Throughout the rest of November and the beginning of December, the spinners came to the cottage. Beitris always had news of who’d lately been accused of witchcraft and who was rumored to be next. Nan would shake her head and suggest we dwell on cheerier topics. Baby Ian always provided a few items of good news in the form of a new tooth, sitting up for the first time, and, on an overcast day in mid-December, his first step. All our threads turned bright gold when that happened.
Nan observed that the thread glowed after I touched the spinner. “It’s your magic combined with our feelings,” she said. But the results were erratic and unstable. The thread would glow for a bit and then grow dull. If the spinner became angry—as Aileen did once when Una chided her not to let baby Ian suck his thumb—the thread might suddenly break. Once, when I was thinking about how William had brushed against me the night before, my thread went up in flames. Even Aileen seemed to notice that, and Nan gave me a guarded look and stayed after the others had left.
I was afraid she’d guessed what I’d been thinking about, but when we were alone she said instead, “It’s almost the time of the trial, and we don’t know how to make this tartan of yours. We don’t have enough thread.”
“I’m not even sure we’re going about it the right way,” I said, discouraged. “The Stewarts in my time were able to weave the tartan out of thin air. They didn’t need wool and spinning wheels and looms.”
“It’s queer you don’t know how to do it, seeing as you’re the one who taught them.”
“The whole thing is queer,” I said, exasperated. “How could I have been the one who taught the Stewarts how to make the tartan when they already knew how to make it when I met them?” When I thought about the tangle of time, my thoughts became as snarled as knotted yarn.
“Aye, ’tis a puzzle. But that’s not all I wanted to talk to you about. I’ve noticed the way William looks at you when he comes home, and I saw how you were looking when your thread caught fire. Were you thinking of William—or were you thinking of the creature he became?”
“I don’t see how that’s your business,” I snapped.
Nan gave me a level look. “It’s my business because I care about the lad and I would not see him trifled with after all he’s gone through. He’s been the plaything of one woman already.”
I bristled at being compared to the Fairy Queen, but then I met Nan’s steady gaze and saw the genuine concern there. In her eyes, I might be just as much a threat to William’s happiness as was the Fairy Queen.
“I was thinking of him,” I admitted. “I’ve come to care for him. How could I not? He’s a sweet boy and he will become the man I fell in love with—and lost.”
“But you still intend to go back to your time when you’ve gotten what you came for, aye?”
“What choice do I have?” I cried more shrilly than I’d meant to. “My friends are waiting for me back in Fairwick.”
“Do ye know for sure they are, lass?” Nan asked. “From the stories I’ve heard about travelers in Faerie, there’s no telling when you might come back. Perhaps it will be a moment after you left or a month or a year or two hundred years, like Oisin when he returned to his country to find his castle in ruins and all the folk he knew long dead and gone. And then, when he stepped foot on the ground, he turned into an old man and died.”
“I know the story,” I said. “Do you think I haven’t wondered about that? No, I have no idea what will be waiting for me when I get back to Fairwick—or even if I’ll be able to get past the Fairy Queen’s curse to get there—but I can’t just abandon my friends no matter how I feel about William.”
Nan’s face softened. “Aye, I thought as much. Then I beg you to be careful not to break the poor lad’s heart.”
When William came home that night, I did not walk out to meet him. After dinner, I picked up my knitting to keep my hands busy and kept my eyes on my stitches to keep from meeting his gaze. When he asked about the spinning, I told him, “Well, we’re going to start weaving tomorrow. We’ll have the tartan soon, and then we’ll use it to get the angel stone from the witch hunters.”
William got up to poke the fire, hard enough to make it nearly go out, then with his back to me said, “Good. I’ll start collecting a few lads brave enough to carry your tartan to the castle.”
“Are there men willing to risk it?” I asked, knitting faster to resist the urge to knead the tightened muscles in his back.
“There are sons and husbands of the accused,” he answered. “What kind of man would not be willing to risk his neck for the woman he loved?”
Without waiting for an answer, William walked out the back door, muttering something about needing to check on the sheep, leaving me to wonder why William was willing to risk his own neck carrying the tartan to Castle Coldclough.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The next day we set up the loom in the central room, and Nan and Beitris took turns teaching me how to weave while Aileen and Una took turns knitting a blanket for baby Ian and rocking him by the fire.
“He’s fretful today,” Aileen complained as she handed him over to Una and stood to stretch her back. “He might be cutting a new tooth.”
“I could brew him a tonic,” Una said, crooning to her grandson.
Aileen sniffed. “Reverend Fordick says if ye say your prayers and attend kirk regular, ye have no need of herb craft and sech witchery. Put yer faith in the Lord, he says.”
“That’s all very well,” Una replied, “but if the Reverend Fordick didna spurn my dandelion tonic, he wouldna look like a man who’s not moved his bowels since Whitsunday.”
Beitris and Nan laughed, but Aileen looked scandalized to hear the reverend’s bowels discussed.
“And I wouldna have ye hanging scissors over his cradle anymore,” Aileen added.
“Why, the scissors are meant as a charm to keep the baby being taken by the auld folk—”
“Hish!” Aileen hissed, and took baby Ian from Una. “Reverend Fordick says it’s a sin to believe in the fairies. And look what ye’ve gone and done. You had Ian so close to the fire you’ve fair smothered him. He’s hot as a roasted hickory nut!”
I got up from the loom to peer at baby Ian, moving the blanket aside to look at him. Aileen flinched and jerked him away from me. I was startled. I’d never been sure that Aileen was comfortable with me, but she acted as though I was going to hurt her baby.
“I only wanted to see if he was warm …”
“He’s weel enough, he’s just teething.” Aileen gathered Ian to her bosom and he wailed piteously.
Nan got up from the loom and bent over the baby, her face creased with concern. Una’s face was also lined with worry, making her look as if she’d aged ten years in the last ten minutes. “I’m afraid it isna just the fever,” Nan said. “I’m afraid it’s the pest.” She tilted Ian’s fat baby neck, and I saw that his throat was dark and swollen.
“Don’t you be saying such a thing!” Aileen cried, horrified at the thought of plague. “And layin’ a curse on him. All he needs is to be home.” She was gathering her basket and strapping Ian to her chest under a layer of shawls.
Nan nodded, but she and Una were murmuring to each other in hushed voices, consulting over the best treatment. I wished that I’d paid more attention in science classes. I knew the plague came from fleas, which were carried by rats, but William had gone on a rampage against rats in our first week in the cottage and we were relatively free of them; Nan had also shown me what herbs to use to keep away fleas.