Tam Lin by Nicole Dreadful

Author:Nicole Dreadful
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Medieval Romance/Fairy Tale
Publisher: Skookum Creek Publishing
Published: 2021-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

10 I wouldna give my own true love

Janet closed the garden gate with aching slowness. Mercifully, the hinges did not squeal, and the kitchen dog, which had been sleeping on the flagstone path in the afternoon sun, did not bark. Instead, it rolled over to expose its belly. Janet gave the animal a perfunctory scratch and crept up the backstairs to her chamber.

At the door, she found Nurse drowsing in a chair. Janet touched her shoulder and the old woman startled awake.

“Janet,” she said, clutching Janet’s hand in her gnarled fingers. “I’ve said that you were resting to save your energy for the morn.”

“The morn?” Janet asked as Nurse ushered her through the door and closed it behind them.

“Annie’s wedding, lassie, what will be in the morn. You think of none but yourself,” she scolded, then stopped short. “Ach, I don’t mean that—of course it’s your own worries that fill your thoughts.” She paused and chewed one lip nervously. “Did you find the weeds you went looking for?” she asked in a half-whisper.

“No.” Janet sat down on the bed and pulled her knees up to her chest. “I found them, but I cannot do it, Nurse. I cannot do harm to the wee bairn that has done no harm yet in the world.”

Nurse sat beside her. “It is far easier to get with child than to be rid of one,” she said, “but your father will want to know how you did the first if you cannot do the second.”

“He has already asked,” Janet said, “and I did not tell him.”

Nurse smoothed a hand over Janet’s back and waited for a long minute. “A lassie does not get into this trouble without a laddie,” she said finally.

“Aye,” Janet said. Nurse still looked at her expectantly. Janet let her feet slip down and turned to face the older woman. “But it was no man of my father’s.”

Nurse worried at her lip again. “James Douglas rode in while you were gone,” she said. “The maids all say he is as braw and bonny as any man, but I didn’t dare to leave your door and see.”

“So may he be, but he is no husband for me.”

“Your father would say otherwise,” Nurse reminded her, “and now he will want to arrange the marriage quickly, before Douglas learns he won’t be the first to father a child on you.”

“No,” Janet said. “Nurse, we must delay. You must help me.”

“You cannot hide in your chambers until he leaves,” Nurse said. She glanced at the low golden light that lanced in through the western window. “You should be dressing for dinner even now. Your kirtle is muddy about the hem.”

Janet slid off the bed and paced the chamber with slow steps. She still felt a dull twinge in her ankle. “I need time,” she said, “until All Saints’ Day at least.”

“If the laddie was not one of your father’s men, do you expect a rumor to reach him before it finds Douglas’s ear?” Nurse asked dubiously.

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