Page 10 of Sighs of the Highland Wind
I must be seeing things!she thought in alarm as she looked down at him for a long moment. His face was clean now, though, as were his hands, and he no longer smelled like a midden.
Suddenly the memories from the previous night came rushing back. She recalled finding the stranger in the stables, speaking to him, and giving him her last apple. She had fed him and allowed him to wash, then let him use her blanket—this perfectly strange man whom she did not know from Adam. What had possessed her? She studied him for a moment, gradually beginning to relax. He was such an attractive man, she thought. If only he were not a tramp!
Standing up, she stepped over him and washed quickly in the water she had used the previous night. Still feeling slightly dirty, Kenna took one last look at her “guest” before she left, locking the door behind her. She hoped he would have the sense to stay quiet.
When Kenna arrived in the kitchen to eat her breakfast, her mother was already there, as well as two other kitchen maids who were scrubbing the long table and scouring a big cast-iron pot. They all looked up and smiled as she entered.
“Hello, sleepyhead!” Janet Mulholland, one of the kitchen maids, greeted her. “Ye are late up this mornin’!”
Kenna glanced out of the window and yawned, then realized, to her surprise, that it was almost full daylight.
Flora, her adopted mother, frowned and shook her head as she looked at Kenna.
“Well, ye will go out feedin’ those horses at a’ hours o’ the mornin’. See the teeth on them things? One o’ these days one o’ them will bite yer fingers off an’ it will serve ye right.” She nodded as if to underline her statement.
“Mammy.” Kenna smiled and put her arms around her mother’s waist from behind. “Don’t worry. My fingers will be just fine and so will I. You worry too much!”
“I dinnae worry too much!” Flora said irritably.
She was guilty of being overprotective sometimes since she knew what it was like to lose a child.
Kenna knew this and understood only too well. She had no real recollection of her birth mother, only a shadow at the edge of her memory, and as far as she was concerned, her parents might never have existed.
Yet she knew that Flora still wept bitterly sometimes over the death of her little daughter Bettina, who had been snatched from her by smallpox at the tender age of four. At such times she felt helpless because, although she knew that Flora loved her very much, Kenna could never be the daughter she had given birth to. How could she love a child who had come suddenly into her life out of nowhere as much as one she had so carefully nurtured inside her womb?
“Yes you do, Mammy, but that is one of the reasons I love you so much.”
Kenna’s voice was soothing as she hugged her mother more tightly, then kissed her cheek.
Flora turned and flapped the dishcloth she was holding at her daughter, then smiled and returned the kiss.
“Away wi’ ye!” she chuckled. “I love ye as well, silly lass. Go an’ eat!”
Kenna laughed and dished herself up some porridge for breakfast, then sat wondering how she could steal some food for her guest. With Janet, her mother, and another maid, Tammy, in the kitchen, it would not be easy. Still, he would be gone soon, she thought, but strangely the thought gave her no joy.
She peeped over the edge of the porridge pot to see if there was any left. There was plenty, but there was no way she could think of stealing away with a heaped bowl of it. However, she could quite openly take fruit, so she helped herself to two apples and stuffed them in her pocket.
Flora looked at her with narrowed eyes. “Is one no’ enough for ye?” she asked, her eyebrows raised. “If I find out ye are feedin’ them horses…” She trailed off, leaving the words unsaid.
The meaning was quite clear. Flora had threatened Kenna with a thrashing many times when she was younger but had never laid a finger on her.
It had terrified her in her younger days, but when she realized that there were never going to be any physical consequences, she realized that Flora’s disapproval was even more painful. She would have done anything for her mammy.
“Don’t worry, Mammy,” she assured Flora. “I am keeping one for later in case they are all eaten by the afternoon.”
Flora grunted but went back to washing the dishes. She could always tell when Kenna was lying, but what did a few apples matter as long as she was happy? Kenna was her whole life.
5
Kenna had been obliged to resort to a certain amount of creativity to find the rest of the food for Ewan’s breakfast. She made sure that she was the one who was cleaning the dining room when the laird and lady’s food was being cleared away. To her delight, there was still plenty of haggis, black pudding, and eggs left, as well as several thick slices of bread. It would likely not fill all of Ewan’s stomach, but it might be enough to stop it from rumbling for a while!
Unfortunately, Lady McDonald was in a talkative mood that morning, and so was the laird. Kenna was invited to sit down and was obliged to regale them with details of how she and her mother were.
She answered politely that they were both well and stood up, ready to leave, but then Lady McDonald asked: “And is there no young man in your life yet, Kenna? You are so beautiful; I thought you would be married by now, even with a baby or two.” She gave Kenna a playful wink.
Kenna laughed. “Thank you, milady, but I have no plans for that yet. But if the right man comes along, you will be the first to know, I promise.”
She could not help smiling at them fondly. They were two of the dearest people she knew.
