me?”
The innocent question likely meant little to the boy. But not so to the man. He felt his throat close up with emotion at the thought of helping this lad grow smart and strong. Of being someone’s father.
Why had he not calculated this feeling?
“Aye, lad,” he managed to croak. “I would be honored.”
Evelinde saved him when she scooped Liam up off the stool. When had she stood and crossed to them? Likely when Malcolm had been distracted. And her presence now allowed him to turn back to the table, blinking away the mistiness in his eyes.
“Honeybun, I ken ‘tis raining, but that doesnae mean ye can ignore yer chores.” He heard her place a loud kiss on the lad’s cheek, and Liam’s laughter followed. “Go tend to the chickens.”
Tending the chickens. That had been Malcolm’s chore as a lad, as well.
The animals needed to be out of doors, but with this constant rain, they were as trapped as the humans. Oh, work could be done, but not easily, and definitely not comfortably.
Dimly, he heard Liam climbing over the fence, while Evelinde moved about, but Malcolm’s mind was already drifting back to the device he’d been imagining yesterday while fixing the thatch.
Some sort of portable roof…
His forefinger dragged through the sand, sketching his idea without much input from his brain.
A pole of some sort, here, so that a man could carry it in one hand. And a flat piece of board attached here.
Nay, if ‘twas made of metal, ‘twould be stronger, to withstand more. It could even be used as a defense mechanism, in that case!
Could Duncan beat steel so thin? ‘Twould have to be remarkably thin—thinner than a blade—in order to be held comfortably.
His palm swiped across the sand, smoothing it out, so he could draw a top view.
What if instead of a solid piece of metal, he used a series of thin slats? Unsharpened blades, mayhap? He sketched something which looked like a sunburst, originating from a center point. That would mean less metal used, so ‘twould be lighter.
If they were hinged, the entire thing would be the size and shape of a large sword, and carried comfortably when not in use.
But!
Muttering a curse, he swiped across half the sunburst, erasing it. The thin metal slats meant it would be easier to carry, but would do naught against the rain, which was the problem he hoped to solve.
The arc he drew around this half of the device stood in contrast to the sunburst on the other side. Bah! It seemed he sacrificed portability for usability—
“What are ye doing?”
Evelinde’s soft question jerked him back to reality.
Instinctively, he made to wipe away his sketch, to hide his idea. His brothers appreciated his talents, he knew, but they often teased him for getting lost in his own mind.
But she stopped his movement when she touched his arm. “It looks as if ye’re designing something.”
“I—” He cleared his throat. “ ’Twas just an idea I had yesterday, while out in the rain. A sort of…roof one could carry about with them.”
She was frowning thoughtfully as she stared down at his sketch, one hand on his arm, the other on her hip. As he watched, she lifted her hand and tapped her finger against her lips.
“Is this the pole to carry it?” She suddenly jabbed her finger at the sketch. “And this is the roof here? But what are these?”
She was pointing to the sunburst. He shrugged, already embarrassed to have been caught idly designing impractical inventions. And caught by the woman he’d hoped to impress, no less!
He tried to wipe it out again, but this time she caught his fingers. “Tell me, please.”
Well, how could he deny that soft plea? “Those are slats,” he said nonchalantly. “In order to make the design lighter and easier to carry. I thought of hinging them, so they folded and were easier to carry.”
“Would they be made of wood or metal?”
She was curious?
“Metal, I thought.” He shrugged. “But then I realized slats would prove useless against the rain.”
This time she didn’t stop him when he brushed the sketch away. Instead, she stood, frowning thoughtfully down at the blank sand canvas.
“What if…”
Slowly, carefully, she drew the sunburst again, spokes emanating from a center point. But then she drew a circle around the spokes, the circumference linking the tips of each line, so the spokes became radians within a circle.
“What if ye kept the design, using slats—metal or wooden. But ye covered them in oiled leather? ‘Twould keep out