Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

T he door slammed behind her, and Katherine was left standing, looking at two beautiful women that looked exactly the same.

“You’re twins,” she gasped.

The one to her left nodded and smiled warmly. “We are. I am Enya, and this is me sister, Thora.”

The other one smiled and nodded.

“It is a pleasure tae meet ye, Lady de Beaumont,” Thora said. “We apologize fer our braither’s brutish behavior. He’s nae yet housetrained.”

Katherine couldn’t help but smile at the woman’s wit, but at the same time, she felt surprise.

“The laird is yer braither?” she breathed.

“He is,” Enya nodded. “But I assure ye, we are nae all as pitiless as he.”

“So,” Katherine paused, thinking about the other men she had met earlier that day, “there are five of you altogether. Or is there more that I am yet to meet?”

“Nay. It appears that ye have met us all,” Thora said. She then gestured to the bath. “The water’s hot, and I’m sure ye would like tae change yer clothes. Though with the late hour, perhaps ye would prefer tae ready yersel’ fer bed.”

The woman glanced toward the huge four poster bed. Only then did Katherine notice a clean set of clothes and a nightgown had been laid out for her.

“Indeed, I would. Thank you.”

As the sisters helped her undress, they spoke about the upcoming Yule festivities.

“The Yule tree will be selected soon, and then, they will bring it intae the castle,” Thora said.

“The Yule tree?” Katherine frowned.

“Och, aye. It is specially chosen and brought intae the castle with great ceremony. It will be placed on the fire and lit with a torch made from a piece o’ wood left over from last year’s Yule log.”

Enya smiled at Katherine’s confused expression. “For twelve days at the end o’ December, the sun stands still. It is why the days grow shorter and shorter. If we can keep the yule log burning bright for those twelve days, then we might persuade the sun tae move again, and the days will once again grow longer.”

“And what happens if you can’t?” Katherine asked. “What if the fire goes out?”

The two sisters gasped. “We will suffer terrible luck fer the rest o’ the year if the log stops burning,” Enya declared. “That is why we have made certain fer that never tae happen.”

Katherine could not help but feel astonished at their superstition. Of course, there were plenty of similar stories in England, but she had never heard the likes of a dying fire bringing bad luck for an entire year.

Now undressed, she slipped into the hot water and let out a delighted sigh. It was the first time she had truly felt warmth since crossing the border. The sisters continued to attend her, while at the same time, talking excitedly about what Yule festivities they were looking forward to.

“I cannae wait for the mince pies,” Thora said. “They are me favorite thing at this time o’ year.”

“What about the black bun?” Enya said.

“The black bun?” Katherine frowned.

Enya nodded eagerly. “Och, aye. It is a deliciously rich fruit cake, almost solid with fruit, almonds, and spices, all bound together with plenty o’ whisky. It is baked upon a rich pastry, and is truly delicious.” She smiled widely.

At the sound of it, Katherine’s mouth began to water, for though she had stubbornly refused to eat the food that had been sent down to her, she now felt hunger pangs in her stomach.

“They might even make it as yer wedding cake,” Enya added, “fer yer marriage will tak’ place at the same time.”

Katherine wanted to dislike these women as much as she did their brother, but with their kind regard, and warm welcome, she simply found it impossible. They were both just too lovely. However, at the mention of her marriage, other thoughts seeped into her mind.

Reginald was determined to destroy the MacLeod clan, which of course, would include the family. The marriage was never to take place, if all went to plan. But upon spending just this small time with Enya and Thora, Katherine couldn’t help but feel guilt at what was going to happen to them. What they would go through if her plan with her brother succeeded.

Sometime later, when Katherine was dressed in her thin nightgown, the sisters bid her farewell.

“Good night, me lady,” Enya said.

“Please, call me Katherine,” Katherine said.

Perhaps she ought not to get herself too attached to the women, knowing what was going to happen, and yet, at that very moment, an overwhelming feeling of needing connection to another washed over her. She was playing a dangerous game, allowing herself to like the sisters, but she found she simply could not help herself.

“Goodnight, Katherine,” Thora said with a smile, before she and Enya slipped out of the room and closed the door quietly behind them.

When she found herself finally alone, Katherine looked around her large bedchamber and heaved a sigh. The day had not gone the way she imagined it might, and now, she was completely exhausted.

As she slipped into the huge four poster bed and pulled the coverlets to her chin, even the thoughts of her father, Reginald, and what her future held could not stop the exhaustion from overtaking her, and with her head sinking into the soft pillow, she closed her eyes and fell immediately to sleep.

While she tossed and turned in the night, for her bed was far softer than she was used to, Katherine was still very drowsy when a noise roused her. At first, she could hardly force her eyes to open, but the more she wakened, the more aware she became of the noise coming from inside her bedchamber.

Eventually forcing her eyes open, she pushed herself up in the bed, and peered across the room. In that second, her eyes flew open at the sight of Laird MacLeod sitting in a chair by the fire, thumbing through her book. The same book that contained her list of sins.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she shrieked, throwing the covers off her and leaping from the bed.

At the sound of her panicked voice, the laird lifted his head, but appeared unperturbed. He did stand when she came flying toward him, her hand outstretched, trying to grab the book from his grasp.

“Give that back. You have no right to look through my personal belongings.”

But each time Katherine went to grab it, he twisted away from her so she could not reach her precious book. More annoying was the fact that he was smirking at her as she made attempt after attempt to grab it from him.

“Yer book o’ secrets, I see.” He grinned.

“What is in there is none of your business,” she barked, but by his knowing expression, it was clear he had already read what she wanted to keep from him.

“Och, but we are tae be married, Lady de Beaumont. What is yers is mine and what is mine is yers.”

“I am entitled to my privacy,” she panted, still reaching for the book but failing miserably.

It was only a few seconds later, that the smile fell from the laird’s face and his eyes lowered to the rest of her body. A dark, smoldering look came over him, and suddenly, Katherine looked down at herself, realizing that all this time, she was still dressed in a very sheer nightgown.

“Oh, god,” she cried, turning and running back to the bed.

Swiftly lifting a shawl that lay at the foot of it, she wrapped it hurriedly about herself, a blooming heat rushing to her cheeks.

“You should leave,” she said, trying in her embarrassment to sound forceful.

“Och, will ye calm yersel’, lass. Dae ye think I’ve never seen a naked woman ‘afore?”

Katherine was appalled at his words, for his gruff and abrupt manner was a far cry from the more formal, courtly language of the men she had conversed with over the years.

“That is hardly a thing you ought to say to a lady,” she replied. “Especially not the woman you’re going to marry.”

He shook his head. “Ye bloody English. Ye have a rule fer everything.”

But even as he spoke, he tossed her book on the bed and turned towards the door. Katherine decided to remain silent for once. If she did not engage, perhaps the beastly man would go and leave her be.

After yanking the door wide open, he glanced over his shoulder and spoke to her in a polite English accent, clearly mocking her. “Breakfast will be served in the dining room, me lady.” He then smirked and closed the door behind him.

“Of all the arrogant, ignorant, pigheaded…” she fumed, still glaring at the door.

Katherine then turned and lifted her book. Thumbing through it, she arrived at the page with her list of sins. Heat rushed to her cheeks once more, for she was certain her soon-to-be husband had raked his eyes over those words.

He probably thinks you are a complete hypocrite. There you are with a list such as that, and then having the nerve to tell him how he ought to speak to you.

“Then he ought not to have put his nose where it does not belong, ought he?” she said, answering herself out loud. “Besides, the way he speaks to me and what I have written can hardly be correlated. These are my private thoughts. It does not give him the right to be such a brute.”

Katherine dressed and made her way downstairs, but though she remembered which way she had come from the dungeon last night, she had no idea where the dining room might be.

As a maid came toward her, Katherine said, “Excuse me.”

“Good morning, me lady,” the maid replied, bowing towards her.

Feeling a little taken aback at such deference, particularly from a person who had not yet met her, Katherine floundered for a second. “You know who I am?”

“O’ course, me lady. The whole castle is excited that ye are here. It is a wonderful thing that the laird is tae marry. And if I may say so, me lady, yer beauty is beyond comparison.”

It was becoming very obvious that everyone else in the castle was, in contrast to the laird, quite delightful.

“Thank you.” Katherine smiled a reply. “I wonder if you could direct me to the dining room?”

“O’ course, me lady.”

And another minute later, Katherine, having received clear instructions from the maid, arrived at the dining room door. She hesitated for a second, and looking about her to make certain no one was around to see, she leaned her ear closer. The voices were faint, but she clearly heard a female voice that she recognized, though it could have been either Thora or Enya.

“…show her some respect. I told ye yesterday that she would be exhausted, and I was right. More so, I think she feels a little lost. She is in a land she daesnae ken, and…”

Katherine heard footsteps echoing in the corridor, and before she was spotted eavesdropping, she grabbed the handle and walked into the room.

The conversation came to an abrupt halt, and, upon seeing her, all the men immediately stood. Again, she was a little surprised. So the laird struggled to speak to her in any mannerly way, but he was polite enough to stand when a lady entered. Interesting.

The twin sisters turned in their chairs, both with welcoming smiles.

“Good morning, Katherine,” Thora declared.

“Good morning,” she replied, her eyes moving to each of them in turn and giving them all a small nod.

“Please, me lady,” Laird MacLeod said. He remained standing at the head of the table and gestured to an empty chair on his right between himself and his sisters. “Willnae ye join us?”

Though she was not a timid character by any means of the imagination, Katherine still found herself a little overwhelmed as every eye watched her move across the room. Once she sat, the men followed suit, and only then did the laird continue.

“Ye did meet them yesterday, but were nae properly introduced,” he began. He gestured to his brothers sitting across from her on the laird’s left. “This is Kai, and this is Magnus.”

Magnus smiled warmly. “Good day tae ye, me lady.”

“That was some arrival,” Kai declared with a wide grin.

“Kai!” Thora and Enya hissed at the exact same time.

Katherine couldn’t help but smile. “It’s all right,” she said, looking at the sisters. She then turned back to Kai. “You are right, and I must apologize for my rude behavior. I had no right to speak to you the way I did yesterday.”

Kai and Magnus looked pleasantly surprised, while the laird showed no reaction at all. But then, she wasn’t apologizing to him. It was he who had killed her father, after all. She felt no remorse at all for how she had treated him. Besides, after his antics this morning, he was hardly making any attempt to redeem himself. In fact, in stark contrast, he was only proving himself to be the brute she imagined him to be.

As Enya asked how she slept, Katherine cast her gaze across the table in front of her. She had been raised with good manners and thus swallowed the horror of what lay on the plates. There were items of food that looked so awful she didn’t even know what they were.

“That’s haggis,” Magnus said, as though he were reading her mind.

She brought her gaze to him to be met with the same soft smile.

“And they are oatcakes,” he continued, pointing to thick, circular biscuit-like things that sat on another plate.

“What is haggis?” Katherine said tentatively.

Kai jumped in eagerly and declared. “It’s delicious. It has sheep’s pluck minced with onion, oatmeal, suet?—”

“Sheep’s pluck ?” Katherine interrupted.

“Aye,” Kai continued eagerly. “The heart, liver, and lungs.”

All the manners in the world could not stop Katherine’s jaw from dropping, but Kai didn’t seem to notice.

“They cook it with spices?—”

“Kai,” Magnus said, trying to put a stop to his description, but Kai was clearly in flow.

“And salt and stock?—”

“Kai!” Magnus said a little more forcefully, but still, his brother continued.

“And they stuff that all intae the sheep’s stomach?—”

“Kai!” everyone at the table barked at once.

Kai halted and stared at each one of them as though they were mad.

“What? Lady de Beaumont asked,” he said, throwing a hand toward Katherine.

While the siblings now reprimanded their brother, Katherine gazed at the small oval offering on the plate with a sick feeling in her stomach.

A sheep’s stomach? Who on God’s good earth thought it a good idea to cook the insides of a sheep inside the insides of a sheep?

Still struggling to control her facial expression, Katherine thought of the normal delights she experienced at breakfast, far more refined foods than a sheep’s innards. Not wanting to appear ungrateful however, she pinned on a strained smile and placed a few items on her plate, though she avoided the haggis. There was only so far she was willing to go.

While the siblings continued to converse, she took the opportunity of them being distracted to taste the samples she had chosen, but after a few small bites, she sat back in her chair and concluded that she would simply have to skip breakfast. She only hoped what might be offered for supper would be more pleasing to her palate.

“Why are ye nae eating?” the laird asked, his voice lower than the other siblings who now appeared to be involved in a heated discussion over what was suitable to discuss at breakfast.

“Ordinarily, I skip breakfast,” Katherine lied.

The laird’s frown betrayed his disbelief, and thus Katherine knew she had to add to her untruth.

“Unless I am served my favorite breakfast,” she continued. “I am rather fond of manchet bread with butter and honey.”

She waited for the laird to mock her, given he had done little else since she had arrived, but she was mildly surprised when he nodded, as though actually interested. It was the first normal conversation they had shared, which Katherine found, actually pleased her.

“Perhaps Enya and Thora could show ye around the castle after breakfast,” Laird MacLeod said.

But his sisters clearly heard him for Enya replied. “I am helping Brianna this morning. She’s asked me tae gather herbs fer her tinctures.”

“And I’m teaching the bairns,” Thora added.

“I’m sure I can entertain myself very well,” Katherine replied, not wanting to be seen as a burden.

The laird gave her a strange look, but instead of arguing, he simply nodded.

After breakfast, Enya and Thora assured Katherine that they would spend the afternoon with her, when they had finished with their obligations. Katherine, in turn, assured them that she was fine, and that perhaps exploring the castle on her own might be beneficial, for then, she would find her way about far easier.

She had returned to her room and grabbed a shawl, for she wanted to discover the outside as well as inside the castle. As she wandered through the gardens, she couldn’t help but feel surprised at how beautiful the Highlands appeared, with tall faraway peaks entirely covered with a white blanket of snow. It was as she was admiring them, that she heard a great commotion. Swords clashed together, their definitive metallic sound echoing off the stone castle walls.

Intrigued, she rounded the corner of the castle and found herself gazing upon a group of clansmen sparring in an open area of the gardens. Despite the snow that they kicked up with their feet, the huge men battled with each other as though their life depended on it. Which, given the battles the Scots had been involved with, she supposed, it did.

Hardly thinking about what she was doing, she found herself moving closer, in part due to one particular swordsman that held her attention. He was stronger, and faster than the others, but as all of them wore helmets, she could not see his face. Even so, she could not help but feel mesmerized by him, for he fought with impressive agility and strength.

Completely captivated by his effortless movements and commanding presence, Katherine continued to move a little closer. She watched him battle several men, before one of them called a halt, and as the man took off his helmet, she gasped at the sight of her future husband.