Page 1 of MacAlister's Hope
Chapter One
The Highlands, 1321
Fia MacLachlan swore under her breath, then tried to remember what it was like to be ten and three. “Mairi, love,” she said to her foster sister, as Fia ground herbs together in her mortar, “you cannot learn herb lore by picking petals off of every dried flower I have in this stillroom.”
Mairi looked at her with dreamy eyes. “What?”
Fia smiled at the girl who was already taller than her, though ’twas not hard to top Fia’s petite height. Sweet Mairi, who she’d known since the day she was born, was swiftly becoming a woman. It made Fia feel old, though she was only ten and nine.
“Sweetling, you need to pay attention to this preparation.” She held the stone mortar up, illuminating it with the light from a lantern that hung down overhead so Mairi could see how powdery the dried herbs had become. “I ken you have the Lamont healing gift, but there are times herbs and prayers can serve just as well.” At least that’s what Mairi’s mum, Elena, had told Fia again and again. Fia wasn’t so sure, but she had promised to train Mairi and she would not break that promise.
“But herb lore is so tedious, and we have you for it anyway. I do not understand why I will ever need it.” She grinned at Fia then and changed the subject. “Did you see Angus smiling at me last night at the evening meal?”
“Aye,” but only because Mairi had been staring at the lad across the entire length of the great hall for the brief time it took him to wolf down his dinner, then bolt from the hall with a pack of other boys. “Your da noticed, too.”
“That must be why Angus hurried away before I was done eating. You ken they used to call Da the Devil, aye? I think he uses that reputation to scare the lads away from me.”
“I remember.” Fia pushed the wayward strands of her pale yellow hair out of her eyes and continued to grind the herbs to an even finer powder. “I used to find him fearsome, too, until your mum showed me what a soft heart he has.”
Mairi giggled. “Aye, he does, especially for his ‘wee lasses’.”
Fia smiled, remembering how proud Mairi’s da was each time another daughter had been brought into the world. He’d held each of his three daughters in the crook of his arm within an hour of her birth, cooing and grinning at each of them while admiring their perfect little fingers and strong grips. The man was besotted with his wife and his children. Fia was, too, and enjoyed taking up her role as something between a big sister and an aunt with the girls. And now ’twas only another month or so before they all would learn if the next bairn would be another daughter, or perhaps, this time, a son.
“Do you think Da approves of Angus?” Mairi said, pulling Fia back from her wandering memories.
Fia could see hope in Mairi’s eyes. She set the mortar down on her worktable and turned to face the girl. “’Tis a bit early to be thinking of such things, is it not? Have you even spoken to the lad?”
“Aye…” she looked down at her feet. “Well, not in a few years.”
Fia reached out and tipped Mairi’s chin up with her finger so the lass had to look at her. “Perhaps that is a good place to start? Talk to him. Find out if you even like the man he is becoming. After you decide for yourself, then will be the time to find out what your da and your mum think of him.”
“You sound just like Mum.” Mairi sighed and returned to plucking petals, watching as each one fluttered to the hard dirt floor. At this rate Fia would have no calendula for her tinctures and salves until late next spring when it bloomed again.
“I shall take that as a fine complement. Your mum is the wisest woman I know. Now, fetch me some fresh water, will you sweetling? When you bring it I shall show you how to make a proper brew, then we shall take it to your mum.”
Mairi took the bucket Fia held out for her and slowly turned to leave the stillroom.
“Do not forget your task!” Fia called after the girl as she slowly walked away, humming quietly.
Fia shook her head and could not help but smile at Mairi’s infatuation. She was a lucky girl, loved by her mum and her da. Safe, even now that the Lamont gift had come to her, for her parents would never let harm near any of their daughters. She was carefree and, so far at least, had never suffered loss, not even the loss of Angus’s potential affections. Fia could easily be envious of Mairi, but she couldn’t help but be happy that the same foster parents who had taken Fia in when she was only five, were raising such a happy brood of daughters.
And someday, not too far in the future, Mairi would turn her attention to her gift. She would work alongside her mum—the niggling thought “if Elena survived the birth” intruded into Fia’s happy vision of the future—learning how to use that gift, and Fia would assist her as best she could, as she assisted Elena now.
But Fia knew she would never be as good a healer as either of them.
She shook off the melancholy thoughts. She was good at what she did and that was enough. ‘Twould do no good to wish for things that could not be.
She returned to the herbs, adding a little more dried raspberry leaf to the mortar to help with the swelling all pregnant women seemed to suffer from, and efficiently ground it into power. She took a square of linen and laid it on the worktable, then carefully poured the ground herbs into the center of it. With the deftness of long habit, she pulled the corners of the linen up to form a small pouch, then wound a strand of thread about it to close it off, leaving a long tail to make it easier to remove it from the pot when ’twas finished steeping.
When she was satisfied with that one, she began again, moving faster now that she wasn’t trying to teach Mairi how ’twas done. As she finished each pouch of herbs, worry tried to overcome Fia, as it always did when Elena was pregnant. Elena’s pregnancies never failed to bring back Fia’s memory of losing her own mum in childbirth, creating a sharp loneliness and longing deep within her heart. She could not bear the thought that she might also lose her foster-mum the same way, anymore than she could bear the thought of Mairi and her sisters suffering the same loss.
So she kept busy doing the only thing she could—preparing every brew, tincture, and salve she could think of that might ease the pregnancy and delivery of Elena’s bairn. And she would train Mairi as best she could, at least that would keep the two of them busy, keeping worry at bay at least some of the time. And if something should happen to Elena… She swallowed hard. If something should happen, then she would do whatever she could for Mairi, her da, and her sisters.
Quickly Fia assembled another brew recipe, crushed the herbs efficiently, and was reaching for another square of linen when shouts from the bailey filtered into her quiet stillroom. Curious, and in need of something more distracting than her preparations, she wiped her herb-dusty hands on her barmcloth, then untied the apron from her waist and quickly folded it. She tossed it on the end of the worktable as she made her way out of the dark undercroft and into the cloud filtered midmorning light of the bailey.
Kieron MacAlister rolled the Winter Stone in his hand. It was a smooth orb of milky crystal just small enough to conceal in his large palm. He fidgeted with it, as he often did in uncertain circumstances, as a crowd slowly gathered in the bailey of Kilmartin Castle. His cousin Tavish stood next to him, with a contingent of MacAlister warriors behind them.
A large, blond-haired, Highlander stood before the group, mute and unbudging, holding them just barely within the bailey, as if he wished to push them back through the gate tunnel and out of the castle altogether. He’d sent a lad off to find the chief while he stubbornly stood guard, even though the MacAlisters’ kinship with the Lady of the castle had been established.
