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All four of them laughed, and Alexander
held up his cup. “To Jeanie, an’ fierce women everywhere.”
“Hear, hear!” Cicilia chuckled, holding up her own cup. The other two did the same. When the toast was complete, she said, “Get on wi’ yer story, then. The jape?”
Nathair laughed. “Aye! So Sandy went to the luthier down the road an’ begged an’ wheedled ‘til the lad agreed to sell him a wee bottle o’ hide glue—ye ken, the type they use for fancy lutes an’ the like—an’ he came runnin’ back. Then he took a coin an’ stuck it to the stall below us. I ‘accidentally’ knocked into Catherine when she was handlin’ her change purse, an’ o’ course the coins went everywhere.”
Alexander smiled at the memory. “Aye. It was a hot day, but nae too hot. The glue had done its job marvelously. Me an’ Nathair hurried to help her pick up the coins, but we purposely avoided the stuck one. We watched her tryin’ to pick it up for a solid few minutes before it got too much for us to bear.”
“She was furious,” Nathair grinned. “An’ told us she’d never buy us sweet buns again.”
“Aye, but she still did the followin’ Saturday anyway,” Alexander chuckled.
Both girls laughed loudly at the image of the proper Laird’s daughter scrabbling for a coin she could never lift. Cicilia nudged Alexander with her elbow. “An’ ye have the nerve to talk about me siblings! Ye an’ Nathair were just as bad!”
He grinned. “Aye, maybe. An’ what o’ ye an’ Jeanie? Surely ye must have a story or two in exchange for ours?”
The girls looked at each other, and Cicilia shrugged. “I dinnae ken. Jeanie’s quite a wee bit younger than me, so we were older when we truly became friends. We’ve had plenty o’ fun times, but as for the kind of stories ye’re lookin’ for us to share…”
“Och, tell them about the dance!” Jeanie insisted brightly. “When the Lowland Earl was in Wauton seekin’ a bride!”
Cicilia clapped her hands together, her strange, pretty eyes sparkling in the candlelight. “Aye, I’d near forgotten. Earl Knox, was it nae? He quite fancied the idea o’ bringin’ home a Highland wife to emphasize his proud Scottishness.”
Alexander remembered that. Earl Knox had, of course, been required to get the Laird of Gallagher’s permission before crossing into his land. Alexander had just turned twenty, four years into his Lairdship, and he’d found the whole concept baffling. He’d instructed the Earl to do as he pleased, wishing him luck.
As if a pompous Lowlander could survive in the face o’ the Highland lassies.
“I was seven-and-ten, an’ Jeanie just three-and-ten, but she thought herself quite the woman already,” Cicilia went on, smirking at her friend, who gave an unapologetic shrug in response. “The twins were yet to be born, an’ me faither spent most o’ his time attendin’ to me Mither, so it was easy enough to get their consent to go, even despite what happened the previous…” she trailed off.
Despite what? What happened?
But if she wanted to tell him, she would, he supposed. So Alexander didn’t press, just waiting for her to continue.
“So along we went, dressed as fancy as ye please. Jeanie was thinkin’ about movin’ in wi’ her grandda at this stage, ye ken, an’ she wanted to get to ken the lads in town before she did such a thing. So we snuck into the dance, an’ we danced wi’ most o’ the young lads there,” Cicilia went on.
“Aye, an’ then ye caught one o’ their eyes!” Jeanie giggled.
Cicilia rolled her eyes, but she looked amused. “Aye, that I did. He approached an’ told me that me hair an’ eyes were some o’ the most unusual he had ever seen, an’ asked me to dance. I accepted to be polite, but after the events o’ the previous year, courtship was the furthest thing from me mind.”
“But it wisnae far from this lad’s!” Jeanie went on gleefully. “He was about ten-an’-nine an’ he seemed to find our Cil spellbindin’. Every time the song ended an’ she tried to move away, he claimed her as a partner over an’ over again. Me, I was young an’ caught up in the attention o’ me own young admirers, so I dinnae really notice until it was too late.”
Alexander and Nathair exchanged looks, Alexander slightly concerned.
“Too late for what?” Nathair asked.
“Aye, Cicilia,” Jeanie teased. “Too late for what?”
Cicilia chuckled and shrugged. “Well, it turns out that the lad is Earl Knox himself, an’ he’s gotten himself quite taken wi’ me in the hours we spent dancin’. When the last song ended, he proposed to me, then an’ there.”
Absurdly, Alexander felt a surge of jealousy. “An’ ye said?”
“Nay, of course,” Cicilia finished, giving him a perturbed look. “Unless I’ve been an Earl’s wife this whole time without kennin’ it.”
Jeanie laughed wickedly. “Nay, that is nae what she said. She told him thank ye for the dancin’, but she wisnae interested. An’ the young Earl dinnae take that so well. He started yellin’ an’ stompin’ an’ he demanded to ken if she honestly thought she could do better than him.”
Now Alexander was furious at this memory of a spoiled brat. How dare this so-called Earl talk to Cicilia in that way? On Alexander’s land, no less? He knew it was irrational, but he almost wanted to storm the Lowlands now and teach the fool a lesson.
“An’ what did Cicilia say to that?” Nathair asked.
