Chapter Eleven #2
Brickie shook his head and began to walk, motioning her along.
She followed him to a small, extremely fortified door in the wall.
She had to duck to move through it, and the door was about a foot thick, but it emptied out into a yard on the north side of the castle.
It was surrounded by a great stone wall, and it hugged the keep so that the yard itself was long and skinny, but she could see an entire herd of pigs off to the right, tucked into a shelter with a sod roof on it.
There were also chickens running around, and a coop, as well as two goats that looked at her curiously.
One of them was a very pregnant female.
“Goat’s milk,” she muttered thoughtfully.
Brickie heard her. “Aye,” he said. “The lord likes it.”
She looked at him, surprised. “Does he?” she said. “That is a strange thing for a man to drink.”
“Not when he has a nervous stomach,” Brickie said. “Ask the lord. He’ll tell you.”
As Brickie wandered over to an area that had two enormous spits, both of them already speared with a side of pork, Mattie was still thinking on the goat’s milk.
“Brickie, do you sell anything from the castle?” she said. “What I mean to ask is if you sell meat or milk or anything.”
Brickie was checking the fires underneath the sides of pork, which were low at this time of day because the meat needed to be cooked slowly and thoroughly all the way through to reduce the risk of anyone becoming ill from eating it.
He may have been a grumpy old man, but he was competent in his duties.
He shook his head to Mattie’s question.
“Nay,” he said. “We buy meat and vegetables sometimes because we have a lot of men to feed. Sometimes they eat more than we have.”
Mattie was still looking at the goats. “What about cheese?” she said. “Do you make goat cheese?”
Brickie stirred up the embers. “There’s a woman in the village that makes cheese,” he said. “We purchase it from her. Why?”
Mattie pointed to the goat. “Because I can milk that goat and make cheese,” she said. “I also know how to make soap from their milk. Both are products we can either use or sell. We would not have to buy them elsewhere.”
Brickie looked at the goat and shrugged, turning back to his fire.
He didn’t seem particularly interested in her proposal, but Mattie was.
She had a lot of ideas now. She went over to the pregnant goat and petted her head, though the animal was more interested in whether or not Mattie had something to eat for her.
Thoughts lingering on goats, and what they meant for the economy of the castle, Mattie headed back into the kitchen with determination.
She had a man to see.
*
“And if we don’t eat it, we can sell it,” Mattie was saying. “You have a dozen pigs out in the yard. Why not a dozen goats? They are much more useful.”
Gar was sitting on a stump in the bailey, listening to Mattie chatter on about goats and cheese and soap.
She was very excited about it, but he found that all he could do was watch her.
She was such a fascinating creature when she spoke, her sweet voice with a very slight lisp that was incredibly charming.
She was convinced they could have a goat empire right on the Scottish borders and corner the market on cheese.
“You have an enterprising mind,” he said. “In fact, my Uncle Tommy’s wife has much the same mind. She has a foundling home near Kelso and that is how the foundlings make money—by making goat cheese. It is delicious.”
“Truly?” Mattie said, her face alight with the possibilities. “Then mayhap she would help us build our own goat herd.”
He nodded. “Possibly,” he said. “But the truth is that we are not a castle that sells products, like cheese. This is a military castle, Queenie. What we have here, we eat. What we need, we buy. Our sole purpose is war.”
She nodded patiently. “I know,” she said. “But how do you make the coin necessary to buy what you need?”
He shrugged. “It is a de Wolfe garrison,” he said. “I am provided with a monthly stipend to manage the castle. That stipend pays for whatever we need.”
“Then you do not have any wealth of your own?”
He nodded. “I do,” he said. “I am also paid a yearly wage as a garrison commander.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred pounds a year.”
“I see,” she said, considering what some would consider a sizable sum. “Then you are a very rich man because I know my father has given you my dowry. My mother told me so.”
Gar nodded. “He did give it to me,” he said. “Why?”
“It was somewhere around three thousand pounds.”
“Three thousand, two hundred.”
Mattie didn’t say anything. She simply wandered over and sat down on a stump next to him. Gar’s gaze moved over her. He sensed that there was something more on her mind.
“If I ask you if something is amiss with you, will you tell me?” he said.
Mattie scratched her forehead before answering.
“I do not know,” she said honestly. “I suppose… I suppose that I want to feel useful, Gar. I want to feel as if I contribute to our marriage beyond bringing you three thousand, two hundred pounds. I have ideas and I would like to help you, as your wife. I must do something. I cannot sit idle.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “I am coming to learn that about you,” he said. “You cannot sit still.”
“Nay, I cannot.”
“Then do whatever you like,” he said. “If you want to have a herd of a thousand goats, then go ahead. Buy your goats if it makes you happy.”
She looked at him, joy on her face. “Truly?”
“Truly.”
“But there is something else.”
“What else?”
“I was speaking to Brickie,” she ventured. “I asked him about feasting items. You know—plates, spoons, knives. Things that are used when you provide a feast. He said you had very little in the way of those things.”
Gar nodded. “That is true,” he said. “I told you that we do not have fine feasts here. There is no call for plates or spoons beyond a reasonable measure.”
“Could I commission some so that when we have a special guest, I will not be ashamed?”
He chuckled softly. “Commission what you like,” he said. “You are my queen. This is your castle. Do what you want to do.”
She brightened. “But it will cost money.”
“Spend what you wish.”
She stood up quickly and rushed him, throwing her arms around his neck. “Thank you,” she said, kissing his cheek. “You are kind and generous, husband.”
She went to pull away but he wouldn’t let her go. His powerful arms were around her and he wasn’t quite ready to release her yet.
“Do it again,” he murmured.
She cocked her head. “Do what?”
“Kiss me.”
Fighting off a grin, Mattie looked him in the eye first. Really looked him in the eye.
Then, she leaned over and gently kissed his cheek.
She did it again and again, moving in the direction of his mouth.
When she came to his lips, she kissed him once more as a final prize.
She’d only meant it to be a soft, gentle kiss, but very quickly, it turned into something more.
Gar pulled her against him, his lips suckling hers, his tongue licking at her.
It was clear that he wanted to kiss her deeply, but Mattie was quite aware they were in public, so she put her hands on his face to stop him.
“Not now,” she whispered, her face flushed from his kiss. “There are people about.”
He wouldn’t be put off. “They know we are married,” he said. “I am allowed to kiss my wife. I am allowed to kiss my wife!”
He shouted the last seven words to the bailey they were in, his booming voice reverberating off the stone walls, and Mattie shrieked with embarrassment. Gar laughed low in his throat and pulled her to him again, kissing her sweetly before releasing her.
“Very well,” he said, standing up. “I do not want to create a spectacle. I will preserve your modesty, madam.”
“Not for all to see, anyway,” she said, looking around and seeing men in the distance, or up on the wall. “If you wanted to take me someplace private and ravage me, that is one thing. But not out here in the open.”
Gar took that as an invitation.
There were several outbuildings in this particular part of the bailey, closest to the castle, and he grabbed her by the hand, towing her behind him as he marched around the corner.
Mattie was giggling the entire time as he opened the door of one outbuilding, dismissed it, and then moved to the next.
Finally, he found an old armory that suited his needs and pulled her inside, shutting the door securely.
Immediately, he pulled her into his arms.
Gar’s mouth fixed to Mattie’s and he was instantly lost. He was coming to very quickly realize that he was always lost where she was concerned.
He pulled her down onto the dirt floor and, immediately, the broadcloth dress she was wearing began to loosen.
His hands were warm and big and rough, and still a little clumsy, but he was learning quickly.
The man who’d had no real experience with women was a fast learner.
He loosened the ties on the dress and pulled it over her head as she went to work on his tunic.
All of it was coming off.
Gar’s big hands lost themselves in the silken web of her hair, gripping it so tightly that she couldn’t move.
He had her trapped and wanted her to remain that way.
Mattie gasped in response to his onslaught, fierce and powerful as he laid her on her back.
They were on the dirt, but for once, she didn’t really care.
Both she and Gar had very quickly learned that there was a tremendous amount of attraction between them, something they were both willing to explore.
Anywhere.
Trapped beneath his big body, Mattie groaned with pleasure as his tongue invaded the honeyed recesses of her mouth.