Jack shook his head. “I will pay under my own terms. Just send the word.”
Aideen’s forehead creased with frown lines that Jack ignored, and after a few seconds passed Aideen bowed, turned, and hurried out of the Castle.
Jack sighed. He was about to walk up the stairs when he saw Isla come in from the garden’s entrance with Moira. She laughed at something Moira said to her, and the warm sound graced the atmosphere. It brightened his mood suddenly, and he smiled even before he realized he had started back down the stairs again to meet her.
“My Lady—”
“Jack,” she said in a light tone, and thrust her hands forward. Jack saw the dirt on her palms and the smudge on her cheeks. “I learned to uproot sage today. It’s a sacred herb used for making many potions. A love potion is one of them. Maybe I will use it to charm you into loving me.”
She laughed at her joke, and Moira joined her. “She doesnae mean it, My Laird,” Moira said, then gave Isla a gentle nudge in her side.
Jack found it relaxing that she was enjoying herself. He had expected her to stay indoors since she was not used to his time, but it looked like she was adapting already.
She even wore his Clan colors today. Her dress was an embroidery of gold on red and her hair was styled in numerous twists with pins that held them in place on top of her head.
Humphreys women braided their hair with wool made from sheep’s skin and the style had passed on from generations to the recent times.
She was wearing the pendant he gifted her the previous night, and the gold looked even brighter as it rested on her creamy skin.
“I would like a word,” Jack said to Isla while she spoke to Moira in hushed tones. She raised her had to meet his gaze, and he added with a smile. “Do ye mind?” Watching her suddenly filled him with the urge to have her to himself. Jack began planning a time out with her, away from the Castle.
“Oh… of course not,” she replied to him. “I will clean my hands and meet ye in the Castle.”
Jack nodded. “I will be waiting.”
Isla’s smile widened at the corners of her lips before she walked past him and headed into the kitchen. The scent of roses breezed past him when she walked away, and he indulged in it.
Love and roses,he thought as he remembered her comment about making a love potion. He didn’t know about love, but it seemed as if she had already bewitched him with thoughts of her.
She’s all I can think about.
* * *
Jack led her out of the Castle and toward the stables when she joined him some minutes later. “Ye enjoy the art of healin’?” he asked her.
Isla nodded, and he stole a glance at her before entering the stable to bring out his horse.
“Yes, I enjoy it, and Moira is also a great teacher,” she replied. “I am learnin’ a lot from her.”
Jack stroked his horse’s mane as he listened to her, and she continued talking about her new passion.
“I find that it makes me happy when I see the sick patients relieved because of the potions I make. I think this might be part of who I am, and I just never knew it. I used to hate being around people so much and I spent most of my time in my history books.”
“Look how that has served ye,” he pointed out.
“It surely has,” she said with a chuckle. “I mean you never would have believed me if I did not tell ye the things I know.”
“Well, today, ye will learn to ride on yer own,” Jack told her the patted his saddle. “Hop on.”
Isla hesitated at first, but he stuck out a hand to her and she put hers in so he could help her mount. Once he was satisfied that she was seated properly he climbed up behind her, then kicked the horse’s sides to get it to trot.
Jack led them out of the Castle, and they rode for a long time; he got to the vast fields beneath the hill where they could have some privacy. They were not far from the Humphreys’ market and since it was a Saturday, Jack could hear the drums coming from the square where the villagers had their weekly jousting competition.
The villagers used this means to entertain themselves and it was a long-standing event that could not be displaced even if he tried. His father used to host jousts in the Castle too while he ruled. Jack had changed that rule because he did not fancy watching people fight and hurt themselves for a simple gift from the Laird.
It never made sense to him.
He returned his thoughts to the present and helped her get off the saddle. Jack didn’t release her hand as he walked with her to away from the tree where he had tied the reins.