Memories of a Highlander Page 15

  “Liam, how could ye?” I started in fear, afraid that I had hurt Eleanor, or maybe that she did not like what we had just done. I looked at her, then relaxed a little as I realised that my vixen was smiling.

  “How could ye not have told me how good that is? We should have been doing that every day, twice a day even, since we met. How could ye let me go home and waste a whole year?”

  “What would ye have had me do, Eleanor?” I asked with a lazy smile, feeling very relaxed now that I knew Eleanor had enjoyed our passion.

  “Well, I don’t know. I suppose I was distrustful back then, if ye had come to me and told me that ye could make me scream out yer name in pleasure, I probably would have run back home without waiting for the escort, but it just seems like we wasted so much time”.

  As I felt my shaft stirring again, I smiled at Eleanor before pulling her to me again.

  “Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint ye by wasting any more time”.

  Eleanor squealed as I delighted in finding that with the right woman, I felt almost like a teenager again, able to repeat the performance again quickly, but with a better result.

  We dozed for a little while, waking up twice more in the next few hours to rediscover each other. Our last joining was bittersweet for me as I knew it would be morning soon, and I knew what I had to do. I could not let anything happen to Eleanor, or to any of the people for who I had responsibility, but especially not to Eleanor.

  As I listened to her breathe softly in sleep while she lay curled into me, I wondered if I had given her everything she wanted for her birthday. I hoped I had. If I did not live to see tomorrow, I wanted to know that I had left Eleanor with a reminder of our love. I was sure that my family would look after her, I knew Liam would make sure that my wife and child were well cared for. I edged from the bed, placing a pillow in my place to stop Eleanor rolling over and waking up after noting my absence. I quietly dressed, and crept from the keep. I did not pick up a weapon, knowing that it would not do me any good against the number of men waiting outside, and crept to the gates. I roused the guard, threatening the old man with bodily injury if he did not open the gate for me and then close it immediately afterwards, and then stepped outside, heading towards the direction where I knew the men were camped. As I walked, I thought about what Eleanor had said to me. What if I had recognised that there was something between us a year ago, and had acted then? She might never had been threatened by Lachlan and the events of the last few weeks need never have happened. I wished that I had my time over, to do things differently, but of course I did not. Instead I walked out at a steady pace, with the light of a new day breaking around me, and marched towards the group, seeing several of them rouse themselves as I approached. I kept walking towards the centre of the group, and the man that I believed to be Lachlan’s father stood as I neared him. I decided that maybe if I goaded him, it would be quick.

  “Well, so ye are the worthless piece of shite that fathered that worm? I’m here as ye asked, now when are ye leaving?”

  I saw him nod to someone behind me, then felt a terrible blow to the back of my head, falling forwards as everything went dark.

  Eleanor

  I woke from a languorous sleep to the feeling of a strong arm shaking me awake. Rolling over with a smile on my face, I opened my eyes lazily, searching for Donald. All I could think of was that my husband had amazing stamina. I was exhausted, but he was apparently ready again.

  As my eyes opened fully, I opened my mouth to scream, then pulled the bedcovers up to cover my body as my eyes registered that it was Liam who stood over me, not Donald. He looked distracted, and thankfully it appeared that he had not noticed my state of undress.

  “Come quickly, Eleanor, Donald has left the keep”.

  I tried to climb from the bed, almost falling as my legs tangled in the covers, when Liam reached over to help me he realised that I must be naked underneath the covers and blushed, standing back without touching me.

  “I am sorry Eleanor, I will send in Mary to help ye dress, but ye must hurry”.

  After dressing hurriedly, I raced to the wall, wincing as my knee groaned in protest. I had felt a twinge or two last night, but had been enjoying my night with Donald too much to say anything. My panicked flight down the stairs from my chamber, across the roads and up the stairs of the wall had almost been too much, but I made it. I moved to Liam and looked where he pointed.

  I saw a group of men in the distance clustered around another, I recognised the man in the middle of the group by his red hair.

  “What is he doing?” I gasped, clutching at Liam’s arm.

  “Trying to save us, the stupid fool”, said Liam grimly. I looked at him.

  “They said if he gave himself up, they would leave the rest of us alone, I told him to ignore it, we could hold out for days, but he obviously did not want to take the chance, so he has sacrificed himself”.

  “Can’t ye help him?” I implored frantically.

  “I could not get there in time, and how could I stop them? There is only me, and if I die too, who will then protect ye and Mary if they break their word and come back here?”

  As Liam gasped, I turned back to watch. Donald had disappeared, had he fallen? I watched in horror as a man raised his sword above his head in both hands. I could not turn away, but I knew that I was about to see my husband die. Then, when I had almost lost hope, the man seemed to pause, then fall forward. All of the other men started milling around in a panic, then several of them leapt to their horses and tried to flee. As we watched, another group of riders came over the crest of the hill beyond them, and rode down the men who fled, from this distance it looked as if it was just carnage. With an oath, Liam raced down the stairs and onto a horse that I had not seen brought forward, it appeared that someone had the foresight to saddle one. The gates were opened and he rode out, then the gates were closed. I watched as Liam streaked towards the commotion, then he leapt into the milling group of men and horses. I couldn’t work out what was going on, nothing made sense, but then I saw Liam riding back, much more slowly, with Donald sagging in his arms, and a group of men following them. I ran down the stairs, having to grab the wall as my knee almost gave out, then waited at the gate as the men wondered what to do. With relief I heard Liam’s voice yell from the other side.

  “Open the gate! They are friends!”

  The gate opened and Liam rode through, followed by other men. I ran after Liam’s horse, then heard a shout from behind me.

  “Eleanor!”

  I turned, gasping as I saw my father, Duncan and other members of my family, before turning back to follow Liam. I had no idea what had happened out there, but I wanted to see Donald. Liam had already reached our chamber by the time I limped up the stairs, and Mary was with him. They were bent over Donald, and there was blood everywhere. Or at least, after my initial shock, I realised that it all seemed to be coming from his head, his body appeared unharmed. I moved to the side of the bed, reaching down to massage my knee.

  “Is it bad? Mary? Liam? Tell me something, please!”

  Mary was feeling Donald’s head, and her hands were covered with blood. Liam moved towards me, grabbing me to prevent me getting in the way, and pulling me in close for comfort. Finally Mary spoke.

  “I think the skull is unbroken. Thankfully you McGarrow men have hard heads. He has been struck with something heavy though, and there is a lot of blood. I don’t know if we should try to wake him up, or let him rest. I wish Bridget was here, but there’s only us, unless one of the people who came in yesterday is a healer, can you check please Liam?”

  Liam nodded and hurried away. Mary turned to me.

  “I won’t lie to you, Eleanor. He has lost a lot of blood, see how pale he is? We have to stop the blood flow, or he could die from that. He could also die from the shock of such a blow, but he is a strong man, so that is in his favour. If he doesn’t wake soon though, it is not a good sign. We can only try to stop the blood, make him comfortabl
e, and then hope”.

  Liam came back shortly afterwards with a woman who claimed to have some experience with healing, and after the three of us stopped the bleeding and cleaned up Donald’s wound, Mary took her to see what supplies of herbs they had, discussing the best for cleaning such wounds. While they were gone, Liam kept me busy by making me fuss over Donald, helping to change his clothing and helping to strip the bloodied linens off the bed and change them for clean ones. Even though we tried to move Donald gently while we changed the bed, he still stirred. I held my breath as his eyes opened, and a wan smile lit up his face as his eyes fixed on Liam.

  “Liam! Have I been drinking or something? I have the worst headache!”

  Then his eyes fixed on me and he smiled. I smiled back, having hope that this day could only get better, then Donald’s next words dashed that hope.

  “Hello! Who are ye, and why are ye in my chamber?”

  Donald groaned then, and closed his eyes. Liam started towards me as I started drawing in big breaths, sobbing in shock.

  “Eleanor, it happens sometimes, it’s just the shock, it will probably be different when he wakes next”.

  I hugged myself as great sobs began ripping from my body. I didn’t think it would be that easy. I stayed with Donald for hours, waiting for him to wake up again, but he did not. Finally Liam took my arm, gently at first, then not so gently as I resisted and he almost dragged me from the room, to his father’s solar where some food awaited. He made me sit and try to eat, and although I did not have much appetite, I knew from his demeanour that he would not let me leave until I had eaten, so I ate, even though the food sat heavy in my stomach. After a while, there was a knock at the door, and Liam bade the newcomers entry, seeming unsurprised that we would be disturbed. I started to turn around, then found myself enveloped in a crushing hug, smelling the familiar scent that told me that the person hugging me was my mother. I didn’t remember seeing her among the riders, but I hadn’t paid a lot of attention, wanting only to go to Donald.

  “Eleanor, oh my poor dear, what an awful day for ye. How is yer poor husband? Last we heard he was still sleeping”.

  I had to gently push my mother away, seeing my father and two oldest brothers standing behind her, all regarding me intently. Da seemed to be having trouble looking me in the eye, then all of a rush he approached.

  “This is all my doing, Eleanor. I should have seen them for what they were, but I was foolish and afraid. I am just glad that we arrived in time to prevent them from harming yer husband any further, for Duncan tells us that ye have developed a genuine affection for him”.

  I looked from one person to another, unable to follow the conversation and understand what was going on. I looked to Liam in confusion, and he stepped forward, motioning everyone to sit.

  “Eleanor has had a very difficult day and I don’t think that she really knows what has been going on. Perhaps ye should tell her what ye told me earlier this eve”.

  My father cleared his throat at that.

  “Well, Eleanor, I think I should start by apologising to ye, I should never have doubted ye, but he had me fooled. Or maybe I should start earlier than that, yes, that would be better to explain how we came to be here”.

  I nodded, looking again at my mother who was wringing her hands, and Duncan, who seemed to have grown up a lot lately. Not just physically, I had seen him not long ago, but he seemed older around the eyes, as if he had lost the innocence of youth. My father continued, snapping my attention back to him.

  “I had some doubts about Lachlan, but not enough, it seems. Not like Duncan here, who tried to tell me, but I would not listen. I never thought he was a bad man though, I just thought he would take a firm hand with ye, which was what I thought ye needed after we had perhaps indulged ye too much growing up. I foolishly also had doubts about Duncan’s ability to take over when the time comes, I had heard whispers that he would never be accepted, and I thought that maybe if ye had a strong husband, I could name him as Laird to succeed me. Foolishly, I did not realise that it was Lachlan himself starting the rumours, and starting the whispers. He had hopes of taking over as the McDonnell, and that was probably why he almost sent our clan to war with the McGarrows, hoping that Duncan would perish, and that would clear the way. I did not know this until much later, ye understand, yet it does not absolve me from my guilt in treating ye the way I did. I worried about ye, Eleanor, I thought maybe yer wild streak would get ye in trouble, so all it took was Lachlan to sow more seeds of doubt in my mind. When ye turned up with Donald McGarrow that morning, I thought the worst, especially when, to my shame, I had believed ill of people who deserved better. Had I not already believed that the McGarrows were capable of stealing a woman from her family, I might not have been so ready to believe Lachlan when he told me ye had been seeing Donald on the sly all year. So when yer Donald offered to marry ye, I thought that confirmed that ye had been seeing him in secret, despite both yer denials. It was only when Duncan made me listen to that poor girl that I finally believed the truth and realised what a mistake I had made. But even then, I did not know how to fix it. Yer Mother has been nagging me to visit ye for yer birthday for some weeks, saying that maybe ye would be prepared to listen to me, and we were planning to come for that anyway, but then we heard of old Morrell, leading a band of men this way to avenge his son, so we rode out with some of our men, riding hard all night, instead of just the family journey that we had planned. I can only praise the Lord with thanks that we got here in time, although I would that we had got here earlier to prevent harm coming to yer Donald. He has been the better man in all of this, and I am thankful that he was there for ye, when I was not”.

  I sat and digested all of this for a while. It made a lot of sense, Lachlan had always made me uneasy, and he was too often at our keep. Now that I knew what had been going on, I understood more. He had obviously been in the background of a lot of troubles, stirring up dissension and trying to put himself in a good position when trouble started. His deviousness was bound up with madness though, when he realised that all of his efforts to take over my family holdings through me had come to nought, the cruelty that had always been under the surface had erupted into violence. It was possible that his madness came through his father, for how could his father have thought killing Donald would make things right? I looked up to find everyone watching me, and tried to think of what questions I needed answered first.

  “What happened out there? Ye must have been close enough to see? Was Donald surprised? How did anyone get close enough to hit him so hard on the back of the head?”

  Duncan spoke up next.

  “We saw Donald walk right up to them, and although we could not hear what was said, he was not armed, Eleanor. It was almost as if he was giving himself up”.

  “He was”, interrupted Liam quietly. “They wanted vengeance, and promised to spare everyone if the man who killed Lachlan and denied him a proper burial gave himself up, so Donald never expected to live. He probably went unarmed so that they would not get the pleasure of taking his weapons from him after he was dead.

  “But Liam, it was Ian who killed Lachlan, surely they knew that? What if they killed Donald anyway, and then came after Ian, what would Donald have achieved?” I cried in anguish.

  My mother stood up and came over to me, putting her arm around my shoulders, before Liam continued.

  “They might not have known, Eleanor. What would ye have Donald do? He would not set them after Ian even if he had wanted to. If they had caught our party on the road unexpected many people might have died. From what was said yesterday, it seemed they did not know, but believed Donald when he said it was him. Don’t misunderstand me, I am very angry that my thickheaded brother did what he did, but I understand why he did it. What I don’t know, is what happened, we could not see properly from the wall”.

  “Well, as I was saying”, Duncan continued, “we saw Donald walk up to them, and then he was struck from behind. It was a coward’s act, but not u
nexpected. If Morrell wanted to kill the man who killed his son, it should have been in a fight, but Morrell had one of his men knock Donald unconscious, and then he was going to slaughter him, without giving him the chance to defend himself. It was not a fight, it was an execution. Thankfully, Travis, my younger brother, is a dead shot with an arrow, and when we saw Morrell raise his sword, Travis loosed an arrow that went clean through his neck, from back to front. After that, Morrell’s men tried to scatter, and we routed those we could reach, but a few escaped. We will deal with them when we find them, if they are foolish enough to stay around”.

  I got up and rushed over to Travis, who was still only a boy, yet had killed a man, but saved my husband. I took his hands in mine and tried to thank him, but could barely get the words out. Travis looked embarrassed, as I don’t think he had ever seen me cry. Ma steered me back into my chair. Liam spoke up.

  “Well, it seems we owe ye Donald’s life, and for that we will be forever grateful. If ye care to stay with us until my Da comes home, which should be in only a few days, I am sure that he and my Ma will want to speak to ye too”.

  My father looked at me, still seeming unsure, and I nodded. He turned to Liam.

  “We would be happy to accept yer hospitality. It has been a very trying day and I would like my wife to rest before we attempt our journey home. I would also like to meet yer Da, and thank him for accepting my daughter into his family and caring for her so well. I also have my apologies to make to Donald, when he is well enough for visitors”.