Sneaks (13 page)

“Verra well.” He started to walk back toward the castle.

I could have let him go. I could have ignored his cold shoulder. But I didn’t want to.

“Mac?”

“What?”

“Are you angry at me?”

He swallowed and looked away from my eyes. He couldn’t hide the truth. “No,” he said. He started walking again.

“Because, I'm not angry at you any longer, if that matters, that is." I put my hand on my hips. "Mac, come on, what’s up?”

“Nothing.”

“Dammit Mac, tell me what it is.”

He looked at me, straight in the eye as a smile tugged at his lips.

“Come on,” I said as I touched his arm lightly.

“It's nothing, lass.”

“Then why are you being such a j . . . why do you seem angry?”

“I have work to do.”

I sighed, sounding more like my mom than I ever had.

But then something behind him caught my attention. I pushed on his arm and shoved him to the side. “Oh, Mac, look!”

He turned just as a poof of smoke rose from the roof of the stable. Did the stable have a fireplace or was the building on fire?

Mac exclaimed something in Gaelic, dropped his sword and took off in a sprint. I followed behind.

He stopped in front of the burning building; he seemed to evaluate what to do next. The puff that had a few moments ago been only smoke, now had flames within it reaching up to the sky.

“Corc!” Mac yelled.

“Corc! Oh, no, Corc!” I yelled too.

“Kally, take the horses ye can gather and move them away,” Mac commanded.

The few horses that were out of the stable were enclosed in an attached corral. They were jittery and noisy, probably sensing the trouble. I didn’t have any idea what to say to them to get them to listen to me, so I just opened the gate and yelled. 

“Come on, get out of there!”

The horses heard my voice. They must have already figured they needed to get away from the danger so once they noticed the open gate, they galloped toward it. I couldn’t have stopped them if I’d wanted to, so I let them run by and watched them sprint up a hill and away from the fire.

Then I faced the darkening stable. Mac had gone in but he hadn’t come out and the smoke and fire were both growing. I heard the whinny-cry of more animals just in time to step out of the way of four more horses that had been freed from inside. I had no idea how many animals or humans were still in the fire, but I knew of one.

“Mac!” I coughed and blinked, the smoke taking over.

No answer. I ran away from the building and tried to clear my lungs. I took as deep a breath as possible and ran back toward the darkness and what I thought was the door of the stable.

“Mac!”

Nothing.

“Mac!” I tried again.

I heard a cough from somewhere to my left. Remembering that in a fire, you should get low to the ground, I went down on my hands and knees and crawled toward the cough. I lost all sense of direction and light. I moved and reached, groped at the ground and through the smoke.

The cough sounded again.

I reached a bit further and found something that felt like a leg.

“Lass,” Mac said. “Go back. Get out.”

I was close enough now that I could see Mac dragging Corc out of the stable. Corc was either dead or unconscious and Mac looked as though he’d been dipped in soot.

“Let me help.” I tried to grab another part of Corc and we pulled. And then coughed and then pulled.

An eternity or so later, we were out in the open and away from the flaming wood that was disappearing so quickly that it looked like it was melting. 

Corc was on his back on the ground, but before either Mac or I could offer him attention, we both had to clear our lungs. And it wasn’t pretty.

I was on my knees and bent over, my insides coming up my throat, when someone touched my back and a raspy voice said, “Kally are ye going to be all right.”

“I (cough) I think so.”

“Good,” Mac said. “I have to see what I can do for Corc. I’ll send someone back for ye.”

“No,” I waved. “Let me help you with him.”

Once Mac confirmed that Corc was still breathing, he heaved the unconscious man over his shoulder and trudged his way toward the castle. Blood dripped from a gash on Corc’s head and made a red-dotted trial. 

I followed, my offers to help weak but sincere.

No one at the castle had noticed the fire in the distance so the looks on faces when they saw the three of us were bewildered irritation.

“Oh my,” Una said, the first to know we were serious. “Bring him here, Mac. Andalena, help Mac and Kally.”

The kitchen became a flurry of medical activity. Corc wasn’t dead. Mac wasn’t dead. And I wasn’t dead, either. I must have been in shock though because the scene played out before me as though I was watching it through a tube—distant and muffled.

Mac allowed about three seconds of fussing over him before he waved everyone away and went to stand over Corc. As he coughed, he looked back and forth from me to Corc, sending concerned glances both directions.

“Kally, some water?” someone said.

I took the cup and drank a big gulp, which only threw me into a stronger coughing fit. The violent noise pulled Mac to my side.

He put his hand on my shoulder and waited until I could breathe without spitting up a lung.

“Kally, what can I get for ye?” he said.

I gave him a thumb’s up. I wasn’t confident that I could speak. Why wasn’t he coughing?

He crouched down to his knees and waited again. Finally, I thought I might be able to say something.

“I’m fine. How are . . .” I sputtered as I pointed to him and then to Corc.

“Corc will live. I am fine.” He inspected my face as he coughed lightly – I had no idea what I looked like but I assumed my face was just as filthy as his. “Thank ye for yer help.”

“I didn’t really . . .”

“Aye, ye did. If ye hadna been there, I dinna ken what would have happened. I was lost in the smoke, not sure which direction to go.”

From the other side of the kitchen, Corc began to cough. Both Mac and I looked at him with relief.

“See, he’s going to be fine,” Mac said.

I nodded.

“Kally, I’ll apologize to ye now for my behavior.”

I wanted to ask which behavior he meant – the ride on the horse the day before or his sourness out on the hillside – but I still didn’t trust my voice. Plus, an apology was an apology. I nodded again. “Thank . . .” I coughed. How was he breathing so well?

“Aye. Weel, when ye’re feeling better, we’ll start over, and I’ll attempt to show ye that I can be something other than a horse’s arse.”

I huffed a laugh and then coughed, but this time with less body wracking violence.

“Perhaps ye were destined to save me, Kally Bright, from faraway,” he said.

“I don’t think I saved you.”

“Aye,” he said thoughtfully.

“Mac, off with ye,” Una said. “Kally, Matilda will clean ye up.”

*****

Matilda, a young girl with a high-pitched voice, escorted me to my room where a tub had already been placed. Two other girls were filling it with warm water. Once it was full, Matilda stripped off my clothes and guided me into the water.

Matilda scrubbed my back with some of Una’s potent soap and a washcloth, but I did the rest of myself, the bath water quickly turning a soapy black.

 “Mistress, can I get ye something to eat?” Matilda asked, as I inspected my fingernails.

“No, thanks, I’m not hungry,” I said absently.

“Aye, I think I ken why.”

“Okay?” I said. Matilda was probably my age and had a perpetual smile – her teeth weren’t so bad. But she had a face full of zits that must have made life rough.

“Aye, he’s eyes for ye, ye ken.”

“Huh?”

“Master McCauley, he’s eyes for ye.”

“I don’t think I follow that – if it means what I think it does, Mac doesn’t even really like me.”

Matilda unfolded a dress she’d brought with her and spread it out on the bed. “Oh, he does have eyes for ye. I saw it when he brought ye to the castle. In the courtyard.”

I laughed. “He was angry. He thought I’d lied to him about who I was.”

“T’was an act, then. I saw him look at ye. I arrived back at the castle at the same time he brought ye in. Ye were a sight to behold so I stared, along with everyone else.”

“Okay. Well, I saw anger.”

“Ye dinna see when ye passed by him.”

“Oh?”

“He was acting angry to be sure – but really t’was an act. I’ve seen an angry Duncan, there’s no mistaking it. Anyway, as you passed by him to go into the castle, his hand went to his heart.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Like this.” Matilda put her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. “Ye are walking by me now. Now ye have passed me.” One hand went to her heart and her eyes closed as she took a deep breath before taking a step forward. “See, there was something he saw in ye that made his heart beat funny. Trust me, that means he has eyes for ye.”

“Or he had gas.”

Matilda laughed. “Aye, but I dinna think it was that.”

“Hmm.” 

“Yes, hmm. Now, can I help ye wash more?”

“No, I’ve got it. You can go back to Una now.” I didn’t think I’d ever get used to people helping me with bathing or getting dressed but it seemed to be natural to these people.

“Ye have an hour or so before dinner, but Una told me to tell ye that ye must be there.”

“Thanks.”

“At yer service, Mistress,” she said before she left.

As I finished cleaning and getting dressed, it never once occurred to me that I should maybe take off the necklace.

I didn’t believe what Matilda said, I didn’t quite understand it – ‘eyes for me?’ But I had a strong desire to see what happened next.

*****

Corc didn’t join us for dinner again but this time it was because he was resting.

Once again, there was more food than I thought existed. The fire had concerned everyone, but since no people or animals had been harmed, it became more a story than a worry. 

“Aye, and then she guided me out of the fire and helped pull Corc, his limp body heavy as a horse, out of the fire, too,” Mac said.

“Weel, this time I have proof that ye saved him, Kally,” the laird said as he raised his cup of ale. He held both the cup and his eyes steady. He looked at me as though he still wasn’t sure I was real. 

“I didn’t really do that, Mac. You were on your way out of the fire. I just ran into you. Actually, you might have gotten out more quickly if I hadn’t been there.”

“No, I wasna sure which direction to go, Kally. Ye guided the way.” Mac put his hand over mine that was perched on the edge of the table. “Really.”

I looked at our hands and pondered the warmth. His fingers were covered in calluses and there were numerous scratches along his knuckles. His nails were surprisingly clean. My throat made a funny noise.

“Is yer throat okay?” Mac asked. “Still raw from the fire?”

“I’m fine, but I’d really like to talk about . . . well, something else. We’re okay, so no harm done, right?”

“Aye,” Una said, “I understand, lass. All this talk of ye being a hero makes you uncomfortable. Ian, tell us about the market today.”

Ian began speaking and at first I listened intently to what he said, but after a moment Mac leaned to my ear.

“Tomorrow, I’m going into the market. Would ye like to come with me?”

“Okay.” His breath on my ear made my heart beat speed up.

“Good, tomorrow morning then.” He leaned back in his chair and we listened to the rest of Ian’s story about a speedy goose that did not want to have its neck wrung.

I tried not to look at Mac, but I felt his eyes on me. Had Matilda been right?

I both liked the idea and was horrified by it. What was I supposed to do, other than be terrified of what to do?

 I reached up to pretend to scratch the back of my neck, turning to look at Mac in the process.

I almost did something I’d never done before – I almost giggled when I looked at him looking at me.

I was beginning to understand why dating had become forbidden in my time. These feelings, this pure  . . . what had I decided it was . . . oh yeah, this lust wasn’t good. And it couldn’t have anything to do with real love, could it?

I looked at Ian and thought back to what I’d felt for him a year earlier. Had my mom been right? Had it been friendship? When I looked at him, I still felt something warm in my heart, but it was nothing like what I felt when I looked at the new and improved and polite Mac.

By the end of the evening, I was confused and my stomach hurt.