The Bairn of Brianag

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More guests arrived the next day to stay for the ball; the bedrooms were more crowded than ever, the servants tripping over one another, running up and down the stairs with babies and petticoats and trays of food; the flowers were arranged and placed on the mantles and in the corners of the drawing room; the musicians arrived and began playing out on the lawn. Children ran after each other, nurses and mothers ran after children. After dinner was served, I went upstairs to lie down before supper; but there were so many others there that I could not see a place to lie down, so instead, I went out onto the lawn.

The children were all gone inside, their nurses having put them down for naps; the musicians had disappeared. There were a few young men walking about, having deep and important conversations; I ignored them all and went to sit under a tree.

The breeze was quite pleasant, and I relaxed my neck against the trunk, closing my eyes. They jerked open when Robbie spoke.

"Mrs. Stewart," he said softly, "will you walk with me along the swamp?"

I sat up straight and looked at him. "I wished to rest," I said.

"Rest? Come, come! Surely a young strong Scot such as you are has no need of rest on a summer afternoon such as this!" He exaggerated the brogue. "Why, I'll warrant you could dance a reel right at this moment, and not feel the slightest fatigue!"

"Very well; as you wish," I said.

He took my hand and I stood; then he tucked my hand into his elbow as he had done earlier that day, in the garden. We strolled without speaking down the lawn to the edge of the swamp and toward the creek. When we reached it we went upward, toward the guest houses. The path wound through the trees; Robbie stopped and released my hand, and took my face between his hands, and kissed me.

I stood very still, barely breathing; he had never touched me in such a way before, so carefully, so gently. I put my tongue onto my lower lip and tasted the ruinous sweetness of him; and then he took me into a crushing embrace, his lips hot upon mine, his tongue pushing into my mouth. As the familiar heat suffused my body our hearts pounded madly together, and I strained toward him with all the strength in me.

"God help me, Jessie, God help me," he said, and his voice was low and ragged with what sounded to me like agony.