Page 14 of To Wed a Laird
“I dreamt that some horses came to see me,” she answered. “But they were not ordinary horses. They were every colour of the rainbow, red, blue, purple, green, orange and yellow, and they could talk.”
“What did they talk about?” Rose asked curiously. She was enchanted by Elspeth’s wonderful imagination.
Elspeth narrowed her eyes, thinking for a moment, as if deciding whether to tell Rose or not. Finally, she said, “I asked them if they would talk to Mammy for me, and they said they would.”
The look on her face almost brought Rose to tears. “Talk to her? In heaven, you mean?” she asked gently.
Elspeth nodded. “I want to know if she is well.”
“Of course she is,” Rose replied, with what she hoped was an encouraging smile. “I am sure she is talking to my Mammy because she is in heaven too.”
Rose knew this would comfort Elspeth, and her intuition was right because the little girl’s face broke into a huge grin.
“What do you think they’re saying to each other?” she asked.
“I’m sure they are talking about us,” Rose replied, and Elspeth giggled.
At that moment, a maid brought a tray laden with food into the room and laid it on the table.
“Thank you,” Rose said politely, but the young woman merely nodded at her while she smiled at Elspeth.
Elspeth, however, was too busy with her porridge to notice. Rose put a napkin under the little girl’s chin, then there was a comfortable silence while they both tucked into their food.
When they had finished porridge, scrambled egg with sausage and black pudding washed down with milk, Elspeth sat back and patted her full tummy.
“I cannot eat another thing,” she declared.
“Neither can I,” Rose agreed. “I think we had better go and do some work.”
Elspeth jumped to her feet. “Can I plant some more parsley?” she asked eagerly.
Rose pretended to consider. “No,” she replied. “We did that yesterday. Let’s find something else to do. But tomorrow, we must go back to doing lessons, or your father will be very unhappy.”
Elspeth’s face scrunched up in distaste, and she sighed, then brightened up as Rose reached out and took her hand. They wandered out into the courtyard and saw one of the kitchen maids picking some herbs, and before Rose could stop her, Elspeth had run over to the young woman and offered to help.
The servant looked up at Rose, unsure if Elspeth should be allowed to perform such a menial task. Rose nodded, but said, “Lady Elspeth, please don’t dirty your clothes.”
Elspeth giggled and went to help the kitchen maid, then came back a moment later with a bunch of fragrant green leaves, which she held up for Rose to sniff.
“Mint,” Rose told her. “Probably for serving with lamb.”
“Mm.” Elspeth smiled. “It smells lovely.”
They delivered the mint to the kitchen, where the cook smiled at Elspeth and gave her a sweet oatcake to eat. She completely ignored Rose, but Elspeth was having none of that.
“What about Rose?” she asked with a deep frown.
“I am still full from breakfast,” Rose told her.
“You can eat it later,” Elspeth said as she grabbed an oatcake from the plate.
Rose looked at the cook, but she had already turned her face away, clearly annoyed. As she glanced around the kitchen, she could see and feel the hostility aimed at her. She realised suddenly that it was because she was English, but there was nothing she could do about that; she would just have to learn to deal with it.
Rose turned on her heel and left the room with Elspeth following behind her, and they began to visit the other parts of the castle. Rose had lived in a big house, but it had been nothing like the size of this building, which was almost like a village in itself.
It had a brewery, a blacksmith, a buttery where cheese and butter were made, and an armoury. A seamstress sewed and repaired uniforms and other clothing, while a shoemaker fashioned and fixed shoes and leather goods. A chaplain was always in attendance to perform Sunday services in the chapel and for funerals and the occasional wedding. There were many more tradespeople in the castle and a number of general labourers and servants. Rose soon lost count of them.
They spent the morning wandering around the castle, and they were both fascinated by the cheese making process, whichthey watched with rapt attention. At the end, Elspeth was given a sizeable block of cheese to eat for her midday meal, which she shared with Rose. They had also acquired some apples from the kitchen and sat down in the shade of the biggest and oldest tree in the garden, a yew which grew near the outer wall.
