend tae themselves. The pasture inna large enough, tis m’duty.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I understand, but will you be disappointed in me if I go take a nap? I’m really feeling tired, this has been a lot.”
“Aye, ye can rest, I will tend tae m’duties, and perhaps I will come waken ye when I am done. I will need a wander, likely.”
He leaned over, kissed my cheek, and then used the edge of the chest to rise, but his eyes caught something inside. “Tis all the way tae the bottom?”
“What do you mean?”
He leaned over to look underneath at the short carved legs. He stuck his hand in the space under the chest and then looked back inside. “Ye ken the bottom is higher than it ought tae be.”
“There’s a false bottom?”
He shimmied the chest in front of him, kneeling, and put a hand underneath and one inside. “There is…” He leaned in and put his fingers in, feeling around the inside edges. He ran his hands along the bottom, tugging. “There is nae drawer.”
He pulled a small blade from his belt. “Dost ye mind if I pry it?”
“You think something might be inside?”
He nodded. “Aye, tis common in chests tae hide valuables below a false bottom.”
He lifted the corner of the heavy chest and turned his head toward it to listen. “Ye heard it shift?”
“I did, yes, try not to damage it, please.”
He was careful, he slid his blade between the floor and the walls and pried, then he noticed a larger gap and pried there. There was a loud creak before the bottom of the chest lifted and tipped back, revealing a hidden space, full of stuff.
I muttered, “Oh my God, what is… oh my God.” I was shocked looking down on it, letting the things that had been collected in my lap fall to the side.
I reached in to pick up the first thing I saw, the cloak that the little girl in my dream, that I had been wearing. Folded neatly on top.
“Torin, what does this mean? I was wearing this in the dream when I was little.” I pulled it to my face and sniffed it.
“It smells like peat smoke and… it smells like Scotland. Oh my God.” I put it to the side and picked up the clothes under it, a small linen dress, embroidered at the neckline with the letter A in faded thread.
I ran my fingers over it. These were the clothes I had been wearing.
Oh my God. I clamped my hand over my mouth, that familiar and frightening tightening happening in my chest.
Oh no.
My eyes settled on a carved wooden toy, I hadn’t thought of it in years, but I recognized it, a carved lamb.
Tears spilled over my cheeks. I couldn’t remember the older boy who carved it and gave it to me, not really, but it slammed into me that it had been Max.
He had been about ten years old. I could hear his voice in his Scottish accent telling me it was carved from the rowan tree to ward off evil and that he loved me and he was going to keep me safe.
Next there was a velvet pouch, I picked it up, pulled the cinched top open, and gasped.
No no no.
I placed it down, quickly, and jumped up, knocking everything to the side.
Torin was already looking inside. “Tis a vessel.”
I nodded. “Torin, it’s true, everything you said is true.”
I took a step back.
Torin asked, “Ye hae gone pale — are ye well, Alexandria?”
I shook my head. “How could they have kept this from me?”
I didn’t know what to do, there were still some things in the chest but I didn’t want to look through it anymore.
This had been enough.
This was freaking way too much.
Torin had the vessel in his hand.
“Is it live?”
“Aye, but the symbols are in a different order.” He dropped it back into the pouch and pulled the drawstring top closed.
“Ye want tae see what else is in—?”
I shook my head. “No, I… I don’t want… it’s too much, I’m totally overwhelmed and need to not look right now.”
I went to the top of the stairs and started going down.
Torin stood. “Mo leannan, looks like there’s a letter for ye.”
I stopped, halfway down, my hand on the rail.
“To me?”
“Aye, tis sealed with wax.”
I burst into tears and sank down on the stairs.
He met me there and stood beside me, half up and down the steps, holding the letter.
I looked at it in his hand, not taking it, because it looked ancient, fragile, and too fine, addressed to Alexandria, in a fine script looking like something a queen would write to her daughter, not for me, I was a girl from North Carolina, had lived here all my life, those things in that chest didn’t have anything to do with me…
and that’s the last thing I remember.