Chapter 1 – Return to a Normal Life?
Lizzy and Jamie had been at their post at Schoenbrunn palace in Vienna for only two months before the war was declared in Silesia and the pair were able to return home to Cleves.
They had been home little more than a week. There were harvests to account for and matters of disputes for Lizzy to handle as Jamie worked along side the people, bringing in the grape harvest and tending to the stables. His nature made him very likable to the people of Cleves who were used to the aristocracy hiding behind walls. Lizzy was often among the people as well with her children showing to the people of Cleves that the leaders of her small Duchy were human, fallible, and good.
Lizzy stood looking out over the vineyards as the wind swept her hair. Beside her stood her son who was nearly two. The girls, one with the dark hair of her aunt from the Frasers, and the other with hair the color of a red deer pelt of her father, were riding. Their father was with them, showing them how to control the horses in ways the Prussians were in awe with.
Lizzy had missed her daughters. The elder, Ellen, was nearly eight. She would forever be the apple of her father's eye, though he tried not to play favorites, even with his son, Alex. Ellen sat on a beautiful and calm mare Jamie had hand picked for her from the stables. Janet was on a pony yet, but would soon join her sister and father on longer excursions.
Lizzy begrudged the time Jamie spent with his children. Evenings and nights were the time that the Duchess and her husband could talk, be themselves, and become one. Jamie, being a hot blooded young man and highlander, naturally craved the carnal attentions of his wife more than other men it seemed, or at least from what she had heard from other women of her court. Many were like bulls the first two years and then drifted apart to either activities or mistresses, returning occasionally to father children. Lizzy knew then that she was happy to have such an amorous and loving man as a husband and in her bed.
Lizzy smiled as the nurse came and took Alexander's hand to take him for a nap.
Lizzy then turned and walked the trail behind the castle, up into the woods. There she listened to the wind above her, moving the leaves about in a soft song. She smiled as she continued, lifting her skirts she walked further up to the waterfall where Grandmother was. She smiled lifting a small bit of an offering she had brought, incense, which she pressed into the ground and lit with a flint.
The smoke weaved around her as she bent her head in prayer, thanking the area and the spirits of the mountains for giving her the child she carried. Though Christian, and baptized Catholic by her husband and though she did not believe in magic, it was hard to shake the feeling that the old ones were not there, watching.
She heard a noise as she bent her head. Her hand went instantly to the dirk at her side, the long Scottish steel blade that was nearly a foot in length end to end with a ten inch blade. Jamie insisted she carry it even though she had her sgian dubh hidden and tucked into her garter.
She turned her head and saw a familiar figure there. She got to her feet, slower than she wished because of the ever growing bulk before her. He stepped to her and offered a hand. She took it in welcome and then pulled the man into a hug.
The small dark haired man hugged her back. "Ah, lass. It is well to see you." He stepped back. "All of you." He amended looking at her belly. She wore clothing that did not cover it at all since she preferred loose clothing that allowed her to move to the stuffy court clothing she often had to wear of late.
"I missed you Murtagh. Have you kept well?"
"Aye." He nodded.
She looked at him. "You are thin, man. Come, let's feed you up." She said.
He smiled. "I would not object to that lass."
She offered her hand to him. He took it and they walked together.
"It is beautiful country here. Like the Highlands, but warmer." He smiled a little. He was only a couple inches taller. He was rumpled from travel. Since they had come to their understanding, she had really come to appreciate the small man and loyal retainer of her husband. Jamie had sent him back to Scotland to watch for work about the Jacobites. Lizzy had an odd feeling in her stomach that he was here now.
They walked at a slow pace. Murtagh was looking about the trees, saying nothing, but holding her hand in his. Finally he looked at her. "Where is the young lad then?"
"I am sure out with the girls and the horses. I have to press grapes soon." She said looking up. "We do it when the air is cooler and the sun is nearing the hills." It remained light for sometime after, but the air was cooler and often there was a breeze from the river.
He nodded.
As they came to the castle, Jamie was walking outside from within, wiping his hands on a cloth as he walked to a guard. "Have you see my lady wife, Heinz?" He asked.
The guard smiled and nodded, lifting a hand to show Lizzy walking beside Murtagh.
Jamie gave a whoop of gladness as he went to his godfather and embraced him firmly. "Murtagh! a ghoistidh!" He said happily putting the smaller man to arm's length to look at him. Jamie wore a loose shirt and his kilt belted at his hips. He clearly had been working in the vineyards for a time. He must have seen the girls to their nurses and to supper.
The pair of them were speaking to each other in Gaelic too quickly for Lizzy to follow what little she knew. She smiled as three women came to her, speaking to her in the local dialect. Lizzy answered lifting a thing to tie her long hair up and then used a large wooden pin with a leather decoration to hold her hair loosely up on her head.
The women laughed and took her hands, bringing her with them as they all laughed and chattered. Jamie watched them move and nodded to his godfather to follow. They walked at a slower pace, even as Lizzy moved with the women looking back at him playfully.
In the shelter of a meadow, only a hundred yards from the castle, a great vat had been set up. Musicians were playing. Men and women were laughing and drinking wine from previous harvests. Some were dancing. It was always a blessed time of year.
Lizzy laughed and pulled her stocking from her legs. She then kilted her dress high, nearly to the thigh as she stepped into a small bucket of water. She gasped as one of the men there lifted her upwards and into the vat.
She laughed. Three other women were inside, dancing to the beat of the music, crushing grapes under their feet. Lizzy joined in as more grapes were added and the juice was collected in large casks below.
Jamie and Murtagh appeared in the meadow. They looked about in amazement. Jamie had watched them people of Cleves come up and had helped with the harvest, but this was interesting.
A young willowy woman came to them, interrupting his thoughts, holding wine goblets of stoneware, filled and ready.
"Welcome my lord." she said, smiling prettily at him as she spoke in Prussian to him. "Her Grace said this was your first grape harvest."
"Aye." He said looking at her as he took the wine and passed one to his godfather.
She smiled and took his arm. "Well. Come then, my lord." She said.
He followed, allowing her to pull him into the middle of the celebration as he took a drink of the wine looking about. The music was upbeat and the girl smile as she moved about him. He joined in, finding the beat to be much like a jig.
Lizzy was dancing, the grapes squishing between her toes and from beneath her heels. She smiled seeing her husband was dancing to the beat with several young ladies, his arms raised as his feet moved in rather intricate steps. Jamie, though could not sing at all, could dance, and dance well. The ladies clustered about his lordship, each wanting a chance to dance with the tall, handsome Scot who they had taken in as their own.
Lizzy hardly begrudged them. This was public and he kept looking up at her as he moved.
After several dances he lifted a hand in surrender and refilled his wine before coming to the vat, seeing his wife. He helped lifted a full basket of new grapes into the vat. From where she stood, she was taller than he. The vat came to his shoulders and he looked up at her with a rather impish grin. "Howfur does it cop?" He asked.
"Like walking on a beach and the sand moves and leaves a cool liquid as it shifts." She said, lifting her legs to crush the new grapes. She leaned forward looking at him as he looked up at her.
"Hae ye hud yer fin then?" He worried for her and the bairn she carried. He did not wish her to become over tired. She needed rest and he had become very protective of her as of late, to the point he was almost stifling, but he had learned to walk the fine line between allowing her to do as she needed and also make sure she got her proper rest since at times he was the only one who could make her lie down to rest.
"A few more moments." She said.
He smiled lifting his wife glass to her. She drank and then smiled as she leaned down to him for a kiss. He accepted the kiss and the people about them cheered for them.
Jamie pulled back, his brow to hers. "Mibbie ah shuid gie it a huv a go."
"You are much too big and we would never get you out." She laughed. "The idea is to crush the grapes not make mush." She said smiling.
He made a face at her.
Murtagh smiled as he walked to them. He was on his second glass of wine and smiling at them. "A crakin' homecoming." He said.
Someone called from the nearby battlement that overlooked the town below. "There is a rider coming fast." He said in Prussian.
Jamie looked up at Lizzy startled. "Urr ye expecting a'body?"
"No." She said.
"Whit does it mean?" He asked.
"Trouble." She said. She had a vision of her brother being dead or dying. She swallowed. That was the only reason she could imagine a rider coming so.
He took a breath, steeling himself.
"Help me out." She said lifting her arms as she lifted a leg to the side. He lifted her up and out and set her down. Her legs were stained red and had bits of the grape skin on them as she stood there a moment calling for a towel and some water.
The rider arrived and Jamie lifted his hands as the man rode into the center of the group, twisting the mount violently about by his bit as people moved from the path of the rider. The music stopped and everyone was watching.
Jamie walked to the horse and lifted his hand and caressed the nose, speaking softly as the horse panted.
The rider looked at him and lifted his riding crop. "Get away peasant. I am here with a message for the Duchess herself."
Jamie shifted and took the man by the elbow. "It is not wise to hit a member of the royal family, even one married into it, my friend."
The man was so startled that he did not move right away. "What?" Clearly the overly tall Scot in a kilt was not someone he had thought to be the Earl of these lands.
"I am Lord Broch Tuarach, husband of the Duchess." Jamie said calmly. "And if you keep beating this horse he will die on you before you make it to the Rhein." He said shoving the man hard enough he nearly lost his balance off the back side.
The rider rubbed his arm and looked at Jamie in annoyance.
Lizzy had finished wiping off her legs and walked forward, her women with her as she looked up at the man who bore the sigil of her brother. "What is your message then?"
"My lady." He bowed, recognizing her from when they had been at court.
She was unkilting her dress and then released her hair in an auburn waterfall as she reached up for the letter.
He gave it to her and she cracked the seal, walking a distance off.
She did not even look back, but spoke to one of the women who moved toward the rider. "If you will come with me, we will see your horse fed and watered and you as well." She smiled.
The man dismounted and nodded, moving to follow her.
Jamie looked at his wife as she stood near the edge of the meadow, the paper loose at her side as she looked up at the trees about her.
"Whit's it?" He asked softly, Murtagh coming to his side.
She took a breath and turned to him. "My brother wishes us to go to France." She took a breath. "But he does not wish us to go as my title would dictate. He would prefer other means so as not to seem that there is a spy in the court."
"Bit daein' sae fur maria teresa wis braw."
She looked at him. "Jamie. Do you not have a cousin in Paris?" She asked.
"He bides wi`in it, aye." He said. "In a port toun la havre he haes a warehouse. He an' a' haes homes in paris. How come?"
"The Bonny Prince is on the move and Frederick wishes to know if he is a threat to him and Prussia."
"Hardly. He is interested in bonnie Scotland."
"Still. We are to learn what we can."
"Sae we mist lea cleves again." He said.
She nodded looking sullen. He hugged her to him and tucked her head under his chin as she started to weep. "I had such dreams." She whispered. "Being in this home. Safe. Raising our children." She said voice muffled. She lifted her head then. "Forgive me for bringing you into this life."
He hushed her with a soft kiss. "Whit? whaur a king orders aboot?" He asked. "It's wee different than Colum." He said.
"But the stakes are higher." She said.
"Aye." He agreed. He sighed. "Whin mist we lea."
"As soon as we can." she said rubbing her distended belly. Jamie's large hand lifted to hers. She was only four months by his count, but the baby was not hidden at all in the loose clothing she wore.
"We wull be weel." He promised. "Th' bonny prince wull gang tae scootlund 'n' we kin return in peace."
She looked at him. "We have to stop him from doing that?"
"Why?"
"Why?" She asked. She looked at him, stepping back. "Because if he wins Scotland, than our family will be pariahs because you are a Scot and I am your wife of a different nation."
"Loue does nae maiter tae sic hings."
"No, but politics do." She said. At times she scared him with how forward thinking her mind truly was. It was not the mind of a woman. She was correct. She had been raised to be a queen, to be the sound voice of reason to her king. Her king, however was a minor Scottish laird, but still, he knew she was right.
He took a breath. "We wid be lying tae a' body." He said.
She stepped closer. "But we have to remember what is at stake." She said.
He took a breath and nodded. "A' richt. We shall gang tae France." He said nodding. "Ah wull write tae Jared, mah cousin at wance tae let him ken we ur comin'." Jared who was a business man would be a good cover and introduction for them in Paris.
She nodded as he turned to go back toward the castle. She caught his arm and he turned back, hair wild about his face as he looked back at her. She smiled and lifted his hand to her lips. "I love you. We can do anything as long as we are together."
He nodded. "Aye." He said. He lifted an arm and looked back at Murtagh. "Come then, lass. Let us see hings richt. This land haes survived oan tis ain afore. We wull nae be lang in france. Mibbie it wull be ower as 'twas fur us in Vienna ."
"One can hope." She agreed.
Together they walked back toward the castle, Murtagh following behind them.