The Knight's Temptress (Lairds of the Loch) (39 page)

Andrew Dubh MacFarlan and his men were moving along a ridge high above the Loch of the Long Boats, watching the shoreline but keeping to the heights. They were afoot, and Pharlain’s three galleys were ahead, well south of them, on the loch.

The galleys had left Arrochar at dawn. But no banners flew over them, which was unusual for Pharlain. The boats contained no extra oarsmen. Nor were they heavily laden with armed men, as they would be for invasion or battle.

In fact, the three boats carried fewer men than usual.

Those boats had stirred Andrew’s curiosity enough to want to keep an eye on them. When they passed beyond
Tùr Meiloach’s south boundary, he had led his men upward, knowing that they would see much farther from the ridgetop.

The boulder-and-talus-strewn route they followed now was unknown to most people. Its treacherous terrain had claimed lives and thus had supplied some of the tales that had helped protect Tùr Meiloach.

Nevertheless, Andrew and his men knew it well and traveled swiftly.

They had gone above the headwaters of his south boundary onto Colquhoun land some time ago. Below them to the east lay Loch Lomond. Earlier, they had looked down the length of Glen Luss, and he could see Glen Finlas ahead.

Glen Fruin lay just beyond it.

He had left Malcolm and a few guardsmen to keep the tower secure. Annie Wylie was inside to watch Murie and Lizzie. He also had watchers on the passes and on each of Tùr Meiloach’s borders. No one had reported anything unusual.

But Pharlain was up to mischief, and Andrew had been uneasy ever since his wife and Lina had insisted on returning to Bannachra with Margaret Galbraith.

Dougal had captured Lina and was doubtless furious to have lost her. What if he knew where she was now? What if he knew that Aubrey was with her?

A distant shout from below to the east caught his sharp ears. He raised a hand to stop his men.

The shout came again, and someone shouted, “That be Calum’s Tam, laird!”

Calum Beg guarded Tùr Meiloach’s southeast pass. Tam was one of his sons, so Andrew nodded to his hornsman. Two light blasts would bring Tam right to him.

Minutes later, Tam, a wiry man much the same age as Andrew but thinner and graying at the temples, hurried up to him and touched his cap.

“Me da sent me, laird. There be trouble a-comin’ this way from Dumbarton.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“The Laird o’ Colquhoun sent tae tell ye that James Mòr and dunamany men wi’ him left Dumbarton shortly after dawn tae join Colquhoun in a great hunt at the south end o’ the loch. But them from Dumbarton vanished, and the laird fears they forded the river Leven and be makin’ their way north tae Arrochar.”

“If James Mòr goes to Arrochar, he may find nae one home,” Andrew said. But he was thinking rapidly.

“Aye, me da said he’d no seen a sign o’ them yet. But since her ladyship and the lady Lina did go to Bannachra, he kent fine that ye’d want tae know.”

“Laird!” someone cried. “Be that lot going ashore yonder, d’ye think?”

Ahead, Andrew saw that Pharlain’s lead galley had turned toward the shore. It was a quarter-mile off Colquhoun land now but well south of Craggan. If men disembarked there, they would be but a two-hour walk from Glen Fruin.

Horsemen coming up the glen could cover the ground even faster… if naught delayed them.

Soon after Ian shouted for Gorry, the man reined in beside him. “Aye, sir?”

“You will recall that message I dropped in their ladyships’ chamber before we departed with them. Do you know who found it?”

“I can tell ye that scrap o’ vellum were gone when next I opened the door,” Gorry said. “I’d heard nowt of it, nor o’ their ladyships. So me lad and me had a peek. Finding them gone, we reported their disappearance, which nae one else had done yet. But if anyone else found that scrap, sir, I’d ha’ heard, though it puzzles me how anyone else could get in without he had a key.”

“Do you have the only key to that room, then?” Mag asked, frowning.

“At present, Dougal has the only other one,” Ian said. “Right, Gorry?”

“Aye, sir,” Gorry said. “Me lad and I had tasks tae do after ye left that day. So it wasna till someone asked did I forget their ladyships that we went up together and found them gone. I’d seen plain enough that ye dropped that message in the middle o’ the floor. It wasna there later, nor the lassies neither, o’ course.”

“What happened next?”

“I sent the lad tae fetch the captain o’ the guard and showed him what we’d found. He asked some questions. But dunamany folks had seen me all the afternoon a-doing me usual chores wi’ the lad. Nae one accused me o’ nowt.”

Rob said, “Dougal found it himself then, aye.”

Nodding, Ian said, “He must have, which means he was coming back for my lady to take her with him. I doubt that he’ll be returning to Dumbarton, though, especially if James Mòr is heading for Arrochar.”

“Aye, if Dougal is wise, he’ll stay home for a long while,” Mag said.

“Look,” Rob said. “Is that not one of your lads coming yonder, Ian?”

A man that Ian recognized as Hew Laing, a Dunglass
gillie, dashed out of the dense woods ahead of them and ran toward them as fast as he could pelt.

“I saw them Stewarts from Dumbarton, Sir Ian!” he shouted as he neared them. “They passed me t’other side o’ the river. We were all off the road amidst the trees, so they didna see me. I heard one say Glen Fruin be but a few miles ahead.”

“Glen Fruin? Art sure they spoke of Glen Fruin, not Arrochar?” Ian asked.

“Heard it plain, sir. I’d hid soon as I heard ’em, fearing they’d seek tae ken me business did they see me in such a haste. See you, I were tae fetch a garron tae carry our deer. I feared that lot might ha’ took the deer, did I let them see me. But when I crossed tae this side, one o’ our lads said ye was a-looking for that lot.”

“Where are most of the deer hunters now, Hew?”

“They cut eastward. My lot stalked one just northwest o’ the ford nearest Balloch. We’d carried that deer a mile afore we thought tae fetch a garron.”

“Damn their souls,” Mag snapped. “They’re making for Bannachra.”

“Can we get there before they do?” Ian demanded.

“Aye, if we cross the muir,” Mag said. “The nearest ford lies just ahead.”

“Show us,” Ian said. Then to Hew, he said, “You find Colquhoun or the Laird of Galbraith, or both. Tell whoever you find what you told me. Also tell him that I said you should ask him to lend you a garron for that deer of yours.”

“Aye, sir, I’ll run all the way.”

As he dashed off, Ian motioned to his men and said, “Lead on, Mag.”

A short time later, they splashed across the ford and
into the woods on the west side of the river with Rob and the other men close behind.

Confident that Mag would take them into the glen well above James Mòr and the rebels, Ian felt the familiar zest for battle surge through him.

They would capture the treacherous scoundrel and his closest followers.

Then he would present them all as a fine gift to his grace, the King. It might be fine enough, when added to the recovery of Dumbarton Castle, to persuade Jamie to let him return to the arms of his serenely delectable lady wife.

Thankful to know that Lina was safe and sound at Tùr Meiloach, Ian rode on.

Lina was hungry, and it was past the usual time for the midday meal. She had been shaking out bed curtains and draperies, and rearranging linen and clothing kists—airing out, Lady Margaret had called it, and Lina hadn’t minded.

The remnants of her dream earlier stayed with her, reminding her of how her life had changed since Sir Ian Colquhoun had strolled into it. He had encouraged her to trust her feelings and to try things that she would never have imagined doing on her own. Just thinking of his touch or his voice brought the images back.

Those feelings stirred again when she thought about him as she went downstairs, expecting to join her mother and Lady Margaret for their midday meal.

To her surprise, she heard no voices as she approached the dais entrance to the great hall, where she had assumed that both Lady Margaret and Lady Aubrey would be expecting her. A lone gillie stood at the end of the dais
nearest the fireplace, bereft of any fire now with the weather so warm.

“Where are their ladyships?” Lina asked him.

“Sakes, m’lady, they ate nigh an hour ago.”

“Are they in Lady Margaret’s solar, then?”

“Nay, m’lady. Whiles, Lady Margaret did go down tae the kitchen tae speak wi’ the cook. Then she did say she would tend tae her stitchery and doesna want tae be disturbed. Lady Aubrey did go outside tae walk.”

“Which way did she go?” Lina could hear her tension in her voice.

“She didna say. But that lad ye brung wi’ ye, Pluff, said he seen her heading up the glen. What will ye ha’ tae eat, then?”

“Bread and a wedge of cheese if there is some,” Lina said. “But make haste. I want to catch up with my mother.”

As soon as she had her food, Lina hurried out into the yard to find Pluff.

Having followed Mag by a circuitous route through the woods and across a boggy, peat-scented muir into higher country, Ian’s party crested the hill between the muir and Glen Fruin in less time than he had expected. From the hilltop, he and the rest of the men looked down on Bannachra Tower, which sat below them on a slight rise less than a quarter-mile away, overlooking Fruin Water.

“Either they’ve already passed by, or we’ve beaten them here,” Mag said.

“Nowt about that tower suggests that they’ve been here,” Rob observed.

“Then we’ll head down the glen,” Ian said. “We can welcome them.”

He glanced at the tower again. Something about it was wrong.

“Hark!” Rob said, looking eastward. “Hear that?”

Below them in the glen, Ian did hear a distant sound of hoofbeats and the clank of weapons and armor that usually heralded an armed force.

“We must stop them before they reach the tower,” Mag said. “My aunt will have left only a few men-at-arms to guard it—mere bodyguards, though, not a fighting force. Weir,” he shouted to one of the Clan Farlan men, “go to the tower and warn the lads there of their danger. Then do what you can to secure the tower, whilst we attend to those coming up the trail.”

Ian said, “We’ll wait for them at that narrow curve beyond the tower, yonder. I’m thinking we can hold them there.”

“We’ll surprise them, I’m sure,” Mag said. “And, judging by the sounds they make, we have almost as many men as they do.”

As they made their way down the hill, Ian glanced at Bannachra Tower several times more, wondering what it was about the place that seemed odd.

It struck him when they reached the track along the Fruin Water.

“Maggy, is not your aunt still a guest at Tùr Meiloach?”

“Aye, sure, she—” Breaking off with an oath, Mag added, “Blast the woman! Her banner is flying over the tower. She must have come home.”

Ian glanced back again and saw a thin, red-headed lad running toward them.

Tension swept through him. “Is that not Tùr Meiloach’s Pluff?”

“It is, by God,” Mag said, frowning.

“You and Rob take the lads and meet James Mòr and his lot,” Ian said. “I’ll make sure that Lady Margaret is safe and”—he swallowed a sudden obstruction in his throat—“and find out if anyone else is here with her. If so, I’ll see to them, too.”