Clandara (44 page)

He came up to his father quickly. He looked wild and his eyes were black and blazing; he did not even seem to recognize the Countess though she stood only a yard away, the skirt of her dress in a pool of the Earl's blood. Sir Alexander nodded downwards.

“He's dead,” he said. “But he pierced me first and I'm losing blood. You'll have to gather the men and see to the firing of this place. Have ye done what I commanded yet? Have ye found her?”

In the light of the torches and the blazing hangings on the wall behind them, James stared at him and shook his head. The hand holding his sword tightened until it trembled. Suddenly his father raised his voice and shouted.

“No man is to touch Katharine Fraser! She belongs to my son! Where is she? Where is she hiding?”

“She is in her room up those stairs,” the Countess said. She watched James and smiled. “It's the first room you come to, with a fine, carved door. There's only her maid with her and one soldier left on guard. Up there, James. I'll show you.”

His father's voice bellowed at him.

“Go with her and do what has to be done. Take two men with ye, as witnesses. Ian and Angus – go with my son!”

It was Annie who woke Katharine, her face as white as chalk in the dim light of one shaking candle.

“For God's sake, get up! There's murder broken out below …” Katharine stared at her, so exhausted that she was dazed with sleep; the yelling and echo of running feet seemed to her as if she were in a nightmare and the terrified Annie was a figment in her dream.

“What is it? … What's happened?”

“I don't know,” Annie cried. “I heard terrible noises and there's a fire outside; the light of it woke me at the same time as the noise. That sentry's come inside and shut the door behind him; he's shaking like a rabbit. Someone's got into the Castle!”

It came to Katharine the next moment who their attackers were – she heard a distant savage yell and recognized the war-cry of the Macdonalds of Dundrenan. Annie heard it too, and shuddered.

“Jesus have mercy on us! It's them, and they're inside! Come out of your bed, milady, before they break in here!”

Taking Annie's hand Katharine ran out of her room into the outer chamber, and there she saw the trooper Captain Booth had placed to guard her. He was standing before the door, his pistol in his hand. He looked back at the two women and began to swear at them. He thought the Frasers were attacking the troops within the Castle and for a moment his pistol pointed at Katharine and his finger tightened on the trigger. He was a young man, and Scotland was his first experience of war. He had hated the Highlanders he fought and hunted down, and he glared at his prisoner and her maid with murder in his frightened eyes.

“You two bitches'll be the first to die,” he shouted. “When they come through that door, I'll put a ball through you!”

“Save your fire for them,” Katharine spat at him. “Those are the Macdonalds of Dundrenan below. They'll kill us all!”

The soldier pushed his pistol into his belt. He had been out searching for the Macdonalds of Dundrenan for the past week, and he had seen enough English bodies hanging from the trees, and pegged out upon the ground in the contortions in which they had been put to death, to know what must be happening in the Castle. Katharine ran to the window and looked out. Below, the whole courtyard was as light as day and the fire which swept the stables leaped and roared in the dark sky, showering the Macdonalds who stood guard upon it with thousands of bright sparks. They could hear the cries of the men who were burning to death above the noise of the fire and the jeers and laughter of their tormentors.

“My brother's in there,” the trooper said. His face convulsed; he looked as if he were about to murder both the women, and then they all heard the sound of steps running along the passage.

“Barricade the door,” Annie screamed. “Quick, ye damned fool, stop standing there doing nothing. Help us move the chest!”

They began pushing the heavy piece of furniture across the floor towards the door. The door itself was only closed; Captain Booth had removed the key and a small inner bolt to prevent his prisoner from locking out the sentry. There was nothing left them to keep the Macdonalds out.

Annie turned to Katharine.

“Get to the inner room and hide there,” she begged. “For the love of God, don't be found in here with him and me! Get under the bed or in the closet!”

“No,” Katharine said. “I'm staying with you, Annie. They shan't find me cringing in a corner for my life …”

James was coming; she knew it, and with it she felt the certainty of death. She would not hide from it or from him. The chest now stood against the door, and the hurrying feet were so close now that they could tell exactly when they started to slow down and in the next moment they would stop. Annie turned to the soldier.

“It's her they're after,” she cried out. “If they see her they'll slaughter us both without mercy … Make her go into the inner room, for God's sake!”

He was too afraid to doubt her; their attackers were outside and a heavy blow fell on the door. He could hear their voices and one of them shouted fiercely: “Open, Frasers. Open and deliver her to us!” That decided him. He rushed on Katharine and lifted her half off the ground, dragging her to the bedroom.

“Stop struggling, you bitch,” he hissed. “Stop it or, by Jesus, I'll break your bloody neck!” He threw her into the room and shut the door.

“Give quarter,” he yelled. “We surrender to you. Give quarter!” Annie shrank back against the wall as the chest began to slide back under the pressure behind the door. She watched it in terror, and the door behind it widened, and then she saw James Macdonald himself standing there in the opening, with two men behind him. On the far side of the passage she could see the Countess of Clandara. She heard the soldier's cry of “Quarter” yet again, and James Macdonald pointed to him with his claymore. The two clansmen threw themselves upon him and he went down with a frightful yell. In less than thirty seconds they had cut his throat.

Annie sprang forward as she saw the wild, black-bearded figure in his torn and bloody plaid, the sword uplifted in his hand, turning towards the door behind which Katharine was hidden.

“Don't harm her!” she shrieked. “God damn ye, ye black swine, it's for love of you she was arrested! She went to the loch wood to try and warn ye!”

The black eyes blazed down at her; she didn't think that he had heard a word; he looked like the devil himself. She flew for the door and stood in front of it. Deliberately James knocked her to the ground; maddened though he was he used his fist instead of his sword. He did not stop to think why he had not killed Annie. The two men who had killed the sentry were behind him, and he roared at them to go back into the corridor. “I'll settle this alone,” he shouted. “You heard my father – she belongs to me!”

When he opened the door the room looked red; the redness was the light of the fire outside, and as he saw her standing against the wall in her long robe, he thought for a moment that she was bathed in blood. There would be no witnesses to this, no gaping clansmen should see him kill the woman he had once loved … He kicked the door shut behind him and advanced on her, his claymore raised for a single stroke.

And then he hesitated. For two long years they had not seen each other; now they were face to face. He had not forgotten how beautiful she was; that lovely face had mocked him from Janet's pillow and glided before his eyes when he was drunk in the arms of whores. He had not forgotten anything about her, except that the living woman who waited for her death with such dignity was a thousand times more potent than the phantom of his maddened, jealous dreams.

Katharine looked up at him and her voice trembled.

“James, be quick – that's all I beg you.”

He cried out and she shut her eyes. The next moment she was in his arms, and his wild kisses covered her face and hair.

“My love … my darling, forgive me, forgive me! I was mad possessed. I couldn't have touched you …”

She clung to him, her whole body trembling. “James, James … I never stopped loving you. Believe that. Nothing else matters now.”

“Don't faint, my love,” he whispered. “Bear up. You're safe with me.” Annie's words came back to him, and he lifted her face and looked at her. “You were arrested … the girl said it was for trying to warn me.”

“They caught me in the woods by the Loch,” she murmured. “I wanted to tell you they were hunting for you. If you hadn't come, they were taking me to Inverness tomorrow …”

He didn't speak because he couldn't trust himself. He held her tight against him, and for a moment hid his face against her hair. He felt as if his heart would burst.

“Katharine, I'll get you away safe from here. Will you trust me?”

“I will,” she said. “But how will we ever escape … your own people will cut you down if they see you helping me …”

“My father ordered me to murder you,” he said. “But, believe me, I'll fight our way out if I have to … Come, hold tight to my arm!”

She stumbled over Annie's body at the door, and it needed all James's strength to drag her away.

“I can't leave her,” she wept. “I can't, James, you didn't …?”

“I only used my fist,” he said. “She's not dead. She'll likely escape. Come on, my darling, there's not a moment to lose!”

He hurried her past the sentry's body and out into the corridor, and found himself face to face with his cousin the Countess. In that first second Margaret's instinct recognized that this was no vengeful captor bringing out his victim. He held her tightly to him for protection, and the sword he carried was for anyone who might try to get in his way and take her from him. She took a step towards them, her face contorted into a horrible travesty by hatred.

“You filthy traitor! You're trying to escape with her! You traitor!” Her voice rose to a piercing scream. “Macdonalds! Macdonalds, aye!”

“Come on!” James shouted, and together he and Katharine began to run, the Countess's shrieks for help ringing out behind them. At the end of the corridor they heard voices, the voices of his clansmen coming in answer to her call, and for a second James hesitated. Ahead of them he saw a half-open door. There was no escape from the passage and the men were coming up the stairs. He pulled Katharine into the room and shut the door. When he heard her cry out he turned quickly, and gathered her into his arms, shielding her from the three bodies which lay on the floor only a few feet away from where they stood.

The Macdonalds had looted their victims, and she had just had time to see the upturned face of her father's valet before James hid her from the sight. Clinging to him, her heart racing with shock and terror, Katharine heard the pursuing Macdonalds running past the door, yelling to the Countess. Without James she would have stayed where she was, helpless to move until they came back and found her. But already he had opened the door and was pulling her after him. One look showed that the passage was empty. They ran to the head of the stairs and James thrust her behind him. The scene below was indescribable; furniture was smashed; the tapestries in the Great Hall had been torn off the walls and some of them were blazing. And everywhere there were the bodies of Frasers, men and women and even children, sprawled in heaps, and their murderers were bending over them, ripping the clothes away in search of a watch or a gold chain or a purse with a few pennies in it. Smoke hung over everything like a cloud, and there was an acrid smell of burning. The frightful screaming had ceased; there was no one left alive now but a few wretches who had fled upstairs to the turrets, and Sir Alexander's men were hunting these.

Katharine came forward and glanced down. She turned so white that James gripped her round the waist.

“Oh, my God …”

“We've got to go down there,” he whispered urgently. “There's no other way. Brace yourself, and if anyone stops us, get behind me. Ready, now, my darling heart. Hold tight to me. We're nearly out!”

They went down the stairs at a run, so quickly that they were past the men looting their victims, and one or two, who had found the Earl's wine-cellar, paused as they came up from below with bottles in their arms and James Macdonald himself rushed past them with a woman by the hand. They looked up and stared and then suddenly one of them opened his mouth and yelled: “'Tis the Fraser! 'Tis the woman herself escaping!” It was Dugan Macdonald, whose son Ian had been hanged for deserting Hugh on the battlefield; he was half drunk and mad with killing. He saw Katharine, whom he had seen once in his life before when she greeted him at Kincarrig. He and his sons were humblies on the estate there, and even in the gloom and smoke he recognized the flaming hair and the lovely face which turned towards him for a moment. He dropped the bottles and they shattered round him, the red wine splashing over the floor. He made a clumsy run at her, and one hand caught the edge of her robe; he made a sound like an animal, and the fierce snarl was lost in Katharine's scream. James spun round on him like a tiger and took aim at the hand holding Katharine's dress. With one stroke he severed it from Dugan's arm, and the man fell howling in the wine puddles. With a rush, James reached the doorway and, half carrying Katharine, he raced down the steps into the courtyard. The confusion there made it easier for them to slip back against the walls and towards the gardens. The blazing stables were collapsing. James could hear his brother David's voice raised above the crackle and roar of the fire, ordering his men to keep away. Smoke and heat scorched them, and, bent almost double, they escaped into the castle garden and began to run towards the north postern gate. It was still open, and unguarded. He felt her dragging on his arm, and he stopped and lifted her. He did not know if she had fainted. Stooping, he carried her through the gateway and out on to the side of the hill. Half-way down he stopped, sinking to his knees in the heather, and laid her gently on the ground. His own strength was taxed to the limit; he needed a moment to get his breath before the long and rough descent by foot to the loch shore and the horses the Macdonalds had left tethered there.