High on a Mountain (9 page)

By marrying this MacLachlainn boy instead of
a rich man like Latharn Cambeul, my little Mùirne will have a life
of hard work ahead of her. As I have had, and my mother, and her
mother before her. But maybe, being married to a good man, she may
find some happiness. Lord knows she’s had so little happiness in
her short life.

Her brow creased and a tightness bound her
chest as she thought back over the years. But she dismissed the
unwelcome memories and looked for chores to do, using work to keep
her heartaches and worries at a distance.

____________

Latharn sat alone at the table with his head
in his hands. His parents had left that morning for Edinburgh.
Catriona, the cleaning woman, worked as silently as possible as she
completed her morning chores. Catriona knew well Latharn’s black
moods and aimed to avoid calling any notice to herself when he was
in what she called “one of his states.” She didn’t know what had
brought this one on and didn’t care to know.

“Hello, the house,” called someone from
outside.

She hurried to the door. “Who is it?”

“Odhran Cambeul.”

____________

Latharn heard Odhran’s voice and called out,
“Let him in.”

Catriona opened the door, and Odhran
entered.

“What is it?” Latharn asked when Odhran
approached him.

“It’s something I thought you’d want to
know.” Odhran shuffled his feet, nervous and tense.

He didn’t want to be the one to tell Latharn
what he’d learned. But he dreaded even more Latharn’s fury if he
found out Odhran had known about it and hadn’t told him.

“Speak up, man. What is it?”

“It’s about Mùirne MacPhàrlain.”

Better to tell it a piece at a time than to
pour it out all at once. Odhran clasped his hands, released
them.

“Well, what about her?”

“I heard something today.”

“Then tell me!” Latharn shouted.

Odhran took a deep breath and blurted, “She’s
going to marry the MacLachlainn boy.”

“No!” Latharn shouted. He jumped up, knocking
his chair over. It clattered onto the stone floor. “No! That can’t
be!”

Odhran backed away from Latharn, tried to
stay out of his reach. He knew from experience it was not safe to
be within arm’s length of Latharn when he was in a rage. Latharn’s
violence could, and often did, spill out onto whomever was nearby.
And whether or not Odhran himself was the cause, he would likely
bear the brunt of it.

Latharn glared at him. “Where did you hear
this?”

“Her mother spoke to the parson, and the
parson’s wife is my aunt. She told my mother.”

“Where is Mùirne? Did she tell you that?”

“She’s staying with her sister. The one who
married Raibeart MacNeachdainn.”

“The marriage will not happen! I won’t allow
it!” Latharn shouted. He began pacing, trying to decide what to do,
while Odhran used the opportunity to slip out the door.

Since childhood, Latharn had almost always
gotten his way, using charm, or by using wild tantrums when his
charm didn’t work. He decided to retake the woman he loved. He
would use his grace and charisma to win her, to capture her heart,
to steal her away from MacLachlainn.

She will listen to reason, he told himself.
What woman wouldn’t prefer a life of ease with a polished, educated
and handsome man instead of a life of drudgery in a poor hovel with
an ignorant young crofter like MacLachlainn? She just doesn’t
understand what’s at stake.

TEN

Dearshul frowned when she opened the door and
saw Latharn standing there, smiling, looking handsome and poised,
arrayed in his finery. An attendant stood at his elbow.

“I’m here to see Mùirne,” he said, his voice
smooth and cultured. “I need to talk to her.”

“She doesn’t want to talk to you.”

Latharn’s courteous demeanor changed in an
instant.

“She’d
better
talk to me.” A scowl
pulled Latharn’s finely drawn brows together. “And she’d
better
not go ahead with this foolish plan to marry
MacLachlainn. I’ve come to warn her.”

Dearshul had never seen Latharn belligerent,
and she recoiled before his piercing stare. He seemed like a
different person. His gracious smile transformed into a surly
frown, and his deferential manner of speaking became an angry,
petulant whine.

Mùirne made the right choice
. A wave
of revulsion, followed by cold apprehension, washed over Dearshul.
What would my poor Mùirne’s life have been if I’d forced her to
marry this man?

She swallowed and took a deep breath. “Her
decision has been made. I think you’d better go.”

____________

Latharn hesitated. He had rarely been denied
anything he wanted. He didn’t know how to deal with her mother’s
refusal to allow him to see Mùirne.

He rubbed a hand across his chin, tried to
calm himself, tried to stifle his impulse to lash out at Mùirne’s
mother. He saw the way she was looking at him, saw fear in her eyes
and something else—what was it?—loathing? It had been a mistake,
coming to the house when he still harbored angry feelings. He
should have waited, calmed down more. He forced himself to paste an
affable smile on his lips, bowed and took his leave.

As he mounted his horse and rode away, he
told himself surely Mùirne would come to her senses. She couldn’t
want the hard life of a poor crofter’s wife when she could enjoy
ease and plenty with him. He had to think of a way to get her to
see that, before it was too late, before she was married.

Over the next three weeks, Latharn
alternately descended into a dark depression or flew into a fury.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t think of a way to convince
Mùirne to marry him instead of MacLachlainn. He schemed and
planned, looked for an approach to win Mùirne.

I could lie in wait with my men and capture
her. I could hold her at my house until she agrees to marry me.

No. That wouldn’t work. He discarded each
idea which occurred to him.

As the date of the wedding grew nearer, he
sank into a morass of melancholy from which he couldn’t extract
himself. Sometimes, an acute awareness of loss pierced him like a
sharp spike, and he drank whisky to dull the pain.

Latharn didn’t know what to do with himself.
He had no one to talk to. His parents were away, but even if they
had been at home, he wouldn’t have confided in them about his deep
sorrow. His father believed in presenting a forceful, confident
façade to the world, and he insisted his son do the same. Latharn’s
sadness and self-doubt over losing Mùirne would be unacceptable to
Eachann Cambeul.

If Latharn had been a different sort of man,
he might have had friends to help him deal with the blow of losing
the woman he wanted. But he’d never felt the need of friends. He
only wanted obedience or admiration from others, not love and
friendship. His thoughts and cares were for himself, his father and
his mother. No one else.

Until he met Mùirne.

Her loveliness was so exquisite and ethereal,
the essence of fraility that hung about her was so touching that
Latharn began to care about her, began to care about someone
besides himself and his parents.

____________

Ailean built a cottage near his father’s
house, on the opposite side from Coinneach’s. He gathered and
stacked the stones with his own hands. Coinneach gave Ailean help
and advice, particularly about placing the rafters and thatching
the roof.

“Be sure to get those rafters up high enough.
Wouldn’t want you bumping your head.” Coinneach grinned and slapped
Ailean’s shoulder.

Ailean usually found himself at a
disadvantage when faced with Coinneach’s teasing. He didn’t often
respond with a witty reply because, most of the time, any retort
that came to mind seemed unkind instead of funny. And he’d rather
be thought dull and boring than to hurt someone’s feelings. So
Ailean merely smiled and continued with his work on the house he
was building for Mùirne.

The cottage was small, only one room, but he
constructed a byre at one end. Ailean hung a curtain, made of an
old
féileadh-mòr
, to separate the sleeping area from the
living area. It would be a crude but snug home for the woman he
loved.

I can add more to it later.

With the help of his father and brothers,
Ailean built a rough worktable, two low stools and a bed. There
were no other pieces of furniture, no chests or cabinets for
storing household items, so they built shelves against one wall.
When it was all finished, Ailean surveyed his handiwork with his
arms folded across his chest, smiling and filled with pride. He
couldn’t wait to bring Mùirne here.

He stole away to his favorite mountaintop the
day after the cottage was finished. He sat on the rock, looking
down on the glen at the home where he would live forever with his
beloved.

Contentment and exhilaration blended,
separated, mingled again, with first one, then the other swirling
to the surface of his agitated emotions. In his daydream, he could
see far into the future, to the days and weeks and years that he
and Mùirne would dwell in the stone cottage he’d built with his own
hands. They would be surrounded by all his loved ones, happy,
content, secure and fulfilled.

A small voice whispered in the back of his
mind,
“And what of the grand exploits you dreamed of? What of
the great adventures you wanted to experience?”

He squeezed his eyes shut.
That doesn’t
matter anymore. Mùirne is all I need, all I want. Those were the
plans of a boy, and I’ve become a man now.

But a tiny, wistful yearning remained that
would not be pushed aside, would not be silenced.

Ailean had not seen Mùirne in more than a
week. Although building the cottage took less time than he
expected, making the few pieces of furniture had been
time-consuming. One morning, he awoke before daybreak and hurried
out of the house before his father could awaken and think of some
chore Ailean needed to do. He had to see Mùirne, was hungering to
be with her.

____________

Latharn alternately raged or planned revenge
with cold intensity. He realized the only thing he could do to stop
the wedding was to intimidate MacLachlainn. Or kill him.

He first thought of going to MacLachlainn’s
home to confront him. But it would be too dangerous to do it alone.
He would have to gather his crofters and cottars, take them along
to keep MacLachlainn’s family at bay while Latharn dealt with
him.

But such an action would get him into trouble
with the Duke of Argyll. The Duke would not tolerate an incident
which upset the uneasy peace between Clan Cambeul and Clan
MacLachlainn.

Latharn would have to face MacLachlainn
alone, away from his family.

He rode each morning to the trail leading
from Clan MacLachlainn lands and hid beside it. If MacLachlainn
visited Mùirne at her sister’s home, he would travel this path.

Latharn sat on his horse for hours each day
and watched for the man who had stolen Mùirne’s heart from him. On
the fifth morning, he was ready to give up and leave when he saw a
man moving rapidly on foot along the path.

It was MacLachlainn.

____________

When the track crossed a cleared glen, Ailean
heard hoof beats of a running horse behind him. He glanced over his
shoulder and saw a man riding toward him. A brief moment later, he
realized the man was Latharn. Ailean pivoted to face the oncoming
horse and stepped off the path to be out of its way. Latharn guided
the horse toward Ailean, and he knew Latharn intended to ride over
him, to trample him beneath the churning hoofs of the horse.

Ailean crouched and turned to his right as
the horse neared, as though he planned to jump in that direction.
Latharn reined the horse to the right. At the last moment, Ailean
jumped backward, to the left, out of the horse’s path.

“You dastard!” he shouted as Latharn rode
past. “Trying to have a horse trample me instead of fighting me
like a man!”

Ailean started running toward the
MacNeachdainns’. No. That wouldn’t do. Mùirne would be there. He
didn’t want to endanger her or anyone else. He turned and sprinted
up the hill away from the path. He had to get away from Latharn and
the horse.

He heard the horse pounding up the hill
behind him, heard Latharn shout, “Running again, coward?”

Latharn’s words poured over him like hot
water. Ailean ground his teeth and turned, half-crouched, facing
Latharn. When the horse drew near, Ailean jumped behind a tree, let
it pass, and moved into the open again. Latharn swung the horse
around and headed for Ailean. When the horse reached him, Ailean
sidestepped it and grabbed Latharn’s foot as the animal streaked
by. He yanked hard and toppled Latharn from the saddle.

Latharn hit the ground on his back with a
grunt. He lay still for a moment, gasping, trying to get his
breath. He rolled over and tried to stand. On his second attempt,
he managed to get to his feet, and he stood hunched over in obvious
pain, glaring at Ailean.

“I heard about your plans to marry Mùirne.
I’m warning you, don’t go through with it. I’ll kill you if you
do.”

ELEVEN

The day of the wedding dawned clear and cold.
A steady breeze off Loch Fyne rustled the entwined branches of the
rowan trees which stood on either side of the door to Aodh and
Brìghde’s cottage and formed an archway over it. Ailean bathed and
dressed early and was pacing, his stomach unsettled and his muscles
tight, wishing for the hours to pass.

“Aren’t you ready yet?” he said to Niall for
the fifth time.

“Ma, tell him to leave me alone,” Niall
said.