'Squirrel stew ismighty tasty,' Mòrag interrupted.
Jane gave her a horrified look, then whipped her head around to Hugh. 'Squirrel st-stew?'
He checked a grin. 'Jane, I'm going to start a verrasmall fire, with damp wood that will smoke more than anything. Then I'll drape a wet blanket over the hearth opening down here. It'll give them enough time to run up to the roof.'
When she still appeared unconvinced, Mòrag said, 'Enough with the bluidy squirrels, English. Now, which do ye want to do? Dress chickens or scour pots?'
When Jane merely bit her lip, Mòrag said, 'Pots it is.' She nodded at an open closet full of them. 'You can take all of them to the pump in the back and wash them. There's soaps and brushes in the shed off this kitchen.'
Though Hugh wanted to help, Jane waved him away. 'I can do it by myself,' she said firmly.
'Doona go anywhere but to the pump and back. Agreed?'
'Hugh, really.' At his unbending look, she muttered, 'Agreed.'
When she began hauling pots out to the pump, he moved to a window where he could see her. 'We're going to need supplies,' he told Mòrag. 'But I doona want anyone to know we're here, nor any visitors out here.'
'Why no'?'
He'd thought about telling her something ridiculous, like they wanted to surprise his brother with the renovation, but the girl was smart and, he sensed, trustworthy. 'There's an Englishman who might come looking for us. A dangerous sort of man, and one we'd rather avoid.'
She eyed him, knowing he was being less than forthcoming. He didn't care, as long as they understood each other.
'The sundries storekeeper will know ye're here, and that means the whole village will know. But no one outside of it will.'
He added another piece of wood to the small fire he'd started. 'The villagers doona like strangers?'
'Nay, no' at all. Strangers are met with a tight lip and a surly expression anyway, and if an outsider asks any of the townsfolk about yer whereabouts, I'll hear word of it directly. And I'll make sure everyone knows ye're honeymooning and are no' keen on receiving any visitors just now.'
Hugh raised his brows. They might as well have dropped off the face of the earth by coming here. Hugh and Mòrag understood each other perfectly. He nodded, finished draping the blanket over the fireplace, then strode outside. He chanced his tottering ladder all the way to the second-story roof to clear debris from the top of the chimney.
From the higher vantage, he could keep an eye on Jane as she worked. When she disappeared inside, he took in the views, comprehending more and more what had possessed his brother to buy Beinn a'Chaorainn. A breeze rippled the loch, then stilled, and the water reflected sunlight in a perfect mirror. On a fine day like this, he could see twenty miles away to the rounded spine of mountains at the far edge of Court's property.
For the next half hour, Hugh dodged the exodus of fleeing squirrels and marked damaged spots on the roof to fix when Mòrag's brothers could help with the major repairs. All the while, he checked on Jane, hard at work on her task.
The pots were heavy and unwieldy, but she seemed content to transport only two or three at a time to the pump. Back and forth she went, again and again, until she'd finally collected a mound of pots, handles sticking out in every direction.
At the pump, she rolled up her sleeves, then drew down on the lever—
Black sludge exploded out of the faucet, splattering over the front of her dress and her face like paint from a dropped tin.
'Oh, bloody, hell,' Hugh muttered, hurrying to climb down, snapping two rungs on the descent.
Jane froze for long moments, then sputtered, wiping her face with her forearm.
The girl had done that on purpose, no doubt of it. Mòrag could have told Jane to take the pots to the loch. Before Hugh reached her, Jane swung her gaze to him and raised one finger, her eyes murderous.
'I will handle this,' she said between gritted teeth. 'Don't you say a word to her.'
'Jane, this will no' be tolerated—'
'Precisely why I'm about to take care of this. If she wants to toss down the gauntlet, then I'll pick it up.' After carefully filling the largest pot with sludge, she lugged it toward the stables. The weight was so heavy it dragged her arm down, skewing her balance.
When Jane returned from the stables—where Mòrag's saddle and bags were—the bucket was empty and swinging at her hip, jaunty as a berry basket.
Chapter Thirty-six
By the end of the first five days at Beinn a'Chaorainn, Hugh felt like a cauldron about to boil over.
This unfortunate state was attested to by the fact that the property was already turning the corner. Every time Hugh thought about touching Jane, he worked.
In his time here, Hugh had accomplished the labor of a dozen men.
This afternoon, he sawed boards for the entryway floor, while Mòrag and Jane cleaned upstairs. The days that were clement enough for him to work outside were the days Mòrag aired the manor. Through the open windows, he could hear Jane humming or laughing as she cleaned, or spy flashes of her as she strolled down the hall.
He found himself looking forward to those glimpses of her.
With the three of them toiling, his and Jane's living situation had improved dramatically. Hugh had selected the two best adjoining rooms in the manor for Jane and himself, and then Mòrag had gone to work like a dervish cleaning them, as if to embarrass Jane for her sneezing clumsiness with a broom.
On Mòrag's second day, she'd returned with a packhorse and a cart. She'd only purchased necessities for them-linens, mattress rolls, kitchen and cleaning supplies, foodstuffs—but the shopkeepers in Mòrag's small village were quick to pile wares on her to take back to the brother of 'Master Courtland.' They all saw Court as a savior, the ruthless warrior Scot who'd reclaimed the land from a haughty English baron—a baron who had insisted on raising sheep, and running off tenants to allow them to graze.
Court had done nothing but capitalize on the baron's bad business sense, but Hugh wasn't going to enlighten the shopkeepers.
In fact, Hugh was becoming more and more confident that staying on was the right decision. Having Mòrag around was ideal because not only was she transforming the interior and reluctantly teaching Jane how to help, but her presence kept Hugh from trailing after Jane's skirts like a wolf licking his lips.
The one problem with Mòrag was that she and Jane bickered constantly. Jane was bewildered to be ridiculed for the way she talked or disliked simply for being a foreigner. Hugh didn't want Jane to be miserable, but he wouldn't mind her understanding that 'bloody English' was merely an equivalent to 'rough Scot.'
Sometimes Jane won an argument, and Hugh would hear her say, 'No, no, I promised myself I wouldn't gloat.' Sometimes she lost a spat and would sniff, 'Oh.' Pause. 'Well,obviously .'
And they competed at everything. When he'd dragged some old furniture down from the attic and repaired it, Jane and Mòrag raced to paint or stain it, looking more at the other's progress than their own. When he replaced the windows, they raced each other at cleaning them. In fact, Hugh feared Jane was working much too hard, toiling with an almost frantic zealousness. Hugh knew she was competitive by nature, but this seemed to be more than a mere rivalry.
To distract her, Hugh had crafted a target for her out of a dense hay bale with a sheet stretched taut over it, and she'd painted the rings. Yet she didn't practice in lieu of work; she woke earlier to do it all.
Every morning, on the terrace between the manor and stables, she donned her three-fingertip hunting gloves and her quiver. Her breaths would be visible in the cool air as she drew her bow, her expression intent. It was a thing of beauty to watch, and he secretly did so every morning.
Even Mòrag would pause at the kitchen window and stare in amazement.
