“Really? Me?” She smiled. “I did make her laugh the other day.”
“She finds ye entertainin’.”
“I think she also appreciates how hot you are. We are like a power couple. Okay, since you came home, I’m feeling a lot better. A trip? A real live trip?”
“Aye, twill be a party of near a hundred people and we will be in their number. And at Stirling we will be in luxury. Tis planned for late June after Mary of Guise has returned from a trip with Châtellerault.”
She sighed. “So long to wait! But that’s okay, gives me lots of time to get ready, I need at least two more dresses. And you, dear highlander, need more of these fancy puffy pants.”
I laughed and fanned m’crotch. “Och, the fancy puffy pants are part of what makes me so hot. M’bawbells are sweatin’ in all these layers.”
She laughed, her mood turned from darkness tae light tae shine upon me. “That, Master Magnus, is the wrong kind of hot.”
Fifty-five - Magnus
The end of June arrived and we were ready tae travel. There had been illness for many weeks, a sweating sickness that tore through the town, affecting us all. I was taken tae m’bed for a week, Kaitlyn joined me a few days in and then continued for a few days after. We had fevers and chills and terrible headaches. Kaitlyn suffered delirium, but slowly we were well again. Then for a time we were bored as Châtellerault and Mary of Guise were visitin’ Aberdeen, and all we had tae do was pack for the travels.
Our room was full of trunks. Two were for new additions tae our wardrobe. Kaitlyn had a new gown, and two new panels for the front of her skirts. They were fit for an audience with the queen’s mother, but as Kaitlyn said, she hadn’t gotten new clothes because Mary of Guise was royal, it was because she was French.
We had blankets stacked up on top of a what was left of our gear, namely, our first aid kit and our lanterns. We would take a transmitter with us and keep one here, with messages for any visitors in care of Lady Fleming as she was goin’ ta remain in Edinburgh.
She assured Kaitlyn the trip would be too much for her tae bear. She was makin’ a great deal of sufferin’ from what the physician called maladies of womanhood. Kaitlyn called it depression and begged her tae rest in the sunshine, tae take a daily walk, tae visit with her friends. Lady Fleming assured us she would, if her heart could take it.
And finally we were ready tae travel.
Carts went ahead with all the trunks and the rest of us rode horseback, about twenty people altogether, important people from Mary’s court, and there was a sizable front and rear guard. Servants walked alongside us. It was a slow trip, and long. Ahead of us lay forty miles. We would be staying for five days at Linlithgow, and with four days of traveling it would take nine days tae travel the route.
Travelin’ this way was exhaustin’, there was always someone ahead of us who was goin’ too slow tae be in the lead, someone behind us who was so slow we had tae wait for them tae catch up. I joked with Kaitlyn that there was always two women a’wonderin’ if we were goin’ too verra fast and frightened someone would get killed by it.
Worst was the man who wanted tae tell everyone tae wait for the last straggler. “Keep taegether!” was often called down the line. It all made me want tae ride off on m’own.
Kaitlyn had been ridin’ with two other women and now she pulled up beside me, her face flushed from the ride, the hair framin’ her face, set loose from the wind.
I glanced at her from the corner of m’eye. Twas nae proper tae be too verra flirtatious with our own wives and twould be best tae keep our voices down and nae draw attention, but we had pulled away from the group a little. “Och, ye are ridin’ verra well.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Dost ye like it?”
I groaned low, at her accent. “Och, why daena ye ride ahead so I might watch yer arse as ye ride?”
“Why Master Magnus, I hae tae wonder if ye are talkin’ on watchin’ my arse or the horse’s.”
I chuckled.
She teased, “No answer? Having trouble deciding? Well, at the inn you can apologize to my arse properly.”
“Tis a deal.”
One of the men among us, one we called, privately, Gilbert the Insufferable, rode along the line calling, “Keep pace!” He paused near us, “Lord Campbell, keep the pace, please.” At my scowl he continued on.
Kaitlyn asked, “Does he know who he’s talking to?”
I laughed. “I am wonderin’ how he would look with a blade at the neck — dost he want tae keep telling me how tae keep a pace?”
She laughed. “This is so much fun! It reminds me of the Key West trip, junior year,” our horses had a comfortable pace side by side, the road was flat and wide and the others were a distance behind. “Have I told you about it?”
“Nae, who was with ye?”
“Everyone. All the usual players: Hayley, Michael, James, Quentin, a bunch of extras. We decided, with no real plan, to drive to Key West. It is such a long drive.”
She glanced around us. “We have fallen away from the group. I guess we aren’t that good at keeping pace.”
“Tis because I daena like someone tellin’ me what tae do.”
Gilbert the Insufferable rode back by, he started to say something about our ‘pace’, but then clamped his mouth closed and kept riding.
I smiled.
She said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so bothered by a man of so little importance to you.”
“I daeana think most men of so little importance and in such a frilly neck ruffle would dare tae bother me.”
“Very good point. Back to my story: We piled in cars and promised to follow each other all the way down the state, but then Dylan’s girlfriend needed to pee and we all had to stop. Hayley was hungry. James’s truck got shit gas mileage and we were pretty broke. Michael and Hayley got in an argument at the gas station. Good times.”
She grinned. “This is just like that. See the guy there, Master Allie? He’s wobbling on his horse? He’s been drinking since we left. If we don’t make it to the inn soon someone might have to carry him.”
“I am thankful for the horse. He was on the hunt with us, ye would be surprised how he can continue on while bein’ fully in his cups.”
She laughed. “And see behind us, Duncan, and then four people back, his wife? They aren’t speaking to each other. She said he has greatly offended her with attentions he paid to young Mary Seward.”
“Och, I hae seen the attentions, he is nae hiding it well enough.”
“Och,” she said, “men are scoundrels! Not hiding it well enough? You’re reminding me of the strip club a million years ago. James made my blood boil.”
I said, “Ye left him. They are nae as lucky here, they canna divorce without a great deal of effort,”
Quietly she said, “Châtellerault has been trying to divorce his wife for years, I heard.”
“Aye, and tis nae allowed.”
“And then the fellow there, about six back.”
“Young Master Cornet.”
“He is wanting Mistress Seonnie for his own but is too silly to make any of the right moves for her. We need a plan to get them with each other. There is so much drama, almost as much as that trip to Key West. We never made it, by the way. We still call it the Key West trip, but we only made it to Cape Canaveral. It’s not even halfway. We camped in our cars. It sucked. And was also fun as hell. Sometimes those are the same things.”