At that moment Wee Mairi popped into the kitchen, looking, in her full skirts, like a fairy child caught in an overblown rose. And, like a fairy child, she knew instantly that something was wrong, and what to do about it. She pattered across the floor and slipped her small, soft hand into Kelpie’s.
“This is my Kelpie,” she announced, smiling angelically at her mother. “’Tis myself loves her, and you must not be cross at her.”
“There, Mother!” crowed Eithne. “Wee Mairi loves her, and Mairi has the Second Sight; you said yourself that she is never making a mistake about a person!”
Lady Glenfern relaxed. “Aye so,” she agreed and smiled at Kelpie. “I can well see how you were tempted to tease,” she admitted and then became grave. “But you must be careful, lass. To joke about such matters could cause you sore trouble.”
Kelpie hardly heard the warning. Her hand was gripping the small one still protectively clinging to it, and she found herself again seized by an alarming surge of feeling for its owner. Och, the fair, sweet heart of her....
Wee Mairi chose this instant to lean confidingly against Kelpie and peer up with a beguiling smile. “My Kelpie,” she repeated.
And Kelpie was swallowed in a tide of the first real love she had ever known. She found it extremely upsetting. All her training and experience warned her that it was dangerous to be trapped into this sort of feeling. It left one vulnerable, could lead one into foolishness. And here she was, bewitched, unable to help it! She scowled helplessly.
Lady Glenfern, seeing her distress, mercifully took her from the kitchen for the rest of the day and set her to work at a simple bit of weaving. For an hour or so Kelpie sat alone, brooding. Eithne came in for a while to work at her own more complicated length of Cameron tartan, but Kelpie was so unsociable that she left again.
And then the twins arrived, dark heads cocked to one side, eyes dancing at her impishly. “We have found you,” they announced in triumph.
“Fine I know it,” growled Kelpie, refusing to look at them.