Nobody wanted to put words around the fear. So everyone was trying not to think it.
Lachlan met my eye. ‘I’ll come with you,’ he said. He must have seen that fear in my face. ‘To keep you company.’
I relaxed a little. ‘Thank you.’ I really didn’t want to be alone, not now. ‘I want you where I can see you,’ I added, and was pleased to hear that the jokey note made it into my voice.
‘Course you do,’ he said lightly. ‘I might get up toanythingif I’m left unattended.’
‘No time like the present.’ I took some of the bread from the table and put it in my pocket. ‘George was wanting to talk to Jamie as soon as I left, so they should both be up there together now. We can listen in.’
Now I sounded as though I really were the person with the power to get us home that the others were seeing me as. As though I’d got the vaguest idea of what was going on.
‘Right. We will see you later. Or possibly not. Or maybe we’ll all get together in the twenty-first century.’ Lachlan waved an informal salute and then he and I headed back up into the castle.
As we left, I heard David begin, ‘My sister…’ I was glad I didn’t hear the rest of the sentence because I didn’t think I could bear it.
19
George and Jamie weren’t in the first-floor chambers, they were up in the bedrooms at the top of the castle, and I crouched down with Lachlan on the top step of the stone spiral staircase as we listened to the pair. It sounded as though George was undressing.
‘We’ll not ride tomorrow, Jamie lad,’ he said, with brief pauses and thumps of boots being removed. ‘I’ve decided to keep out of the affairs of kings this time around.’
Jamie, who seemed to have just arrived because he was slightly out of breath, said, ‘But, George – we said we’d fight to stay free.’
‘Aye. But if I remember it right,Iwas riding to battle while you stayed clear, so at least one of us would get back to Isobel and the bairns, therefore I think it’s my choice, don’t you? I’ve got it on very good authority…’ another pause and I wondered if George suspected that I was listening in ‘…that Scotland will have its freedom soon anyway.’
‘“Soon”?’ Lachlan whispered to me. ‘Three hundred years issoon?’
‘I kind of fudged that bit,’ I whispered back.
George wasn’t mentioning the piece of paper I’d written on. That was interesting and I wondered why he wasn’t letting Jamie in on the secret.
‘And I’ve no appetite for seeing more killing,’ George went on. ‘There are plenty as will fight already. They’ll not miss a band of raggle-taggle McKells.’
I peered cautiously around the tapestry. Jamie was standing looking stunned. ‘But, George… the honour of the family…’
‘My family, not yours,’ George said rather snippily. ‘And I’ve no wish to lose all that my family have worked for if it goes awry. All that I may pass to any sons that could follow me.’
‘Sons?’ Jamie sounded aggrieved, as though it would personally affront him to have nephews rather than nieces.
‘Aye. I still hope for a quarrel of lads to take the family name, and for the girls to marry well.’
‘I have sworn to care for my sister and the children should anything happen to you,’ Jamie said sulkily. ‘I would ensure that none would marry beneath them.’
There was a short pause before George said cheerily, ‘I’ve no doubt you would, lad, but I’d far rather be around to see it than die fighting in a cause I have no appetite for any longer.’
‘Is that what this is all about?’ Jamie sounded eager now. ‘But I’ve told you, we cannot lose!’
‘Aye, but you cannae tell the future, Jamie lad, and I’ve been talking to someone who very well might be able to.’
Jamie looked around almost as though he thought this messenger might be hiding behind the tapestry and I found myself sliding back to sit next to Lachlan again. ‘You’ve been talking to the witch, then,’ Jamie said, and his voice had taken on a hard tone. ‘She’s said, what? That there’s no point in riding south, that our King James is going to lose? And you think there’s sense in sitting pretty here and not taking the risk?’
There was a moment of heavy quiet before George said, ‘Exactly that, Jamie. Exactly that. The men lack the will to fight, they’re tired and ill fed, even despite Jeannie’s attempts. They want to get back to their lands before winter arrives in earnest. Taking them to battle won’t win us anything other than corpses.’
‘Well then, it seems your mind is quite made up.’ Jamie sounded peevish now.
‘Aye, that it is. But you’ll have your chance. There will be other battles for you to stand at for your father’s honour.’
‘My father is dead, George, and our lands all gone. I am the last of the line of Kintail.’ This wasn’t peevish. It was said with a note of pride mitigated by a slight hardness.
