The Knight's Temptress (Lairds of the Loch) (36 page)

Monday morning, having persuaded Colquhoun, Galbraith, Rob, and Alex that his plan was worth trying because they would lose nowt if it failed, Ian and the others persuaded more of their supporters. After that, a plan began to take form.

Ian sent word to Gorry and Jed Laing to make it known that men had seen a fourteen-point stag in a wood between Balloch and the south end of Loch Lomond. He
also told them to let him know when word of the stag reached James Mòr.

Colquhoun, having received no reply to his request for another meeting with James Mòr, sent a message with the same messenger, suggesting they might discuss how James Mòr meant to proceed if he remained Keeper of Dumbarton. Colquhoun also promised to guarantee his safety if he wanted to meet at Dunglass or some other neutral location to escape his tedious confinement at Dumbarton.

“ ’Tis nobbut talk,” Colquhoun said. “I want him to reply. The more inanities I offer, the more likely I am to stir his ire or pique his interest enough to do so.”

Ian smiled to himself. His father had a devious bone or two, too, whether he would admit it or not.

Lina awoke late that morning to find that Lizzie and Murie had arisen before her. Surprised at herself for sleeping later than usual, she got up, quickly performed her ablutions, and dressed. Then, hesitating on the landing, nearly certain that Mag had left Tùr Meiloach by then and wondering if she ought to look in on Andrena, she decided in favor of going down to the great hall first, to see who was there.

Andrena was at the high table with their mother and Lady Margaret, so Lina went in. Greeting her mother and Lady Margaret with a smile, she went around the end of the table to join her sister.

Andrena smiled, clearly relieved to see Lina. Taking her usual seat beside her, Lina asked one of the gillies to bring her toast and a boiled egg. Then, to Andrena, she said, “Mag left early, then.”

“Aye, and I miss him already.”

“How do you feel this morning?”

“Better,” she said. “Your tisane helped, and Mam suggested eating more often. She said it helped her to graze like a sheep, a nibble here, and a bite there.”

Lady Margaret said abruptly, “I expect I shall be leaving in a day or so.”

Both sisters turned as one to stare at her. “So soon, my lady?” Lina said. “We have scarcely just arrived.”

“Aye, well, your father has been talking about that Pharlain person again.”

“Do you fear he will attack?” Lady Aubrey asked her. “I can assure you that Andrew has kept us safe in this tower for twenty years.”

“Aye, through telling lies,” Margaret said. “I know.”

Andrena said, “He does not lie, my lady. He merely repeats tales others have told about Tùr Meiloach. Forbye, strange things do happen here. People have—”

“What Andrena means,” Lady Aubrey interjected, “is that Andrew devised strategies which, aided by the more superstitious amongst us, have kept others from
trying
to invade Tùr Meiloach. But if you are not happy here, Margaret, then of course you must return to Bannachra.”

“Not unhappy,” Lady Margaret said. “I enjoy your company. But it’s noisy.”

“Then, if you do go, I hope you will let me go with you and stay long enough to see you settled again. You must not travel without a female companion, after all. And since you did not bring your woman…”

“I had no need of her at Inch Galbraith. Nor did she want to go there.”

“Aye, she told us so quite plainly,” Lady Aubrey said
with a reminiscent smile. “But if you will let me accompany you, I would not mind another journey.”

Lina exchanged a look with Andrena and saw the same surprised expression on her face that she felt on her own. For Lady Aubrey to encourage a guest to leave was strange enough. To insist on accompanying her on a full day’s journey only to return a few days later was, as Ian might say, devilish odd.

“Why don’t you just invite James Mòr to join the hunt?” Ian asked his father Tuesday afternoon in the great hall when they still had not heard from Dumbarton.

“Building a foundation for such a thing takes patience, lad,” Colquhoun replied. “If I fail to make my invitation plausible, your ruse is bound to fail.”

“But he must have heard about our stag by now. The men are all talking about it. Even Maggy agrees that my plan may work,” he added, looking across the table at Mag, who had returned from Tùr Meiloach the previous evening.

Adam Colquhoun and Mag composed the audience for this exchange at the high table, where the four men had gathered at the end nearest the fireplace. Every other person in the hall was intent on business of his own. Several, including Alex and Rob, occupied themselves with a dice cup near the great hall fire.

Adam refilled Mag’s goblet from the jug and gave Ian an impatient look. “I do not see why you think anyone at Dumbarton will be eager to hunt a stag as old as that one must be. Sakes, with fourteen points, he’s at least a great-grandfather and will be as tough as boot leather to eat.”

“It is not the eating that will interest them, my lad,” Ian
said, taking the superior tone that he knew irritated his brother. “I’d wager that James Mòr himself will want its head almost as much as he wants Jamie’s. Just think of it! Fourteen points mounted on his great-hall wall for all to see and marvel at.”

“Aye, perhaps,” Adam said doubtfully.

“No ‘perhaps’ about it,” Ian said. “James Mòr has a high opinion of himself. But I doubt he believes that many folks other than his closest followers share that opinion. To be able to show such a trophy… I promise you, the man will salivate.”

“He’s right, Adam,” Mag said. “Men will do much to kill a stag like that.”

Adam still looked doubtful.

When Wednesday morning passed without word from James Mòr, Ian could tell that the other men were fast growing impatient.

Deciding to proceed as if all were in train, he sent gillies to invite local landowners and tenants to prepare for a day’s hunting on Saturday. Hunters would be welcome to stalk the stag on foot or horsed and free to take as many other deer as necessary to provide a grand roast venison feast afterward for everyone. They could either gather at Dunglass at dawn or join the hunters along the way.

That most of the venison taken in such a hunt would likely be royal venison was a minor detail, but one that did cause Ian to pause and take a breath. Reassuring himself that Jamie would care more about regaining control of Dumbarton than he would about the loss to the Crown of a few deer, Ian relaxed again.

At Tùr Meiloach, Lina watched Andrena grow more somber by the day. She seemed unduly worried about Magnus, and her concern was evidently contagious, because Lina fervently missed Ian. She dreamed about him nightly and had begun to fear that it might take months if not years for him to reclaim Dumbarton.

Andrew had received more information from watchers at Arrochar and near the passes and had, accordingly, doubled his guard around Tùr Meiloach’s perimeter. He had also ordered the women to stay inside the wall.

“I shall go mad if I have to stay inside, mending things and tending to other tedious work,” Andrena confided as she and Lina settled to their tasks in the solar that afternoon. “I want to walk on the cliffs and elsewhere as I always do.”

“Where are Murie and Lizzie?” Lina asked. “Murie could at least entertain us with one of her stories.”

“They went outside,” Andrena said. “Murie told Lizzie that they could climb to the wall walk and see what there was to see from there. I will not be surprised, though, if the two of them slip out to visit Annie. Murie has wanted to see her again, since they had so little time the other day, and Mam went to Annie’s yesterday without her.”

“Would Murie dare to take Lizzie?” Lina asked. “Father would be furious.”

“Aye, perhaps. But Mam and Lady Margaret are packing to leave tomorrow, so Murie may get away with it. In troth, I’m tempted to slip out myself. The idea that an enemy might catch me walking on our cliffs is absurd. I would sense any enemy presence at Tùr Meiloach before the danger came near.”

Lina agreed, but she felt obliged to remind Andrena of one detail that she had apparently forgotten. “You would be
safe enough on the cliffs from an enemy and mayhap even from Father,” she said. “But would not Magnus be angry to learn that you had defied
his
orders in such a way?”

“Mag is not here,” Andrena said crossly, revealing yet again the true source of her restlessness.

“You do have someone else to consider, too,” Lina said gently.

“I ken fine what you are trying to do, Lina. I also ken fine that I am behaving badly. I do care about the bairn I carry. I care even more right now about Mag, and I would feel
much
better if I were at Dunglass
with
him—even if he were angry with me—than I feel here without him. And don’t say that you do not feel the same way about Ian, because I can sense that you do.”

Lina had nothing to say to that, because it was perfectly true.

Her thoughts turned to Ian again that evening while Lady Aubrey was explaining to Lady Margaret that she had arranged for them to take an armed escort with them to Bannachra. Staring into the low-burning fire, wondering what Ian might be doing, Lina found herself staring into dense woodland instead…

Recognizing the clearing and the oddly shaped tree that had appeared in the strange reverie she had had just after Ian left, and feeling it tug her memory in another way, she recognized the place, as well. As that thought floated through her mind, she saw a moving dark shape beyond the clearing. Black and featureless, it darted from tree to tree. The hair on the back of her neck twitched and tingled, warning of…

“Lina, Mam has twice spoken to you,” Andrena said sharply.

Startled from whatever fantasy had claimed her, Lina looked dazedly around and saw with relief that she was still in the solar and that her mother was sitting, hale and alive, beside Lady Margaret. Both women were staring at her, their heads cocked, each one’s posture a replica of the other’s.

“Are you all right, dearling?” Lady Aubrey asked. “You looked as if your thoughts had gone somewhere else.”

Taking time to draw a breath, Lina said, “I was just thinking, Mam, that if Lady Margaret ought to have a female companion on her journey home, so should you. So I’ve decided to go with you. That way, when you come home, you won’t have to travel for a whole day with only male companions.”