CASTLE LÀIDIR, 1720
The sun had long started to sink, but the heat remained. I rubbed my sweaty forehead with the back of my hand and sighed. No matter how many tricks I tried the onions still made my eyes water.
I chopped them quickly with the semi blunt knife, skilfully keeping my fingers out of its way. Within a minute the onions were sliced and tipped into the huge pot of broth simmering over hot coals.
'More onions, Peigi,' Seonag commanded. Her thinning grey hair looked like it was being pulled out of her head, tied tight in a severe knot that peaked out the back of my bonnet. She didn't give her subordinates any less slack. 'Did you do twenty like I told you?'
I pulled more onions from the sack that lay on the floor against the table in front of her. 'Yes,' I replied, and began chopping.
Seonag was pestering another kitchen maid within seconds. 'Maili! This sauce is like water!'
Her voice was soon drowned out by clamouring and scraping and chit chat. Wherever Seonag wasn't here there was chatter. She ruled with an iron fist, I knew that first hand, but her hands were too small to rule everyone in the kitchen at once.
My eyes stung more than they had mere seconds ago. I cursed Seonag silently.
The steam off the broth made my stomach growl. All I'd had to eat were bits and pieces of leftovers that lay on the edges of tables and chopping boards. Supper couldn't come quickly enough.
I finished chopping just as two sets of heavy feet bounded down the stairs. Alastair MacIver and his cousin Calum appeared in the kitchen, cream shirts splattered with dirt but kilts looking almost pristine, hung low on their hips.
Immediately they dived into jokes and flirting with the girls, most giving it right back to them. Any other wouldn't get away with it; but those boys, with their charming smiles and good nature, could get away with murder. Alastair was the taller of the two if only by a hair. He was the oldest too, though it was hard to notice. Both had dark, shaggy hair; Alastair's fell almost into his eyes while Calum's nearly his shoulders; and both had dirt brown eyes that seemed to look through souls.
Short on time, I tied the sack of onions and humped them into my arms. In an instant Alasdair was by my side offering help.
'Let me get this for you,' he said, reaching his hands out to take the heavy sack from my arms.
'I'll manage, thanks,' I replied and heaved it up with as much effort as I could muster. Sometimes I almost forgot we use to be best friends, when we were children of course. It was different now that we were older, and we needed to act like it. Those two even being down there with servants so far below them in rank was bad enough; pretending the girls has a chance was worse.
Alasdair stepped to the side and let me pass but that didn't stop my arm brushing his chest. I hated that my breath caught in my throat from the tiny pressure. I quickly walked the rest of the way into the pantry and dumped the sack in the corner.
Finally I was done for the day. In here at least.
The boys were flashing smiles and staring deep into girls' eyes as I walked back through the kitchen. I avoided them as best I could, weaving through tables and stools and pots of water to Maili.
'I'm off to get changed,' I told my friend. Maili glanced at my and nodded then got straight back to peeling potatoes. She'd already been scolded by Seonag for slacking today; she wasn't going to be told off a second time.
I took one look at my table to make sure there was nothing left out that Seonag could grumble at me about. Alastair's gaze caught my attention. It was fixed on me. I nodded minutely, turned on my heel and left before I could gauge his reaction.
'Hurry up!' Seonag squealed. I was delivering the bowls of broth as quickly as I could without tripping down the uneven stone staircase that joined the kitchen and the Great Hall. With dusk falling there was little more than candle light to highlight the grooves and dips in the stone. Still after years of walking the halls I was still caught out by them.
'It'll be cold by the time it's in front of them,' Seonag moaned, sending me near fuming.
I'd like to see you do this, I thought. Seonag wouldn't last a minute between the balancing, the unwanted groping by hairy hands and the constant weight of always being polite no matter what those men said. When was the last time that doore woman smiled anyway? Not since I started working in the kitchens.
Silent, I picked up three more burning bowls of soup and placed them on my hands. Stuck between two hells, I thought; sullen Seonag and rowdy men. Tonight was especially bad; the clansmen had just gotten word that the British army had been attacked at Fort William and lost almost a quarter of all stationed there. I couldn't say I wasn't too feeling part of that celebratory mood.
Blonde haired Deirdre almost bumped into my halfway up the stairs, but I was quick to steady the bowls and Deirdre was quick to apologise. It was her first night working upstairs and she was clearly frazzled. I had given her as much advice as I could think of, but it looked like it hadn't quite been enough.
She continued up the steps and onto worn, creaking floorboards. The noise of the party could be heard in the kitchen, but upstairs it was almost deafening. Laughs, coughs, shouts, scrapes, stomps, singing and music boomed through the large room and filled the whole space, high ceiling and all. Men in kilts and women in beautiful embroidered dresses sat around huge wooden tables arranged in a U shape. In the middle was the dancing, where a Strip the Willow took place to the chopping of the fiddle and the blaring bagpipes, and at the head of the table was the Laird Coinneach MacIver, his brother Ruaraidh and their sons, Alasdair and Calum. Ishbel also sat by them, Alasdair's older sister. She was married to a cousin of the Mackenzie chief but was visiting her father while the Mackenzies launched attacks at the British. She and her unborn baby were much safer here at Castle Làidir.
I darted around clumsy bodies to serve the last bowls to the guests. They were basically out of their seats already, eager to get some dances in.
Now I could have a break for at least a few minutes while the last of the broth was eaten before pudding needed to be served. Unless Seonag found something else for me to do.
I side stepped flinging arms and pushed away unwanted advances as I made my way back downstairs to find somewhere Seonag wouldn't bother me. A hand suddenly grabbed mine and spun me around.
'Dance with me?' Alasdair asked, grinning like a boy who had never heard the word no.
My jaw almost hit the floor. Had he grabbed the right girl?
'I don't know if I should-'
He held onto my elbow and crossed it under with his other hand, readying us for a spin. My heart felt like it had swollen twice its normal size. The heat of his hands in mine and on me sent my pulse racing.
'Come on, it's starting!'
With no warning he spun us around, stamping his brogues on the wooden floor with every bounce. My eyes widened when I noticed his kilt flinging up at his rapid movements.
All the people around us became a blur and I couldn't stop the giggle that fell from my lips. What a situation this was! When he saw my smiling he laughed too, releasing my hand and skipping over to spin the next girl.
My curls escaped their bun and sprung up around my face as I spun another young man. Alasdair met me in the middle and we swung round again and parted and joined until we had run out of couples and were spinning by ourselves once more.
His messy hair bounced around his face as I was sure mine must have been doing as well. It also didn't escape my notice when his eyes darted down to my chest and the little support my corset was providing there. Still, I laughed and skipped and danced. It was like we were children again, playing amongst the trees outside the castle.
'Seonag will have my head!' I shouted over the music. The thought of consequences nagged at my mind but I was having too much fun to give them much attention.
'I'll tell her it was under orders of the Laird,' he replied just as loud. I just laughed.
Then I let out a quick high pitched curse as my shoes lost their grip and slipped on the floor. I hadn't time to catch myself before Alasdair caught me by the waist. His rough hand let go of my hand and grabbed my waist instead, jolting my back to reality. I needed to get back to work.
Sweaty, tired and surely red faced, I was suddenly aware of the rest of the room and the people staring. What kind of kitchen maid thought she could dance with a Laird's son?
I quickly detached myself from Alasdair's hold and found my eyes lowering to the ground.
'I must get back to the kitchen,' I murmured, not caring if he heard me or not. The music and dancing were still going on around us and making it hard to think straight.
I practically ran past the other guests to the stairs, embarrassment consuming my and flushing my face with heat. I shakily skipped down the steps and into the kitchen where Seonag was waiting for her.
'What took you so long?' She snapped. My eyes were almost as pink as my blotchy cheeks. I was wiping down a table to ready for pudding, throwing the pieces of food on to the floor to sweep up later.
'They were asking about the soup. Complimenting you,' I replied and continued on into the next room. Here girls were already beginning to put together the bread pudding and cream. So much for a break, I thought and got straight back to work.
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Làidir pronounced LA-chir
Gaelic for strong
Seonag pronounced SHAW-nack
Gaelic form of Joan
Maili pronounced MAH-lee
Gaelic form of Mary
Strip The Willow: Scottish ceilidh dance; a pair of dancers swings every other couple in the dance and each other to a fast paced tune.
Coinneach pronounced CON-nyuch
Gaelic form of Kenneth
Ruaraidh pronounced ROO-ah-ree
Gaelic form of Roderick