by Alisa Adams
His very being beckoned to something unknown within her.
He placed his hands on either side of her head, watched as her eyes widened further. Her breathing raced his own.
“Am I frightening ye?” he whispered with concern as he pulled back, just slightly.
Kaithria managed to shake her head. “No,” she breathed.
Keir groaned softly and lowered his face closer to hers.
He brushed the tip of his nose very lightly and very gently against hers.
Then his lips followed. Softly, his lips grazed the tip of her nose as well, before moving on to her cheek. He turned his face, slightly, and caressed her cheek in a smooth rubbing motion with his own cheek. Barely touching her.
Kaithria’s breath caught and held, for each movement was a gentle, soft almost that made her long for more. Her breath shuddered out of her as she chased him with her own lips, her own cheeks and skin, learning his. The rough stubble of his chin, the hard planes of his jaw, and then up to his cheeks and over to his nose. She inhaled his scent, breathing in deeply as her lips fell open and her heartbeat raced on frantically.
She heard him groan as his lips traced hers, with the barest of whispers against her own.
“What…” she whispered. “What is happening?”
He touched her lips with his own again. “I am touching ye, my jewel. My golden jewel,” he answered in a hoarse, velvety voice.
Then, as he could not help himself, he deepened the kiss and his hands fell to her shoulders, holding her tightly.
In the very next moment, he was flat on his back. He sat up. Did she just kick my legs out from under me?
He looked up at her in shock. “What…?”
She was staring down at him with her chest heaving. Her eyes were wide and her nostrils flared. “I told ye,” she said with her hands clenched at her sides in fists, “I dinnae like to be touched.” She turned around and hurried back to the house.
As Kaithria approached the large double doors into the main hall, she found Agnes there. The giant woman stood still, blocking the entrance, her arms across her ample bosom as she looked down her nose at Kaithria.
“Lady Jane will be leaving early. In two days’ time. Ye shall leave with her,” she said crisply. Then she turned around and walked away.
6
There were more people arriving the next day. The house was bustling with activity.
Kaithria did not know how to feel about Agnes’s antagonism towards her. She did not tell Catriona. She did not want her to feel any worse about her aunt. But Kaithria wanted to get out of the house, away from any more run-ins with the giant woman.
Kaithria suggested to Cat that they escape to go visit their horses.
They found Lady Ina getting her Clydesdale mare Myrtle ready, and they joined her on their horses. Dummy and Old Inch nickered happily and came cantering towards them.
Kaithria was happy to be back on her horse, and away from the house. The prickling on her neck and that feeling of being watched came back to Kaithria. She wished that little Bunny had followed them.
The three women rode away from the castle, meandering in a relaxing walk on their horses.
Kaithria looked around as they set off.
There!
On a hill not far from the castle sat a figure on a horse.
Kaithria groaned. It was not a horse. It was a mule.
It was Agnes Gunn.
Watching them.
Kaithria hid her smile when she saw a tiny animal come trotting up to stand by the huge draft mule. She squinted her eyes. It was not Aunt Hextilda’s pony, nay, it was much smaller.
Kaithria’s smile grew.
It was Bunny, who had been left behind when she and Cat had left this morning. The little donkey had followed the first big horse she could find. Unfortunately, it was the mule and Agnes.
Agnes was imperiously ignoring the tiny donkey.
Kaithria smiled and turned away to see Lady Ina, for she had halted Myrtle in a large grassy meadow.
Kaithria halted Dummy as well and looked at the petite woman with long, wildly curly hair on her huge draft mare. Ina and her three sisters all rode the big Clydesdale horses, and each horse was named after a flower.
The four sisters were all warriors and had saved their home. She knew that the Ross sisters had to become warriors, and their story fascinated Kaithria. She really liked the sisters and wanted to learn from them. She turned her attention to what Lady Ina was saying.
“This is perfect!” Lady Ina said as she looked around. “Big enough for me Myrtle! Noo then, ye must never stop training yourself or the horse ye depend on,” she said at their questioning looks. “If ye become lazy, sure enough, twill be yerself on the ground one day for yer legs will have gotten weak and ye’ll no longer be able to defend yerself or ride yer horse as ye should! Ye’ll end up flat on yer back on the ground, deep in the mud, yer clothes filthy and possibly torn as yer horse gleefully goes off to fetch herself some grass. Or worse yet, ramble off back to the stables. And ye’ll have to stumble yer way home, yer head hanging in shame, yer hair a muddy, filthy mess, yer skirts heavy with mud and ruined. Shame. Terrible, terrible shame. No horsewomen would ye both be.” Lady Ina finally took a breath and smiled. She so enjoyed her own dramatic ramblings, even if all her sisters chided her for them. But her sisters were not here!
Kaithria and Cat could not form a response; they just looked at Lady Ina with their mouths open.
“Close yer mouths and listen, ladies. I shall give ye some patterns and some exercises to do with yer horses,” Lady Ina continued. “’Tis good for them. It will strengthen their muscles and their quickness to yer requests. For that could mean life or death. For the both of ye, horse and woman! When ye ask something of them, they must do what ye ask immediately! From the look of yer old battle horses, they have seen much. In fact, they are vera scarred from battle, arenae they? The poor beasties!”
Kaithria and Cat nodded, though both had been very pleased at how their daily brushing had made their horses’ black coats gleam and shine once again.
Cat proudly told Ina about their warhorses, how they had adopted them after their old warriors had died and no one wanted them, thinking they were too old and useless. She told Lady Ina how Old Inch had been caught with his rider in a siege and went for days and days without food and eventually carried his unconscious rider home, all by himself, though he was naught but skin and bones himself. And of Dummernech, who stood by his fallen rider on the battlefield in the midst of flying arrows and cannon fire, getting pierced by those arrows and burnt by the cannon embers. He would not leave his rider until someone came along and pulled him away.
Lady Ina had tears running down her face as she had a new respect for the old warhorses. She had had no idea. She sniffed back her tears and said again that the exercises would be good for the old horses.
Cat and Kathria watched and listened obediently as Lady Ina began to describe the pattern they must ride.
“Are ye ready then?” Lady Ina asked.
Cat was bobbing up and down in her saddle, eager to try the patterns with Old Inch.
Both Cat and Kaithria rolled their sleeves up and Kaithria braided her hair out of her face. They tucked their blouses securely into their tartan skirts. Cat eagerly offered to go first and began to practice with Lady Ina calling out orders.
Kaithria noticed that Aunt Agnes moved to where she could see them better and continued to watch from her mule, high on the hill. Kaithria kept it to herself, knowing it would make Catriona nervous.
When it was Kaithria and Dummy’s turn, Kaithria was a bit more dubious. She knew how to ride and had been doing so for many years, but there was only so much her ankle could take. Still, when Ina told her to begin, she put her heels in Dummy’s sides and nudged him on with her seat. She rode the pattern of twists and turns, asking her horse to change its leads as they changed direction, stopping, backing, and cantering off, spinning in a tight turn while canter
ing.
Both Old Inch and Dummy were very keen on the exercises and got better and quicker off the girls’ leg cues. Old Inch thrust so hard into a fast canter and then slowed to a collected spin in place that Cat almost went flying off. She flew sideways and was hanging off the saddle on Old Inch’s side to keep from falling off.
Kaithria urged Dummy forward to help her, but stopped.
Cat was laughing so hard she had to hold her stomach and wipe the tears from her eyes.
“Och, that was splendid, it was!” Cat called to Ina as she accepted Kaithria’s hand. Kaithria pulled her back onto the saddle from where she had been hanging off the black horse.
And lastly, Lady Ina gave in to Cat’s request to show them how to ask the horse to rear on command.
Lady Ina hesitated. “Doing this could get ye killed,” she said sternly. “If ye hold too tight to the reins, ye could pull the horse over backward by unbalancing him. He will land on top of ye and surely kill ye.” She paused, staring at the two of them. “Do ye understand this?”
Catriona nodded quickly, while Kaithria nodded solemnly.
“Let me try!” Cat said with excitement.
“I dinnae think I want to learn this,” Kaithria said as she walked Dummy away to where she could watch Cat.
Lady Ina instructed Cat to grab Old Inch’s mane and to give on the reins. Then she gave her further instructions.
After many attempts, Old Inch managed to heave himself up on his hind legs. Catriona laughed, loving the thrill of being on a horse as it stood straight up.
When Kaithria noticed that Cat was tiring, she asked Lady Ina for a rest.
But Cat was not done. She implored Lady Ina to teach her how to stand on the horse, just as Lady Ina’s husband, Bieste, did. They had both heard Lady Ina’s story of how Bieste could ride two horses at once by placing a foot on each horse's back and holding both of their reins.
Cat was eager to try this as well.
Lady Ina and Kaithria both told her she could hurt herself, but Cat did not care. She had no fear at all, it seemed.
Cat bravely tried to ride Old Inch by standing on his back. Over and over she tried. She found it easier once she took her saddle off. Kaithria watched her, at first fearing for her safety, and then with a huge smile. Cat was very brave and managed to ride a few trot steps standing on the horse’s back successfully. She was hooting and making all kinds of noise in her happiness.
When they were done, and tired, they rode their horses to the river and let them have a drink.
Kaithria stared into the water from where she sat on Dummy’s back. She looked over her shoulder to Castle Kinbrace where it sat above them, overlooking the river.
Agnes Gunn was there now, on the hill atop her big mule, still watching.
Bunny was also still with Agnes, grazing the grass all around the huge mule.
Kaithria turned away. At least it wasn’t the mysterious figure that had seemed to follow them along on their way here. She stared back at the water.
Beneath the castle was a turn in the river, where the water swirled and eddied as it made its way around the rocks that Kinbrace sat upon.
“The water looks golden here,” Kaithria murmured as she stared down into its depths. Shafts of sunlight hit the water, shining down, down, until it was too dark to see. She swore she saw bits of gold swirling in the shafts of sunlight.
“Aye,” Cat said as she too looked deep into the water from Old Inch’s back. “’Tis called the Devil's Pool. ’Tis the deepest part of the river and not safe to enter. ’Tis said that the Keiths’ murdered the laird of Gunn long, long ago, and threw his golden armor into the river. They also threw the gold they stole from the Gunns into the pool to hide it from the murdered Gunns sons.” At Kaithria’s frown she added, “That was the brief time when Kinbrace was in Keiths’ hands, before the Gunns retook this rock, that is. It was naught but a small defensive tower then.”
“A treasure then?” Lady Ina asked. “Ooh, that sounds vera interesting! And now the Devil's Pool guards the horde of gold and lets no one near, is that it?”
Cat laughed gaily. “Aye, that is the story. The Keiths’ motto is vera fitting. ‘What is lost is safe.’ ’Tis a strange motto, and no one knows from whence it came or why. But the gold that has been thrown into the Devil's Pool is indeed lost.”
Kaithria was silent. She knew that she had to remain lost. She had never forgotten her mother’s words to her.
Lost to the Keiths. Lost to her father; Ronan, and her brother, Caden.
For she knew that if Ronan Keith found out she was alive he would blame the latest outbreak of disease in his sheep on her.
He would kill her.
7
Lady Ina said her goodbyes to Cat and Kaithria and made her way back to Kinbrace.
Kaithria and Cat decided to stay at the river and let their horses graze the green grass along the banks. They were enjoying the sunny day, the sound of the birds and the insects and the gurgling of the water in the river.
“I think I would enjoy a swim,” Cat mused.
Kaithria looked at her in alarm. “Lady Catriona, ye willnae take yer clothes off here as ye did at Brough! And ye said yerself the water in the Devil’s Pool isnae safe.”
Cat frowned and sighed. “I will go further down where the water is not so fast. I am not afraid,” she said.
“Sometimes it is wise to be afraid; our fear keeps us safe,” Kaithria said softly.
Cat took a deep breath. “Then life becomes boring if ye live in fear, Kaithria. I will not do that. I did for too long. If I had continued to live bound by me fear, I would not have met ye.”
She wanted to say more but suddenly they heard movement coming through the grass.
“Weel noo, what have we here?” came a man’s voice. “’Tis the girl who looks like a lad, and is this the nun who thinks ’tis her right to show a mon a lesson?”
Kaithria whirled around on her horse to see one of the men from the dinner table the night before, making his way through the tall grass towards them.
Cat looked at the man and then at Kaithria. She whispered eagerly, “He’s looking for a fight, I can tell ye! Are ye ready?”
“We have no weapons,” Kaithria said calmly. “We dinnae look for a fight, we end it.”
“’Tis true, we have no weapons,” Cat said in disappointment as she started biting her bottom lip, deep in thought, glancing around for some sort of weapon she could use.
“If it comes to that.” Kaithria had a grim smile on her face. “We had none at Brough Castle either. But we had our horses, Lady Catriona. Dinnae forget that these are battle horses,” Kaithria said quietly, but not so quietly that the rude man coming towards them could not hear what she said. She fully intended for him to hear her.
“Battle horses, ye say?” the man snorted as he came sauntering through the heather and grass towards them. He had a thick walking stick in one hand. “They look like a couple of skivers, old horses to me!” he sneered.
“Skivers?” gasped Cat. “Ye are calling these horses lazy? And old? They are not so old,” Cat said loudly, her face furrowed in anger as she raised her fist and shook it at the man.
“Lady Catriona,” Kaithria said quietly, trying to calm her friend's anger.
The man looked up at Cat as he came closer. “Thot so?” he said with a laugh. “Ye threatening to hit me with that wee little fist of yers?”
Without any warning, with sudden speed and viciousness that caught Cat off guard, he swung his walking staff right at Old Inch’s shoulder.
Cat screamed at the impact as Old Inch grunted and threw his head in the air. The horse shied sideways, slamming into Kaithria’s leg, causing Dummy to dance away.
Kaithria tried to ease the pain in her ankle from the impact, but she saw that she and Dummy were now trapped between Old Inch and the fast-moving, swirling water of the Devil’s Pool.
The man used that same speed to quickly surge towards Dummernech and once again, w
ithout any hint of a warning, he swung his staff with incredible speed and maliciousness, as hard as he could. He was hoping to knock both horse and rider into the deep, swirling, swiftly flowing water.
The staff crashed into the top of Dummy’s leg as Kaithria screamed loudly, trying to kick at the man. Dummy let out a scream of pain as the staff hit his leg and he too threw his head in the air. He started to step sideways as Kaithria glanced down at the dangerous water that was pulling anything in the water down into its dark depths. She hastily kicked her heels against his sides and the horse immediately lowered his haunches and surged up the slope from the river. Kaithria spun the big horse to face the man.
“Try to hurt me horse again, ye blaggard, and I’ll—” Kaithria started to say in a low voice, but the man did not even let her finish before he came at her and Dummy again.
“Up!” Kaithria screamed to Dummy, remembering what she had seen Lady Ina teaching Cat on Old Inch.
Instantly the horse sat back and then stood up, his hooves pawing the air.
The man’s swing missed Dummy. He stood there, looking up at the horse who towered over him with its hooves flailing at his head. The man backed up one step. The horse took a step on its hind legs and then continued, coming forward. His huge black hooves slashed at the air. The man hastily backed up two more steps but the horse just kept coming on its hind legs with Kaithria’s urging.
“Aye, Dummy, aye me boy!” Kaithria shouted.
The man swung the wood staff again, this time aiming for the hooves. Dummy pinned his ears and swung one hoof wildly, crashing it down on the staff and breaking it into three pieces.
The man fell to his buttocks, staring with his mouth open at the angry horse.
“Down noo, down m’eudail. Easy noo,” Kaithria said calmly and softly to the horse who was bouncing up and down, landing on his front hooves and then rearing up again, and then again. Kaithria held on, for it seemed Dummernech had a mind of his own, as well as a fierce temper. She continued crooning to the horse who seemed intent on stomping his hooves into the man sitting on the ground who was scuttling away like a terrified crab.
