Page 50 of Promises to Keep

“Your boots are still good, still waterproof?”

“Aye, I am verra grateful for them.”

The rain began in earnest. Lizbeth put out her palm and rain quickly collected there, she drank from her hand.

I said, “So last night it seemed as if you were worried about Maggie.”

She nodded. “Aye, she has been pale and weak for many long months, och nae,years, but I had a long talk with Sean about it this morn — I feel better now, I believe he understands me.”

“Oh good, I’m sure that sets your mind at ease.”

“Well, she has just given birth tae her sixth bairn, not a year after the fifth, and after his crowing last night… I felt I must speak my piece. It was verra difficult, he was aggrieved with me for stepping out of my place, but I told him hehadsons, he had heirs, and that Maggie was going tae die if he kept getting her with child.”

“I’m impressed you broached the subject.”

“Maggie is the best woman for him, she is demure and sweet and kind and bears his brutishness. I told him he wouldna find another wife so easily, the next would likely be young and full of impertinent ideas and he would be auld beside her, and there would be those who would laugh at him for lookin’ so auld. And then, as it happens, a man auld and laughed at might begin tae see his power slip. I told him that when the head of a family has a proper auld wife alongside him shealsohas power. An auld wife will help him conserve his family’s power. But if he takes on a younger wife he would hae tae expend energy tae keep her, and she would be pregnant again many times. He might hae sons that would battle against his first sons — Och nae, it can be such a trouble, Kaitlyn. Auld Lachlan has had nothing but trouble with his young wife and it spills out upon us all. We came tae a moment though, finally, when Sean agreed that I made sense, yet he told me that he had tae believe in God’s will.”

She held a gate open for me to pass through and then continued on, “I told him that God’s will might be that Sean ought not tae kill his pious wife with so many bairns. We had tae argue over the amount of sons a man ought tae hae, but I assured him he had the proper amount. And so, Madame Kaitlyn, I explained tae him how tae pull himself from her afore he was in the throes. He almost fell tae the ground in a faint.”

“Oh my, I truly wish I had been there to see and hear that.”

“He told me that I was mistaken on God’s plan for us, but I reminded him that the Earl’s first son is not sufficient in his mind, his second son is inheriting the title, but prefers tae live in Edinburgh, and so Sean has become the head of the household and that I was proud of him for it. Sean is a good man, and I believe that this is God’s plan for him, tae be the head of the Campbells of Breadalbane, if nae in title, in word. If ye think on it, tis much like how Uncle Baldie was the man who all looked tae for guidance.”

I said, “It is. He reminds me a lot of Uncle Baldie.”

“Aye. I told him, ‘Ye are now that man, Sean, and Maggie has been beside ye as ye became that man, ye canna think on her passing as part of God’s plan, ye are her husband—’ and he interrupted me tae say, ‘God looks poorly upon us if our fields are fallow,’ and I said tae him, ‘Yer fields are not fallow, ye hae had a fine crop of sons, but I believe yer wife is failing in health and ye must be a proper husband tae her.’ I told him, ‘God would not want one crop over the whole field.’”

The rain poured down on us then and we stepped under a tree for some respite.

“You would make a good minister.”

She cackled. “Och nae, what a horror! A woman ministering God’s word, Kaitlyn? This is blasphemy!”

“I only meant, you would be as good as one, not that you ought to be one.”

“Besides, I wouldna want tae be one, a priest would never see the waning health of Maggie and intervene with Sean. He would see it, like Sean, as God’s will. I daena understand how it would be God’s will to see the wife die when there are sons here already. Maggie has done her duty, tis time for Sean tae do his.”

I chuckled. “And his duty is to pull out?”

“Aye, he has been instructed by his sister on the workings of it, and now tis up tae him. He promised tae do his best tae not get her pregnant so soon, tae give her time. We will see.”

I said, “I am proud of you, you’re a good sister, and a wise advisor to all.”

“I do m’best, I hae a great deal tae make up for in m’mother and her carryings on.”

I said, “I brought some candles for Madame Greer, but I have many more back at the castle, I know she will use them so sparingly, and I don’t want to overwhelm her, so I will give her three and you can give her more later.”

“Ye are also verra wise, Kaitlyn, tis exactly how she would be: if ye give her too many she would be dismayed, if ye give her too few she would be disgruntled.”

CHAPTER 27 - KAITLYN

At Madame Greer’s cottage, Lizbeth knocked, then entered without waiting.

Madame Greer began exclaiming, “Tis Queen Kaitlyn! The beautiful Queen Kaitlyn! Yer Highness, I am thrilled tae hae ye in m’home once more, did ye pass down the lane?”

She led us into the main room, where there was a chair that Lizbeth and I both refused, a small stool that Lizbeth perched upon while I stood. Madame Greer needed the chair, you could see it in the way she limped as she moved.

“I wonder if m’sister saw ye as ye came along the pass? Did she notice?”

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