My Laird's Castle (19 page)

“Shhhh,” I said to the three who nudged my legs as if I were about to share my food with them. “Be quiet!”

A dog barked and ran into view. A sheepdog, naturally, the black-and-white pooch barked at me once as if I were trying to steal his flock, and he rounded up the three renegades and hurried them back along the path.
 

Without thinking, I grabbed my bags and took off after the dog and the sheep, stumbling over my sodden skirts.

“Wait!” I hissed, trying to keep my voice low. “Doggie! Come back here! Hey!”

Surely the dog would lead me to Malcolm, the shepherd. The sheepdog ignored me and continued to move the sheep along, and I soon lost sight of them. I noted that the path descended, and I suspected I had entered a valley. How on earth was I going to find Colin or some Jacobite rebels if I couldn’t even find my own two feet?

I stopped on the path, breathing hard. Well, now what? And what was I doing on a foggy trail in the middle of some Scottish mountains in the wrong century, in the wrong clothing, looking for a man I hardly knew but loved, in the midst of a war I did not understand?

I wiped away the tears that burned the corners of my eyes, or maybe it was moisture from the mist. No, it was definitely tears to accompany the ache in my throat.
 

I supposed I could continue to follow the trail, and rally once again with the sheep and sheepdog, and hopefully with the shepherd.
 

Blinded by tears and mist, I sniffed, readjusted the bags on my shoulder and started out again.

Arms grasped me from behind, and I shrieked!

“Oh, my foolish love. What are ye about? Why did ye follow me?”

Colin twisted me to face him, and I dropped my bags and threw myself against him.

“The soldiers will come by tomorrow,” I said. “They’re probably already on their way. Captain Jones wanted to tell you himself, but I told him no, I would come.” I rambled as I pressed my face against Colin’s chest. “He shouldn’t move. One of his men took his horse and rode to the fort. He was so mad. He doesn’t really want the rebels caught and executed. I don’t either. Or you! He doesn’t want you to get into trouble. Me either!” I gasped and wondered if I’d said anything that made any sense. I lifted my head and looked at him.

His hair was curlier than ever from the rain, and I pushed it from his face. He kissed the palm of my hand.

“I supposed as much,” Colin said.
 

I heard the dog barking again, and he ran up and pressed himself against Colin’s legs.
 

“Here!” a voice said from somewhere nearby. “Laddie, come here!”

A tall, thin bearded man appeared out of the mist, sporting a plaid kilt that seemed to cover him almost entirely. Obviously, he wasn’t worried about what was banned or not. The dog moved to stand beside him. Several other dogs appeared and took up positions around the older man.

“Is this yer lady then, yer lairdship?” the man asked. Gray straggly hair hung to his shoulders.

Colin nodded.
 

“Aye, Malcolm. This is she.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, mostly supporting me.
 

“Pleased to make yer acquaintance, yer ladyship,” Malcolm said. “Malcolm Anderson. I tend to the sheep here.” He fingered the edge of his dark-gray bonnet in a gesture of greeting.

I nodded but said nothing. I wasn’t sure who knew what about anything, and I thought it best to remain silent.

“I have told Malcolm about ye, Beth. Well, a great deal about ye,” Colin said, amending his statement as he saw my eyes widen. “Mistress Pratt has come to warn me that the soldiers will come earlier than I suspected. They sent a man on horse. If the rider made the fort today, they could reach the castle by tomorrow.”

Malcolm looked over his shoulder as if at something specific, but I saw nothing. Clearly, he knew about the rebels. He nodded.

“We must move quickly then,” he said.
 

“I canna send ye back down the hills again alone,” Colin said to me. “Ye shall have to stay here, but I dinna like it. I didna want ye involved in this.”

I looked up at him. “I know,” I said simply.

The shepherd turned without a word and headed down the trail, Laddie and the other dogs following at his heels.

Colin picked up my bags and took me by the hand.

“Did ye say that Captain Jones didna want to see me hanged? How did he ken where I had gone?”

“He guessed. He’s known that you aided the rebels, Colin. He says he doesn’t want to see any more of them executed, that this band is just some old men and boys. Is that true?”

Colin nodded. His warm hand covered mine in a firm, reassuring grasp.
 

“Aye. I ken most of them, several of my father’s auld tenants and their grandsons. A few lads from the village. Not all the clansmen agreed with my father’s views, and some chose to fight for the prince. I canna believe they didna leave the lads behind. Too young!” He shook his head.

“You said grandfathers and grandsons. Where are the fathers?”

“Dead...at Culloden. The auld men and lads didna fight, ye ken, but were left at camp to tend to the food and horses. When they heard the battle was lost, the auld men took the lads and ran, as well they should. The Duke of Cumberland gave no quarter that day.” Colin’s voice grew husky. “Young Samuel, who attacked Captain Jones, is only a boy of thirteen. Were he a grown man, he might have killed the captain, but his aim was weak. Nevertheless, the English will likely hang him...and the others.”

“Can they run? Where to?”

 
“They will have to flee if they’re going to live. If we can get them to Glasgow, they can take a ship to the colonies...to yer home.”

Colin tightened his hold on my hand and brought it to his lips. My heart swelled with love for him.
 

“How will they get to Glasgow? How far is it?”

“It is a fair journey, two days on foot, maybe more if the auld men tire. I will pay for their passage.”

He hesitated, and I didn’t think I would like what was coming.

“But I must go with them to Glasgow, ye ken,” Colin said. “I dinna think they can manage booking the passage without suspicion. They’ve none of them been out of the Highlands afore.”

“No!” I said. I clutched his hand tightly. “Oh, please, Colin, don’t go. It’s too dangerous! Can’t Malcolm go with them? He seems like a pretty confident guy.”

“Noooo,” Colin said in that way of his. “Malcolm is a shepherd. He isna likely to leave the Highlands for the likes of Glasgow, not even for Anderson clansmen.”

My heart sank. I could insist on going, and Colin would refuse. We’d been through all that.
 

“When the soldiers come, and you’re not there, they’re going to know you had something to do with the Jacobites’ disappearance.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. They canna prove anything.”

“It doesn’t seem to matter if they have proof or not, Colin. You’re a Scot, a Highlander. Do you think they’re going to care if they have proof?”

“Nay, Beth. It isna as lawless as that. I am a titled laird. They will nae do anything to me without proof.”

I bit my lip. I desperately wanted him to return to the castle with me, to keep him safe.

Malcolm and the dogs veered off the path toward a small rectangular stone building with a thatched roof. We followed. Sheep milled about the cottage and in a nearby meadow. The dogs ran off into the mist to, I presumed, tend to the sheep.

“That is Malcolm’s cottage while the sheep graze in the hills during the summer,” Colin said.

A pillar of smoke spiraled up into the air from a chimney at one end of the cottage. Malcolm went inside, and Colin led me in, ducking low through the arched entrance.

The interior seemed tinier than the exterior, with room for a stone fireplace—over which a pot of something delicious cooked—a small bed in one corner, and a table and two chairs.
 

Malcolm removed his bonnet and jacket and hung them up on a hook by the door. Colin, hatless as usual, divested himself of his wet jacket and hung it up as well.
 

“Malcolm and I were just about to eat when we heard Laddie barking,” Colin said, pulling a chair toward the fire for me. “Let me take yer cloak. Sit here and warm yerself.”

I had forgotten that my clothes were soaked through or that I had grown cold. Being in Colin’s embrace, in his company, had warmed me.

I sat and gratefully accepted a bowl of some kind of hot soup from Malcolm. Colin took another bowl and came to sit beside me, while Malcolm seated himself on the bed to work on his own soup.

“I must think what to do,” Colin said. “I have to see ye down to the castle and then return, but it is too late in the day to travel now. It will grow dark soon.”

“I can make it back down by myself,” I said. “If you’re going, you have to go in the morning. Hopefully, you’re going in a different direction from Fort William.”

“Aye,” Colin said. “We will go south. There is a way through the mountains.”

“And I don’t suppose I can go with you?”

Colin lowered his bowl and gazed at me.

“I ken ye would ask, Beth. I ken ye want to go with me. I didna suspect that ye would be so protective of me, and I love ye for it. Ye have proven that ye are a strong woman, but I dinna want ye to travel with us. It is too long a trip, too arduous for ye, and I need ye at the house to speak to the soldiers, to lie for me. Can ye do that?”

I nodded.
 

“I know you’re right, Colin. I would only hold you back, especially in these clothes. And I guess it would be best if I returned to the house before the soldiers got there, if only to talk to Captain Jones so he can cover for you.”

“Cover for me?” Colin repeated.

“Lie for you,” I amended.
 

“I ken he is a decent sort of fellow for an English soldier, but do ye trust him, Beth? I dinna want anyone to ken where we are going.”

“I do trust him,” I said with a nod, “but not with your life. He can guess what he wants, but I won’t tell him where you’re going or that I’ve actually seen you. He can figure it out for himself.”

Colin nodded.
 

“Good,” he said. He picked his bowl up to resume eating but paused and looked at me. “Did I tell ye that I love ye?” His slate eyes twinkled in the firelight.

“Aye, ye did, my laird,” I said. “And I love you too.”

Malcolm coughed, and Colin and I chuckled.
 

“Where are your clansmen now?” I asked.

“They are safely camped nearby.”

“So, they have to stay outside.” I looked around the small cabin.

“Malcolm willna have them in here. He says the cottage is too small, and he is right. I am fortunate he has let me stay here.” He rolled his
r
’s with laughter.
 

“Yer ladyship is welcome to stay here as well,” Malcolm said, rising to set his bowl on the table. “I can make do with the floor, as can ye, yer lairdship.”

“Aye,” Colin said with a glance at the hard floor. “It will have to do.”

I felt bad that both men would have to sleep on the floor so “yer ladyship” could sleep in the only bed. I could have volunteered to sleep on the floor, or better yet, offered to share the bed with Colin, but I knew that wasn’t about to happen, so I said the only thing possible.
 

“Thank you.”

“Ye’re welcome,” Malcolm said. “I’ll go see the lads now and take them some food.” He picked up a rag, grasped the pot and headed out the door. I heard the dogs bark and sheep bleat as he emerged from the cottage.
 

I looked at Colin, feeling suddenly shy, and my appetite diminished.

“Where should I wash the bowl?” I asked, rising to look for a sink.

“Malcolm will wash it when he returns. I dinna ask how he keeps his house.”

Colin rose, took my bowl and set both our bowls near Malcolm’s on the table. He pulled me into his arms and planted a kiss on the top of my head.

“It isna quite proper to be together alone like this, my dear,” he said. He lowered his face to mine and kissed me. I couldn’t remember ever having been cold in my life at that moment, as warmth shot up my toes and throughout my body.

He lifted his head and grinned.
 

“I dinna ken what the future will hold for us, my love, but I am verra happy that I found ye.”

“I’m happy you found me too,” I said, matching his smile.

The smile faded from his face, and his expression grew somber.
 

“I wish that our courtship could have been under more pleasant circumstances,” he said. “Not during such troubled times. I wish I had met ye several years ago.”

I eyed him and blinked, thinking that a particularly odd thing to say. Hadn’t he been married several ago?
 

He pulled me into his arms again, and I said nothing, always afraid to bring up the topic of his first marriage. Someday, I would have to ask him about his wife. Someday, but not now.