by Elise Ramsay
“In such a wee Clan as ours, lassie, what is the point in a young man’s ambitions? There’s nowhere for them to go. There're no pickings to be had here, are there now?”
Yes, she had been right to recognise the look. Her father, much as he loved her, treated most of what Annis said with a kind and humouring derision. Annis detested being treated in the same way as she had as a child and blew out a frustrated breath.
“Ach, now then, don’t blow your cheeks out at yer auld Da. I’m listening.”
No, you’re not. You’re humouring.
“Da, there’s just something about Logan and I dinnae think you should trust him as much as you do.”
Annis knew she had made a mistake. The first flickering of annoyance shot through his kindly eyes.
“So, are you going to tell me who I should and shouldnae trust, lassie?”
“I…”
“No, you’ll listen now, Annis. You might have some something you don’t like about Logan Munro. I dinnae care what that might be. He and Brodie have been big pals since they were bairns. Raised as brothers, they were. If there’s a problem there, Brodie will be the one to bring it to me, not you.”
The disappointment she felt was overshadowed by a sadness at her father’s reluctance to see Brodie as anything other than the perfect wee man, built in his own image. The fact that Brodie was lazy, not too talented, and easily led, was stoically ignored by the man who clearly hoped that Brodie would one day prove a suitable replacement as Chief.
“Ach, you’re right, Da. I’m just being daft. You know how I watch over my big brother like a mother hen.” Annis nearly choked on the retraction, although it seemed to appease Gordon nicely.
Ruffling his daughter’s wayward hair, he planted a kiss on her cheek. Gordon seemed relieved to have squashed the conversation. Annis was quietly determined to carry on with her own digging until she found something to accuse Logan of.
“You know, maybe you should spend more effort tidying yourself, lass. It’s coming time you found a suitor for me to object to. You’ll need to take a wee bit more pride if any man’s to ask you.”
“Ach, Da! Any suitor of mine will have to take me as I am.”
“Aye,” said Gordon, laughing to himself, “That he might, lassie, that he might!”
As Gordon took himself off to his chamber, Annis slapped the stone wall in frustration. She would find out what Logan was up to if it was the last thing she ever did!
Snapping back into the present, Annis drew her horse to a stand and jumped down. Brodie and Logan, some good distance away, had stopped and tethered their horses. They were looking all about them purposefully. Brodie shuffled from foot to foot in a way Annis recognised. He had never quite grown out of the childish habit, which surfaced at odd times of concern. So, Brodie was worried.
Annis led her horse back the way they’d come, tethering him to a tree in the cover of a small woodland. Re-emerging, she surveyed the landscape. If Brodie and Logan were waiting to meet somebody, Annis needed to get closer.
Picking the best route to keep her out of sight, Annis set off on foot. The need to keep climbing and descending to get the best cover possible very quickly became tiring. Still, Annis was determined not to give up. With her father unwilling to listen, and nobody else to help her, Annis felt the weight of her Clan’s safety weighing heavily upon her.
Behind the cover of a small hill, Annis began to run, unseen, to make up time. Sweat was beginning to form at the back of her neck, but whether from exertion or excitement, she could not tell. Soon, she would be towards the front of the hill again, and Logan and Brodie would come back into view. They had been out of her sight for some minutes, and she began to fear they had moved on and all was lost. Reaching a clearing, Annis stopped and once again surveyed the land. There was the ruin of a wee auld kirk, which she thought might well provide both cover and a good vantage point. Annis would need to go a long way out of her way, looping around the point where she had last seen Logan and Brodie. It would take her through a dense woodland, but she would be well hidden. If she were to be discovered, Annis planned to pretend she was out hunting. The bow had been necessary to her disguise but was proving a cumbersome irritation as she began to run.
Annis ran at top speed through the woodland. It was going to take some minutes for her to loop round to the kirk. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps. Although a hale and active woman, Annis had not run in such earnest since she was a wee lassie. Hoping and praying that they were still there, Annis ran harder and harder, until she spied the grey stone of the old walls of the kirk through a gap in the undergrowth. Slowing to make her approach quieter, Annis tried to steady her breathing. Imagining that her sharp breaths might be loud enough to alert Logan and Brodie to her presence, Annis forced herself to stop for a few moments. Agitation was rising. Annis was keen to move on to the kirk.
Listening, she thought she could hear Brodie’s distant voice. With her spirits rising once more, Annis tiptoed the rest of the way to the kirk.
The remains of the old wooden door hung sad and rotting. Annis had never been this far out before and had certainly never seen this auld place. Creeping inside the roofless structure, Annis could see that heather and willow herb were growing up through the deep gaps in the old flagstone floor. The walls were still mercifully intact and would provide good cover.
With her pulse quickening once more, Annis realised with a jolt that her hunting story would now no longer work for her. Nobody found crouching in that auld kirk could be suspected of aught other than spying. For the first time in the whole of her endeavour, Annis felt afraid.
Hearing Brodie’s voice again, Annis drew closer to the crumbling window stanchions, hoping to be able to see something. Her efforts were rewarded. The run through the woodlands had most certainly not been in vain. Raising herself just enough to peep over the sill, Annis could see Brodie, his broad back to her, just yards away. Logan was pacing about, agitation beginning to show itself on his face. The wall felt cold and damp to the touch and Annis realised absently that she was leaning on it. Drawing back a little, she could see and smell the rich, slimy moss which had attached itself to the front of her bodice. Perhaps Da was right?
“He’s not coming, Logan!” Brodie’s boomed statement drew Annis back to the window.
“Ach, he’ll come. Tis to his advantage and he knows that.” Logan did not sound as sure as he was clearly trying to make out.
Brodie snorted as Logan began his pacing once more. Seeing Logan stiffen, Annis stood taller, trying to get a better view.
“Well, there you go, Brodie!” Logan was bristling with victory.
Annis thought that the two of them had not changed so much from being wee laddies together, each liking their little triumphs over the other.
“Aye! I see him.” Brodie was breathless with excitement. Annis could hardly believe this man would one day be their Chief.
Squinting to sharpen her vision, Annis could see three men on horseback approach. As they neared Brodie and Logan, she began to feel the return of her earlier fear. Maybe she was a little too close? Lord, dinnae let them discover me here.
The horses finally slowed to a stop, and the three men jumped down. One of the men kept a hold of all three of the horses, a little way back from the site of the meeting.
Annis felt her worst fears confirmed as she saw that one of the two approaching men was, indeed, Kyle Sinclair.
Chapter Five
Annis shrank back a little from the window when she saw Kyle Sinclair. It certainly wasn’t the first time she had ever seen him, but it was the first time Annis had seen him with power. Previously, he had just been Tormod Sinclair’s son, no more, no less. Kyle was someone she had tended to avoid at any gathering to which both of their Clans were invited. Not that Kyle had ever paid her the slightest attention. Annis had always been relieved about that. There was something of his father about him, a leering, cruel quality, especially towards lassies.
As he
strode purposefully towards Brodie and Logan, he seemed to ooze his new found status. The man trotting along faithfully at his side she recognised as his younger brother, Evan Sinclair. Annis felt fearful for Brodie, and even Logan at that moment.
“Well, I got your message.” Kyle’s tone was a study in purposeful boredom. As if the two men before him were nothing but wee laddies.
“I’m going to assume that’s been checked.” Kyle nodded towards the Kirk and Annis nearly fainted. Thankfully, Logan was prepared to lie to cover for what Kyle Sinclair would clearly think of as ineptitude.
“Aye, of course. Verra thoroughly. As soon as we arrived.” Logan’s ability to lie with such ease and speed astonished Annis. Still, at that moment in time, when Kyle turned his attention away from her hiding place, she was extremely relieved.
Brodie seemed to be welded to the spot. Annis felt sorry for her brother. As the next in line to be Chief, it would be he who was expect to conduct the proceedings here, whatever they were. Instead, Logan pushed himself forward. Annis felt a stab of annoyance. How dare he? Then, she tried to remember that, whatever they were all doing here, it would not be something to be proud of. Maybe Brodie was better off staying as mute as he seemed to have been struck.
“Firstly, I’d like to say how sorry we were to hear of the murder of your Da. He was a force to be reckoned with in these parts.” Logan was trying hard to ingratiate himself, with limited success.
His words, however, seemed to have struck exactly the right note. At the very word murdered, Kyle seemed to relax.
Kyle Sinclair looked sideways at Brodie, then back to Logan Munro. So, it would seem that Logan was still the brains of this little MacIver partnership. It mattered not to Kyle, he knew enough of the pair to have a good idea what they wanted. From the smallest Clan imaginable, these two wanted a wee bit more for themselves. They wanted to impress him, he could feel it. Furthermore, he liked it. After the humiliating brush off served to him by the auld Mackinnon Chief, these two were a welcome break. They knew exactly how the Chieftain of one of the most powerful Clans in the Western Highlands should be treated.
“Aye, well, I thank you for your condolences.” Kyle wanted to play them for a while, see exactly what they were offering. Test them to see how far they would be prepared to go.
“But you’ve not brought me here just for that. Have you aught else you need to say to me after dragging me away this far?”
“Aye, we have. We have chosen to offer you our support in whatever way we can, to avenge your Da. The Kincaid’s have been growing a wee bit too big for their boots these days. They’re starting to think they hold the power around here, and we’re after helping put a stop to them.”
“How, exactly?” Kyle’s tone was low and unreadable.
“In any way we can,” Logan said with a knowing nod.
Annis saw a flash of discomfort fly over Brodie’s features. He was not so happy about this. Maybe he was actually starting to think about the consequences. Still, her hopes weren’t high.
Kyle’s eyebrows rose almost clean off his forehead. Annis could see that he liked the idea that he had just acquired two henchmen from another Clan.
“Well, if you’re so keen, maybe I do have a wee job for you. Something that would do much to bring our two Clans closer. Are you interested?”
“Aye, verra interested.” Finally, Brodie had spoken.
Annis was torn between feeling glad that he had taken the reins away from Logan Munro, and angry because she knew he was being led further and further into trouble. Trouble of the worst kind, she had no doubt.
“There’ll be naught simple about it. If you’re going to get involved with us, I need you to prove exactly how much loyalty I can expect from you.”
“Aye.” Both Logan and Brodie spoke, a chorus of wee laddies.
Kyle began to pace a little, seeming to check the landscape thoughtfully. Annis knew by instinct that this was for show. Brodie and Logan, however, were awed and impressed. Annis tutted out loud, then held her breath. Nobody seemed to have heard the involuntary noise. Kyle spun back sharply towards Brodie and Logan, eyeing them curiously. Evan Sinclair had not spoken throughout. He simply watched and listened. Ach, another wee Brodie!
“The Kincaid are a sneaky Clan,” Kyle began so suddenly that everybody, even his brother, jumped a little.
“They crept up to my Castle! Not for them a true, well-prepared battle. No, they are cowards. They even wormed their sneaky way into my Castle and murdered my Da. The most powerful man around, and they murdered him. And how? By creeping up, that’s how. The Kincaid Clan couldnae stand and fight in the proper way. They couldnae bring down a great oak tree of a man like my Da without creeping up on him. Cowards!” Kyle shouted this last and all of them, Annis included, paid startled attention.
“And so it is, that I want to give them a taste of how that feels. I want them to suffer a loss, but naught up front about it. I want it to be as sneaky and as cowardly an attack as their own. I want them to know I am behind it -- but to never have a moment’s proof of it.”
Kyle, who had the big, wet lips of his father, was wiping his mouth. The excitement and the shouting had evidently made him spit through his words. Annis grimaced, thinking that he was repulsive in his rage.
Brodie looked out of his depth. Logan, on the other hand, was warming up to it all and showing signs of excitement.
“Which one?” Kyle looked surprised to see that Logan knew exactly what he meant.
“Cullen Kincaid.”
“And, how do you want it done?” Logan didn’t miss a beat.
Annis nearly cried out in anguish. How dare he lead her Clan into murder? For she knew that this was exactly their meaning.
“Well now, can you not think of aught for yourselves? It is for you to decide how it should be done. Just get it done. I’ll know you’ve done it when I hear of it.”
“Aye, consider it done.” Logan stepped forward and thrust out his hand once again.
Kyle walked around him, ignoring the hand. Instead, he made a point of shaking Brodie’s hand first. The Chief of the MacIver’s son. With one simple act, Kyle was making Brodie responsible. Annis felt her throat tighten as Brodie took the proffered hand.
After Kyle and his two companions had left, Annis remained in the kirk. Brodie was blowing out such great breaths that she knew he was overwhelmed by what had just happened. Logan was strutting back and forth, so very pleased with himself.
“Logan, what the hell just happened there? Are we really talking about killing a man?”
Please, please, please put a stop to it, Brodie.
“Look, what else did you think he’d be wanting of us? He needs to know we’d do aught to align with the Sinclair’s. It’s power Brodie, he has it, and we don't.”
Brodie said no more that Annis could hear. Both he and Logan were sauntering off to their horses and making ready to leave. They were getting ever further out of earshot and Annis still dared not move from her hiding place and very soon, she could hear nothing but mumbled speech.
Both men mounted their horses and heeled them away. Annis, utterly shocked and exhausted, dropped down onto a rock and stared at the wet mossy walls of the kirk. What was she going to do?
Chapter Six
Cullen Kincaid was at a loose end. Grant had been waylaid into meeting with some of the farming Clansmen on the Kincaid lands, as Gunn had become busy with other business. Not to mention the fact that Gunn’s new wee wife, Isobel, was already expecting their first bairn. Cullen grimaced. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t want a family of his own one day, he just wondered what the hurry was. He wondered why each life seemed to follow the same pattern of the life that went before it. Don’t you ever get bored?
Well, aye, Annis MacIver, I do get bored!
Cullen knew his father was probably doing what he could to stop him and Grant spending so much time together. Annoyed as he was, Cullen knew it was right. Cullen and Grant wasted many hours a day in
fun and fooling that their Da probably despaired of them ever becoming the right sort of men for the Clan Elite. Cullen resolved to try harder, or at least appear to be trying. Still, not today. Today he would take a ride over by the MacIver land, see if he could find that feral wee beastie and poke fun at her for a while. In truth, he did not even believe that himself. Annis had changed and, for some reason, it interested him. As scruffy and as unruly as she was, Annis MacIver was never boring.
Annis hardly knew how she had managed to keep her own council for the full sennight prior. What she had discovered that day, from her hiding place in the kirk, had shocked and worried her. Annis had nobody to tell. At first, she thought of going straight to her father. That had been her plan, after all. Find some evidence and take it to her Da. However, she had not expected that evidence to be so devastating. How could she take to her Da the news that would implicate Brodie in the planning of a murder? Annis just could not do that. For the sake not only of her father but Brodie too. There just had to be another way.
Days had passed since and Annis was coming no closer to a real plan of action. Feeling alone with a problem she had no idea how to solve, she knew she was growing distant. Her mother, who often despaired of her wild wee daughter’s prospects, had begun to notice how distracted Annis seemed to be. For a few terrible moments, Annis thought she might spill all she knew to her lovely Ma, but at the finish, she could not.
Worst of all, Annis was desperately worried about Cullen Kincaid. Although he was a braw lad when it came to sports and fighting. The fact that he had no idea of the plot against him left Annis with a huge, guilty lump in her throat that would not leave her. In weaker moments, Annis almost considered telling Cullen Kincaid himself. He had never done anything to hurt her, albeit he could be a little arrogant towards her, mocking her. However, she did not know him well enough to be able to guess what he would do with such information. Would he simply be more aware and take care of himself? Annis doubted it. News like that would go straight to the Chief of the Kincaid Clan, and rightly so. Then the news would reach her Da, and it might not be delivered in peaceful terms.