Chapter 20
MAGNUS
THE DUMBEST THING I HAE EVER PLANNED
Nearly everyone was gathered in the Great Hall for breakfast. The long trestle tables were already half-full when we arrived.
Servants had laid the breakfast out along the high board: platters of oat bannocks and coarse brown bread, dishes of fresh butter and honey, a pot of porridge steaming beside bowls of cream, slices of cold smoked ham, wedges of Dunlop cheese, and a platter of boiled eggs still warm from the pot.
A jug of small ale and buttermilk stood beside a bowl of soft strawberries and the first of the summer cherries, and someone had set out a crock of crowdie with a sprig of something green tucked alongside it.
We glanced up to see Lady Mairead enter the room. She approached us at the buffet table and Sean met us there as he was done with his meal.
Lady Mairead said, “Magnus, Sean has finished eating, and ye are only just now down for breakfast?”
I chuckled, “I was here before ye.”
“I am on my honeymoon, I get tae stay in bed.”
Sean said, “Och nae, we canna talk on it, mother, tis not seemly.”
“Ye ken, Sean, the way of the world, ye are married, ye understand how it goes?”
“I ken, I daena want tae hear m’mother speak on it, especially as she has married someone younger than her sons.”
She rolled her eyes. “Age is just a number, my Wilfrey agrees.”
I said, “While this might be true, he’s still verra young. Tis difficult tae get used tae.”
“Everyone is younger than ye, Magnus. How auld are ye now? Ye hae passed me by the looks of it.”
“Och, ye hae a bitin’ wit this morn, tis true. I am near eight hundred years auld, I think, and m’mother’s affairs are agin’ me more.”
“Tis not an affair, tis a marriage. Wilfred is devoted tae me, and so we can do whatever we want and ye ought not hae a word tae say in complaint.”
“Where is he?”
“The garderobe. What we did was exerting.”
Sean groaned.
She popped one of the blueberries we had brought from Florida in her mouth and tossed a piece of bread on her plate.
Kaitlyn said, “I love your dress, Lady Mairead. It’s beautiful.”
“Thank ye, Kaitlyn, I brought the crimson especially for my meeting with the Earl, which I thought would happen first thing, but he has decided tae make me wait until he is ready tae see me. Tis why I am in a red gown at the morning breakfast buffet.”
Kaitlyn and I went down the buffet line, fillin’ our plates, and I grumbled as I often did that there were nae pancakes with syrup. “Ye see, Kaitlyn, there are none, we hae great privations in this century.”
She teased, “I see, and there won’t be anyone to even try to make them happen since you didn’t bring Chef Zach.”
“Tis true, he is the only one who loves me enough tae suffer the kitchen.”
She laughed.
But then we turned to the table and saw Lizbeth’s sadness and were reminded that this was not a time for jokin’.
We carried our plates over tae the table and sat down across from Sean and Lizbeth beside a chair covered in the raincoats we would be needin’. “How are ye, Lizbeth?”
Her eyes were puffed and red with sadness.
She gave a contorted smile and said, “I am well, Magnus, in the light of day I regret all of our conversations yesterday, please forgive, I ken what I must do, and I must be reasonable.”
“Aye,” said Sean, “Reason is required. I ken ye are a woman, Lizbeth, but ye must try tae think like a man.”
She laughed. “Och, Sean, ye are an oaf. Ye ken I hae the reason of a hundred women, perhaps more, and ye ken this was a momentary lapse.” She raised her chin. “I am done. Ye winna see me behave like this again, tis done.”
I said, “Good, Lizbeth, on my part, I winna push, I winna celebrate. We winna talk of the move except tae answer yer questions, if ye hae a question, I will answer. Only then.”
I reached across the table and squeezed her hand.
Sean said, “Och, where is my hand squeeze?” He reached across the table and squeezed my other hand, so that all three of us were holdin’ hands in the middle of the table. “There we all feel much better. Daena we feel better, Lizbeth?”
She said, “Much,” though she quickly looked away.
Sean said, “Mother, would ye like tae squeeze hands with yer children?”
“If tis goin’ tae include a prayer, then aye. But if tis just tae give yerself a good feeling, then nay, ye all would do better if ye thought of yerself less.”
She sank intae her chair. “Why winna the Earl see me?”
I looked at the windows, the rain was comin’ down the panes. Sean laughed.
I glanced at Kaitlyn.
She said, “So we are really going out in that?”
“We hae tae for the surprise.”
She said, “My boots, my skirts, everything will be wet.”
“We hae the raincoats, we… ye will need a raincoat, as well, Sean, dost ye hae a raincoat for yer part in my surprise?”
“I was hopin’ ye had forgotten m’part in it.”
“Nae, ye are integral.”
Kaitlyn said, “Whatever is happening, I cannot figure it out.”
I chuckled, “In the light of the weather of the day tis the dumbest thing I hae ever planned, but we are goin’ tae carry on as if I am verra sensible. The sooner we go the better.”
She stuffed some butter-covered bannocks in her mouth and muttered, “You are not in charge of the weather. I’m sure it will be fine.”