Authors: Highland Princess
Several raised bows with arrows nocked, but although the arrows flew, the hill path was too far away, and the angle uncertain. By the time the archers reached the shore, the two cobles were out of range.
“It is only a matter of time, though,” Lachlan said. “They’ll swim for their longboat, and we can do nothing to stop them, because we cannot sink it in time or row it by ourselves. And once their oarsmen are in it, they’ll soon catch us.”
“Men are in the water already,” Mairi exclaimed.
“And they have only to send one to the cliff top to see which way we go.”
Mairi fell silent, and he needed his strength to row, so he said no more, and in another few minutes, they reached the mouth of the craggy inlet. The waves there were stronger, despite being on the leeward side, but they would meet even heavier seas when they entered the Firth of Lorn. Although he said nothing to the others, he knew they would be lucky if the first great sea wave did not overturn them.
As that thought crossed his mind, he heard Mairi gasp.
Turning, expecting to see ships full of Mackinnons, he saw three galleys heading straight for them, bright with torches, banners flying.
In the torchlight, however, he saw that the banners were gold and the device on each one was a little black ship.
M
acDonald himself commanded the lead ship, and after men had helped Mairi aboard, she said as she hugged him fiercely, “You saw the beacon!”
“Aye. I’d set men to searching Morvern and Mull, whilst Godfrey took boats to Iona and Ranald into Loch Linnhe, but I knew if Fingon had taken you, he’d not risk the Holy Isle. We suspected they’d gone the other way, but knew not where.”
Lachlan said, “The Mackinnons had to swim to their longboat, sir, but they are right behind us. Where’s Hector?”
“In my second galley,” MacDonald said as he motioned the two others past them. “He was going to set out this way himself in your longboat, but my galleys are swifter, so we came together. He thought the villains would head out of the Sound as soon as they could, lest others see them there and tell us which way they’d gone. He soon came to believe they must have carried you through the woods past Duart, to a boat they had waiting on the coast to carry you south.”
“That’s my guess, too,” Lachlan said, waving as he caught sight of his grinning brother in the galley just passing them. “They knocked me out and hooded me, but I do recall now that I came to my senses briefly in some sort of a cart, and was damned uncomfortable in it, too.”
“Lighting that beacon fire was a clever notion, lad,” MacDonald said.
As Lachlan opened his mouth to reveal whose notion it was, Mairi forestalled him, saying earnestly, “Aidan Kean did that, your grace, and very brave of him it was, too, because he knew he was risking his life to do it.”
MacDonald turned to the lad and held out his hand. His voice shook as he said, “I thank you for your bravery, Aidan Kean, and I’ll see you well rewarded for it. Your action undoubtedly saved my daughter’s life, and Lachlan Lubanach’s as well. I warrant the Green Abbot would have murdered them both.”
Lachlan said, “As to that, sir . . .”
“My life was never in danger, only my pride and my future,” Mairi interjected. “And, Father, it wasn’t Fingon, not by himself. Niall was there, too.”
“Niall!” MacDonald exclaimed.
“Aye, sir, but he’s truly dead now, I think.”
“He is, lass,” Lachlan said. “I am certain of it.”
“I thought you killed him at Craignure,” MacDonald said.
“So did I,” Lachlan said, “but apparently he just sank enough to swim under the wharf. Fingon collected him, and they abducted Mairi and captured me.”
Mairi said, “The worst of it was that Niall meant to marry me and kill Lachlan. He aspired even to control the Lordship. They said if they kept me hidden, you’d do whatever they demanded. I told Niall I’d never obey him without being beaten into submission, but I think it only made him more determined. He . . .” She paused with a glance at Lachlan, and then added, “I never liked him much.”
“Niall had long wanted to control her ladyship,” Lachlan said. “He spoke of providing better guidance for her, less indulgence than she has hitherto enjoyed, and severe punishment for disobedience. We believe he murdered Elma MacCoun or, at least, bears great responsibility for her death.”
“Aye, we learned as much ourselves,” MacDonald said, adding in a louder tone, “Hold here, lads.”
Lachlan had paid little heed to their course after the other two ships had passed and MacDonald’s had fallen in behind, but all three were taking up positions outside the mouth of the craggy inlet. Hector’s boat rocked on the near side, holding a position just beyond view of anyone coming out, while the second boat faced his on the other side. MacDonald had ordered his galley to halt behind Hector’s.
A moment later the longboat they had seen in the inlet hove into view, manned by a dozen oarsmen. Hector waited until its prow emerged from the inlet, then blew his horn just as the emerging vessel’s helmsman caught sight of them.
The galleys surged forward, cutting off retreat, and at the enemy helmsman’s command, his men raised their oars in the classic gesture of surrender.
The Green Abbot was not aboard.
MacDonald demanded to know if the men who were there would accept him as their liege and swear loyalty to him. Not surprisingly, all of them roared, “Aye!”
Lachlan said, “Your grace, I don’t think they knew until a short time ago that their masters intended to betray you. When Lady Mairi spoke her mind on learning that Niall Mackinnon expected to marry her, some of the things she said clearly surprised his men.”
“What did she say?”
“That he was betraying you and had lied to many of his own kinsmen by pretending to be dead whilst he and Fingon organized her abduction.”
“But did you not say that Niall was badly injured at Craignure?”
“I did, but he showed no sign of injury in his swordplay today. So, despite the blood I saw, I believe he must have greatly exaggerated that wound to make his fall in the water look natural. Then, aided by the weight of his sword, he was able to sink low enough to swim under the landing and make good his escape.” Obliquely, he added, “You said you’d also discovered his connection to Elma MacCoun’s murder. How did that come to pass?”
“From one of your prisoners,” MacDonald said. “Your ferocious brother had a talk with Gil Dowell.”
“Did Dowell say Mackinnon wanted Elma dead, or that he killed her?”
“Nay, only that he ordered Shim MacVey to keep her from troubling him.”
“That agrees with what we learned, sir,” Lachlan said, explaining.
When he finished, MacDonald nodded and said with a sigh, “Gil also told Hector how she died. Apparently, Shim feared telling Niall what had happened but did tell Gil that she’d scorned him too often, when she married Mellis, when she gave herself to Niall, and there on the beach. Shim meant only to teach her a lesson, but she fought and somehow—he knows not how—she died, and he left her on the sand. The notion to cast blame on Ian Burk did not come to him until later, Gil said, after he’d sent Ewan to find her. By then, he and his two friends had forgotten Ian’s brief trip to Dunyvaig and recalled only seeing him argue with Elma on the causeway.”
As he spoke, MacDonald was watching his men and Hector’s take control of the longboat. When its crew had climbed aboard the three galleys, he ordered his men to take the longboat into the inlet, supported by one of the galleys, to secure the castle and collect any stray Mackinnons they might find on the tiny isle.
“Do you think they’ll find Fingon?” Mairi asked her father.
He shrugged, saying, “I’d not risk a wager on it, lass. They say the abbot has more friends below than above. My guess is that he had his escape planned before he arrived, but I won’t hazard a guess as to how or where.”
“Sprouted wings and flew,” Lachlan said with a grimace. “I doubt it’s the last we’ll see of him, but ’twould be dangerous to go against him publicly.”
“Aye, for he still wields great power in the Kirk,” MacDonald said, adding, “We’ll leave the other boats and return to Ardtornish. Dawn will be upon us before we arrive, and I’ve guests and a Paschal feast yet to host for them.”
They sat on cushioned benches along the sides of the high prow, MacDonald facing Lachlan and Mairi. When Mairi sighed and leaned back, exhausted, Lachlan slipped an arm around her and drew her close so she could rest her head against his shoulder. He expected MacDonald to object to the arrangement, but despite Mairi’s murmur of contentment, or perhaps because of it, he did not.
Instead, he said, “We’ll talk further, lad, when we get home.”
Mairi’s eyes fluttered open. “What about, sir?”
“That depends, lass. You said you’d not marry him, but seeing you now, curled like a wee kitten beside him, I’m thinking you’ve changed your mind.”
She bit her lower lip and said nothing for several moments, stirring a strong temptation in Lachlan to demand a chance to talk with her again before they continued the conversation. He told himself he was confident, but his inner voice seemed less so than usual. Nevertheless, he forced himself to stay silent.
At last, she said quietly to her father, “If the match does not displease you, sir, I will agree to it now.”
Lachlan’s inner voice cheered, and a huge weight slid from his mind.
“Are you certain, daughter?”
“Aye, sir. When I refused, I spoke from my anger at his disrespectful treatment of you, his liege lord, and other, more personal matters, but I knew when they threw him into that cellar cage with me that my feelings for him had grown stronger than ever before.”
Diverted, MacDonald snapped, “Cage!”
“Aye, the iron one in Dunconnel’s cellar.”
“I know of no cage there,” he said grimly. “However did the two of you win free of such a place?”
“They took us out so Fingon could perform my wedding to Niall,” Mairi said sleepily. “In the end, though, ’twas your own gift to me that saw us free, sir. You trusted me with the tricks of both the inner and the outer portcullis last year when you took me to Dunconnel.”
MacDonald smiled. “So that arrangement worked, did it? Clever lass, to have remembered. I devised that arrangement myself, lad,” he said to Lachlan. “Heard that attackers drove a hay wagon under the portcullis at Linlithgow Palace years ago filled with English soldiers who jumped out and swarmed the place. Reinforcements easily followed, because the wagon propped up the gate. I decided that if an enemy ever gained entry at Dunconnel, I wanted a way to contain them, and with only the one entrance, a trick portcullis seemed ideal. There’s a trick to getting out, too, so an enemy outside cannot trap the occupants inside.”
“Very clever, sir,” Lachlan said.
“Aye, well, you asked me about that trick, lad,” MacDonald added. “In troth, we’ve only entrusted the information about the second one to family members, so I expect we’ll have to make you one of us now, to keep the tradition.”
“Thank you, your grace. I swear to you that I’ll do all in my power to remain worthy of your confidence. You and yours can depend on my loyalty and that of all sons of Gillean, both now and long after I become chief of our clan.”
MacDonald turned to Mairi. “He suggested you might like Duart as part of your tocher, lass. What think you of that?”
Her smile answered him, and with the torchlight making stars dance in her eyes, her lips parted invitingly, and with her body molding softly against his, Lachlan had all he could do not to kiss her and keep kissing her all the way home.
Ardtornish loomed above them, silvery in the early dawn light, as the royal galley slid against its landing in the bay.
Mairi smiled drowsily at Lachlan as he picked her up in his arms without asking anyone’s permission and stepped onto the timber dock.
“You take liberties, sir,” she murmured provocatively.
“Aye, and I intend to take more before this day is done, sweetheart.”
“Faith then, do you mean to carry me all the way up the cliff stairs?”
“If you want the entire household to think you incapacitated by your ordeal, I’ll be happy to do so,” he said, answering her teasing smile with one of his own.
“Knave,” she muttered. “It would serve you right if I pretended that such a lie would not disturb me, and made you exhaust yourself, but I am too vain and too concerned for your well-being to do that. Put me down.”
To her surprise, he complied at once, and as he did, she detected a lurking twinkle in her father’s eyes.
“I think we’d best arrange the wedding as soon as we can, lass,” MacDonald said. “I don’t want to know if Niall was right about your having indulged yourselves already in the pleasures of the connubial bed, but I can see that you will certainly do so if we do not soon take steps to prevent it.”
“How soon?” she demanded.
“I believe my Paschal feast can easily serve as a wedding feast,” he said.
“But banns . . . and my lady mother will want to order new gowns for—”
“I will speak with your lady mother,” he said as they climbed the steps cut into the cliff. “In troth, I am more concerned about Alasdair Stewart, because I did not spare time to discuss any of this with him before we set out in search of you. Nor, since he was still sick from whatever he drank, did I ask him to go with us or even tell him what had happened. Considering his supposed interest in marrying you, he may regard that as a slight.”
“I don’t want to marry Alasdair,” Mairi said flatly. “His reasons for marrying me were the same as Niall’s. But I expect you can manage him easily, sir.”
“What about papal dispensation, your grace?” Lachlan asked. “Our kinship does lie within the forbidden degrees.”
Mairi held her breath, but MacDonald shrugged, saying, “If one follows the rules of the Roman Kirk, nigh well every man and woman in the Isles lies within them. I’ll apply to his holiness straightaway, but we need not wait. You certainly will not be the first from these parts to marry before dispensation was granted.”
“Then I’m agreeable, sir, but I’d like my brother to be present.”