Chapter 9 #2
“Thank ye, Lady Ross. Getting to the market was never easy under Donas and Silas. I appreciate that ye are willing to, and able to help make it a productive trip.”
“’Twill be my honor to help ye. Is there aught else I can do?”
“Nay, my lady. Ye made a good start with the bairns today. And with me.”
Fiona’s heart swelled at the praise.
“Thank ye, Cook. I’ll be on my way. Ah, ye can help me with one thing. Who do ye recommend I meet with next? Which of the lasses has the most impact on the clan? A healer? Or someone else?”
Cook’s gaze dropped to the floor as he crossed his arms and shook his head.
“I fear we havena a real healer. Cara does the best she can, but she isna truly trained in the healing arts, the herb lore, and such. We need an experienced healer, or for Cara to be trained by one. Ye wouldna have those skills, would ye, lass?”
“Nay to the extent ye need. In Inverness, I cared for an elderly relative, but her aches and pains didna rise to the level of battle injuries, or sick weans. I will think on what to do for Cara. Do ye ken where she might be?”
“Soon she’ll be here for her midday meal. I will introduce ye.”
“Thank ye. I will return in time to meet her.”
Erik and his men returned to the village for a late midday meal, after which they would begin cutting the limbs from the straightest-trunked trees they had felled in anticipation of eventually using them in a wooden palisade around the village.
Someday, he hoped they would be able to fortify it with a stone curtain wall, but for now, they would do what they could.
He spotted Fiona immediately, handing out bowls of stew from Cook’s cot and chatting easily with a young lass named…Sara. Aye, that was it. And her mother, Celia. Her husband was coming in behind Erik, one of the men he counted on to support him and his ideas for the clan.
Erik went to them as Fiona made her way back to Cook’s cot with empty hands.
Young Sara walked with her, chatting incessantly, her red curls bouncing about her shoulders.
Erik marveled at Fiona’s patience to help serve the people of the clan and give her attention to Sara at the same time.
She surprised him. Constantly. And pleasantly.
Her face lit up in a smile when she saw him approaching. “Erik! Ye must be famished. Let me get ye some food. And yer men, too.”
“In a moment.” He positioned himself between Fiona and the lass so he could kiss his wife without making a show of it for the young girl.
Fiona accepted his kiss with a hand that gripped his shoulder as if she didn’t wish to let him go.
“I see ye are making progress,” he softly told her when he broke off the kiss, then in a louder tone jested, “Now, feed me, Lady Ross.”
“Aye, and yer men. Sit down somewhere. I and the other lasses will bring out bowls.”
Erik turned to the men behind him. “Ye heard the lady. Take a seat and yer meal will come to ye.”
Erik was glad of a chance to sit and rest. Finding and felling trees with the straightest trunks was hard work that scattered his men all over the forest. ’Twas how Osgar had walked away unnoticed to confront Fiona earlier, he was certain.
But he could not keep the men together. Straight-trunked trees didn’t necessarily grow in a convenient grouping.
Besides, it was better for the forest to take a tree here and there rather than clear-cutting a whole area.
Once everyone had been served, Fiona settled next to him, chatting about what she’d learned so far today.
“Ye want to go to market day in Inverness?” he asked, once she floated that idea.
“Aye, there will be things for Cook that are no’ available here, and we can buy things we’re likely to run short of during the winter.
I ken the market and most of the vendors, so I can help Cook find what he needs.
Before ye ask, he is taking inventory and making a list. We’ll need an escort, of course, and I ken ye willna want to leave the clan again so soon after returning. A few trusted men can escort us.”
“They can?”
“Can they no’?”
“When is this market day?”
“In ten days’ time. The harvest will end soon, so this will be the biggest market day of the year.
Also, Cook told me about a lass who has served as healer to Ross, but who isna trained as she should be.
I will write to Mary to see if she can go to Rose, or if Rose can send someone here for a time.
And healing herbs are another thing we can acquire in Inverness. ”
“Ye have been busy since I saw ye last.”
“’Tis good, aye? These are things I ken that others here may no’.”
“We do go to Inverness now and again. And farther as needed,” Erik told her, not certain if he should be insulted that she thought they were so isolated and provincial, or if he should laugh at her earnest determination to do good.
Nay, not that. If he embarrassed her, especially here, with so many of the clan nearby, she’d never forgive him.
“I will think on it, Fiona. But in the short time we’ve been wed, we’ve spent most of it apart, and ye want to leave yet again, and so soon.”
“I havena left ye. Ye left me,” she reminded him.
“Aye, that is true, and ye ken there was a good reason. But ’tis still true that we’ve spent more time apart than together. Can we both stay in one place for a while?”
“For the next ten-day, aye. But then I need to go to Inverness with Cook. And some of yer men.”
“Where will ye stay?”
“I have friends there. ’Twill be a simple matter to find lodging, especially if we are a group of no more than four or five.”
Her tone made Erik think she was holding back something. But her expression remained eager and seemingly guileless. Well, he didn’t have to say aye or nay right now. “We’ll discuss it later,” he said, “once Cook kens how great a need we have.”
A shadow of disappointment appeared in her eyes and just as quickly disappeared. Why? Was she so eager to return to the town she’d lived in for several years and get away from the rougher conditions here? Did it mean she was unhappy with her choice to come with him? The idea chilled him.
“’Tis sensible,” she agreed, making him doubt what he thought he’d seen in her expression. “Now, must ye go back into the forest right away?”
“Why?” Did she want to spend time with him alone? The thought pleased him, but he could not dally with his wife while his men worked. What Osgar had accused him of would not be a good thing to make real.
“I want to get a better idea from ye which of yer folk I should talk to next, and which can wait a wee. To make a list of that and of ideas they give me for how to make a difference here.”
“We can do that this evening. In the meantime, start with one of the lasses who keeps a garden. They will be interested in yer ideas for a walled garden, since ye ken the one at Rose, and they may ken more than ye realize about growing what we need.”
“I already planned to speak to them soon. I will start today.”
Erik stood, took her hand, and helped her up. “I’ll leave ye to it. I must go back to work. As must ye.” He cupped her cheek and leaned in for another kiss, then handed her his bowl. “Thank ye for what ye have done here today. Ye are well on the way to being a great Lady Ross.”
She rewarded him with another kiss, then let him go.
It was harder to leave her than he thought it would be. She continued to impress him. He looked forward to being alone with her tonight.