* * *
Stirling Castle fell at last. The cost had been high, the likelihood of holding it low, and the benefit in keeping it dubious. Still, the effect on Charles was euphoric—and disastrous.
“I have succeeded at last in convincing Murray—such a stubborn fool as he is!” Charles interjected, frowning. Then he remembered his victory, and beamed around the room once more. “I have prevailed, I say, though. We march into England on this day a week, to reclaim all of my Father’s lands!”
The Scottish chieftains gathered in the morning drawing room glanced at each other, and there was considerable coughing and shifting of weight. The overall mood didn’t seem to be one of wild enthusiasm at the news.
“Er, Your Highness,” Lord Kilmarnock began, carefully. “Would it not be wiser to consider…?”
They tried. They all tried. Scotland, they pointed out, already belonged to Charles, lock, stock, and barrel. Men were still pouring in from the north, while from the south there seemed little promise of support. And the Scottish lords were all too aware that the Highlanders, while fierce fighters and loyal followers, were also farmers. Fields needed to be tilled for the spring planting; cattle needed to be provisioned for overwintering. Many of the men would resist going deeply into the South in the winter months.
“And these men—they are not my subjects? They go not where I command them? Nonsense,” Charles said firmly. And that was that. Almost.
“James, my friend! Wait, I speak with you a moment in private, if you please.” His Highness turned from a few sharp words with Lord Pitsligo, his long, stubborn chin softening a bit as he waved a hand at Jamie.
I didn’t think I was included in this invitation. I hadn’t any intention of leaving, though, and settled more firmly into one of the gold damask chairs as the Jacobite lords and chieftains filed out, muttering to each other.
“Ha!” Charles snapped his fingers contemptuously in the direction of the closing door. “Old women, all of them! They will see. So will my cousin Louis, so will Philip—do I need their help? I show them all.” I saw the pale, manicured fingers touch briefly at a spot just over his breast. A faint rectangular outline showed through the silk of his coat. He was carrying Louise’s miniature; I had seen it.
“I wish Your Highness every good fortune in the endeavor,” Jamie murmured, “but…”
“Ah, I thank you, cher James! You at least believe in me!” Charles threw an arm about Jamie’s shoulders, massaging his deltoids affectionately.
“I am desolated that you will not accompany me, that you will not be at my side to receive the applause of my subjects as we march into England,” Charles said, squeezing vigorously.
“I won’t?” Jamie looked stunned.
“Alas, mon cher ami, duty demands of you a great sacrifice. I know how much your great heart yearns for the glories of battle, but I require you for another task.”
“You do?” said Jamie.
“What?” I said bluntly.
Charles cast a glance of well-mannered dislike in my direction, then turned back to Jamie and resumed the bonhomie.
“It is a task of the greatest import, my James, and one that only you can do. It is true that men flock to my Father’s standard; more come every day. Still, we must not haste to feel secure, no? By such luck, your kinsmen the MacKenzies have come to my aid. But you have to your family another side, eh?”
“No,” Jamie said, a look of horror dawning on his face.
“But yes,” said Charles, with a final squeeze. He swung around to face Jamie, beaming. “You will go to the north, to the land of your fathers, and return to me at the head of the men of clan Fraser!”
40
THE FOX’S LAIR
Do you know your grandfather well?” I asked, waving away an unseasonable deerfly that seemed unable to make up its mind whether I or the horse would make a better meal.
Jamie shook his head.
“No. I’ve heard he acts like a terrible auld monster, but ye shouldna be scairt of him.” He smiled at me as I swatted at the deerfly with the end of my shawl. “I’ll be with you.”
“Oh, crusty old gentlemen don’t bother me,” I assured him. “I’ve seen a good many of those in my time. Soft as butter underneath, the most of them. I imagine your grandfather’s much the same.”
“Mm, no,” he replied thoughtfully. “He really is a terrible auld monster. It’s only, if ye act scairt of him, it makes him worse. Like a beast scenting blood, ye ken?”
I cast a look ahead, where the far-off hills that hid Beaufort Castle suddenly loomed in a rather sinister manner. Taking advantage of my momentary lack of attention, the deerfly made a strafing run past my left ear. I squeaked and ducked to the side, and the horse, taken aback by this sudden movement, shied in a startled manner.
“Hey! Cuir stad!” Jamie dove sideways to grab my reins, dropping his own. Better schooled than my own mount, his horse snorted, but accommodated this maneuver, merely flicking its ears in a complacently superior way.
Jamie dug his knees into his horse’s sides, pulling mine to a stop alongside.
“Now then,” he said, narrowed eyes following the zigzag flight of the humming deerfly. “Let him light, Sassenach, and I’ll get him.” He waited, hands raised at the ready, squinting slightly in the sunlight.
I sat like a mildly nervous statue, half-hypnotized by the menacing buzz. The heavy winged body, deceptively slow, hummed lazily back and forth between the horse’s ears and my own. The horse’s ears twitched violently, an impulse with which I was in complete sympathy.
“If that thing lands in my ear, Jamie, I’m going to—” I began.
“Shh!” he ordered, leaning forward in anticipation, left hand cupped like a panther about to strike. “Another second, and I’ll have him.”
Just then I saw the dark blob alight on his shoulder. Another deerfly, seeking a basking place. I opened my mouth again.
“Jamie…”
“Hush!” He clapped his hands together triumphantly on my tormentor, a split second before the deerfly on his collar sank its fangs into his neck.
Scottish clansmen fought according to their ancient traditions. Disdaining strategy, tactics, and subtlety, their method of attack was simplicity itself. Spotting the enemy within range, they dropped their plaids, drew their swords, and charged the foe, shrieking at the tops of their lungs. Gaelic shrieking being what it is, this method was more often successful than not. A good many enemies, seeing a mass of hairy, bare-limbed banshees bearing down on them, simply lost all nerve and fled.
Well schooled as it might ordinarily be, nothing had prepared Jamie’s horse for a grade-A, number one Gaelic shriek, uttered at top volume from a spot two feet behind its head. Losing all nerve, it laid back its ears and fled as though the devil itself were after it.
My mount and I sat transfixed in the road, watching an outstanding exhibition of Scottish horsemanship as Jamie, both stirrups lost and the reins free, flung half out of his saddle by his horse’s abrupt departure, heaved himself desperately forward, grappling for the mane. His plaid fluttered madly about him, stirred by the wind of his passing, and the horse, thoroughly panicked by this time, took the thrashing mass of color as an excuse to run even faster.
One hand tangled in the long mane, Jamie was grimly hauling himself upright, long legs clasping the horse’s sides, ignoring the stirrup irons that danced beneath the beast’s belly. Scraps of what even my limited Gaelic recognized as extremely bad language floated back on the gentle wind.
A slow, clopping sound made me look behind, to where Murtagh, leading the pack horse, was coming over the small rise we had just descended. He made his careful way down the road to where I waited. He pulled his animal to a leisurely stop, shaded his eyes, and looked ahead, to the spot where Jamie and his panicked mount were just vanishing over the next hilltop.
“A deerfly,” I said, in explanation.
“Late for them. Still, I didna think he’d be in such a hurry to meet his grandsire as to leave ye behind,” Murtagh remarked, with his customary dryness. “Not that I’d say a wife more or less will make much difference in his reception.”
He picked up his reins and booted his pony into reluctant motion, the packhorse amiably coming along for the journey. My own mount, cheered by the company and reassured by a temporary absence of flies, stepped out quite gaily alongside.
“Not even an English wife?” I asked curiously. From the little I knew, I didn’t think Lord Lovat’s relations with anything English were much to cheer about.
“English, French, Dutch, or German. It isna like to make much difference; it’ll be the lad’s liver the Old Fox will be eatin’ for breakfast, not yours.”
“What do you mean by that?” I stared at the dour little clansman, looking much like one of his own bundles, under the loose wrapping of plaid and shirt. Somehow every garment that Murtagh put on, no matter how new or how well tailored, immediately assumed the appearance of something narrowly salvaged from a rubbish heap.
“What kind of terms is Jamie on with Lord Lovat?”
I caught a sidelong glance from a small, shrewd black eye, and then his head turned toward Beaufort Castle. He shrugged, in resignation or anticipation.
“No terms at all, ’til now. The lad’s never spoken to his grandsire in his life.”