Page 43 of Kilgannon #1

He shot a blue glance at me. “Not sending him away, Mary, letting him go and learn. He’ll go to St. Andrew’s like me and his da, and he’ll have some learning of his own.

But he’ll finish, like his da, and both of them will be better educated than their chief.

Lass, the boy’s ready to go. It’s time.” When he spoke again, his tone was pensive and his topic different.

“Mary, ye and I, we both know a bit about loss. More than most, less than some, but both of us have lost our parents and grandparents, and I’ve lost a brother and a sister.

” His eyes met mine. “I would keep the one I have left.” I nodded, swallowing my nasty thoughts about Malcolm.

This was obviously not the time to mention the Diana ’ s losses. I wondered if I ever would.

The afternoon brought sunshine and half the clan, each man with a grievance or story to share with Alex.

By evening he was finished talking, but they stayed, and the hall was full of music and dancing.

I had despaired of ever having a moment alone with him again and sat watching the others dance when a hand on my shoulder roused me.

I looked up into Alex’s eyes, his head bent close to mine.

“I was thinking we’d steal a moment, Mary Rose,” he said, and smiled as he led me from the hall.

In the library he stirred the fire and then crossed the room and poured a glass of whisky.

“I’ve spoken to Malcolm,” he said, settling into the chair .

“Oh?” I watched the light play across the planes of his face.

He sipped his whisky. “Aye. It willna happen again.”

“Good,” I said, afraid to say more.

We sat in silence until he raised his glass and looked through it at the flames.

“Mary, what is bothering ye about the accounts?” I stared at him.

How could he know? I answered my own question.

Thomas, of course. I took a deep breath and plunged in, explaining about the Diana ’ s costs and revenues.

He listened, then laughed. “Dinna look so wary, lass, I’m not a fool.

I ken we were losing money, I just dinna ken how much.

That’s why I took the Diana away from Malcolm and hired that captain to sail her for us.

And ye ken what happened then. We went from having a ship that lost money to having no ship. From now on we’ll do our own sailing.”

“But the repairs—” I started.

“Aye,” he said, interrupting me. “I ken about the repairs.” He frowned into his glass and then looked up to meet my eyes.

“They were extraordinary, aye, even for an old ship, and she is the oldest of the bunch of them. I asked Malcolm about them. She lost more money faster than any ship I’ve seen.

It still doesna add up correctly, but he is young and inexperienced.

No one learns these things except by doing, ye see.

When it got to be too much I removed the Diana from him and then we lost her entirely.

So I’m much better off now, no?” He grinned lopsidedly and finished his whisky.

“Ye ken I’m not a great businessman, Mary,” he said, “but we’re doing all right. ”

“Why do you trade at all?”

He looked at me blankly, then sat up straight, looking at me. “Have we no’ talked of this before?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Aye, well, there’s no mystery here. The rents from the clan dinna pay the taxes on this old castle nor do they even come close to paying to keep it repaired.

Some of the work, of course, comes from rent paid in kind, but I need cash to pay the taxes.

” He sighed. “I canna raise the rents further, and I willna let the tacksmen do it either. And the taxes canna wait. The English need my money to subjugate the Scots. The money for the taxes and everything else has to come from somewhere, so we went and got it. I pay the English with money they give me for selling them French wine. Seems only fair. And then,” he shrugged, “there is the fun of seeing other parts of the world. It works out well.” His eyes roamed my face and grew darker.

“But now I think I’m going to want to stay much closer to home. ” I smiled and leaned to kiss him.

A knock interrupted us, and Alex raised his eyebrows at me as he called out. Thomas opened the door. “Sorry, Alex, but yer wanted in the hall. Duncan of the Glens has just arrived, and he needs to talk with ye.”

“At this hour?” Alex growled. “Can he not just have a glass or two and we’ll talk in the morning?”

Thomas shook his head. “He says it’s important and he must talk with ye as soon as possible and he’ll wait until yer free.”

Alex sighed and looked at me, shrugging his shoulders. “What now?” he asked as he stood.

“What now” turned out to be an outraged Duncan.

He complained that a MacDonald had gotten a MacGannon girl with child, and he pushed the girl forward.

The girl was no more than sixteen, a tall, pretty blonde with bright blue eyes that were huge now with terror.

Duncan stood behind her, his outrage making her seem small.

Alex sat on the table, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, and listened to Duncan’s tirade about the indignities suffered by MacGannons at the hands of MacDonalds for three hundred years, and I realized that Alex had heard this all before, probably many times.

The girl stood in the center of the circle of men, staring at the floor, her tears falling unheeded on the stones.

When at last Duncan sputtered to an end, Alex straightened and asked mildly, “This is yer niece, Duncan? This is little Lorna? An’ ye want me to punish her? ”

Duncan shook his head furiously. “No, no, not at all. I want ye to force the bastard to marry her.”

It was soon settled. Lorna and the man she loved, Seamus MacDonald of Skye, both wanted to marry, despite their parents’ objections. Alex calmed the weeping girl and told her he’d write to the MacDonald. Duncan nodded, satisfied.

Later, alone in our room, I was quiet and Alex thoughtful as we sat before the fire. “What will you do if the MacDonald doesn’t approve the marriage?” I asked at last. “Will you go to Skye?” Morag, I knew, lived at the other end of the island, and I tried to remember how big the island was.

But Alex shook his head. “If the MacDonald says no, lass, I willna go to Skye.” He looked at me with a tired smile and reached for my hand. “No, Mary, we’ll go to Skye.”

But we did not go to Skye. The MacDonalds came to us.

A week after Alex wrote to the MacDonald, the man himself arrived.

He came on a cloudy and breezy day, with an entourage of clansmen.

And two women. Alex and I welcomed them at the dock.

The chief of the MacDonalds, known as Sir Donald MacDonald of that Ilk, was a big man, and fleet, both of thought and word.

The striking man next to Donald must be Seamus himself, I thought.

This young man was buoyant, his gray eyes gleaming, his dark hair neatly tied back, and his clothes well groomed.

The two women stood behind the MacDonald, one in middle age, her hair graying around her pretty face, the other much younger with brown hair and eyes that were now fixed on Malcolm.

Deirdre, who knew both, welcomed them with warmth, and the older woman smiled gratefully at her.

“Kilgannon,” roared the MacDonald in Gaelic, “I've come to eat yer food again and to invite ye to a wedding. ”

grinned at him. “Ye’ve saved me a trip then, Sir Donald, for which I thank ye. Going from paradise to Skye is always difficult, but returning home makes it worth the trouble.”

The MacDonald laughed heartily, smacking Alex’s shoulder. He turned to me then and spoke cordially in English. “Mistress Mary, how are ye? The most beautiful bride I’ve seen in a long while. How are ye adjusting to life among the heathens?”

I laughed. “Quite well, sir, thank you.”

“Good,” he said loudly, “because ye have no choice now, ye ken. ’ Tis done, yer marriage, and from what I hear ye’ll no’ be able to have it annulled.

” He laughed and I blushed. “Not that ye’d want to, though.

” He looked at Alex fondly. “He’s no’ a bad man, for all that he’s so ugly.

” Both men laughed and I smiled. “Alex, I’ve brought my cousin’s girl, Sibeal,” the MacDonald said, pulling the girl forward to stand in front of us.

“Thought ye’d like to meet yer new sister-in-law.

” Alex looked at the older man in surprise.

Behind me Malcolm moved uneasily and someone started laughing.

Next to the MacDonald, Deirdre’s expression was guarded.

“Aye. Yer surprised,” said the MacDonald, nodding.

“Imagine what I felt when I received yer outraged letter, Alex. We can work a trade, no? I’ll take yer Lorna MacGannon and ye take our Sibeal MacDonald, though ye are getting the better of the deal.

I had to do a bit of talking to get her parents to adjust to the idea.

Still, I do think children are best brought up in their father’s house.

” He turned that fierce gaze behind us. “Don’t ye agree, Malcolm? ”

Alex and the MacDonald disappeared into the library with Malcolm, Angus, Thomas, and several of the MacDonalds, leaving the rest of us to our own devices.

I talked to the women, quickly discovering that the older woman was Sibeal’s mother.

Sibeal said little, alternately radiant and worried.

She was a lovely girl, and I was not surprised that she had caught Malcolm’s eye .