‘Really?’ I asked weakly.
‘Oh, yeah. My great-great-great-grandmother came from In Furnace.’
‘Inverness,’ the others all chorused. They’d clearly heard this bit before.
She gave them cat’s bum face. ‘Yeah. It’s why I wanted to come over here for my year working overseas. I wanted to see the old homeland,’ she finished defiantly, and everyone else chewed ferociously and paid far too much attention to their oatcakes. ‘Scotland’s great.’ She pulled another oatcake from the bag and heroically started on it. ‘I’d love to stay. Meet a cute guy and live over here.’
David kept his head very firmly down, despite her glances his way.Oh dear,I thought.That’s all we need, romantic entanglements.I wondered if this had anything to do with everyone’s awkwardness about his complaint regarding cooking, but couldn’t work it out.
The dog had backed into a corner and was standing rigid, watching us with its hackles raised. I threw a corner of oatcake in its direction, which bounced off the dog’s forehead and landed on the ground. The dog ignored it and just growled slightly. It was about the size of a large spaniel, white and deep chested witha pointed muzzle, like a cross between a foxhound and a gundog. It did not seem happy about being in here with us.
‘Why doesn’t he just go back up the steps?’ I asked.
‘Probably too nervous. They do shake a bit.’ Mal whistled and the dog gave him evils. ‘We ought to try chasing him up the stone stairs into the hall. And someone might come looking for him, so we’d better make sure we keep the oatcakes in the bag unless we’re eating. We don’t want some poor bugger frightened out of his kilt by randomly moving food.’
‘Feileadh Mòr,’ Lachlan said, unexpectedly. ‘It means Big Kilt, it’s not what we think of as a kilt, not yet.’
‘Well, I’m a prehistorian,’ Mal retorted waspishly. ‘I’m right up with the symbolic language and the interaction with the Roman culture, but you can count me out on the kilt front.’
‘I think we should get back into the castle,’ Lachlan interrupted. ‘After all, we’re wasting what could be valuable research time otherwise. We could be the only people in the world to get first-hand knowledge of eighteenth-century practices.’
And, I thought, watching him organise,it might give us some idea as to why we’re here, if there is a reason.
‘If we ever get back to use it,’ David said, darkly.
‘Thank you, supposing that.’ Lachlan’s tone was even, but he clearly hadn’t needed the reminder. ‘Pax, you and I can suss out the earl. After all—’ he turned to me ‘—if he’s a relation of yours then it should be interesting. Kay, you wanted to study the domestic arrangements?’
‘I want to follow the women,’ she said. ‘A feminist approach.’
‘Mal, Davey? What about you?’
‘Oh, we’ll just wander about being floating objects and going “woo”, I thought.’
‘Shut up, Mal,’ David said easily. ‘If no one else is going to offer, I’m going to grab some milk and some other food. I’llborrow Kay’s bag and hide it in there. Fill the flask with milk, maybe find out if there’s any cheese around – there must be preserved food too. I’ll see what’s up for stealing.’
‘Right, you two are on provisions.’ Lachlan finished his oatcake. ‘We’re on family history duty and Kay’s following the women. We’ll meet back here, okay?’
Everyone seemed very glad to be given a task, as though they deferred to Lachlan to save themselves from shrieking hysterics about what was actually happening to them. I ate the remains of my oatcake and followed him up the stone steps that led to the hall, leaving the dog standing at the bottom staring dubiously after us. I clicked my fingers at him once or twice, but he just raised a lip and gave me a half-hearted snarl and stayed put.
‘Be like that,’ I said, and Lachlan and I went towards the doorway that led up inside the castle.
8
The castle was heaving with people now. We emerged into the big hall where a huge fire blazed in the enormous grate, throwing out enough heat to scorch skin within a three-metre radius. Some of the kilted men were sitting at a respectful distance from it, grouped together on more wooden stools, warming their bare legs. Others brought bundles and packages in from the carts or carried armfuls of horse tack and stacked it in a corner. Dogs wandered in and out of the open main door, lifting their legs randomly against any fixed object and giving Lachlan and I a very wide berth as we walked through. The high-ceilinged room, with its coloured-plaster walls and carved beams, echoed with ribaldry, shouts of laughter and the snap and snarl of dogs. There was an atmosphere of suppressed energy, almost as though everyone was waiting for something big to happen.
‘Lachlan.’ I pulled him to a stop at the base of the staircase that spiralled up between the walls to the upper chambers. ‘We need to talk.’
Voices echoed up and down here, orders called from room to room mixing with the laughter from the hall.
He sighed. ‘Aye, we do.’
‘What happened earlier…’ I stopped. I wasn’t going to specify whether I meant that impossible barrier or his crumpled admission of vulnerability. I wanted answers to both, but he could choose where to start.
‘But not now.’ Lachlan turned to face me. His eyes were greyer in the firelit darkness of the hall, where the windows were all now closed and shuttered against the wind and weather. He looked more serious. ‘Please.’
‘We need to…’ I began again, but he turned away, leading me onward.
‘I want to see yon earl in case he rides off again,’ Lachlan said, tugging me onto the staircase and up the narrow winding flight. We emerged onto the little landing and saw the earl go into the first-floor chamber, the one with the desk and all the tapestries. Lachlan put a hand on my arm. ‘Quietly now,’ he said. ‘And let’s stay hidden.’
