Undaunted, they seated themselves on two wee creepie-stools and regarded her with affable curiosity. “There is a thing that we have in our minds,” they told her.
“I am doubting that!” snapped Kelpie.
The twins digested this insult and then chuckled. “I am liking you fine,” said Donald, “even though you are not a witch.”
Kelpie, touched again on that newly sensitive spot, shot the shuttle through the warp with unnecessary violence and said nothing.
“Why were you saying you are a witch when you are not?” asked Ronald with interest. “Why,” he continued, getting warmed up, “do Fiona and the others think you are? Would you like to be? Are you truly Old Mina’s girl? Is she your Grannie Witchie? If you were a witch, Kelpie, what would you do first of all?”
“Put a spell of silence on the tongue of you,” retorted Kelpie and found that her ill humor was beginning to evaporate. It was impossible not to smile back at their cheeky grins, not to chuckle when they said that Mother would probably approve such a spell. The atmosphere became quite congenial.
“I thought you were going fishing,” observed Kelpie.
The twins looked depressed. “We were,” they agreed. “But Father is come back from seeing Lochiel and told us to bide here for our lessons that we missed this morning. I think ’twill take him a wee while to find us in here, whatever,” added Ronald cheerfully, and Kelpie grinned again.
“We are learning about the war between King Charles and Parliament and the Covenant,” volunteered Donald sadly, “and we could do fine not knowing about it. Grownups are gey confusing, so they are, and sometimes I think gey foolish besides, and we are not understanding it all very well.”