chest out with pride, while Raibeart was a bit more shy about the attention.
After a thoughtful consultation with Aeschene and Marisse, the lads decided they would help the elderly first, then the widows, and after that, whomever needed their assistance. Everyone, it seemed, was glad for their help. Aeschene believed their gratitude was genuine. However, several people did remark they were simply glad to have the lads doing good deeds for a change.
Overall, Aeschene was quite happy to know the boys wouldn’t be getting into trouble anytime in the foreseeable future.
Every morn, the boys would wake early and quickly break their fast before rushing out the door to go to work. For not the first time in the past few years, Aeschene wished with all her heart she could see clearly again. Oh, how she wanted to see the look of pride she knew was beaming in her brothers-by-law eyes.
Not once did the boys shirk their duties. They worked as hard as the adult men in the clan. Harder, perhaps, because Colyne and Raibeart had something to prove; they weren’t necessarily the horrible heathens everyone believed them to be.
While the boys worked, Aeschene and Marisse offered what help they could, but for the most part, kept a good distance. Aeschene knew ’twas better for the boys to learn from the people they were helping. Besides, she couldn’t see and was therefore not much help in that regard. Still, she stood by, proudly observing in her own way, the changes in not only Colyne and Raibeart, but the clanspeople’s attitudes toward them as well.
After only a few days, some of the women began to come out of doors, offering chairs or blankets for Aeschene and Marisse to sit upon. Eventually, some of the women began to join them, doing their sewing or watching their children play whilst they got to know their laird’s new wife a bit better.
On one bright, sunny afternoon, the two women sat on a blanket, enjoying the rare warmth of the afternoon sun. They were soon joined by a little girl named Lilah, and her mother, Francis.
“I was told ye were simpleminded,” the little girl said with a scrunched brow.
“Lilah!” her mother exclaimed.
Aeschene and Marisse laughed freely. “’Tis all right,” Aeschene told mother and daughter. “That rumor has been around for a very long while. But I can assure ye, I am not simple minded.”
Frances cleared her throat and offered Aeschene her most sincere apology and a black berry tart. “Truly, Frances, do not fash over it much. She is just a child,” Aeschene told her. “And this tart? I have never in my life tasted better. But do not tell Hattie I said that.”
Frances gigged and promised she would take that secret to her grave. “I must admit, m’lady, I did hear the same. A few people are convinced ye have the mind of a wean. But after gettin’ to know ye, I have been correctin’ their line of thinkin’, I most surely have.”
“Undoubtedly, that rumor was spread by Loreen,” Marisse said with an unladylike like snort.
“Och! Loreen,” Frances shook her head and clucked her tongue. “Now that be someone ye do not want to be on the bad side of.”
Curious, Aeschene asked her to explain what she meant.
“Well, far be it from me to be talkin’ out of place,” Frances began. Leaning in to whisper, she said, “That woman has had a bee up her hind end for as long as I can recall. She was to have married, Richard, ye ken. But tossed him aside like yesterday’s breadcrumbs, she did. Without so much as a by yer leave, she left. Hied off with some man from the McDunnah clan, ye ken.”
Aeschene’s chest grew tight, her palms damp. “Richard and Loreen?” she asked.
“Well, ’twere not a love match,” Frances told her. “’Twas an arrangement, ye ken. Betwixt our laird, Galen, and Loreen’s da.” She looked heavenward and shook her head. “To tell the truth, I think Richard was right glad when she took off.” She took in a deep breath before continuing with her tale. “Well that did not last long, ye ken, Loreen and that McDunnah lad. Son of a stable master, I think he was. Within a year’s time, Loreen was back, actin’ all high and mighty, thinkin’ she could pick up right where she left off. But Richard was not havin’ it, ye ken. Nae, he surely was not havin’ it.”
Marisse was enthralled with the tale. “What happened next?” she asked breathlessly.
“Well,