It was suggested to me in a comment, I give too much information in my little forwards. I shall attempt to do better. I will say this chapter contains oral, anal and normal intercourse, so be forewarned.
*****
TeƔrlag woke up late the following morning. She'd not slept well the previous night, fearing the worst, and yesterday she'd been strained to exhaustion by the emotions of the funeral, being questioned by the Cameron's, Thorburn's hatred. It burned at her, like acid. For once meeting a good man, a young vigorous man who knew her body as well as she did and it was ruined beyond repair. The strange part was she could never meet him without Blackthorne, the same reason she now lost him. She'd cried enough tears for a lifetime. It was time to move on. Her maid came when she called and helped her dress.
Moving to the kitchen, the cook gave her some sweetbreads and tea. After she'd eaten, the cook came to her with parchment, quill and ink.
"Laird Cameron bid me give you this when you finished eating. He said you would know what to do with it and asked I remind you to provide as much detail as you could."
"Yes, thank you. I do know what he wants. Can you tell me where the others are?"
"Oh, they're out in the courtyard, banging away with those bloody swords, even the ladies. Don't know why they do it? So unladylike, don't you think?"
"I suppose they feel they must learn to protect themselves. It's been dangerous, don't you think? That poor girl MĆ iri. Praying the same thing won't happen to them."
"It was a shame, but isn't it why they're all married, so their husbands can care for them."
"Not everyone has a husband, do they?"
"I guess not." The cook went back to her cooking.
TeƔrlag realized she could not do this in the open. Others besides Thorburn might know to what it pertained. Thorburn had a desk in his room. She'd work on it there with far less chance of being disturbed. She went back to his room and started to compose it.
It was the driver who brought her there, so she seldom paid attention until she went into the house, but she did have an eye for detail, so she thought she could reconstruct a plot of the site. She started with the house, then tried to picture what was to the left and right. What was across the street when she departed and to the left and right of that? Slowly, she added more details to the map until she was satisfied with what she had.
After the map, she pictured the inside of the house and the cabinet. She sketched a picture of cabinet and where it stood in the room. She left a note saying candles were in a drawer, and how to move the cabinet to reveal the tunnel beyond. She described as best she could the lever for opening the wall into the dungeon, but said he'd have to feel for it more than likely as it was hard to put into words. The sconce on the other side was easier to find and use. She tried to think of anything else to add, but could not think of a thing.
She put the map in Thorburn's desk and went back down. She went into the courtyard. Training was winding down for lunch. All the men and women were hot and sweaty. They saw TeƔrlag standing there and Frang, Isobel, Stuart and Ailene nodded to her. Thorburn turned away.
Isobel and Ailene came over and said, "We need to wash up a little before lunch. Why don't you join us." TeƔrlag nodded yes and they went to Ailene's room.
Isobel and Ailene both removed their breast armor and took off their shirts. Ailene poured water from a pitcher into a basin and soaked a cloth, wrung it out and handed it to Isobel who wiped herself down. When she was done, Ailene re-rinsed it and washed herself. Ailene grabbed a fresh shirt for herself and handed another to Isobel. TeƔrlag started to say something, but Ailene held a finger to her lips and shook her head. She pointed all around to the walls and ceiling. TeƔrlag nodded her understanding.
When the two women were dressed again, Ailene motioned them both in close. "Thank you for talking to us," Ailene said, her voice a whisper.
"I'm not sure if I gave you anything to help," TeƔrlag replied, her voice as low. "Might even have told you things which would increase your danger if you try to make use of them."
"Thorburn's right though," Ailene said. "We've been reacting, not planning. We just wanted to be left alone and did nothing, hoping we would be left alone. We can't do that anymore."
"Thorburn is never going to forgive me, is he?" TeƔrlag whispered.
"Can you blame him?" Isobel asked. "Thorburn cared for you, TeƔrlag."
"If he cared for you less," Ailene added, "it may have mattered less, but betrayals by the ones we love are always the worst."
"I was thinking this morning how I would never have met you had I not agreed to spy, but by spying, have ruined any chance at happiness. How star crossed is that?"
"You can't think of it as the end of life, TeƔrlag. Like all of life's lessons, it's a learning experience. Having discovered it, you must hope you don't make the same mistakes," Isobel said. "You will not make future decisions based upon greed, or fear, or ally yourself with people whose reputation you know is questionable. You will consider the character of people and the morality of what you do. If you have lost Thorburn, it does not mean you've lost all love or hope of love from your life. You can meet another; a good man. He could be older, or less handsome, but a good man nonetheless. Don't give up hope for love."
"I pray you're right. At this moment, my life feels ended."
"Yet here you are, not dead, atoning for your sins. We'll be meeting again this afternoon. You need to join us once again. We'll eat our lunch in the strapping room and discuss other things, such as your future," Ailene said. She took TeƔrlag's hand. "I, for one, think what you did is very brave and commend you for it. Let's get some food."
"Before we go down, I need to get the map I made for Thorburn. I left it in his room."
They went to his room and TeƔrlag went to the desk to get her map. It was in his drawer, but the drawer was ajar and TeƔrlag would have sworn she fully closed it. Perhaps Thorburn got something, but why wouldn't he have taken the map as well. Oh well, perhaps he didn't see it, even though it was right on the top. Or maybe she was mistaken and didn't close the drawer fully. She shrugged.
Ailene asked, "Is something the matter?"
"I thought the drawer was closed, but I must have been mistaken."
Ailene escorted TeƔrlag to the kitchen, Isobel following behind. The men were already there, piling food on their plates. Without a word, TeƔrlag handed the map to Thorburn, then got a plate for herself.
"Get some food," Ailene said. "Some decisions have to be made."
Everyone procured food and found their way to the basement. TeƔrlag took less as she'd eaten later and not worked as hard as the others. The men checked to ensure no one else was in the basement as before, then they all went into the strapping room as Bjarkƫ stood guard outside. Nobody said anything for awhile as they ate the first of their food, slaking the first pangs of hunger.
Frang started off the meeting by telling TeƔrlag she needed to decide what she wanted to do next. "We interrupted your plan to leave the country. I don't know how this affects you. You're faced with several choices. I apologize for asking since I realize how distasteful it's been for you, but we were hoping you could stay and get more information from Blackthorne for us."
"Not just distasteful," Isobel said, "horrible. I, more than anyone else, know how unspeakably vile your meetings with Blackthorne have been. I do not wish to ask you to do more, knowing what you've gone through, but I do agree we need help which we might not get any other way. It must be your choice. I would not force any woman to this, but if you can tolerate another few hours with Blackthorne, I would ask anyway. If you choose otherwise, I understand completely and will not think less of you. If your wish is to leave, we will help as you require. We can let you return to Dervaig until the next ship or you could stay here and we would escort you aboard a ship going anywhere you wish. We'll pay for the ticket so you may keep what funds you have to support yourself until you find something."
TeƔrlag looked at the earnest faces around her. Even Thorburn, standing across the room, with only glares of hate for her now, was looking at her with a plea upon his face. She did not want to do this. She would rather the ground open up and swallow her whole than spend another minute with Blackthorne. He was so perceptive when he questioned her, she wondered if she could even fool him. He was not the trusting sort who accepted what you said at face value.
"If I returned to Blackthorne, how would you know I would not reveal all to him. I'm not sure I can deceive him, he notices the smallest slip of the tongue. He looks for treachery everywhere because he expects it from everyone. If he put me to serious question, I would spill all, probably faster than MĆ iri even knowing it would do nothing to stop the torment."
"I'm not sure you could reveal more than us being aware of your treachery," Thorburn said, "and we now know about his secret passage. I'm not sure you would care to share this information with him as we all know he would treat the information you betrayed him much worse than we did."
Thorburn was right. Anything she revealed would only increase the risk to herself. Please don't ask this of me, she prayed. I'm not strong enough, nor brave enough, nor fearless enough to do this. She wanted so much to ask them to send her away; far, far away, where she could slowly forget everything Blackthorne had ever made her do. She closed her eyes, but even after they were closed, she saw their faces imploring her for help. It would be so much easier to say no if she were not so guilty for all she'd done to them, despite their acts of kindness and love.
She opened her eyes again, saying, "Okay, I'll do it. I'll stay and see what I can do."
Isobel and Ailene both hugged her. TeƔrlag stood there, scared beyond words, unable to move now the words had left her mouth.
"Thank you," Stuart said. "I agree, thank you," Frang added. Thorburn said nothing but the look of relief on his face was palpable.
"What should I say to him?" TeƔrlag said. "What do you want me to do?"
"Do you have to say anything?" Ailene asked.
"He knows I've come here and spent at least a night. He'll expect a report on what was said and any changes I've noticed. I have to tell him something. When Frang noticed my servants coming and asked me aloud to come, he said Thorburn had a big announcement. I have to say something about what the announcement was. If I'm to do this, I need some information to give him and the more important sounding it is, the better it will be."
"I've told you we're building a new house," Frang said, "closer to the Keep. You could tell him that."
"It's your news, not Thorburn's. It would not explain Thorburn's big news, nor be of particular interest to Blackthorne."
"What if you told him we were combining the properties into a single estate," Stuart said, "one rivaling his in size, and the reason why Frang's building a house closer to the Keep, so we can support each other and combine our defenses. It would make it harder to get rid of us all at once, yet provide for mutual support."
"Much better," TeƔrlag said. "I could sell that to him. I'm sure he's going to know you're being more secretive than before. Meeting in protected locations. What should I say about it, especially as I've been invited to these meetings. What are you discussing here and why?"
"Tell him we've discovered another spy," Isobel said.
"But not who, or even which estate they were on," Frang added. "Keep him guessing who it might be we caught and if we're now using them to pass false information since we haven't replaced anyone."
