Lady Of The Glen Part 39

Achallader's razing avenged. And the brutal raid across Glenorchy as well as Glen Lyon. And all of the insults, all of the enmity; the interminable feud dating back a thousand years.

To MacDonalds of the Isles, usurpers of Scotland itself, and the very first Campbells.

So many years. So many offenses. And now the Master of Stair promised compensation. He declared it in his letter.

All of them to die.

Breadalbane rose from the edge of the bed, collected himself, then knelt beside the fir wood whelping box. A vein-fretted hand caressed the deerhound's head, tugging gently at folded ears. "A braw, bonnie la.s.s," he crooned. "A braw, bonnie la.s.s, aye?-and a fine litter withal."

The b.i.t.c.h licked his hand. The long curved tail thumped. Deep against her turgid belly, suckling vigorously, five squirming puppies thrived.

But in Glencoe what puppies were yet unborn might remain so-and MacDonald children as well.

Stair promised it. Stair had written it down in so many words. All of them to die.

"Aye," he said softly, stroking the wiry hair, "by the first of January you'll be free of these burdensome mouths, even as I soon thereafter shall be free of MacIain."

G.o.d would surely understand that it must be done if the Highlands were to survive harnessed to the wheel that was England, rather than fall beneath it. Glencoe was, after all, only a small holding, and her MacDonalds less significant in the vital workings of Highland politics than others of the surname.

All was in motion now. Nothing could be stopped. Stair promised it.

The Campbell earl smiled. They shall be forgotten, MacIain and his MacDonalds, and the glen by the River Coe . . . and when this thing is finished no one shall recall them, or what was done to them.

Dair stood at the foot of the great rock at the east end of the glen and looked at Cat atop it. She was barefoot, trews- and shirt-clad, swathed haphazardly in a man's plaid. Her hair, unbound and uncovered by kerch or borrowed bonnet, blew unfurled in the wind. Behind her, crowning the Pap and Devil's Staircase, clouds misted the morning.

"What are you doing?" he asked, perplexed, having just come up from his house-their house, and overempty-to search for her.

Cat, poised against the wind, smiled in extravagant contentment. "Looking."

"Och, well-I can see that, aye?" He glanced back over his shoulder curiously to inspect her view, though his vantage was not so paramount. He saw nothing he had not seen before. "What is it you're looking at?"

"Not at, aye?-over. The glen." She stood, arms folded beneath the plaid, at the western edge with muddy toes curled over the knurled lip of craggy granite. "Glencoe."

It baffled him. "Glencoe?"

She withdrew an arm from beneath the plaid and gestured geography. "Just over there is MacIain's winter house-there, Carnoch, through the trees . . . and John's and Eiblin's over there"-she swept the arm across the track that wound its way through the center of the glen-"and ours down a wee, behind that rib of mountain . . . and all the others scattered here and there like dice amidst the rocks and trees, or chicks too far from the hen-" Her arm dropped. "And beyond all that is Ballachulish and the ferry, and beyond that Loch Linnhe, and beyond that the Isles. But for the trees one might almost see them"-Cat grinned-"and Sommerled himself."

He had taught her that by the peat-fire, with whisky in horn cups and tall tales as well as true in his mouth: of bold Sommerled come down from northern lands and his brave sons, who made the Isles theirs; and of Donald himself, progenitor of them all who now lived in the glen of the River Coe, of such proud peaks and frozen waterfalls, of stony curtain-walls nearly impa.s.sable.

Dair grinned back, much admiring a view that had nothing to do with houses or trees or islands. "You could be a ship's figurehead, standing up there like that."

"Och, I would rather be a sailor than a piece of wood . . . to sail the oceans broad and see what there is to see, to travel to the far Indies for the spice and to China for the silk . . ." She glanced down at him, bright of eye and yearning, one strand of hair blown slantwise across fiercely beautiful features, the face of a warrior-queen. "You've been to France, aye? I've been nowhere."

"You've travelled farther than you ken, Cat." He made his way around the back of the rock. "Verra much farther, aye?"

Her tone was dubious. "Have I?"

He climbed the crude steps hewn by no man's hands but G.o.d's, and joined her atop the time-wracked stone. Wind unpleated his kilt, billowed in his plaid. Like her he was barefoot; with the snow melted, it was good to feel the earth beneath one's feet.

"You have." Dair stood next to her now, one hand meeting hers to grasp, to twine the fingers into his own. "Would you have said ten years ago that you might stand here one day with me?"

So close, she was warm, and warded him from wind. "Ten years ago MacDonalds were lifting Glen Lyon cattle," she explained with marked irony. "So no, I dinna think I would have said anything of the sort."

He laughed. "Trust you to remind me of that!"

"Aye, well, 'tis true. And I swore then to hate you."

"Hate me!"

"For lifting the cattle."

"I wasna there, Cat!"

She looked at him sharply. "You were. They said so."

"Who said so?"

"My brothers!"

He affected elaborate comprehension. "Oh, aye, well-they wouldna be lying, would they? And were they there, to ken whether I was?"

"No, but-" Cat stopped. She was silent a moment, mouth twisted awry. He felt her body stiffen. "b.l.o.o.d.y b.a.s.t.a.r.ds," she muttered, between tight-shut teeth. "b.l.o.o.d.y, cursed liars!"

"Aye, well, brothers are, forbye. Sometimes."

"They wanted me to hate you! They kent how I felt-" She broke it off abruptly, face aflame.

This was worth investigating. "Aye?" he prodded. "And what was it they kent you felt?" No answer. "Cat?"

Mutinous, she was silent.

Dair laughed and slung an arm around her neck, pulling her closer still. "You'll no' be hiding something from me, aye?"

Cat worked her mouth, considering something. Then sighed and laughed ruefully, glancing sidelong at him and away. "That day you came, with MacIain. To see my father. About MacGregors, aye?"

"I recall."

"You were kind to me."

He smiled. "It isna my practice to be rude to a wee la.s.s."

Cat flashed him a scorching sidelong glance. "Wee la.s.s . . . I was never a wee la.s.s! And not so much a la.s.s at all, to hear my brothers tell it." She heaved a noisy sigh of aged aggravation, then dismissed them from her world. "You spoke to me as if you understood what it was to be overlooked, as MacIain overlooked me."

He was preposterously comfortable with his arm crooked around her shoulders, hand dangling slackly. "Because I kent it myself. I told you, aye?-I was a runtling, myself, and only a second son. 'Twas John would be MacIain one day in our father's place."

Cat's abrupt smile was brilliant. "I remember you said until your hair began to silver, you feared you were a changeling." She put up a hand and touched it, threading affectionate fingers through it. "No one would question it now."

He laughed. "My mother never did. A woman kens her own, she said. But dinna turn the subject. How was it you felt, that your brothers lied to you?"

She left off untangling his hair and let the arm slip to his waist beneath his plaid, settling there with finality. "I told you. You were kind to me. And you were a bluidy MacDonald from bluidy Glencoe, and I couldna help but wonder if you were a monster." She laughed softly. "You were gey remarkable, aye?-a monster, a MacDonald, but kind to a plain-faced la.s.s."

"Ah," he said, as joyous laughter bubbled up from deep inside; he had never felt this with Jean, and marvelled at it. "A great romantic hero, aye?-like in Roman de la Rose or Chanson de Roland. "

Cat's mouth twisted wryly, and then she smiled. "But I was only an overfanciful la.s.s-I learned the truth of you."

"But I wasna on that raid," he protested.

"Not that one, perhaps . . . but others, aye?" She flashed him an arch glance. "There was a misty morning in a Glen Lyon shieling-and you wi' Robbie Stewart."

He sought bitterness in her tone and found none. It was teasing, no more, warmly intimate, as if she had let go all the bitterness of the past, the dirks drawn between them, between Glen Lyon and Glencoe.

Overwhelmed, he caught her up in a sudden, inelegant embrace. "Christ, Cat-" He buried his face in her hair, holding her tightly, so tightly. The wind beat about them, snooving through the trees to tangle tartan plaids. "Dinna ever leave me . . . "

Her grip was as strong, and the breath warm against his scarred neck. " 'Tis my home," she said simply. And then, as if comprehending what he could not say, the fear he would not admit, offered him what he most wanted of her. "This is my home. Glencoe."

Governor Hill stared at the young Cameron come to carry him a message. He clutched the arms of his chair so tightly his knuckles ached. "James has released the clans from the oath sworn at Dalcomera ! "

Lochiel's son would be a handsome man. His face was expressive. "He has that, aye."

Relief was overwhelming. Though still seated, Hill collapsed in upon himself, hearing the chair creak beneath him. "Praise G.o.d for His wisdom," he murmured breathily, then pulled himself to his feet. Elation lent renewed strength. "Will you have usquabae?"

The young Cameron declined. "We have but six days before the amnesty expires," he said. "My father says we had best go to Campbell of Ardkinglas to set our names to the parchment."

Indeed, time is running out. . . . But Hill believed it no longer mattered, nor Stair's hatred of the Highlanders; that such commitment by Ewan Cameron of Lochiel on the heels of James's release of them would go far to convince other clans this was the right decision.

Except perhaps for one old laird. "Glencoe," he blurted.

Lochiel's son hitched a plaid-swathed shoulder. "We've heard naught of MacIain."

Elation burned to ash. It was imperative that MacIain sign. If he comes forward within the week, there need not be a beginning of Stair's brutal plan, but if he does not- Hill thought back to the conversations he had had with MacIain's son, Alasdair Og. He had seemed a fair young man, an intelligent young man, and Hill hoped the laird's second son had told his father of the governor's words regarding the likelihood of danger if he did not come forward. But there were no guarantees.

If MacIain has not heard, and continues to refuse to sign because he mistakenly believes James has not released his Highlanders . . . "I shall have to send word," Hill declared with finality.

The Cameron's eyes sharpened. His was tense as a hunting hound. "You would do that?"

Hill barked a brief, humorless laugh. "In the name of Heaven, young man, of course I would! If sending a Sa.s.senach soldier into Glencoe would save a single life, I would do it. And carrying word to MacIain could save more than a single life, Scottish and English."

After a taut moment, the Cameron smiled. "I will ask my father if I may go myself."

"You owe nothing to MacDonalds," Hill said in surprise.

"And you owe less, aye?" He tugged on his bonnet. "I willna drink your usquabae, Governor . . . time grows short, aye?" There was a p.r.o.nounced glint in his eye. "My father is a man who covets another's attention . . . coming so near to expiry will cause them all to talk."

Hill watched the door shut behind the young Highlander. It was pride that governed Lochiel and men such as he. If he could be seen to acquiesce only after James's release, only at the cusp of expiration, he would be remarked a man who did as he must in the name of clan and country, not as a fearful weakling who gave in to Sa.s.senachs.

Aloud, because once spoken it carried more weight, he proclaimed, "Lochiel's son will go to MacIain, and Glencoe will be saved."

The Earl of Breadalbane walked beside the winter-crisp sh.o.r.es of Loch Awe, near brown and brittle reeds, watching deerhounds gambol. The b.i.t.c.h was free of the pups now and much relieved, though they still yearned after her; her milk had dried and she no longer tolerated importunate mouths. The five long-tailed, ribby puppies trailed after her as she walked ahead of her master, making shift to control impudent legs as yet too long and angulated for their narrow bodies.

Five healthy puppies. The four b.i.t.c.hes especially he treasured, for from them would come future litters. One day, with care, he would have produced a line of deerhounds unequalled by any other.

The puppies made hard going of it; at six weeks they were independent enough to be adventurous, to test their way in the world, but infancy-awkward and p.r.o.ne to discover trouble. And they did so now along the rocky sh.o.r.e, tangling themselves in rocks and reeds and icy snowmelt until all of them were soaked. And so the earl whistled the b.i.t.c.h to his side and started back for the castle; they came at once, all five-as expected with their d.a.m.n departing-and as hastily as they might, yelping and straggling and lalloping across the muddy turf.

The bitter cold had faded, but it was still winter withal and the puppies young. In the courtyard Breadalbane took up burlap sacking and, with much effort and no little protest of winter-wracked joints, knelt to dry the puppies.

It was messy work and as equally unappreciated by the squirming subjects. He might have left it to the gamekeeper to tend the puppies, but the earl took pleasure of it. Kilchurn was his world, inviolate of such things as judgment by others, and he spent much time catching and drying the puppies, gently insistent. One by one, struggling and squawking, each leggy, fuzzy deerhound sprat was warmed in the earl's burlap-filled hands, until all were set free again, dry, to roll against the flagstones in frenzied disgust, or to leap upon one another in mock ferocity.

He rose at last, if slowly, and tossed damp sacking aside. His efforts had disordered his clothing, but he was disinclined to care. And then Sandy came with a letter in his hand, saying a courier had arrived from Edinburgh.

Breadalbane broke the seal and unfolded the parchment. He read swiftly, then again, less swiftly. And crumpled the letter in one muddied hand full of damp and dog hair. "London," he said succinctly. "At once."

Sandy departed with alacrity to make preparations. His master delayed a moment to gaze at his puppies, but saw nothing at all of dogs. And even when the b.i.t.c.h came up and set her head beneath his hand, pressing a shoulder against his leg, he was not moved to pet her.

"One week," the earl said bitterly. "One week only before the year is out, before the scheme can be set in motion, my compensation rendered-and now James releases them!"

But he calmed himself with effort. All was not lost. He need not panic. One week in the Highlands, with winter yet settled in, could equal a month on the road. And the reprieve would be undone, and MacDonalds would die after all.

Grey John Campbell glared up at the clear skies. "Snow, "he ordered succinctly, as if he were G.o.d to command it.

Cat, sensitized by now to MacIain's moods, sat quietly near the fire in MacIain's house as Ewan Cameron's son related the news. The hilarity of the evening at Carnoch, begun after supper as first John and then Dair battled their father at chess and were badly beaten in flamboyant displays of MacIain's skill, faded now into stunned silence.

Lady Glencoe, pouring wine for Cat and herself, set the flagon on the table, task unfinished. Dair, who had knelt to tend the glowing peat-fire behind Cat's stool, stood up. No one spoke, not even Young Sandy, who slumped against his father's side as sleep overcame him. It prevented John from doing anything other than stare at the Cameron who brought such news.

Eiblin MacDonald, within weeks of delivering John's second child, cupped rigid hands over the mound of her belly. She looked expectantly at MacIain. So did they all, now, turning as one, while MacIain himself, masked against expression, set down beside the chessboard the p.a.w.n he held.

"I thank you for your news," he said calmly. "Will ye drink usquabae?"

The Cameron accepted with a bob of his ruddy head. He was clearly nervous-MacIain was infamous-but just as clearly proud of his heritage; he was also the son of a laird, even as Dair and John. His father was of equal standing as Glencoe himself.

But Cat could not help a faint smile; no man in the world, laird or no, was equal to MacIain in anything but t.i.tle.

For some time the Cameron was hosted according to Highland tradition, given food, drink, and welcome. He declined the offer of a bed within the laird's own house, explaining his father and his gillies awaited his return near the ferry at Ballachulish by the road to Inveraray, where they would meet with Ardkinglas.

In Campbell lands was Inveraray, and the sheriff himself a Campbell. Cat looked again at MacIain. He had welcomed a Campbell into his house, but that was withal a minor thing when compared to swearing an oath.

With friendly words exchanged and good whisky drunk, the Cameron departed. Only MacDonalds now, save for Cat Campbell. She thought perhaps she should leave. But Dair, standing behind her, put a hand on her shoulder and held her there.

MacIain knocked back his whisky, then set the gla.s.s down upon the table with an audible sound. "So," he said.

No one spoke. Young Sandy stirred against his father's side, murmured briefly, then slumped back into sleep as his mother, seated nearby, leaned to smooth tousled hair. The Parisian clock on the mantel ticked loudly.

Cat was glad of Dair's hand on her shoulder. She wanted badly to look up into his face, to judge his expression, but she could not turn away from MacIain. He had spellbound them all.

John was heir, and thus perhaps the bravest. "If we are released from the oath we swore to James at Dalcomera, we are free to swear another."

MacIain grunted. "I heard the lad, aye?"

Silence again, and the ticking of the clock. Cat wanted to scream. John continued. "The proclamation was plain. If we dinna sign by the end of the year, we will be punished."