Lady Eilean

Chapter 56

All Mother seemed interested in was running up the estate's bills. Content to burn through the credit I had spent years building. Every room needed new furnishings, her entire wardrobe would have to be replaced, delicacies needed to be imported from the Mainland to keep the courtier's wives happy. Starved of female companionship during the war, she frittered away her days with gossip, card games, and putting cases of glass goblets on credit.

I began to suspect that my father's debt had not been entirely his fault. I might have forgiven my mother's indulgences if she made any effort around the castle, or showed any evidence of caring for the people under her rule. Mother only wanted to take, take, take; giving nothing and thinking little in return.

Looking out of the corner of my eyes, I watched as maids draped Mother in luxurious silks of deep red and bright yellow. I tried not to tally the cost of the fabric, trimmings, hats, shoes, gloves, stockings and failed. Each new item added to our wardrobes felt ludicrous and pointless after years of wearing and reworking clothes built for utility only.

Say what you will about a woman in breeches, but it is cost-effective.

Three maids pinned and measured me, giggling as they whispered among themselves. I smiled at them, enjoying their jokes and barbs at each other's expense. They had been around ten years old at the start of the war and I had watched them grow into fetching young women.

"You think I look silly, don't you?" I asked one of them as she pulled a swath of emerald velvet from my shoulder. Emily was her name.

"Not at all, mistress," she said with a bright smile. Her laughter betrayed her.

"We've never seen you dressed up, is all," another, Margaret, answered, shooting her friend a disapproving glare.

"Who do you think will stand for ye, lady?" The third, Lily, asked matching swatches of lace to an expanse of brocade pinned to my chest.

"I don't know!" I said, pretending to care. "No one, hopefully." I winked at her and she laughed.

"'Spose it doesn't matter. Everyone says they'll have to duel Lord Leslie for you anyway," Emily laughed again, covering her mouth to soften the sound.

I snorted at that, trying to imagine Alex in a duel. "Do you think Alex would challenge someone?"

The girls tittered and shook their heads.

"He is too sweet," Lily decided.

"I've seen him practicing at swords and shooting. He could do it." Margaret insisted, blushing fiercely.

"I thought you two were married already," Emily said through a mouthful of pins. She was now crouched low to the ground, making sure her markings for the hem were even.

"I've ever seen a Standing in my life." Lily sighed, her eyes misty. "I heard about it from me Ma, of course. As a kid, I thought it sounded so romantic."

I raised my eyebrows at that but said nothing.

"Now I'm not so sure," she concluded.

Mother looked over her shoulder and frowned, but said nothing.

"If Laird Eilean... Lady Eilean, I mean, and Lord Leslie can't get married, I might as well become a nun," Emily moaned. "There'd be no hope for any of us!"

I laughed at their dramatic sighs, but their chatter did little to quell my increasing panic. If I couldn't save myself from a coerced marriage, how could I protect them?

In the weeks since Mother's proclamation of my upcoming sale, Alex had been in a flurry of activity. He sent and received dozens of letters a day, each one shorter than the last. When I asked him what he was up to, he looked at me, frazzled.