Scottish Destiny

Chapter Twenty - Seven

Chapter Twenty - Seven

"I dinna care who wishes to speak with her, Grant!" Lady Campbell threw her arms up into the air in defiance.   "Kathryn willna leave this chamber or her bed."

"Jesu, Eileen," Grant rubbed his face with his hands.  "Tis King Jamie we speak of.   The King of Scotland wishes to speak with my wife.  I canna ask him to come up to her chamber.  Tis no proper and ye dinna demand things like so of your King."

"Ye listen to me, Grant," Eilleen stepped closer to him and placed her hands upon her hips.  "I dinna care who, as I told ye already.  I willna have Kathryn's heath jeapodized.   Do ye wish for your wife to fall ill?"

"Nae!" Grant shouted, clearly frustrated.  "Of course I dinna wish so."

"Verra well then," Eilleen smiled triumphantly.   "If King Jamie wishes to speak to Kathryn this instant, then he can come up in her chamber while she continues to rest.  If no, then he shall wait several days until I release her from bed rest."

Grant turned towards the stairwell, clearly frustrated at having to relay Lady Campbell's message to him. 

"We will be up shortly then," Grant mumbled as he started to walk away.

"Ye will give us a couple of hours, Grant," Eilleen shouted back at him so that he may hear her.

"What?" Grant froze and then turned to look back.

"Aye," Eilleen crossed her arms over her chest.  "Kathryn has mentioned that she wishes to bathe this morn.   I would see that she be dressed in a gown when King Jamie arrives, no her nightshift.   She wishes her hair to be washed as well."

"Ye ask too much Eilleen," Grant stepped back closer to her.  "But, verra well.   A couple of hours, we still need to break our fast, twill pass the time."

"Send Lady McGregor up, she can help me with Kathryn," Eilleen smiled as she pushed open the chamber door and stepped inside.

"Ye look bonny, my sweet," Lady McGregor told her daughter as she pulled several of Kathryn's curls foward to frame her delicate face.   "How do ye feel?"

"Tis better now," Kathryn replied sadly.   "The ache is no much, but tis the empitiness that I feel in my heart that hurts the most."

"I know, love," Catriona cupped her daugther's face and kissed her forehead.  "One day ye and Grant will have another bairn.   Twas no meant to be this time."

Muffling a sob, Kathryn nodded and looked up into her Mother's warm eyes.   She would miss her dearly when she went to live at Castle McKenna.   She heard Grant's threat that he would never allow Kathryn to visit her birth home again, but she hopes that her brother's would bring their Mother to visit with her.

Kathryn in the last couple of hours had broken her fast, taken a bath and had her hair loving washed by her Mother and Lady Campbell.   Dressed in her one of her better gowns, she awaited her husband and King Jamie.

"What do I say when I meet King Jamie, Mama?" Kathryn asked her Mother nervously as she gripped the bed linens tightly.

"Ye may address him as Sire or called him King Jamie," Catriona frowned at her daugther's question.  She felt embarrassed that Callum never took her or their dauther to court.  None of her children knew how to act or properly address their King.   "When Grant greeted King Jamie for the first time, he knelt before him, as did the rest of the McKenna's.  I suppose tis proper then to do so."

"Then I shall do so as well then, Mama," Kathryn tentatively smiled up at her Mother.  "Tis wishing Grant to be proud of me.    He served as part of King Jamie's guards, did ye know that?"