Page 2 of Her Highland Prophecy
He had dark, greasy hair and his face and clothes were grimy. There was a hole in the knee of his trousers that were liberally streaked with mud. “Any change to spare?” he asked, holding out an upside-down cap that already had a few coins in it.
Diana shrunk backward, the unwashed man too close for her comfort.
“No, sorry,” she said quickly and turned away.
It was finally their turn to ride the carousel. She was amused to note that Grace opted for a much more reasonably sized horse than the one she had pointed out earlier.
Diana carefully sat sideways on her own horse and pushed a lock of her hair behind her ears. It was barely long enough to stay in place and not even her hat was enough to keep her blonde curls back.
A few moments later, that large machine rolled to life in a steady whirl of color and music.
From the slightly elevated position, she had a better view of the fairgrounds and was surprised to see just how large it was. A large tent pitched near the middle was most likely where the dancing was, and dozens of smaller ones surrounded it. Diana thought she saw another ride behind the large tent, but she wasn’t certain.
She couldn’t wait to explore.
When the ride was over, she and Grace wandered through the fair, trying to find their friends. The variety of entertainment was staggering. All around them were vendors trying to sell their wares, acrobats performing tricks in corners, games of chance, dancers… Diana suspected their stay would extend more than the one night they had initially planned.
“Grace! Diana! Over here!”
Louisa waved them over. She and Peggy were sitting at a table with paper cups set in front of them. Diana and Grace hurried over.
“What do you have there?” Diana asked as she sniffed at one of the cups.
“Whisky!” Peggy exclaimed happily, sipping out of her own cup.
Diana took a tentative sip and her eyes widened. “Goodwhisky,” she corrected, then took a larger sip and sighed contentedly. “Did you find anything interesting?”
“There’s dancing in the main tent later,” Louisa said happily. “Though I’m not sure if it will be jazz or Scottish. It should be fun either way.”
Diana nodded, thinking that she would most definitely enjoy a good dance.
“That sounds nice. I was also thinking that we might want to extend our stay by a couple of nights,” she said.
The other girls nodded and she continued expanding on her plan.
“We can enjoy the fair today and tomorrow and leave the next morning. There’s certainly enough to do here for a couple of days. And as much as I have enjoyed our trip, I am getting tired being in the automobile so much.”
The automobile was a fabulous invention, but after three weeks of driving over bumpy country roads, the experience had lost a lot of its previous charm.
“Oh, that sounds lovely,” Peggy sighed. “But what about Inverness?”
“We still have a few days before we need to be there to meet Martha and Elsie,” Diana said. “It shouldn’t be a problem. So, we all agree?”
They all looked around at each other, nodded, and then dissolved into giggles.
“I want to look at the shops,” Louisa said. “We saw so many interesting things earlier, and I want a closer look!”
“Me too,” Grace said and together they stood and made their way to the nearest tent.
Diana supposed that the protection from the elements was useful on rainy days. Since they had arrived in Scotland, there had been quite a few and she could understand the necessity of such protection. A table filled with small metal trinkets sat right outside the tent flap.
“Are ye wantin’ something pretty, lass?” the vendor asked from behind the counter.
He wore traditional Scottish garb. Diana looked it over critically. His kilt was short, over the knee like one of the short kilts favored later in history, but it was belted and draped over his shoulder like one of the earlier great kilts.
She frowned at the discrepancy but dismissed it. In her experience, most people did not want to hear it when they made a mistake. It had gotten her in trouble more than once in the past.
She smiled at him instead and moved closer to look at one of the brooches. Further back, she could see several strings of pearls. She pointed at them.
