Chapter 9 #2
I glared as I started up the stairs and heard him laugh softly. If Lachlan was going to start noticing my appearance then I’d rather he did it when I looked like myself rather than a remnant from the Highland Clearances.
Barefoot and slightly sullen, I squidged through the mud and other substances I didn’t want to think about, around the outside of the castle to the main door, which stood ajar to let the dogs in and out.
Firelight streamed through the opening and flickered across the coats of the animals and the faces of the men coming and going and inside the hall was full of noise and laughter.
I hesitated for a moment until David poked me in the back.
‘Go on,’ he whispered unnecessarily. Unseen and unheard, we walked through the crowded hall and it felt as though we were moving through a stage set with the way everyone carried on oblivious to our existence.
Two dogs fought a desultory war over a discarded bone until we approached, whereupon they joined forces in snarling at us.
‘Och, the wee ghosties are about!’ said one man, laughing at the dogs’ reaction, and we all stopped and turned towards him.
But the men had all turned away, still laughing at the dogs, and, still invisible and trailed by my tail of attendants, I started off up the stairs to the private chambers above.
My feet were already numb with cold, my legs were splattered with mud and I’d been bitten all over by whatever infested the wool, so I was not in a particularly flirtatious mood when we reached the anteroom.
If the earl could see me, I thought, giving the others a mutinous glare when they ushered me to the doorway, he had better not try anything because I might punch him.
The earl was still there, sitting alone.
A plate of half-eaten food was on the desk while he had his feet up in front of the fire, his jacket undone to reveal an open-fronted shirt and his trousers unbuttoned.
He looked a little better illuminated only by the firelight, a little less rat-like with the shadows thrown across his face.
In fact he looked a bit lonely sitting up here in isolation while his men cheered and jeered and gossiped downstairs.
His face was tired and drawn and he needed a shave.
We all peered from behind the tapestry as before. ‘Go on, then,’ whispered Lachlan. ‘Get it over with.’
‘You will come in, won’t you?’ I said nervously. ‘You won’t leave me here?’
‘We promise to ride to your rescue,’ Mal said. ‘But only if you want us to, of course. You might enjoy it.’
‘It’s incest!’ I hissed.
‘It is not.’ Lachlan lifted the corner of the tapestry. ‘And we won’t let it get that far, trust me.’
Oddly enough, I did.
I slithered into the room and waited to be noticed. The earl was staring into the fire, rubbing the back of his neck and clearly absorbed in his thoughts. I looked back over my shoulder to see everyone making shooing motions, increasingly theatrically, so I shuffled a bit further into the room.
‘Er, hello?’ I started and then added ‘my lord’, although I wasn’t altogether sure that was how you addressed an earl.
He didn’t move. But then I’d seen his arrogance in action before and I was a mere woman, so he was probably going to make me kneel before him – and I so did not want to think about kneeling before him.
I went a bit further in and rounded the chair so I stood between him and the fire.
The earl shook his head. ‘I should not be contemplating such,’ he said in an undertone but still made me jump.
‘I wondered if you needed anything. My lord,’ I added hastily, bending into an obsequious crouch.
He didn’t answer, but kept staring into the fire as though I weren’t there.
‘But what hope is there for me?’ he said softly.
‘Always to play the follower. Always to beg for scraps. It is evil to think on it, but… it is the only way…’ He trailed into silence, the flicker of flames animating his face.
‘My lord?’ I tried again. Nothing. I looked over at the flapping embroidery again for a cue and Lachlan made a poky motion. ‘Try to touch him,’ he mouthed.
In front of me the earl sighed deeply and scratched his groin.
I still wasn’t sure whether he could see me or not, or whether he was ignoring me as the inferior female I clearly was.
Tentatively, and expecting to be gripped by the wrist at any moment, I stretched out a hand and prodded him on the cheek.
Or, at least, I tried to, because my hand went right through and I ended up poking the back of the chair quite hard instead.
The lack of reaction on the part of the earl continued.
‘Well, that’s that, then,’ said Lachlan in a normal voice from the staircase. ‘He can’t see you either.’
‘Bugger,’ David put in.
‘Yep. Bang goes my theory. Oh, well, come on out, lass.’ Lachlan held up the tapestry for me to pass under, at which point the earl looked up, saw the flapping fabric and shouted.
‘John! John, get yourself here and close this doorway up! The draughts in this place are enough to freeze a stallion.’