Before this could happen, though, there was an unexpected development. A tall blond figure appeared on the wall above the gate, half enveloped in the rising smoke. It was Alexander, and he was waving a white flag. Blanche was horrified. Did he intend to submit to the attack? So far as she could judge the townsfolk were holding their own and could continue to do so, despite the destroyed gate.
Faintly, borne on the slight breeze, the cheers of the besiegers when they saw Alexander came floating up to Blanche, and she raged helplessly. He was betraying Fiona and the Macdonalds who had left him in a position of trust. Mayhap, she suddenly thought, he had concerted this with Duncan for some dark purpose of his own.
From the ranks of the besiegers a squat, stocky figure rode forward on a great black horse. Even at that distance Blanche was certain it was Duncan. They began shouting, the tall blond and the swarthy, short but powerfully built Duncan, as all grew quiet about them. Although unable to distinguish a single word, Blanche realised they were making some sort of bargain. She heard the coo of a dove as one of the castle flock flew up to the tower to perch beside her, and suddenly appreciated the silence that seemed so strange after the hours of listening to the booming of the cannon, the shouts of the fighters, and the crackling of the flames. She glanced towards the inner part of the town and her attention became riveted. Streams of figures filled the narrow lanes that led upwards towards the castle.
They climbed steadily, and Blanche could see the vast majority of them were women and children, but she could also distinguish a few men, old and decrepit, being helped along. Below her the huge gates leading into the castle courtyard were slowly swinging open, and the people began pouring in.
They hesitated at first, looking about them in a dazed manner, but the menservants down in the courtyard were directing them and they passed on towards the great hall.
'The castle will not hold everyone from the town!' Blanche exclaimed, and the man beside her chuckled.
'Have you not seen the preparations being made at the church?' he asked, and Blanche glanced where he pointed. A procession of men wound across the square outside the West Door, carrying sacks and baskets and bales of hay. The big main door was already barricaded, and they entered through a tiny side door, many of them having to put down their burdens and push them through before they could themselves enter, so small was the opening.
The man saw her puzzled look. 'The men will barricade themselves in the church after the women are all safe in the castle,' he explained.
'What good will that do, when Duncan has the town?' she asked gloomily.
'Time, for he will cease attacking us while he and his troops settle themselves in the town and bring up their cannon.'
'The better to be able to bombard the castle into submission,' she said bitterly.
'Lord Alexander will have a plan,' he replied, with such sublime confidence she stared at him in astonishment.
'Why should you think that?' she demanded.
The man shrugged. 'I was with him in the wars, and he always did find a way out,' he said simply. 'I confess I cannot imagine what he has in mind now, but be certain he has a plan. He will parley with the Campbell just long enough for all to be made ready inside the town, and then we shall see!'
Blanche looked back towards Alexander on the wall. His stance told her he was perfectly at ease, despite the difficulty of having to shout to make Duncan hear him. She noticed as she watched that several times men crept up to him, hidden by the outer parapet, and appeared to deliver messages. He never looked down at them, or back towards the town, but Blanche knew he was fully aware of the progress being made there.
'They're nearly all inside the castle now,' the man commented. 'It will be almighty crowded tonight!'
Suddenly aware of the practical difficulties of housing these hundreds of people, Blanche realised she ought to be helping, and with a last look round at the activity in and about the town, she turned to leave the tower and went to help organise the feeding of the townswomen and their children.
*
Chapter 9
Blanche knew no more of what was happening outside in the town for several hours, for she was busy helping to organise women and their children, feeding them, and then settling them in makeshift beds in the great hall and many of the other rooms of the castle.
The private apartments were almost the only rooms not to have several families billeted in them. When there seemed no more to be done, Blanche retired to her mother's room to find a small table set for three beside the fire.
'Lord Alexander sent a message asking if he might sup with us,' Lady Emrey explained.
'What has he arranged with Duncan?' Blanche asked quickly. 'Why did he give up the town?'
'That you must ask him yourself. I know nought apart from what the servants have been telling me all day. Those poor women! Tomorrow I must try and walk with a stick, to see what I can do to help.'
'You are not able to yet,' Blanche protested, but weakly, for she knew her mother too well. If there were unfortunates needing her help, she would do her utmost to provide it.
At that moment Alexander came in. He had found time, Blanche noted with a scornful look, to bathe and change into fresh clothes. He looked immaculate, all traces of the smoke and dirt of battle had been removed. She was honest enough to be ashamed of her thoughts as she watched him bow over her mother's hand and enquire how she did, realising that if he had presented himself to her mother in any other condition she would have been even more disapproving.
He explained he had negotiated with Duncan that the besiegers should be allowed to occupy the town on condition they harmed no one. Duncan had agreed to allow the townsmen to barricade themselves in the church, and the castle servants to retreat to the castle before he entered the town.
'But why give him that much?' Blanche demanded. 'He will not abide by those terms for long!'
'I am aware of that. Black Duncan is confident we cannot hold out for much longer, so much so he agreed to hand over his hostages too.'
'The little girls?' Blanche asked quickly, a friendlier note in her voice.
'Yes,' he said briefly. 'We brought them up to the castle and the townswomen are mothering them. They were not harmed apart from fright. Of course Duncan only let them go because he was able to placate his men with promises of greater sport soon, but as the families of the children will not know the girls are safe, they will not dare to send messages to Fiona.'
'But how long can we hold out with them so close?' Blanche demanded. 'Surely our chances are less now than they were, and we cannot send a message either!'
'Yes, there is a way, and we can hold out for long enough,' he said confidently.
The food arrived then, and he refused to say anything more, pleading laughingly that he was ravenous, but promising to explain after they had eaten. Blanche waited impatiently for the last of the dishes to be cleared away, and then Alexander sat relaxing before the fire.
'What do you plan?' Blanche asked, when he did not appear to be willing to talk.
'I am going myself,' he answered quietly.
Blanche felt a stab of apprehension, which she dismissed as astonishment.
'You would dare, after what they did to those others?' she asked breathlessly.
'I never ask any under my command to do what I would not dare myself,' he replied gently.
She blushed, mortified. 'No, of course! I did not mean that, precisely. I meant, was there any chance, any hope of escaping them? Surely now they are in the town they will be more difficult to evade? And will you not be needed here, to be in charge? What if he attacks the castle?'
'I do not think he will attempt that, for a day or so, and I have a very able lieutenant, a man who has fought with me and Montrose, who can safely take my place for one day. That is all I need to bring John and the rest of the men back.'
'But why must you go?'
'I am the only one who knows the way, and so I must.'
'What way? Wha
t do you mean? How do you propose to go?'
'Beneath the castle there are many old caves and passages, built, some would have it, more than a thousand years ago. Has Fiona not shown them to you?'
'Yes, some, but she said she did not like being down there, and that they went for miles and were all the same, so we did not go far.'
'They do go on for a long way, but they are not all the same. They are not all natural caves. One of the passages leads beneath the town wall and further along the shores of the loch, emerging in a cave in the bank. I can get out that way.'
'Why did you not use the passage before?' Blanche queried, puzzled.
He looked at her and smiled. 'Until Duncan moved into the town, some of his men sat right above the cave where the passage ends. In fact, I would not have been surprised if they did not sleep in it.'
'Might they not have found the passage?'
'No, it is well hidden from inside the cave. I could have held the town walls for longer, but he would have gained them in the end, and with unnecessary bloodshed. I had this in mind when I bargained to permit him to enter the town, hoping there will be less killing and pillage. It enables me to take the message to John earlier, and when we return Duncan will be caught at a disadvantage within the town, between two forces.'
'But why must you go yourself?' Blanche asked. 'Why not show one of the men the way out of the castle, and let him go on from there?'
He shook his head. 'It is a secret that must not be revealed to any man outside the family. I swore to my uncle, when he first showed me the way, I would never betray it. It is not that we fear the disloyalty of our Macdonalds, but a weak man might be tortured into betraying us.' Suddenly he grinned. 'My uncle said nought of telling a woman. But that brings me to another favour I must beg. Lady Emrey, your son and I have not been on good terms of late, and we parted while he was most suspicious of me and my intentions. If I did show another man the passage, and sent a message the town is taken, I fear he would not believe me, or think I have betrayed Fiona in order to gain control over her. He may well refuse to make her stay behind, fearing a trick, and I cannot allow her to ride into a battle.'
He paused a moment, then turned to look at Blanche. 'Would you dare to accompany me, to assure your brother it is no deception, and all is as I say?'
Blanche stared at him, nonplussed, then swiftly nodded her head.
'When do we start?' was all she said, and he smiled in approval.
'Later tonight. Lady Emrey, have I your permission? I swear Blanche will come to no harm. We will be well away from the castle before dawn, and I know where we can find horses to take us to Fiona. It is a few hours only and John can return here by mid-afternoon. Blanche can remain with Fiona at Uncle Colin's until all is resolved.'
'I trust you with her. How long will it take you to get out of the castle?'
'Normally an hour. That was the time it took when my uncle first showed me the secret way. But occasionally there are fresh falls of rock, only small ones, and I may have to clear them. I want to allow three hours to get out of the castle and away from it before dawn. Blanche, if you are certain you must sleep for a few hours now, and I will come for you when it is time.'
Despite her excitement Blanche did fall asleep, to be roused by her mother in the middle of the night. She donned dark, warm clothing, and was waiting when a soft tap came on the door and Alexander slipped into the room. He smiled approvingly to see her prepared, and with a few brief words of reassurance to Lady Emrey, led Blanche from the room.
*
The passages of the castle were lit at intervals with flares, and men patrolled.
They exhibited no surprise or curiosity as Alexander led her past them, but she blushed furiously when he bent down to whisper in her ear that they probably credited him with an amorous adventure with one of the girls from the town.
' 'Tis well for your reputation your hood hides your face,' he said, laughter in his voice.
'I suppose your reputation is so bad that you need not conceal yours!' she snapped, thankful her hood also hid from him her blushes.
'Oh, past redemption,' he murmured, and she determined to ignore him.
They were going downwards into a part of the castle Blanche had only once before visited. As they came to the end of a short passageway, Alexander picked up two candles lying on a small shelf cut in the rock of the wall, and lit them from a nearby flare. Then he opened a small door that led to another narrow stairway, curving as it followed the outer wall of the castle keep. He handed one of the candles to Blanche, and led her downwards again.
Now they were in a rabbit warren of storerooms and the way seemed endless as they passed through rooms hacked out of the rock upon which the castle was built, and down still more steps. At what seemed to be the bottom, when Blanche thought they must be well below the surface level of the loch, they came on a series of connecting cellars with no stores apart from a few forgotten barrels or a pile of ancient logs.
In one of these Alexander crossed to a barrel standing by itself in one corner, and setting down his candle rolled the heavy barrel aside. He bent down and Blanche saw a trapdoor similar to the one which had enabled her and Fiona to escape from the ruined tower. Alexander heaved on the ring and pulled up the trapdoor.
'There is a short drop, no steps or ladder,' he informed Blanche. 'I will go first, then you must sit on the edge and when I tell you, jump. I will catch you.'
Without waiting for a reply he swung himself down, hanging for a moment by his hands before dropping into the void below. Blanche suppressed a gasp, but almost immediately his voice came floating up to her, echoing oddly as it reverberated along the passage below the trap.
'Pass me the candles,' he said, and she leant over the hole to peer down at him. His outstretched hand was only half a yard below her, and by lying on the floor she was able to give him the candles which he set on a flat rock behind him.
Taking a deep breath, Blanche sat on the edge of the hole, and when Alexander gave the order, she shut her eyes and pushed herself away from the side and jumped, to feel his arms about her almost immediately. She stretched her toes out to feel the floor, but he did not set her down immediately, and, startled, she opened her eyes to find herself held with her face on a level with his, his laughing eyes close to hers.
'It is unwise to leap with your eyes shut, for you may not see where you land,' he murmured, and then, before she could answer, set her down and turned away so abruptly she almost overbalanced, and had to put out her hand to the wall to steady herself.
Her heart was beating so loudly she was afraid he might hear it. It was not because of his nearness, and the fact he had held her in his arms for longer than was strictly necessary, she angrily told herself, but due entirely to the fright he had given her, and the excitement of this midnight adventure.
They were in a passageway carved roughly from the rock. Alexander led the way along it. Several times they passed side openings, but he never hesitated. Sometimes the roof was so low that they had to bend almost double. The rock walls were damp, glistening with the moisture that in places ran down in tiny rivulets, but the floor was even and when they came to steps these were cut shallowly and were wide and easy. Blanche exclaimed in amazement when they suddenly came out into a huge cavern, the roof high above them so that the puny lights from their candles showed only a part of the walls disappearing into the darkness.
'This is as large as the castle great hall,' Alexander told her. 'We need to follow this wall to the left.'
'It is magnificent,' Blanche said in awe.
'Aye. There are legends in the district about a hidden cave where witches meet. I've no doubt it's a memory of this cave, passed on through many generations who have had no notion it exists beneath the castle! Some day I will bring you back to see it properly, but there is no time to pause now.'
Some day. For the first time in weeks, it seemed, Blanche remembered the young man who would soon come from England to claim her as his
bride. She was never likely to be down in these caves again, she thought, with a strange pang of dismay mingled with loneliness.
They entered another passageway, narrower than the others, and it also began to slope downwards quite steeply. Alexander took Blanche's hand in his and guided her over the more treacherous, sloping, wet floor, and she was glad of his support when they came to some steep, broken steps. Once she slipped, and his arm was immediately about her, steadying her, and her heart beat fast again, while her legs trembled, in fright, she told herself.
At the bottom of these steps they found a pile of rubble, rock which had fallen from the roof and was completely blocking the way.
'It is loose stuff, I can soon move it,' he said reassuringly, and began to pull aside the larger pieces of rock. Blanche set her candle down beside his and joined him, heaving at the jutting pieces of rock. He did not comment except to smile at her, and they worked side by side for about half an hour before they had cleared a space sufficiently large to crawl through.
After that the going was easier.
'We are almost down at the level of the loch. It is not far now to the cave.'
In a while Alexander stopped. 'The passage twists in a yard or so, and this cave is just round the corner. The entrance to the tunnel is high in the wall, out of sight and hidden by a ledge,' he whispered, close to Blanche's ear.
Holding Blanche's hand firmly and comfortingly, led her forward slowly but confidently. She felt the side of the passage with her other hand, and found herself being drawn round a sharp bend.
Alexander's breath fanned her cheek.
'We must crawl the last yard,' he whispered softly. 'We can't carry the lit candles, Give me yours and I can stow it in a pocket. The opening is narrow and not high. Take care.'
Highland Destiny Page 12