Read Online The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance by Trisha Telep - Free Book Online

shrugged. “I like her though. She’s nice.”
    “Aye.” And lonely, if the haunted look he’d caught in her eyes had meaning. “Ye need put yer whittling away and get to sleep. Dawn will be here ’fore long and the coos will need milking.”
    “They’re cows, not coos.”
    Grinning, Hamish ruffled Ty’s hair. “Ye say it yer way and I’ll say it mine.”
    When Ty settled on his pallet Hamish stood and found Sarah in the doorway. When he smiled, she blushed, making him wonder how long she’d been standing there listening. She pointed behind her. “It’s raining.”
    “Is it?” He eased past her, caught the heady scents of rain and woman clinging to her – that caused his blood to stir – then looked at the sky. Seeing light weave in brilliant arcs across the western sky, it was all he could do to keep from grinning like a village dolt. Thank ye, St Bride!
    “Ach, lass, the sky does not bode well for ye leaving come morn. If the rains continue the bog betwixt here and Edinburgh will swell to a river, become impassable.”
    When they woke to more rain on the second day, Hamish did his best to keep them from worrying. He’d taught Sarah how to separate hull from oat kernels using a stone pastel. At her side Ty and Peter tried their hands at whittling simple animals out of small blocks of dry pine. Mark and Jeremy were stripping bark from foot long hunks of sapling pine, which they’d make into buckets. Bryce was in charge of making the cheese.
    Hamish put more wood on the fire then set a crock full of milk before Bryce and lifted the lid. “Ah, ’tis ready.”
    Bryce wrinkled his nose. “It’s spoiled.”
    Hamish, laughing, reached for one of the small crocks lining the shelf above Bryce’s head. “Nay, ’tis just clabbered. Now ’tis ready for rennet, which will turn the milk to curds and whey.”
    Frowning, Bryce asked, “What’s rennet?”
    MacDuff opened the small crock and poured several tablespoons of dried beige powder into Bryce’s palm. “Dump that into the milk and stir.”
    Bryce sniffed the powder then did as he was told, muttering, “Is this some kind of plant?”
    “Nay.” Hamish looked at him and winked. “’Tis the dried lining of a calf’s stomach.”
    Sarah tried not to laugh as her students shouted, “Ewwwwwwww!”
    As Jeremy nudged Mark and whispered, “The Lion’s joking, right?” Bryce looked at her in horror. “Miss Colbert?”
    Sarah nodded, liking the boy’s moniker for MacDuff. He did look like a lion. “It’s true. And there’s no need to ewwww. You’ve all eaten rennet custard at home and liked the cheese Mr MacDuff gave you yesterday. Rennet provides the acid needed to turn milk into cheese.”
    Ty, looking worried, asked Hamish, “Did you kill the calf?”
    “Nay, the poor wee beast died during a late spring blizzard. Nearly broke my heart finding him that morn, but there was nay undoing it, so …” He shrugged.
    When several continued to eww and shuddered, Sarah reminded them, “We eat veal and lamb at home, gentlemen. The parts not suitable for the table aren’t wasted but used to make custards, gourmet cheeses, leather products like lambskin blazers – which several of you own – pet food and fertilizer. It’s simply a case of waste not, want not.”
    Beside her, Jeremy muttered, “That’s it. The minute we get home I’m going vegan.”
    “Miss Colbert, he’s cheating again!”
    Sarah, shielding her eyes against the brilliant sunlight, laughed. Hamish had Jeremy under one arm like a sack of grain as he bobbed and weaved his way down the make-shift soccer field he’d made in the hopes of easing the boys’ melancholy after two days of solid rain. Their soccer ball, made from straw and leather, had flattened and was tucked neatly under his other arm, the game having degenerated into a free-for-all football.
    As he scooped up Mark, she hollered, “Get him, Ty! Grab his belt and pull him down!”
    When Ty lunged and missed, Sarah raced