The Kissing Stone

by Amanda Scott

  Although the twins had little to do with the shearing, they did help with the resulting wool and with supervising the washing and carding of it. The ensuing chaos—with lambs and sheep bawling and shearers and other helpers shouting out orders, needs, and replies, and often arguing about whether the world would end or not in less than a sennight—was such that Katy knew she would not get away that day. Nor did things settle to a normal rhythm until midway through Thursday.

  Even then, their parents kept the twins too busy to think of escape. They did not trouble their heads about the prophecy, though, because Fin had said it was daft.

  Accordingly, as soon as Katy had broken her fast early Friday morning, she told her mother she was going out to walk with the dogs while the day was still chilly and would return in an hour or so to finish her chores. Then, collecting Argus and Eos, she headed out into the courtyard and met Rory striding toward her.

  “I been a-looking for ye,” he said, stopping in front of her. “I ha’ tae tell ye summat, but I ha’ scarce clapped eyes on ye, and I dinna want ye a-ringin’ a peal over me till I finish the tellin’. So, keep hold o’ your temper that long, if ye can.”

  Amused, and curious as to what mischief he had created this time, she said, “Tell me quickly, for I mean to walk about the hillside, and I have chores yet to do.”

  “Aye, well, I can be quick enough. See you, I saw the way ye was a-heading t’other day, and I feared ye might run intae trouble by yourself. So, I followed ye, and when ye came tae that great tower o’ rock a-sticking up out o’ the earth as it does, I slithered in ahind it, like, tae wait and see where ye’d go next.”

  “You should not have done that, Rory, not without telling me. I might have liked to have your company.”

  “I ha’ me doots about that,” he said with a grimace. “I were just a-looking out for ye, as ye might say.”

  Knowing from experience that she was unlikely to hear more to excuse his behavior by pressing him, Katy said bluntly, “How much did you overhear?”

  Just as bluntly, he said, “Near all that ye said tae the man, and he tae ye. Afore ye rip me head off, though, I can tell ye that he kens what I did, and he kens what I think o’ his keepin’ such a secret from ye. Then, he said I owed ye an apology, too, meaning—I think—that he kens fine that he owes ye one, hisself.”

  Katy stared at the boy, her thoughts racing. Will’s expressions, tones, and demeanor had been easy for her to read from the start. Could a child read him as well? And how much could she trust the child?

  “Have you said aught to anyone else about this, Rory?”

  With a look indignant enough to tell her she had offended him, he said, “I wouldna do that, no tae your ladyship or tae anyone in your family. I owe much tae Sir Àdham for a-rescuing me when he did and tae Sir Fin for letting me stay, so unless Sir Fin asks me straight out …”

  “I know,” she replied with a sympathetic smile. “No one hesitates then.”

  “Where be ye a-heading the noo?” Rory asked her.

  “Just for a walk,” Katy said airily. “Mayhap up to the pool or a bit further. I’m taking both dogs, though, just as Da said I must.”

  “Good, then,” Rory said. “I’ll just tell anyone who asks me, direct, that that be where ye be a-going and that ye’ve took the dogs along.”

  Something in his manner, perhaps his own airiness, gave Katy to understand that he suspected exactly where she might be going.

  Dismissing him, she wondered if she might intercept Will on his way south for the day. If he wanted to apologize, she would give him that chance, but she also wanted to apologize for losing her temper. Clydia had been right about the manner of her trust. She did still trust Will not to harm her physically, and to have blamed him so fiercely for doing something she had done herself was unfair.

  Accordingly, she signaled the dogs to accompany her and went out the gate and up to the pool, pausing there long enough to splash her hands and feet in the water before entering the woods and making her way to the eastern slope.

  Argus ranged back and forth ahead while Eos stayed beside her. She knew that both dogs would alert her to anyone approaching from any direction, so she aimed a bit uphill and a little southward to make up for Will’s longer stride.

  However, when the dogs perked their ears and changed direction slightly northward, their tails were not wagging as they would have been for Will. Clicking her tongue and patting her thigh, she drew them back to her and slipped into thicker shrubbery with them to see who it was before the person approaching saw her.

  Chapter 11

  Katy gasped when she saw Aly striding along above her in a simple pale green kirtle without so much as a light cloak over it to ward off the chill in the air.

  She was about halfway between Katy’s position and the ridge crest, with her attention firmly fixed on the way ahead of her, so she failed to see Katy and the dogs emerge from the bushes. Katy hurried after her until they had gone far enough for her to call out without fear that anyone at Finlagh would hear her.

  When she did, Aly started and clapped a hand to her mouth as she turned, but when Katy smiled and waved, the younger girl waved back and hurried to meet her.

  Katy wore her favorite pink and tawny-gold-striped shawl over a dun-colored kirtle with yellow lacing. Despite the shawl, she felt ice in the morning air.

  “You must be chilled through,” she said as Aly drew nearer.

  Aly was warily watching the dogs, but when both of them lay down a short distance away, she said, “Nae, I have been hurrying, so I be warm enough, and I didna take a shawl out, for my father was at home when I left. He’ll be away by now, but he thought I meant only tae go with my maidservant, Meggie, tae the clachan near Raitt where our tenants abide.”

  “But it could be dangerous for you out here, alone as you are.”

  “Aye, but you be alone, too, save for yon great dogs,” Aly pointed out. “Moreover, my father kens fine that your people wouldna hurt a lone lassie. Sakes, even he wouldna do that.”

  “But you might …” Katy began, only to stop with a wry grimace. “Just listen to me telling you not to do the very thing I love doing myself,” she said. “I must learn to think more before I offer advice to other people.”

  “’Tis a common failing,” Aly said, nodding. “My brothers oft tell me no tae do things they do theirselves. I canna be away long, though. Meggie willna return till I do, but I’d hoped tae catch up with Will, though I have me doots now that I can. He’ll likely be fashed an I do catch him, but …” She shrugged.

  Recognizing a kindred spirit, Katy wanted to know more about Will. “Has he a favorite track that he follows?”

  “I think so. He seems oft tae come this way, though mayhap higher up on the ridge. I ken fine that he be trespassing—me, too, now—but when my father says tae do summat, my brothers do it. I shouldna be talking tae you as I am, but I like you. You be a canny lass, I think. Be it true that your sister looks just like you?”

  “Aye, though we are not as much alike on the inside as we are on the outside. Clydia is more practical and possesses a calmer nature than mine.”

  “Clydia be a fine name,” Aly said. “After the river Clyde, aye?”

  “Aye,” Katy said, adding quickly, “How long before you left home this morning did Will leave? Do you think he is far from here by now?”

  “I fear so,” Aly said with a sigh. “I didna wait tae see him go, for I feared my father might guess I wanted tae follow him. I try never tae fash my father.”

  “’Tis always unwise to do that,” Katy agreed. “I had hoped to see Will, myself. I … I was angry and a bit unfair with him the other day, I fear.”

  “That explains his moods then,” Aly said, nodding wisely. “He has been sad these past two days. Whatever happened, I suspect he regrets his part in it.”

  Impulsively, Katy said, “
Would you give him a message for me?”

  “Aye, sure, if I see him alone. If he doesna ha’ tae practice his weaponry wi’ the others, he does oft visit wi’ me in the solar afore I seek me bedchamber.”

  “Then tell him … tell him we are shearing our sheep, which will take a few more days to finish, but to watch the shrubs again by Tuesday or Wednesday.”

  “I dinna ken which shrubs you mean.”

  “Just say that that’s my message to him.”

  Looking puzzled for a moment, Aly said, “Och, aye, then it must be a secret message. I’ll tell Will, but I do wish our fathers could be friends, m’lady.”

  “Just Katy,” she said. “We are friends now, Aly, you and I. I ken fine that you would rather be meeting Gilli Roy than me, but he has gone home. Even so, if ever you need me, come to Finlagh and ask for me. Come to that, if you walk this way and chance to meet one of our men, just tell him that you are my friend.”

  “I would like tae see Gil again,” Aly said wistfully. “Are you going tae marry him? He did tell me his father wants the pair of you tae wed.”

  “We are not going to, though,” Katy said firmly. “Gilli is my cousin, and I like him, but I do not want to marry him, and so I did tell his father.”

  Aly’s eyes widened. “Ay-de-mi, you said that straight tae the Mackintosh?”

  “I did,” Katy said, realizing from those innocent few words that Aly did know who Gilli was, which meant that he had known all along that she was Alyssa Comyn. “We must not linger any longer,” Katy added. “Will may oft cross our land with impunity but only because he walks alone and is therefore no threat to us. Safe as you are here, it would be best if none of our men sees you. If you had to reveal your name, word of that might spread to town and one of your own menfolk might hear of it.”

  “I’ll keep out of everyone’s way, and I’ll tell Will what you said. You’re no still angry with him then, aye?”

  “Not as angry as I was. I’ll know better how I feel, though, when I see him.”

  As she watched Aly walk up the slope, heading northward, Katy could think only of Will. Her thoughts returned to him frequently that day until she went to bed.

  Would he be glad to learn that she wanted to meet him, or irked?

  The following Tuesday afternoon, with the shearing done, Katy washed seven kerchiefs at the pond and spread them on nearby shrubs to dry.

  The next morning, realizing it was the seventeenth of June, the day the wise woman Janet Fortune had predicted the world would end, and hoping that no one would order her to stay inside, Katy rushed through her morning chores, finished her midday meal in haste, and slipped away from the castle to the standing stone.

  The day was warm, the sky clear and bright with sunshine. As she passed through the shrubbery, she felt more aware than ever of the cheerful birds, the buzzing of bees over flowering shrubs, and the aromatic small yellow flowers that newly carpeted the ground beneath the forest bracken. Soft whispers, above her, suggested stray breezes stroking leaves in the green canopy. Honeysuckle grew in a few open spaces, drawing more bees, until the woods seemed alive with chirps, buzzes, chatter, and more raucous birdcalls. The world, she thought as the Stone came into view, seemed too much alive to be ending today.

  Will, wearing the familiar plain linen, knee-length tunic under his brown-and-green plaid, was waiting when she arrived and held out his arms to her.

  She ran right into them and hugged his warm, muscular body without a word, breathing in the herbal scent of the soft wool plaid as she let him hold her even closer for a long few moments of pure relief. She had not known before then how much she had feared she had destroyed the friendship that, in such a short time, had come to mean more to her than she had realized.

  Looking up at him, noting that he had not shaved in days and that his scruffy beard was darker than his sun-streaked light brown hair, she murmured, “I am deeply sorry, Will. When anger seizes me, I forget to think, let alone to listen.”

  “Nae, lassie,” he replied gently, still holding her. “You have no need for apologies. You were right, because I should have told you who I was as soon as I even suspected who your father might be. I own, though, I feared you would walk away if I did, so your fury came as no surprise to me when you did find out.”

  “But I never told you exactly who I was, either. You just guessed, and I don’t want to talk more of that, so prithee tell me that you did not scold Aly for coming into our woods by herself on Friday. She was trying to follow you, you know.”

  “I do know, and she ought not to do it, so she deserved scolding. She brought me a message, though, that was too important for me to do aught but thank her.”

  Katy smiled, wishing she could stay in his arms for hours. “Don’t talk then, Will,” she said. “Kiss me again, instead. This is our kissing stone now, after all.”

  “Aye, sure,” he said, and did so until she moaned with pleasure, when he spread his plaid on the dry leaves of the small clearing before the Stone and drew her down to sit on it beside him. Then, leaning against the Stone and embracing her again so that she leaned against him, he said lightly, “Did that wee rascal Rory chance to tell you he followed you here and witnessed our last meeting?”

  “He did,” she said, stroking his beard and finding it soft to the touch. “He also said he scolded you. In fact, he said you told him that he, too, owed me an apology. And that, he said, was how he knew you were as sorry as I was about our fratching. So, kiss me again, sir.”

  Obeying, he made a good job of it and soon eased her down to lie beside him. She had a feeling that she ought to protest when he moved a hand to her waist, letting his thumb stroke the side of her breast along the way, but the sensation he stirred was too pleasurable for her to object. As he continued to stroke her in this and other ways, excited by his efforts and striving to please him with similar touches and strokes, she wished they could go on so forever but knew they could not.

  Just at that moment, as if he had heard her thoughts, he shifted himself to lean against the tree again and said quietly as he drew her back into the shelter of his arms, “I may have to be away for a time soon.”

  “Why?”

  “Because de Raite wants to meet with Comyn factions from Badenoch and Inverness-shire, and some of our other allies in Glen Mòr. He says it is useful for us to make regular contact and conference with all of our allies to assure that we can depend on them if we need them. I would agree that such is of import, but I cannot recall his having any such meeting since my return to Raitt.”

  “You have not always lived there?”

  “I left when I was seven and returned less than two years ago,” he said. “Sithee, I’m much younger than my brothers. So, soon after Aly was born and our mother died, de Raite sent me to live with his uncle, Thomas Comyn. Thomas refers to himself and his close kinfolk now as Cummings rather than Comyn, because he disapproves of de Raite. He rarely talked of him to me, other than to tell me I would eventually have to return to serve my duty to de Raite as his son.”

  “Do you always call your father ‘de Raite’?”

  “Aye, for ’tis how he calls himself now, and it seems daft to call someone ‘Father’ whom I scarcely knew as such. Before Mam died, I rarely saw him, so I felt no love for him, but I did know and love my mother. I miss her to this day.”

  “I cannot imagine how hard that must have been, to lose her as you did,” Katy said. “My father can be stern and has a quick temper, but we always know that he loves us. As for Mam …” She stopped, unable to put into words how she would feel if anything happened to take Catriona from them.

  “I think you will likely be a fine mother one day, like your own mam, who is a lady much respected hereabouts.” He looked into her eyes. “You will think me daft, lass, if I say what I’m thinking now.”

  “Say it, anyway,” Katy said, her breath catching in her throa
t.

  Her body seemed to hum. Never had she felt such an attraction, let alone such a strong bond, to anyone. She had thought she could read her mother and father well, but at times with Will, despite their short acquaintance, she felt as if she knew his thoughts before he spoke them, because the man wore his feelings on his face and in every line of his body. If this was such a time …

  “You will think me daft,” he said then. “But I feel as if I have known you all my life, and I have wanted you for my own since the day we met. I just wish we could magically create peace between our clans, so that we might somehow marry, because I do think you would make me a fine and fascinating wife and our children a wonderful, loving mother. Even if it weren’t such a daft idea, though—”

  “But it isn’t,” Katy said, squeezing his arms tightly in her excitement. “I know just how we can do it.”

  Will shook his head. “Nae, mo chridhe, it cannot be, and I am a villain for suggesting that such a match could ever take place between us. Even if your father were willing to let you marry a Comyn, mine would likely have me flogged if I suggested such a marriage to him, or hang me himself.”

  “But if we married, you could live at Finlagh,” she said. “Or we could build a home of our own in Nairn or Inverness … or somewhere else. In any event, sir, if you meant what you said, I do know a way, because the mendicant friar, Brother Julian, explained it all when he visited us.”

  “The same Brother Julian who brought news of the plague in the Borders and that crazy woman’s prophecy that the world will soon end?”

  “Aye, and come to that, Will, you must know that today is the day she predicted it would end. Da says she is daft and that the world has survived many such predictions. But suppose she is right? If you meant what you just said to me, we need only declare ourselves married to be married. Then,” she added, “if she is right, we will die together and be together for eternity.”