Chapter 18
Will had been encouraged by what had happened in Ailsa’s bedroom. He left because he was on the verge of pushing her down onto the narrow little bed of hers and making her his wife in deed, if not in name.
But what was his real name anyway? Will had to admit to a certain amount of curiosity as to what news his brother would bring back from Skail.
He wasted no time in tramping down to the spinner’s croft. Gudrun did not even look up when his shadow darkened her doorstep before saying, “A good morrow to ye, Master Blacksmith. What now?”
Pleased to be so readily understood, Will ducked his head under the doorframe. “Good morrow to ye, Gudrun. Can ye guess what brings me here?”
The elderly woman sighed and pushed her stool back to look at him. “Ailsa won’t leave me, an’ ye won’t leave yer faither. Two lovin’ children makin’ themselves unhappy because of their stubbornness.”
A voice piped up from the corner. “Well met, Will. Have ye come to bid me adieu or to tell me how jealous ye are? I’m off to set up as blacksmith at Castle Gray at Laird Gray’s special request.”
Will saw Logan Galbraith there, packing up his kit. He bid the young man a good morrow but asked why he would be jealous?
“After all, Logan,” Will reminded the young blacksmith, “Ailsa has chosen me to be her husband. All we have to do is iron out a few problems about where to live first.”
Logan gave Will a cheeky grin as he hefted his pack onto his back.
“Aye, I ken. As pretty as I find Mistress Housekeeper to be, I’m too young to think about setting up house yet, Will.
But I could see ye needed a bit o’ a push to convince ye, so between the two of us, Gudrun an’ I made a plan to make it look as if I was ready to get down on one knee to Ailsa.
It was enough to make the two o’ ye give up skulking down by the river and make a formal announcement.
I must admit, it shocked me how quickly ye both came to an agreement. ”
Will had no words. He looked from Gudrun to Logan, dawning respect in his eyes.
“Why ye-ye conniving spalpeens! Ye had me over a barrel! An’ now I’m torn as to what to do about where we should live. I cannae leave me faither. He relies on me to carry half the smithy work.”
Gudrun told Will to simmer down and leave things in the laps of the gods. With great restraint, Will went to the bolster by the hearth and tried to sleep after having a bowl of soup for supper.
Logan woke them both early to bid them farewell.
He accepted a bowl of porridge from Gudrun and then decided to ride out after the sun rose high enough in the sky not to blind him.
He pressed a small trinket he had made into the spinster’s hand before he left.
When the door closed behind him, Gudrun showed Will the gift, a small candlestick holder with a wrought handle. It was beautifully made.
Will was reluctant to return to the castle.
He did not know what news Ailsa would have for him.
Gudrun refused to get involved, telling him that if she urged her daughter to leave her home, it might have the opposite effect of making Ailsa resent Will’s offer of marriage.
Obsessed with images of Ailsa’s long silver-blonde hair flowing over the covers as she opened her lithe pale body for him, the blacksmith used every ounce of discipline not to run to Ailsa for her answer.
His agitated pacing was interrupted by the sound of horse hooves cantering up the main thoroughfare.
“Lady Meria an’ yer brither are back,” Gudrun said without looking up from her spindle.
Will ran outside, managing to hail them before they rode past. The MacNairs reined in their horses immediately.
“Well met this fine morning, Will.” Lady Meria smiled down at him. “We have news for ye. Join us up at the castle to break our fast?” The brothers clasped one another’s forearms briefly, and then Will waved them off.
The next bell had not even struck before Will was striding up to the castle gates again.
“Ye fell for that trick the young blacksmith an’ Mistress Gun Ainm set for ye, didnae ye, Will?” one of the guards teased him as he waited for them to raise their poleaxes.
Will said nothing, smiled briefly, and then gave them a rude hand gesture as he walked past. He was in a good mood, and the sentries’ laughter could not dampen his spirits. Today was going to be a momentous day.
When he went to sit down in the dining hall, Lady Meria beckoned him to come to the dais. When he mounted the steps, she pushed out a chair for him and said, “No more benches for ye, Master Blacksmith!”
He nodded his thanks and sat down between the laird and lady.
“Is it no’ late to be breaking fast, Lady?” Will asked Meria, but she shook her head.
“Nay. I have a lot of discipline when it comes to food and wanted to ride home afore eating.”
But when Meria turned to talk to her cousin who was visiting and seated on her other side, Callum whispered in his brother’s ear, “It’s her second breakfast. She already ate a huge meal at the inn where we spent the night!
” And then the brothers could not stop laughing silently together for the rest of the service.
Meria shot them a suspicious look but said nothing.
The villagers an’ castle dwellers had been told to assemble in the great hall at the noontime bell if they wanted to hear news about the visit to Skail. Not a single person except one stayed away. Everyone wanted to know the mystery of the blacksmith’s father—everyone except Ailsa.
When Gudrun noticed the blacksmith craning his neck to search the hall for her daughter, she elbowed him in the side. “Go an’ get her, ye great lummox! Never expect a woman to come to ye!”
Will dashed off at once. He got a little lost on the way to her bedroom but found himself there eventually. Not bothering to knock, he pushed the door open. Ailsa was seated at her tapestry, putting the finishing touches to the Greek god Ares’s face. Will recognized himself immediately.
“Ailsa! Nay Greek god is going to have flame-colored hair! What will folk say?”
She had got a fright when he burst into the room but managed to recover herself quickly. “Never ye mind about yon god’s hair color, Will. At least this image on the tapestry cannae run off in the middle of a kiss like ye always do!”
He picked her up and kissed her hard. “Ye glorious silver-haired angel!” he said when she cried out for him to stop so that she might catch her breath. “Are ye no’ curious about who me blood faither might be?”
Ailsa wrinkled her nose. “No’ really, Will. Yer faither lives on the West Coast as far as I’m concerned.”
It was a statement that he found so endearing that he had to kiss her again. She followed him back to the great hall, where they both slid amidst the crowd just as the noontime bell was ringing.
Callum stood up, holding out his hands for silence.
“Me story an’ that o’ me brither’s is not a long one, but it is full o’ sorrow all the same. Our britherhood was ripped away from us, an event that had naught to do with Fate an’ everything to do with the evil that men do!
“Despite this injustice, William an’ I have managed to bend Fate to our will an’ make something from our lives.
This was due in no small part because of two men: Master Blacksmith Fingal Fearguson an’ Laird Gray, our good neighbor.
They guided and nurtured us through the hardships of youth, making us into the men ye see afore ye today.
I dinnae need to point me brither out to ye standing there at the back; he’s so tall ye cannae miss him! ”
Someone shouted out from the crowd, “An’ the hair too!” which made everyone laugh.
Callum continued. “We traveled to Skail to speak with a woman who lived hereabouts during the dark days of MacTavish rule. She worked alongside our mither and was able to confirm certain memories I had of our time at that place. Mither would hold to it that she was a lady of the MacNairs. She was intercepted by pirates and sold to be a slave to this same castle and then put to work at the tavern when it was found she was pregnant with me. The woman told me that Lady MacNair had many gentlemen who wished to enter into a long-term agreement with her. She would no’ accept marriage because she did not yet ken she was a widow.
After she finished nursin’ me, Lady MacNair accepted one man’s offer to keep her.
And this man paid the tavern keeper enough gold to make sure Lady MacNair never had to do much more than serve the alehouse patrons and do the occasional small favor for important men who asked for a kiss.
“What type of man could afford to keep a tavern wench so generously, ye might well be askin’ yerselves?”
Callum knew that everyone was hanging on to his words, but he saw that Will was looking downcast. His brother must be sad that news of his parentage was being shared with all and sundry.
“Do ye want to ken, Will?” he shouted out across the hall.
Will answered, “Nay, Brither. Maybe someday, but no’ today. But ye go ahead an’ tell the folks. I dinnae mind.”
And with those words, William Fearguson, the blacksmith’s son, took Ailsa Gun Ainm by the hand, and the two lovers walked out of the hall together, neither of them looking back.