Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

G owan Hepburn was tired. He had been down to the edge of the village and had watched Minna talking to the villagers about the deer she had sent them. Her expression had been so puzzled, and it almost made him laugh, and laughing was something he rarely did.

He could not hear every word of their conversation, but it seemed that they were both happy and sad at the same time and he had the distinct feeling that trouble was brewing, especially when he saw her brother later in the day.

Gowan had never met Jamie Darroch, but he hated him, just as he had hated his father. If he had been out in the open with a sword he could have challenged him, but although Darroch wore a big broadsword strapped to his hip, Gowan doubted it had ever been used in anger. In fact, Gowan doubted if Jamie could fight at all. He was just the sort of man he despised; arrogant, bigoted, with no thought of anyone else's needs at all.

His sister, however, was the complete opposite. Gowan could imagine spending long evenings talking to her and drinking wine next to a roaring fire. He would tell her funny stories and she would feed him with sweetmeats while she sat on his lap. He wondered if he could still make people laugh, since it had been so long since he had tried. He sighed. It had been so long since she had done so many things.

When he came home, the sky had been completely clear and cloudless, the temperature fairly balmy, if anything could ever be called balmy in Scotland. As he smiled at the thought, he felt his facial muscles stretch in a strangely uncomfortable way. It had been ages since he smiled.

He sighed, then turned away, picked up the piece of linen he used as a towel then walked outside and through the trees, heading for the loch to bathe himself. At this point, he always stopped to see if anyone was watching him. He had to be very careful; if anyone suspected that the demon of the woods was a person and not a devil he would never be safe again.

He had almost reached the tree line when he heard the sound of a man and woman quarreling, and he peeped out to see what was going on. As he watched, he saw the Laird and his sister having such a vociferous argument that the sound of their raucous voices carried to him quite clearly, although he was standing more than a hundred yards away from them. He could not quite make out the words, though.

They were gesticulating, pointing at each other, the woman jabbing her fingers into her brother's chest while he roared into her face. They were clearly not looking where they were going, for she was gradually moving back towards the water of the loch, while he was moving forward until they were no more than a few feet away from its edge.

Gowan wanted to shout to the woman to be careful, for she was in grievous danger of falling into the water, so fixated was she on her brother's face.

He saw the Laird open his mouth to give vent to an almighty roar, then saw her clamp her hands to her ears and screw her eyes shut. He felt a surge of rage boil up inside him, looking at the big man and the little lass. She could match him with the size of her spirit, but not with the size of her body, and now she was in serious danger.

As he watched, the man pushed her carelessly into the lake then turned and strode away. The young woman screamed in panic and her arms windmilled for a moment as she attempted to keep her balance, but she could not do it and eventually she fell backwards into the loch with a great ‘splat!'

Jamie Darroch had not even looked back.

The guard marched Minna towards one of the empty bedrooms at the extreme end of the castle overlooking the steep side of the hill. It was musty with long disuse, but at least it was clean. She was surprised to see that the bed, underneath the dust sheet, was covered in fresh sheets and blankets, and there were thick warm curtains at the windows.

She turned to the guard, who looked slightly ashamed at having to imprison the Laird's sister. "Can you bring me some food and water please?" she asked.

The man nodded, then turned and left, and a moment later Minna heard the door closing behind him and a key turning firmly in the lock. She was still raging inside as she paced over to the windows and looked down, and her head was beginning to thud with a sickening pain. She knew that in a little while she would have to lie down and close her eyes, but sleep would be out of the question.

She kept coming back to the same problem. Why? Why was Jamie so reluctant to give up any of his supplies to people who needed them? Was it just plain greed or was there some deep-seated fear of being hungry or desperate inside him? She could not remember a time when her family had ever wanted for anything, so that could not be the reason.

"Jamie, what is wrong with you?" she said aloud. "Can you not just let go and be the person I know you are inside?"

She remembered what Jamie had been like when they were much younger, before James Darroch had conquered Cairndene. Then he had been a carefree, playful brother and friend, able to talk to anyone about anything, and he was liked by all. However, when he was enlisted into their father's service to take the castle, he had changed. Perhaps it was because of what he had seen in the throes of battle, or perhaps it was something he had done, but when the family moved into Cairndene he was not the same carefree young man he had been before.

Minna often looked at him and saw their father, a man who was loving when it suited him and quite callous when it did not. Jamie had the same way of looking at things as their father had. He would see problems where there were none, and fail to see problems when they were staring him in the face, which was the situation in Cairndene. Or perhaps he was facing the issue, but cared nothing for it.

Minna sighed and threw herself on the bed. ‘Stop thinking,' she told herself. Perhaps if she stopped chewing over the problem it would go away. She stood up and returned to the window, too restless to lie down, and looked down on the woods below, wondering what it would be like to live inside the shelter of the trees. Somehow it looked cozy, she thought, then laughed at her own foolishness. Living in the woods was for elves, fairies, wolves and wild boars!

She started to pace the room, back and forth, back and forth, and the rhythm of her paces began to soothe her and chase away the headache. Presently, however, when she heard a loud rumble from her tummy realized that she was ravenously hungry, and had not eaten since early in the morning. Where was the food she had asked for?

She was just about to knock the door and ask for it again when she heard the key turn in the lock, and in came Emily Morrison, the last person Minna needed to or wanted to see. However, she had brought a tray of food with her , but not the kind of food Minna was used to. There were three thick slices of bread, a bowl of thin stew, an apple, and a glass of ale. It was servants' food, and although Minna knew it would fill her stomach, it was not exactly appetizing.

"Thank you, Emily," she said, trying to be as pleasant as she could. Minna disliked Emily as much as Emily disliked her, and she was not going to let the cook know how disappointed she was with the meal. "It looks delicious. I thought he might have sent you up with bread and water."

"No, mistress," Emily replied. "He said ye must have plain food, no' tae starve ye. Her voice said one thing, but Minna could read between the lines. ‘I would have given ye bread an' water.'

"I am sure I will enjoy this." Minna sat down, determined not to give Emily the satisfaction of seeing how angry and frustrated she was. She gave the cook a tight smile then began to tuck into her food with gusto, breathing a sigh of relief as she heard the door closing behind her. Two minutes of Emily's company was always two minutes too long.

She imagined she was eating some succulent roast chicken, a mound of vegetables and some freshly baked bread and butter then following with a dessert of raspberry pie and cream. As she conjured up the feast in her mind, she sipped red wine with appreciation. When she had finished both the plain food and the imaginary feast, she wondered what the people of Cairndene were eating.

She could only hope that whatever she had provided them with the night before would last until she could tell them that there would be no more nightly visits. Perhaps some other solution would come up. She was not a religious person but she began to pray now, begging whoever oversaw the affairs of the world to help the people of Cairndene and poor people everywhere to find a way to help themselves.

When she had finished she looked out of the window and saw that it was clouding over again, and presently it began to rain in great sheets, the kind of rain that filled up lochs but beat down crops. It was just the kind of weather they could not afford.

Angry and depressed once more, she threw herself onto the bed, and despite all her turbulent thoughts, she fell asleep, fully clothed and with a deep frown on her face.

Minna was woken next morning by Jamie's hand shaking her roughly by the shoulder. She jerked into wakefulness, startled, then looked up into her brother's face, which wore an expression of peevish annoyance. He threw some fresh clothes onto the bed for her.

"Lorna said I must give you these," he informed her. "She is worried about you."

"Then let me see her!" Minna yelled. "Why are you keeping me here?"

"To stop you embarrassing both me and yourself!" Jamie was once more absolutely furious for no reason. "I am not having my sister behaving like a nun, giving out alms to all and sundry. It is embarrassing."

Minna felt as though she was banging her head against a brick wall.

A maid set a tray of breakfast on her table and brought in some washing apparel before giving Minna a sympathetic look and hurrying away with the supper dishes. She sighed. At least she could be thankful that the staff were on her side.

"Are you going to let me out?" she demanded. "Because if you do not, I will find my own way out."

She looked at the window. The walls on this side of the castle were covered with thick-stemmed ivy, and Jamie knew that his sister was as agile as a monkey. If she said she would climb out of a window she would do it; he had no doubt of it.

Jamie sighed irritably. "If you give me your word you will not leave the castle," he said sternly. "Because if you do I will send the guards after you and I really will put you in the dungeon this time."

"I will not leave the castle." she promised solemnly. The words were meaningless to her, since she had already planned to make her escape as soon as she could, but she could see that her brother believed her. He always did, since he had never known her to tell a lie.

"Eat your breakfast," he ordered. "After that you may go as far as your bedroom and no further. You will not go down to the village or anywhere else."

Minna nodded. She ate and washed quickly then went to her room to change. As soon as she opened the door she saw Lorna standing by the window with a cup of ale in her hand, her face a mask of anxiety.

Lorna turned at the sound of the door opening, dropped her cup, then came rushing over to Minna and threw her arms around her. "Oh, Minna, I was that worried about ye!" she cried, burying her face on Minna's shoulder.

It was not lost on her that Lorna had called her by her given name, something Minna had always asked her to do, but which she had always steadfastly refused to, saying that it was not her place.

Minna held her friend in her arms while Minna wept, and after a few moments, when she had calmed down a little, Lorna looked at her mistress, studying her face minutely for a few moments while she cupped it in her hands.

"Did he hurt ye, hen?" she asked anxiously.

Minna decided not to worry her friend more by telling her about Jamie's slap. "No, he just angered me beyond endurance," Minna replied as she stroked a tendril of Lorna's hair behind her ear and smiled at her. "I think the whole exercise was meant to intimidate me, Lorna. If that is so, then it has not worked, since I am more determined than ever to do what needs to be done."

"Please dinnae dae anythin' dangerous, Mistress," Lorna begged, gripping Minna's hands tightly.

"I will not, Lorna," Minna assured her friend. "Now, you will stop calling me ‘mistress.' I insist on it. My name is Minna, and that is the only name I will answer to from now on."

Lorna nodded. "If ye wish, Minna," she answered with a smile.

"Now, I am going into the village," Minna said. "But I need my brother to think I am occupied with something else."

Lorna thought for a moment. "A bath? He willnae dare come intae the room then!"

Minna laughed, clapping her hands. "That should give us at least an hour's grace. "Lorna - you are a genius!"

"I have been tellin' ye that for years!" Lorna laughed.