Chapter 16
It was not as awkward meeting Ailsa again as Will thought it would be.
What had happened that morning was something he had never expected.
For a few days now, he had come to think about the pretty silver-haired housekeeper as his own, and it was a big shock to him when she sent him about his business.
He went down to Tam and Oona in the village, hoping that they would help him make sense of the rejection.
Will wished he was closer to his father to ask his advice, but it would take at least a week of hard riding, not to mention many shillings, to send a rider to the West Coast with a letter.
Oona was in the kitchen and became the first person to whom Will poured out his heart.
“Between the pair of you, Callum and yourself, Will, I’ve heard my fair share of stupidity,” Oona said, plonking down a mug of small ale in front of the blacksmith.
“First, your half brother puts his vengeance above the safety of the woman he loves, and now here you are, wanting to know why the pretty Ailsa gives you the go-by?”
Will, too shocked and humbled by what had just happened to him in the kitchen garden, just stared into his mug. He managed to muster up an “Aye…”
“How much experience have you had with maidens, Will?” Oona sat down next to him with a cup of cordial in her hands. He did not answer, so Oona broadened her question. “Have ye been with a wench?”
Will did not really know how to answer. “I ken how to do things behind the closed door, Mistress Tanner”—Will did not look at her when he said this—“but Ailsa is the first woman I have ever approached to woo. I had to act fast. I hear there are a few men interested in her. I think Logan Galbraith wants to ken if she favors him!” Will ground his teeth.
“I thought he was me friend, but I was wrong.”
Oona scoffed, “Of course Logan is still your friend. You have not yet hung a sign to say you are Ailsa’s swain.
The first thing you must do is run down to Gudrun and ask if she had any objection to you paying Ailsa attention.
That girl is her life and heart, and Ailsa would not look twice at a man if her mither bid her to stay away. ”
Will was taking mental notes as Oona spoke.
“I think you should worry about what Gudrun might say to you. She was not best pleased to hear that you have taken to kissing Ailsa down by the burn.” That news made Will’s face fall into gloom.
Oona patted his hand. “Now, now, as my husband would say, ‘dinnae fash.’ She will take into account all this nonsense you have been feeling about the laird being your brother and the sorrows of your past. Go and talk to her.”
The whirring of the spinning wheel greeted Will’s knock at the cottage door. He went inside, turning his woolen bonnet in his hands, too ashamed to make eye contact.
“Er…Mistress Gun Ainm? Could ye find it in yer heart to forgive me outburst at the feast an’ consider me for a son-in-law? That is, of course, if Ailsa says aye to me. Although she probably will nae because I went an’ made a mull o’ it this mornin’, an’ she bid me begone.”
The spinner said nothing at first, but when Will heard her shift on her stool, he looked up. Gudrun came up to him and gave him a warm hug.
“Give her time and then say sorry, Will Fearguson.”
Gudrun patted him on his back; she had to stand on tiptoe, being so stooped from all the many years bending over the spinning wheel. Gudrun barely reached as high as Will’s chest, but her diminutive height did nothing to diminish the warmth of her hug.
“Who would have thought that the travel-worn, dusty, unshaven man who walked into me croft last week would fall in love with me daughter? Ye have me blessin’ to court Ailsa, Will, but I advise ye to give her some space afore ye approach her on the subject of marriage again.”
So, Will climbed the tower at the first chance he had and stayed there to play with Wee Willie.
He held a warm place in his heart for the small boy outside of the fact he was his namesake and nephew.
When Ailsa came into the room, his pulse skipped a beat.
Every time he saw her it was as if he had forgotten how pretty she was.