Page 21 of Saved By the Highland Beast
“Why would I sit through five hours of study with ye an’ wooden swords when I can be learnin’ far more from watching the men fight.” The uncertainty in Cillian’s voice was becoming more apparent as he eyed the weapons. He was slowly losing the battle to his own stubbornness and will.
Sophia knew she had him when he left his book on the table and let his arm fall to his side. All she had to do now was give him the final piece that would seal the deal. “I didn’t think you would want to watch the men fighting anymore, not when your father has given Anthony Gillies permission to teach you how to fight.” She acted as if his response was shocking to her and waited for him to react. “I’m sorry if that was wrong of me to assume.”
“Faither has said that I can learn how to fight?” He seemed unsure yet hopeful about what she was saying.
“Provided you take your lessons seriously and spend the full five hours with me here in the study.” She gave him a triumphant smile.
Cillian seemed to consider her words for a while, but slowly sat down in the chair with his body turned away from the desk.
Her heart sang with joy at the little progress she had made. There was a way to reach the boy, after all. “Does that sound like a fair deal to you?”
“Yer nae playin’ a trick on me?” The veil that had been covering his eyes seemed to drop an inch.
“I give you my word.” She made a cross over her heart and held her right hand up in the air with a serious expression on her face.
“Can I go an’ practice this afternoon already?” he asked hopefully.
“Do you think you can sit through five hours of lessons?” she returned. “That’s a pretty big undertaking for a boy.”
Cillian turned his small body to the desk and pushed his book aside. “Let’s get on with it, then. I am nae sayin’ I will learn anythin’ from ye, but it’s worth sittin’ here if Faither will let me fight.”
Sophia almost jumped for joy but stopped herself just in time. His manners and gruffness were something she would work on in time. For now, she would focus on getting him started with his lessons and then take things from there. “I thought we could perhaps start with a bit of history this morning.” She shuffled the papers on the desk and left them in disarray as she found the one she was looking for. “How much do you think you know about swords?” she asked as she walked over to the window and stopped in front of the desk.
Cillian smirked and placed one arm over the back of his chair as he looked at her. “Faither should rather be payin’ me instead of ye if yer goin’ to talk about things I already ken.”
“Humor me,” she said patiently. “If you can answer these questions I have for you, I will cut your time down by half.”
He sat up straight again and clasped his hands in front of him on the desk. “Go on.”
“Great,” she said as she began pacing in front of his desk. “Before we get to the history questions, I have a simple numbers equation for you. I said that I would cut your time in half if you can answer all of my questions. How long will you have to stay in the study if you succeed with the quiz?”
Cillian’s brow creased with a frown as he brought his thick black eyebrows together. His button nose wrinkled in concentration as he thought. She definitely had his attention now.
“Here,” she said as she walked over to the desk and retrieved a piece of parchment, a quill, and a pot of ink. “Write it out for yourself to make things easier.”
“This isn’t a question about swords,” he said bitterly as he narrowed his eyes at her. “You are trickin’ me.”
“I promise that this question will in no way affect the challenge.” She could see that she still had a very long way to go before she earned his trust. “This is just a simple brain teaser to get us going for now.”
Cillian dipped the quill in the ink and rested his chin on his hand as he began to scribble across the piece of paper.
Sophia gave him his space as she looked back out the window and saw that the laird was no longer there. She felt a strange pang of disappointment that she couldn’t quite explain. A part of her had wanted Dean to still be standing there, but her thoughts were quickly interrupted when Cillian spoke up.
“Three hours,” Cillian answered triumphantly.
“That’s a good try for your first time, but it’s not quite there,” she said encouragingly and walked over to the weapons. “Why don’t you try again?”
He looked at the clock with an overly tense expression on his face.
She walked to the weapons when she could see that he was struggling a bit. “Here, look at things like this.” She knelt down and placed five of the tiny swords in a row. She had originally thought that Hamish and Anthony had overshot, but now she was grateful for their overexuberance. “How many swords do I have here?”
“Five,” Cillian said hesitantly.
“Perfect.” She gave him an encouraging grin. “How many will I have if I take half of them away?”
He looked at the swords for a moment before looking back up at her. “You can’t take half of them away. You would be left with an uneven number. You would either have three or two.”
At least the previous tutors had managed to get something right with the boy. Even if it was just basic counting and vocabulary.
