Chapter Six

Jasper returned home at noon to a frosty welcome from his family. He was immediately set upon by both his tiresome sisters.

‘Where have you been?’ said Maeve, the youngest. She did not wait for an answer. ‘You must help me with mother and her schemes. Why do I have to be married off at her command when you get to choose anyone you want?’

‘Because I am a man and a laird,’ he said, bleary from little sleep.

‘It is not fair.’

He yawned. ‘Nothing is in this life, sister.’

‘It’s alright for you,’ said Glenna to Maeve. ‘At least you have a suitor. Our worthless brother cannot be bothered to find me a fine man to marry.’

Jasper doubted any man, fine or not, would want to take his whining sister Glenna in marriage. Where Maeve was blonde, full-bosomed, rosy-cheeked and bonnie, Glenna was whip-thin, with ginger hair and a face as pale as milk. She took after her mother in both looks and a perpetually sour temperament. Nothing would ever please her sufficiently. He could give a king’s ransom in dowry and even the least fastidious would recoil at the prospect of Glenna as a wife.

‘Where have you been, brother?’ Glenna sniffed the air around him like a rat emerging from its burrow. ‘You reek of ale, slatterns and sin, brother.’

‘You are right. I have debauched thoroughly this past night, and I am very pleased with myself.’

‘You are disgusting.’

Jasper bowed low. ‘I try my best, dear sister.’

Maeve came up and tugged at his sleeve. ‘Please, Jasper. I don’t want to marry Carstairs, but mother insists. He is oafish and coarse and eats with his mouth open.’

‘Aye, but he is also wealthy and hopelessly smitten for reasons I cannot fathom.’

‘Why can I not choose a better man? I did not mind being married off when you suggested someone like Robert Strachan? What a great match that would have been.’

‘If he hadn’t got himself killed by that ghastly Bannerman fellow,’ said Glenna.

‘You two are fools,’ said Jasper. ‘You know nothing of Robert Strachan, either of you. He was a devil.’

‘I know Robert was the most handsome man for miles around. Everyone thought so.’

Jasper could not contain his irritation. ‘Then you must also know that Robert killed his own father. He poisoned the poor old bugger to get his hands on Fellscarp. Aye, him and his bitch of a sister put Hew Strachan in the ground just to further their ambition.’ Jasper suppressed a shudder at the thought of Elene Strachan – her face so radiant that it was like looking into the sun, her heart black as pitch, rotten with malice.

Glenna’s mouth hung open. ‘That cannot be true. Shame on you for slandering the dead, brother. Robert was dashing, charming and a finer man you could not meet. And as to his sister, I met her once, and Elene Strachan was courtesy itself and so very beautiful. You are just angry because you could not catch her in marriage. A woman as refined as Elene Strachan would never have had you, Jasper.’

‘Aye, thank God, because she would have poisoned me just to get her hands on Kransmuir.’

‘I never believed any of those stories about her or Robert,’ said Maeve.

‘Well, you should because people are evil, especially those with bonnie faces. And forget the handsome Robert Strachan because you cannot have him since the fool got his head bashed in by Caolan Bannerman.’

‘Aye, and you took sides against Robert. You got him killed,’ wailed Maeve.

‘He shouldn’t have gone up against a Bannerman.’

‘Aye, he shouldn’t have, and he lost, same as you, Jasper,’ sniped Glenna. ‘You went up against a Bannerman over that Brenna wretch? She wouldn’t have you any more than Elene Strachan would.’

Jasper lost his temper. ‘And no one will have you in marriage, Glenna, not even the corpse of Robert Strachan. And as for you, Maeve, I say we marry you off soon before Carstairs realises what a ninny he is getting behind that bonnie face.’

‘Jasper. That is unkind.’ His mother strode into the hall, her pinched face disapproving, as always. ‘Where have you been?’ she snapped.

‘I have been covering myself in glory.’

‘Covering himself in whore’s flesh more like it,’ snapped Glenna.

The smack of his mother’s palm connecting with Glenna’s cheek echoed about the hall. ‘Hold your filthy tongue. I'll have no gutter language from any daughter of mine,’ she shouted. ‘Go to your chamber this instant.’

Glenna rushed off, clutching her face, and Maeve began to wail. ‘Jasper agrees that Carstairs is an oaf, Mother.’

His mother barely glanced at Maeve. ‘An oaf who will be your husband by spring. Now get thee gone unless you want a slap too. I have business with your brother.’

Maeve, easily bullied, scurried out of the hall in Glenna’s wake.

‘You should not talk of the Strachans’ shame with your sisters. Such violent goings-on are not for their ears.’

‘It is about time they learned how the world works. They need to be on their guard for the evil in it.’

His mother’s gaze was unrelenting, piercing his calm. ‘I wonder at you allowing the Bannerman name in your hall after everything that verminous family has cost you,’ she said, always eager to rake over old humiliations.

Jasper sought a change of subject. ‘Can we not find someone who suits Maeve better? She’ll not have Carstairs willingly.’

‘She’ll have who you tell her to have. You are master here,’ she said sweetly.

The hairs on this neck stood up. His mother was clearly loading an arrow to aim at his head.

‘Master? If I was, you wouldn’t all plague me day and night with your demands.’ He sighed and bent to the hearth for warmth. ‘Can we not send Glenna to a convent, for no man on this earth will have her.’

His mother chuckled. ‘She is not the godly type. And, with enough inducement, some man will take her off our hands. Now listen, son. Word came while you were carousing. There is a gathering of the March lords for truce day.’

He felt the arrow’s stab. ‘Where?’

‘The Gunn stronghold. There is grave news to impart, apparently.’

‘Who came to tell us?’

‘Murtaugh Gunn himself.’

‘Is it a trap, do you think? Is he reeling us in with a personal invitation?’

‘Who can tell with Murtaugh Gunn? He would burn his own mother as a witch if he thought there was profit in it.’ She laid her hand on his arm. ‘So will you go, Jasper?’

‘Aye, but I’ll be sure to keep my back to the wall.’