Lady Eilean

Chapter 7

Upon entering the breakfast room the next morning, I beheld the bedraggled state of my bleary-eyed brothers. They picked at the eggs and only tentatively sipped at their coffee. It was clear the long night of revelry had gotten the better of them. Mother and Father sat at their customary, smaller table, separate from the long one we children occupied. Their voices were low and their conversation intense.

"Morning," I said, as I slid into the open chair between Ian and Thomas. Rupert and Timothy sat across from me.

"Bug Eyes, hullo," the reeking waste of my brother Rupert said, his voice full of gravel. The rest of them, glassy-eyed and half asleep, ignored me.

Scowling at the nickname, I helped myself to a plateful of food. While I scooped steaming porridge and sausages to my place, I listed as my brothers detailed the post-Standing trouble they had found.

"The Munroe twins were not so high and mighty once we got to the barn. They took verra well to rutting in the hay," Thomas boasted, giving me an especially sly glance to see how I would react.

I simply poured myself a cup of tea.

"Had fun, did ye?" Timothy asked, his tongue rolling out of his mouth as he savored the further, filthier details Thomas was more than happy to provide.

After a quick primer on the finer points of the various creature husbandry that could take place in a barn, I looked up and asked Thomas, "Is that why you smell like manure, brother, or perhaps that is your custom cologne?"

The four men around me went silent. I tried to bite back my tight-lipped smile as they blinked at me.

"I dinna knew she could speak!" Rupert said, eyes bulging. "I only ever heard her say 'morning' or 'excuse me'."

"'Dinna knew she could speak'," I parroted back, mocking his foul grammar and low slang. "Did a tutor make you that stupid?"

Again there was a moment of silence before Rupert exploded into laughter. He slapped his knee and shook his head. "Oh! Where have you been, lassie? Who put the firecracker in your tongue?"

I shrugged, biting into my toast. But I met Ian's eyes and smiled. He returned the gesture with a pleased look. "The party must have put me in a good mood." Ian's brief yet educational conversation followed by an evening of laughing and talking with my best friend had done wonders for my sense of wellbeing.

Thomas looked at me askance and then smiled devilishly, "I don't think I was the only one to make a conquest last night."

There was a round of low chuckles around me.

"Tell us, sister, how was the Lord Leslie? Did you give him a proper welcome home?"

I choked with surprise on the dry toast, quickly reaching for a glass of water to wash it down. I drank it all, buying myself time for a reply. I was saved from my predicament when Father called my name.

"Eilean!" Came the shout, silencing the snickering of my brothers near me and the conversation the other three engaged in further down the table.

I stood up, the legs of my chair scraping loudly. "Yes?"

My father's expression was guarded, I couldn't predict what he was about to say. There was no clue hidden in my mother's countenance, either.

"Did you enter into an arrangement with Lord Leslie last night?"

My face turned a furious red, doing little to affirm my innocence. Rupert laughed under his breath.

"No, sir," I stuttered.