Chapter 6
“Why are ye here, again?”Wynda frowned at Robena as her sister strolled by her side through the village, unconsciously echoing the conversation from the fortnight before.
Robena smirked, as if she remembered. “I was with ye at the start of this adventure—“
“Say nae more, please.”
“Look, all I’m saying is I’ve seen ye laboring over this invention, and I want to be there when ye—“
Wynda halted, one hand on her hip. “What part of Say nae more did ye no’ understand?”
“The part where ye get to boss me around.”
Robena stuck out her tongue.
And Wynda, with reflexes honed by years of being an older sister, pinched it between her thumb and forefinger.
“Ow! ‘Et oo!” Robena began to struggle, but of course couldn’t get far. “‘Inda!”
Holding on for all she was worth, Wynda affected an innocent expression. “Aye, Robena? You had something to say?”
“‘Et ee oh!”
“Let ye go?” Her lips were tugging upward as Wynda followed her sister’s retreat. They were definitely causing a scene in the marketplace, but surely the Oliphants were used to their antics by now. “And if I do, will ye say nae more?”
“Ow! Aye, aye!”
“Verra well.” With a satisfied flourish, Wynda released her sister’s tongue and wiped her hand along her bodice, knocking against the leather satchel she carried. “That was disgusting.”
Robena was busy spitting and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Ye thought it was disgusting?” She spat again. “When was the last time you washed yer hands? Blech. I hope you didn’t get any of those invisible little crawly things in my mouth! I dinnae want yer sickness!”
“Excuse me, I’m brilliant. What I have ye cannae catch.”
After pretending to spit once more, Robena straightened. “Fair enough, I dinnae want to spend all day hunched over a book, unable to carry a tune in the well-bucket.”
Her sister was right, Wynda gracelessly acknowledged. “That book is useful.”
She was, of course, thinking of that interlude with Pherson two days ago. But that wasn’t a surprise; she’d been thinking of it more or less non-stop since then. Oh, there was the occasional break for meals and cleaning her teeth and finishing the brace, of course. But otherwise, her mind was All Pherson, All The Time.
Or more accurately, she was focused on the lesson he’d taught her and wondering when she could do it again.
No’ today.The heavy weight in her satchel reminded her of her current errand. Ye have other plans.
“Aye,” drawled Robena with a wink. “Verra useful. ‘Tis given me all sorts of ideas.”
Intriguing. Wynda’s brow rose. “Ideas…ye’d like to try? Who with?”
Her sister smirked. “I believe ye mean ‘with whom’. Imagine, someone like ye no’ kenning the basic rules of grammar.”
“Oh, for fook’s sake, Robena. We’re speaking Auld Gaelic. ‘Tis no’ as if our words are being transcribed into English and recorded on bits of paper—or, or, I dinnae ken! Some sort of reading device where the words change with a touch of a button!”
Frowning, Robena shook her head. “A…button? Is that no’ a newfangled sort of device to hold yer braies together?”
“I dinnae ken,” sniffed Wynda haughtily. “I dinnae wear braies.”
“Well, ye should try it,” her sister said with a smirk. “ ‘Tis ever so freeing.”
Wynda cocked a brow at her sister, wondering if she should ask what exactly Robena got up to in her spare time. But before she could decide, her sister—who had glanced behind her—gasped happily.