Child of the Phoenix (121 page)

‘I suggested he leave your bed, madam, to relieve you of a presence which must have become intolerable,’ Elizabeth said stiffly. ‘As for the other, it is as well I told him of your rides. No faithful wife goes completely alone, day after day, into the hills.’

‘It is something I have always done,’ Eleyne replied, ‘and something I shall continue to do. When Donald is here, he often rides with me.’

‘Indeed.’ Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. ‘How annoying for you. So, unwittingly I have done you a favour, it seems, in reminding my son of his duties at his father’s side. You can once more ride alone. Though I must say, I’m astonished that you persist in riding in your condition. Tell me –’ She changed the subject unexpectedly. ‘Have your lonely rides taken you to this sacred well? Do you know where it is?’

‘I know,’ Eleyne said quietly. Guided by Morna, she had ridden there and splashed the crystal water over her face and breasts, leaving an offering to the gods in the hope that the magic waters would keep her young. Only days later she had conceived this second child.

XIII

When Eleyne arrived at Morna’s cottage a few days later, she found her friend seated by the cool brown water of the river. The birch trees had scattered golden leaves in the whirling pools of the backwater eddies, and Morna was watching as Mairi tried to catch the flying leaves on the bank.

‘Your mother-in-law was here again this morning,’ Morna said as Eleyne sat down beside her. ‘She arrived with such an escort I felt sure she had come to arrest me.’

‘And why did she come?’

‘To ask my help. Her heart pains her a great deal and she doesn’t dare ask the castle physicians in case they tell her she is mortally sick.’

‘And what did you tell her?’ Eleyne raised an eyebrow.

‘I told her, as I told her before, that I was no physician. If she doesn’t want the doctor at the castle, she could send for the infirmarian at Cabrach. I sent her home with water from the sacred spring, and I told her to rest.’ She smiled. ‘And I told her you were a faithful and obedient wife.’

‘Thank you.’ Eleyne groaned as she sat down. ‘What else could I be, like this? Look at me! I’ve never been so huge.’

‘It won’t be long,’ Morna said comfortingly. ‘Then you’ll be slim again. And I will tell you what to do to prevent another baby coming.’

Eleyne stared at her. ‘You can?’

The other woman nodded. ‘When the time is right I will show you. But you must say nothing to anyone, especially your husband. Such things are considered a sin against God.’

XIV
September 1267

Eleyne was resting on her bed; her back ached and she was tired. The child in her womb did not kick so much now, held too tightly in its dark prison. She was larger than she had been with any of her other children. A few weeks before, while there was still room, it had kicked and flailed endlessly until Eleyne had wondered if she were going to give birth to a litter of pups, just as Sabina had done a few months before. She sighed, trying to ease her position on the bed. The command to go at once to Elizabeth’s chamber did not please her at all.

Lady Mar was lying on her bed, her face very pale. It had been a hot day and the stone of the castle held the heat as one of the first of the heavy dews of autumn started to fall.

‘You said you knew where the sacred well is?’ Elizabeth began without preamble.

Eleyne nodded. A century or so before a hermit had built himself a stone hut beside it and now it sheltered pilgrims who came to bathe in its healing waters or make offerings to the saint who guarded it.

‘I want to go there.’ Elizabeth’s hand was pressed against her chest.

Eleyne stared at her in astonishment. ‘But it’s a long way. It’s up in the hills and hard to reach. Morna will give you more water from the spring – ’

‘That’s no use!’ Elizabeth lay back on the pillow, pressing her lips together tightly as a wave of pain hit her. ‘Morna is away from her bothy. I hear she is sometimes away for days or weeks on end. I can’t wait until she gets back. I want to go to the well myself.’

‘You can’t possibly!’ Eleyne was shocked out of her attempt to comfort the woman. ‘It’s a long steep ride; even for someone who is fit it’s difficult. Water can be fetched …’

‘I want to go there. I have to go there,’ Elizabeth repeated stubbornly, willing herself into a sitting position. ‘I shall order a litter first thing tomorrow and you will guide me there.’

‘I can’t. It would be madness,’ Eleyne cried. She was sorry for the anguish and fear she saw in the other woman’s eyes; the fear of illness and death. ‘It would be foolish for you to try to ride that far when you are unwell.’

‘It will kill me if I don’t go.’ Elizabeth shook her head. ‘I have to go, don’t you see? I’ve been thinking about it for weeks. I remember hearing of the spring when I was a child in Buchan. My grandfather, Fergus, was full of old tales of the hills. He said if you bathed in its holy waters you would live forever. I had forgotten about it until that spaewife told me the story again. I have to get there, it’s my only chance.’

Eleyne shook her head and put her hand to her stomach. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t ride that far, even if you can. My time is close …’

‘I see!’ Elizabeth’s voice was mocking. ‘You protest that you must ride all day to please yourself, but to save my life you’re not prepared to ride at all – ’

‘That’s not true!’

‘Then come with me.’ Elizabeth stood up. She staggered slightly, then straightened. ‘I will order you a litter too. We have two I believe.’

‘No.’ Eleyne was looking at her in disbelief. ‘Please. Neither of us is in a fit state to go.’

‘I have to.’ Elizabeth’s face tightened in a grimace of pain. ‘You are my daughter-in-law, it’s your duty to obey me in this.’ She snapped her fingers at one of her ladies. ‘Go and order the litters and an escort of armed men. Tell them to be ready tomorrow after mass.’ She turned again to Eleyne. ‘Of course we have to take into account the fact that you are no longer as young as you were,’ she said spitefully. ‘But you have always insisted your age made no difference to your activities. Is that it? Are you afraid?’

Eleyne clenched her fists. ‘Of course not.’

‘Then you will come with me.’

XV

They had an escort of ten men. Elizabeth had forbidden any of her ladies to accompany them. Eleyne looked up at the sky as her groom brought her horse, and she shook her head. However much she hated the litter, she knew she could not ride.

The clouds were high and wild, though on the ground the air was still. Wind would come later, and with it rain. She could smell the cold and salt from the distant sea. She pulled her cloak more closely around her as one of her attendants came to help her awkwardly on to the cushions and she felt the baby move resentfully.

They travelled very slowly, leaving the track almost immediately and heading across the rough, slowly rising ground. Eleyne’s litter was at the front of the riders, Ancret and Lyulf close beside her, a deeply disapproving Sir Duncan Comyn riding at her side. He had insisted on accompanying them and had hand-picked their escort.

Eleyne’s back ached and she was very tired. Every now and then she called a halt, peering around to orientate herself to the unaccustomed view from the litter.

At one of the halts Duncan turned in his saddle. ‘Do you think we should check to see if she is all right?’

Wearily Eleyne nodded, glad of the rest. She waited, slumped uncomfortably on the cushions, whilst he rode back. Above the rising wind she heard Elizabeth’s harsh voice demanding to know why the devil they had stopped, and even more clearly, as he rode back towards her, she heard Sir Duncan’s muttered imprecation that his cousin was a selfish vicious old harridan and deserved to roast in hell. She smiled. It was reassuring to know that she was not without allies on this journey.

They found the spring in the end and she climbed wearily out of the litter, gratefully allowing Sir Duncan to help her into the stone chapel and settle her on the long low ledge which had served the hermit all those years before both as seat and bed. He called his men to build a fire in the ring of blackened stones which had obviously formed the hearth over the centuries. Only then did he leave her to help Elizabeth from her litter.

The spring bubbled gently from beneath an overhang of rock, filling a shallow pool rimmed by smooth stones which had been used since time immemorial as a resting-place for people’s offerings. Coloured bits of rag, stones and coins lay in the glistening spray, protected by small curling ferns, brilliant green in the late afternoon sun.

‘Now, I want you to leave my daughter-in-law and me here. Take all your men. I want no one left here with us.’ Elizabeth’s grating voice was still strong as Sir Duncan helped her from the litter. ‘You may return tomorrow at noon.’

‘My lady, we can’t leave you!’ Sir Duncan was horrified.

‘Why not? No one will harm us here. We have my daughter-in-law’s great dogs to protect us. Build up the fire and leave enough wood to keep us warm and unpack the food and bring me all the rugs and towels from the litter. Then go. I have no intention of bathing with a dozen men ogling through the bracken.’

Sir Duncan appealed to Eleyne. ‘My lady –?’

‘Do as I say!’ Elizabeth cut in sharply. ‘I have to be alone and I have to bathe in the moonlight. It’s part of the cure. She can stay and seek her own blessing from the water, but no one else. No one at all.’ She staggered slightly, her hand to her breast. ‘Go now.’

Eleyne closed her eyes in despair, wishing fervently that she hadn’t come. The wild look in her mother-in-law’s eyes frightened her. ‘Surely, if Sir Duncan and his men wait out of sight,’ she said, ‘that will be good enough. Then they can take us back.’

‘No!’ Elizabeth cried in a frenzy. ‘They have to go. I have to wait for the moon. It’s my only chance. My only chance,’ she repeated through gritted teeth.

‘You had better do as she says,’ Eleyne said softly to Sir Duncan. She glanced at Elizabeth. ‘The Blessed Virgin and St Bride will protect us.’ And so will the old gods who watch here, she added to herself silently. Whose power is still strong in these hills; whose watch over the sacred springs has never lessened.

With one final anxious glance at Eleyne, Sir Duncan did as he was bid. The rugs and towels were piled in the chapel, the fire built up and a neat stack of firewood fetched from the copse at the foot of the rocks; dried rowan and pine and birch and even sharp, prickly thorn were heaped in the corner, then the escort left and they were alone.

Eleyne and Elizabeth watched as the horsemen rode down the hillside, then Elizabeth turned to her. ‘We’ll eat while we wait for the moon to rise,’ she said.

The two women sat before the fire in the deserted chapel as the dusk, coming in from the east, threw purple shadows across the glens. The light was dying fast. Through the open door, Eleyne looked up at the sky. It had turned to an opalescent aquamarine, remote and cold, streaked with carmine cloud. Between the mountains the shadows grew black and soft, folded in secrecy. From somewhere far away there was the howl of a wolf. Eleyne saw her dogs’ ears flatten. The hackles on their necks had risen, but neither animal moved from its watch by the door.

‘You’re afraid.’ Elizabeth’s mocking voice was loud in the silence.

Eleyne clenched her fists. ‘I’m afraid for you. Supposing you were taken ill – ’

‘I won’t be taken ill. I’ve come here to be cured and as soon as the moon has risen, I shall bathe in the pool.’ Elizabeth shivered suddenly. ‘Throw some more wood on the fire and put the towels to warm.’ She made no effort to move as Eleyne heaved herself awkwardly to her feet and did as she was bid. Her back was aching so much, she could barely move as she threw some branches on to the fire. For a moment she hesitated, staring down into the flames, seeing them beckon, then she forced herself to look away. Wearily she reached for the towels and spread them across the stone ledge.

‘It’s nearly dark.’ Elizabeth sat forward. ‘The moon will be up soon.’

‘I’ll go and see.’ Eleyne went slowly out into the wind. It was cold outside. The red was nearly gone from the west. Cloud, shredded and black, streamed across the darkening sky. In the east she could see the glow of the rising moon behind the hills. In a few moments its silver rim would float clear of the clouds. The water behind her was black as velvet, bubbling quietly from the deep centre of the mountain.

‘Is it time?’ Elizabeth’s husky voice behind her made her jump.

‘The moon is nearly up.’ Eleyne turned. She caught her breath in surprise. Elizabeth had removed her gown. Dressed only in a white shift beneath her cloak she was like an apparition in the darkness as the silver moonlight slowly spread across the mountainside.

Kicking off her shoes, Elizabeth began to walk, slowly and with laboured breath, towards the smooth flat rocks. Eleyne followed her, taking her arm as the woman stumbled. ‘You can’t mean to bathe completely. It’s ice cold!’ she protested.

‘Hold my cloak. It’ll serve to warm me when I come out.’ Elizabeth groped with the fastening at her throat.

‘Splash yourself. That will be enough.’ Eleyne tried to hold her back. ‘Here, let me get some water for you – ’

‘Leave me!’ Elizabeth’s voice rose sharply. She pushed Eleyne away and took the last few steps to the edge of the pool.