The Bairn of Brianag

I lowered my eyes as he came toward me, and held out my hand. I could not look into his face; I was afraid of what I might do. He took my hand and I curtsied; when he released my hand I went to the pianoforte, thankful to sit.

"What do you wish, brother?" I asked Kevin.

"Oh, sing Dainty Davie!" he said.

I did so, and then changed to "My love is like a red, red rose." Kevin began to sing along with me. The dinner gong sounded as we finished, and I looked up.

Robbie was looking at me. My breath stopped. Then Kevin turned and said, "Let us go in to dine!" and I heard our mother coming down the stairs.

Supper was lively with Robbie there. He and Kevin kept my father laughing with stories of their escapades. I pretended to eat to keep my mother's attention off me, but I needed nothing more than Robbie's presence to fill me up. I drank wine and nibbled at bits of food. His face, his voice, his laugh thrilled me more than ever and I realized that a different kind of attachment had formed in me; the possessiveness that I had felt toward him previously was solidified. The union of our bodies had joined my soul to his.

After supper we played cards in the drawing room. Robbie teased me as though the past days did not exist, as though our association was unchanged.

"So, Barry Norwood has not come asking for your hand yet, Jessie," he said.

"No indeed!" I said, and flushed. "He need not do so, either, for a stupider boy I have never met."

"To be sure!" he said, shuffling the cards. "Perhaps he is not stupid but wise to look elsewhere for a bride."Kevin laughed and said, "Yes, indeed! Perhaps Norwood is more clever than we think! Why would he want a hoyden for a wife?"

I found my voice. "Hoyden, indeed," I said with a snort which would have drawn a reprimand from my mother, had she heard it. "Have you gentlemen not observed that I no longer follow you about everywhere you go? I no longer enjoy the freedom to pursue childish pastimes. I have grown up. I am a lady now."

They both laughed uproariously. "A lady!" said Robbie. "Do you hear that, Kevin?

The bairn says she has grown into a lady!"

I said, "You wish to have me married, yet you treat me as a child!"