Chapter Twenty-Three #2
She tested every color, making Elspeth laugh until her eyes watered. She hadn’t laughed like that in a long time.
“I know which I will choose,” Elspeth let her know with a smile. “Ye did say I would choose fer ye, did ye not?”
“Aye,” May said with excitement sparking her eyes behind her springy curls. “Tell me!”
Elspeth shook her head. “Nae. Return here tomorrow and find out.”
“Tomorrow? You can make something that quickly?”
Elspeth held up her three skirts so far.
“All right, then!” May clapped and laughed. “Tomorrow! Och, but what about our bargain?”
“’Tis a gift from me,” Elspeth told her.
May stared at her for a moment. Elspeth thought she saw the flash of a tear in the firelight. “I have a gift fer ye as well, sister. Tomorrow, then.”
She left as Elspeth was opening her mouth to tell her she didn’t have to give her anything. It was enough that she had been so welcomed into their clan.
She worked on May’s clothes for the rest of the day and even refused to spend more than a few moments with Logan.
When she finally left the sewing room, she went straight to her and Logan’s bed and fell into it.
She heard him enter the room later with a tray of food.
The scent of roasted duck and vegetables drew her up in bed.
“Is that fer me?” she asked her husband, hoping it was.
“Aye, ’tis fer ye. I dinna carry anyone else’s supper to them. Only ye.”
Only her. He loved only her. But what about his arm?
Would he leave her to go fight for the Catholic king against the king’s son-in-law, who was Protestant and rumored to be coming for the throne?
She didn’t want to ask him. She couldn’t bear the answer.
She didn’t want him to give up anything for her.
He worked for six years to use his arm again so that he could rejoin the king’s army. Nae. She could not ask!
She lifted her hand to her forehead to rub it.
He set the tray down in front of her on the bed then moved behind her to rub her temples.
“Did ye agree to make a dress fer my sister? Why?” he asked when she nodded. “Did she strike some kind of bargain with ye?”
Bargain? Elspeth thought. Aye, May wanted to. “Nae. There is nae bargain. The dress is my gift.”
He smiled at her while she ate. She thought he might want to know why she strained her sight and grew calluses on her fingertips for a gift she wasn’t expected to give. But he didn’t ask.
“Why do ye keep staring at me?” she asked with a mouthful of succulent duck.
He dropped onto the bed and set his chin in his hand. “I like how ye look.”
She raised her elbow to her ear. “I am a mess, Logan.”
“Ye are perfect, my love,” he said in his husky voice she liked.
“Why do ye lie, my dearest?”
“Do ye mock me?” he asked, sounding…and looking insulted.
“Aye, I mock ye,” she let him know while she wiped her hands on the serviette he handed her. “I know what I look like and ’tisna pleasant.”
“’Tis pleasant to me,” he argued, slipping his two fingers under her arm.
“Stop that!” Her command was laced with giggles and finally laughter when his fingers roved up her neck.
She grew serious and covered his hand with both of hers. “Logan? Husband? Promise me ye will never leave.”
“I will never leave ye, Elspeth. I give my word.”
She smiled, and that seemed to be all he cared about. So, she made certain to smile often and let her truest delight shine full force on him when he pushed her down on the bed.
*
Elspeth waited for May to arrive in the sewing room. She paced before the dress hanging behind her. She hoped May liked it, but what if she didn’t? Elspeth spun around to look at it and chewed her fingernail, looking for the flaws.
She heard a gasp behind her and turned slowly to face May.
Logan’s sister appeared entranced by the dress before her. Looking at it herself, Elspeth had to say it might be the most beautiful set she had ever made. The skirts, with arisaid to match, were softly colored in purple, the purple of the heather outside the windows, muted blue, and moss green.
“Elspeth! Och, Elspeth, ’tis the bonniest dress I have ever laid eyes on.”
She hurried to it and gathered the folds in her hands. “So soft,” May practically purred like a cat. “May I have it now?”
“Aye.” Elspeth immediately helped her out of her dark brown skirts and into her new, more colorful, yet muted skirts.
May wore her own white leine under her new dress. When Elspeth wrapped her in her arisaid, she sighed like a woman in love.
After a moment of sighing with delight, May hurried to a small bag, picked it up, then beckoned Elspeth to come sit beside her.
“I got these from an old merchant passing through the region a few months ago.
She stuck her hand into the bag and pulled out a dozen or so hair ribbons, some were silk and some were wool.
“We dinna have dyes like these. Have ye ever seen colors so vivid and bold? I know ye appreciate colors because of the skirts and arisaid ye made fer me.”
Elspeth brushed her fingertips over the ribbons and smiled. “The colors are beautiful.”
“I think they would look bonnie around yer head. They are fer ye.”
“Och, nae I couldna take these,” Elspeth said, gently pushing them away. “They are too precious.”
“Nonsense,” May scoffed, waving Elspeth’s concern away. “I would have traded them fer something so much less than my bonnie new clothes.”
Elspeth hadn’t received a gift in a long time.
She didn’t know what to say, but before she could stop them, tears welled up in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.
She swiped them away with her fingertips and laughed at herself.
“I am overwhelmed by the kindness of yer kin. Of ye. I am not normally so weepy.”
May reached out and wiped another escaping tear from Elspeth’s face. “’Tis easy to be kind to someone who makes Logan so happy. I can see why he chose ye. Ye are humble and kind…like him. I heard him call ye fae. It means fairy. I can see it. Ye do resemble something oot of a fable.”
Elspeth smiled and blushed.
They spent the rest of the afternoon together, laughing, eating, and trying on different sized bodices and laughing even more.
Logan found them after his practice in the inner courtyard. Elspeth beamed with pride for him because he practiced with an audience, and he showed them all that he’d gained the use of his arm. He looked happy when he saw her. In fact, he beamed at her.
“This is what I was talking about,” May told her at her side. “I havena seen my brother look so happy in years.”
“I am happy to hear that, May.”
May shared a smile with her before Logan reached them. “We will call each other sister from now on.”
Elspeth nodded. Her smile faded when a man to Logan’s left clutched his belly and promptly fell to his knees.
She slipped her gaze to Logan. He was already looking to where she had looked.
When the man vomited, Logan hurried to him.
Elspeth followed, but after just a few steps, she felt the pain in her belly.
She stopped to look around. Her vision blurred.
That meant her pupils were likely dilated. She’d been poisoned.
May fell to the ground a step behind her.
Nae! It could not be! Had they all been poisoned?
She heard Logan shouting her name, his sister’s name. She turned to him just as he reached her. His father raced past them and dropped to his knees to take hold of his daughter.
Logan took Elspeth’s face in his calloused hands and stared into her eyes. A sound escaped him, half growl, half cry. He turned to his sister.
“Logan,” Elspeth managed while she could. “Logan, listen to me. Listen!” She touched his arm to pull his attention off his sister. “’Tis poison. ’Tis poison, my love—”
By now, Logan’s cousins who had been practicing with him realized something was terribly wrong and ran to them.
“Poison?” Steafan asked in a shaky voice.
“Are ye certain, Elspeth?” Logan did his best to sound less affected, but he failed. “What do I do? Tell me, my love.”
She was thinking. She had to think, but it was so difficult.
At least she could see that Logan seemed to be fine.
His father and cousins seemed fine, as well.
They had not been here. They had not eaten or drunk anything.
“Tell everyone not to eat or drink anything.” She stopped to watch the lochiel run off to the castle, likely to check on his wife.
“’Tis difficult to know what poison was used.
There is an antidote that counters the effects of almost everything.
’Tis called Theriac. I dinna have any. Roderick always kept some, but…
” she blinked. “Charcoal. We can try raw charcoal.” What else?
He was shouting for charcoal and…theriac.
Everything was going gray. Logan! “Logan.” Whatever happened, there was something she needed to say to him.
“Thank ye fer not dying in that dungeon.”