CHAPTER XXXV.
KATE OF THE DARK BROWS.
Betimes we came to a little row of white cottages deep in the wood, withonly a green clearing at the door, and the trees swaying broad branchesover the roof.
Here we washed ourselves, and Wat set to shaving me and cutting my hairclose, in order that if necessary I might wear a wig. Then we went intothe gardens, where we found the chief gardener of Balmaghie, whose namewas Samuel Irving.
Samuel was a grave man with a very long upper lip, which gave him a sourand discontented expression, but secretly he was a good man and a greatfavourer of the hill-folk. Also he was very upright and well-doing inthe matters of seeds and fruits and perquisites, and greatly in favourwith his master, Mr. Roger McGhie.
So we set out much refreshed, and were going by a path through thewoods, when suddenly who should come upon us at a turn but Kate McGhie.Wat ran to her to take her hands, but she gave him the go-by with thesingle frugal favour of a saucy glance. "Strangers first!" she said, andso came forward and greeted me.
"You are welcome to Balmaghie, William Gordon," she said. "I would youcame as guest, and not as servitor; but some day I know you shall enterby the front door."
She glanced round with a questioning air. Wat was standing half turnedaway, very haughty in his demeanour.
Kate McGhie looked towards him. She was in truth a comely maid--for onethat is black of favour.
"Now you may come," she said.
He seemed as if he would refuse and turn away. But she looked fixedly athim, defying him with her eyes to do it, and after a moment's battle ofregards he came slowly towards us.
"Come nearer!" she commanded imperiously.
He came up with his eyes kindling. I think that no less than kissing wasin his mind, and that for a moment he thought that she might permit it.
But suddenly she drew herself proudly away, and her look was disdainfuland no doubt hard to be borne.
"Are these fit manners from a servant?" she said. "They that eat themeat and sit below the salt, must keep the distance."
Wat's countenance fell in a moment. I never saw one with so many ups anddown in such short space. The allures and whimsies of this youngshe-slip made him alternately sulk and brighten like an April day.
"Kate!" he began to say, in the uncertain tone of a petitioner.
"Mistress Katerine McGhie, if you please!" said she, dropping him acourtly courtesy.
"Have you forgotten quite?" Wat said.
"Ah," she said, "it is you who have forgotten. You were not the gardenerthen. I do not allow gardeners to kiss me--unless my hand on Sundayswhen their faces are more than ordinarily clean. Would you like to havethat, Heather Jock?"
And she held out the back of her hand.
The silly fellow coloured to his brow, and was for turning away with hishead very much in the air.
But she ran after him, and took him by the hand.
Then he would have caught her about with his arms, but she escaped outof them lightly as a bird.
"Na, na, Lochinvar," she cried merrily, in the common speech. "That isas muckle as is good for you"--she looked at him with the light ofattraction in her eyes--"afore folk," she added, with a glance at himthat I could not fathom.
Nevertheless, I saw for the first time all that was between them. Sowith no more said, Kate fled fleet-foot down the path towards the greathouse, which we could see standing grey and massive at the end of theavenue of beeches.
"There's a lass by yon burnside that will do as muckle for you; butdinna bide to speer her leave!" she cried to me over her shoulder, aword which it was hard to understand.
I asked Wat, who stood staring after her in a kind of wrapt adoration,what she could mean.
He gazed at me, as if he did not see what kind of animal was making thenoise like talking. I am sure that for the time he knew me not from JohnKnox.
"What did she mean?" I asked him.
"Mean!" said he, "mean----" speaking vaguely as one in a swither.
"You are heady and moidered with not getting a kiss from a lass," saidI, with, I grant, some little spite.
"Did she ever kiss you?" cried he, looking truculently at me.
"Nay!" said I bluntly, for indeed the thing was not in my thought.
"Then you ken naught about it. You had better hold your wheesht!"
He stood so long thinking, sometimes giving his thigh a little slap,like one that has suddenly remembered something pleasant which he hadforgotten, that I was near coming away in disgust and leaving the fool,when I remembered that I knew not where to go.
In a while he came to himself somewhat, and I told him what Kate McGhiehad said to me over her shoulder.
"Did Kate say that?" he cried. "She could surely not have said all thatand I not hear her."
"Out, you fool," I said, for so of custom I spoke to him, being mycousin and playmate. "You had other matter to think of. Say it she did."
He repeated the words which I told him, and I declare even the sound ofthem seemed to be in danger of throwing him into another rhapsody.
But at last he said, suddenly, "Oh, I ken what she means----" And hedrew a long breath. "I suppose we had better go down to the water-side.She will not come out again, if we wait all night." And he went some wayalong the avenue and looked long and hard at one heavy-browed window ofthe old house which seemed to be winking at us.
It is a strange thing how love affects different people. You never cantell beforehand how it will be. I could not have believed that thepresence of a forward lass with black eyebrows could have made amoonstruck fool of Wildcat Wat of Lochinvar.
He still stood and looked at the window till my patience was ended.
"Come on, man," I cried. "I declare you are not Heather Jock, as shecalled you, but Heather Jackass!"
At another time he would have knocked my head off, but now my jestingaffected him no more than a sermon. And this I took to be the worst signof all.
"Well, come on then," he said. "You are surely in an accursed sweat ofhaste to-night!"
And we took our way down to the water-side, having wasted more than anhour. We had not advanced far down the pillared avenue of the beechtrees, when suddenly we came in sight of Maisie Lennox. She was comingslowly towards us along one of the forest roads. At the same time I sawmy mother, walking away from me down a path which led along the side ofthe Dee water. She had her back to me, and was going slowly with herhead down. To my shame I ran to meet Maisie Lennox. But first ere Ireached her she said quietly to me, "Have you not seen your mother?"
"Aye," answered I. "She has gone down the road to the water-side."
"Then let no greeting come before your mother's," she said, looking veryill-pleased at me as I ran forward to take her hand.
So with a flea in my ear I turned me about and went off, somewhat shamedas you may believe, to find my mother. When I got back to the path onwhich I had seen her, I left Wat far behind and ran after my mother,calling loudly to her.
At the sound of my voice she turned and held up her hands.
"Willie, boy!" she cried.
And in a moment she had me in her arms, crooning over me and making muchof me. She told me also, when she had time to look well at me, that Iwas much better in health than when I had lain in the well-house ofEarlstoun.
"And you came first to see your old mother. That was like my ainWillie!" she said, a word which made me ashamed. So I had no answer tomake, though nevertheless I took the credit of the action as much bysilence as by speech.
Then Maisie Lennox came through the wood, and demeaning herself rightsoberly, she held out her hand.
"Did you not see William before?" asked my mother, looking from one tothe other of us.
"Only at a distance, on his way to you," said Maisie, speaking in herdemure way.
It was in the little holding of Boatcroft by the side of the Dee, andamong the water meadows which gird the broad stream, that we found mymother, Maisie Lennox, and little Margaret Wilson snugly set
tled. Theirposition here was not one to be despised. They were safe for the timebeing at least, upon the property of Roger McGhie. Every day the old manpassed their loaning-end. And though he knew that by rights only a herdshould live at the Boatcroft, yet he made no complaint nor asked anyquestion for conscience' sake, when he saw my mother with Maisie Lennoxat her elbow, or little Margaret of Glen Vernock moving about the littlesteading.
In the evening it fell to me to make my first endeavours at waiting attable, for though women were safe enough anywhere on the estate,Balmaghie was not judged to be secure for me except within the houseitself.
So my mother gave me a great many cautions about how I should demeanmyself, and how to be silent and mannerly when I handed the dishes.