Black Richard's Heart (The MacCulloughs #1) - Suzan Tisdale Page 0,132
Colyne said, “Can we go search for Dagda’s treasures? Thomas says they’re not real, but Daniel, Peter, and I know they are!”
The boys all began talking at once, three excited lads and one pessimistic boy.
“Boys!” Aeschene said with a shake of her head. “Stop, now.”
She waited until they grew quiet before continuing. “Do ye have the proper tools for treasure hunting?”
They boys glanced at one another and shrugged their shoulders.
“How do ye plan on searching for treasures without the proper tools?”
“What kinds of tools?” Colyne asked as he scratched the back of his head.
Aeschene giggled. “Shovels, mayhap?”
Colyne looked heavenward and smacked his forehead with a palm. “So can we go? If we have the proper tools?”
“What do ye think, Marisse? Should we let them go?”
Marisse pretended to think on it for a long moment. “Aye, I think we should,” she told Aeschene. Turning to the boys she said, “But if ye do find Dagda’s sword, I want yer promise that I can hold it too.”
Each of the boys promised and waited with baited breath for Aeschene to grant per permission.
“Verra well,” she said. “But ye must be back by the nooning meal. And dunnae wander too far, aye?”
The boys happily agreed to her rules and thanked her kindly before hurrying away excitedly.
“Och!” Marisse said as she watched the boys running toward the keep. “Do ye remember being that young?”
“Aye, I do. ‘Twasn’t that long ago,” Aeschene quipped.
“Just think, in a few years, it will be yer children searching for Dagda’s treasures,” she said.
A warm smile curved her lips as she thought about her future. Her children. Tears dampened her lashes as her heart swelled with such pride and happiness.
Marisse squeezed her hand gently. “Did ye ever think ye would be a mother?”
“For the longest time, I didn’t,” she admitted. “But life has many twists and turns, thing ye dunnae expect.”
“Some good, some bad,” Marisse said. “But what an adventure it makes it!”
Little did either woman know that by day’s end, their lives would take unrecognizable turns.
Worry tugged at Aeschene’s heart. Colyne and his friends had yet to return and the nooning meal had come and gone nearly two hours ago. She was pacing near the hearth in the gathering room when she decided to send Raibeart after his brother.
“I am certain they just lost track of time,” Raibeart told her. “But I will go and find them, if it will make ye feel better.”
She smiled and thanked him. “Mayhap ye should take Richard with ye.”
“He is still at the quarry,” Raibeart reminded her.
“And before ye ask, Rory is with him,” Marisse told her. “Raibeart can certainly fetch the lads on his own.”
Aeschene chewed on her thumbnail for a brief moment. “Verra well,” she finally acquiesced. “But please be careful.”
’Twas lucky for Raibeart that she couldn’t see him rolling his eyes or shaking his head. “I am certain they are fine,” he tried to reassure her again. “Colyne and I used to be gone from sunup to sundown. We ken these lands like the backs of our hands.”
“I am certain ye do,” Aeschene told him. “But Colyne is only eleven.”
Raibeart scratched the back of his head. “But he is a verra smart eleven, aye? He knows where he can and cannot go.”
Marisse let out an exasperated sigh. “Just go and find the boy,” she said as she took a seat in the chair near the hearth. “And please hurry, else Aeschene will wear a hole in the floor with all her worry.”
The boys had been digging for hours. Everyone save for Colyne was growing weary of searching and finding nothing. Colyne knew they’d gone far beyond the boundaries his older brothers had set for him long ago, but he cared not. He was on a mission; a very important mission.
“Come on, Colyne!” Peter said. “We have been here too long.”
Colyne ignored Peter’s please to leave and continued to dig into the soft earth with a vengeance. He was digging near a very old and large tree he was convinced was Dagda’s tree from Aeschene’s story. Covered in sweat and dirt, he refused to listen to his friends.
“I’m hungry,” Thomas complained as he rubbed his stomach.
“Then go,” Colyne said as he tossed a pile of dirt over his shoulder. He was determined to find the treasures if it was the last thing he ever did.
“Och! We are all hungry, Colyne!” Peter complained. “It must be past time for the noonin’ meal.”
Daniel agreed. “My stomach is goin’ to eat itself.”