Rein in the Highlands

Chapter Ten

When we reached the kitchens, I saw a very frantic looking woman running round, she looked like she was attempting to stir a pot and pluck a chicken at the same time,.

Noticing our arrival the woman quickly fixed her apron as she began to bow she knocked a heavy pot right off the table, I leapt for it and grabbed the handles just in time before the thick liquid had a chance to stain the floor, “uh thanks lassie you just saved dinner!” she replied sounding more than grateful.

“Mairin this is Rein, Rein this is Mairin our cook and the closest thing I’ve had to a mother” said Rowan.

“Come now Rowan don’t be silly, I only cared for ye since ye were old enough to talk your own way out of trouble” the strange woman said with a wink, Mairin was short and a rather large lady with enormous breasts and a mass of frizzy brown hair, but she looked kind and comforting like a mother.

After she was finished she turned her gaze to me, her eyes narrowed as she took great lengths in examining me from head to toe, she even circled around me like a vulture circles its prey, she came to a stop in front of me and said “I approve Rowan, she’s strong and beautiful, and obviously kind” with a smile

I looked at Rowan and he was smiling like he’d just won the lottery, apparently this woman didn’t approve on many women.

After having a quiet supper, in what I soon found out was Rowan’s room we sat by the fire, its glow being the only light in the room we sat in silence until Rowan gathered a heavy brown fur that covered me completely keeping to cold away, then he did the strangest thing he picked me up and walked my over to the bed lifting the covers and climbing in.

He tucked my under his arms and, whispered a silence ‘goodnight’ as he drifted off into a deep sleep, I lay there for a couple of minutes until the tiredness of my aching muscles forced my to relax into the warmth that he provided and curled closer into his arms and fell asleep

I heard the loud knocks on the huge, oak front door echo through the keep. Rowan sighed, rubbed his hands over his face and began to stand up. I heard the doors creak open as one of the servants answered the demanding knocks. A loud voice vibrated its way to my ears. I looked at Rowan to see his face twisted into a strange expression. It looked almost like a smile. He walked over to the door and opened it. I couldn’t see what was going on but I could hear a lot of shouting and jerky movements from the shadows on the wall. Then Rowan returned inside the room with a shorter but just as muscular man. He had a wild, red beard and hair but his beetle black eyes twinkled merrily behind the craze of red frizz. He was young, despite the beard, and he wore nothing but a long strip of tartan wool that looped over his shoulder and knotted around his waist. He topped it off with a wide brown leather belt and scuffed, well-worn boots.

‘Rowan, you did not tell me you ‘ad a lass!’ the man said, glancing at Rowan slyly. I blushed furiously and turned my head away so he would not see.

‘What? No! No, no, she is not my, she is just…’ Rowan stammered. The other man laughed loudly,

‘You get provoked too easily, my friend.’

I sat up and wrapped the fur tightly around my body, I was still wearing my dress from the other day but this morning was particularly cold.

Rowan quickly suggested we take this to the hall with I was very thankful for.

(In the Hall)