Page 28 of Highlander's Wild Lass
“Make haste, Celestia!” It was Hugo this time.
Celestia sighed and reached for the safer choice, her green skirt. She threw on her linen shift and fumbled through an open drawer to grab a light brown bodice. She pulled tightly at her stays once she slipped her arms through and settled it comfortably around her chest.
She wrapped and tied her bum roll around her waist before snatching the petticoat that hung off her chest of drawers. The petticoat slipped over her head with ease and settled neatly over her hips.
She looked into the long mirror that stood alone in a corner of her room and inspected herself. “Only one petticoat today, I think,” she murmured decidedly.
“Cellie, please, we need to leave.” Hugo must have been pressed right up against the door because his words were mashed and muffled.
“I’m comin’!” Celestia shouted and threw open the door sending Hugo staggering backward.
“Good lord, a little warnin’ next time!” Hugo exclaimed.
Celestia let out a short laugh and continued into the kitchen finding Auralia and her father eating breakfast.
Brannan lifted a key off the table. “You’ll be needin’ this.”
She took the key and pocketed it in one of the deep pockets she had sewn into her skirts.
“Jacob is outside in the cart, waitin’ to take ye to the storehouse. Ye ken who Jacob is?” Brannan asked.
They nodded. Jacob was the young man, a few years younger than her, that her father had hired a year before he fell ill. He had taken him in as an apprentice but had entrusted him with running the entire business in the last six months.
Jacob knew enough about the business to help Celestia and the twins get acclimated, but he was no master businessman like Brannan McLean. And the business had floundered without Brannan guiding him.
Jacob waved to them as they made their way to the cart. “Good mornin’,” he said cheerfully once they were close.
They parroted his greeting back and climbed into the cart. The twins took to the back of the cart and nestled themselves comfortably against the side panels, while Celestia sat with Jacob.
“Would ye like to take the reins, Mistress Celestia?” Jacob asked, holding them out to her. “Yer faither has told me how good of a horsewoman ye are.”
“Has he?” she wondered with a small grin. “Well, he’s nae wrong, but I’d much rather have ye lead us into town.”
“Aye, will do.” Jacob took hold of the reins. “The road to Inverness is clear enough, it should nae take us much longer than two hours.”
The slow jostling of the cart had lulled Chester and Hugo to sleep soon after departing, while Jacob had kept a constant stream of what Celestia suspected to be nervous chatter since leaving.
She did her best to keep up with Jacob’s rapid speech but found herself drifting to his dark brown hair, like Anthony’s. Although Jacob’s didn’t curl handsomely at the ends like his did.
* * *
Anthony had traveled to visit his older sister in Aberdeenshire. Thanks to the marriage their father had arranged for her, she was now Lady of Castle Huntly and wife to the chief of Clan Gordon, George Gordon.
The birth of Eleanor’s first child—his first nephew—offered a perfectly timed distraction and reason to get away from the castle and Celestia for a little while.
It was very early, the sun was just starting to rise, and the view out of Eleanor’s living chambers was that of the two small rivers that met and converged into one to feed the loch a few miles from the castle grounds.
“When will ye return home, brother?” Eleanor asked, voice still rough from sleep.
“Ah, eager to be rid of me so soon?” Anthony turned from the window and saw his sister standing in the middle of the room, before the roaring fireplace, swinging the bairn slowly in her arms.
He had only been there a few days.
She scoffed. “Nay, ye’ve been a help, and ye’ve been keepin’ George well occupied.”
“He’s nae so bad once ye get to ken him. It’s just too bad ye can’t go huntin’ with him, he becomes an open book then. Would nae keep quiet, honestly.”
Eleanor passed the bairn off to him and turned to the tea-table where a porcelain tea set had been placed by a housemaid. She filled two cups near the top with tea. “Sugar?”
