Blue Bonnets

by Marie Laval

  Chapter Five

  Rose pressed her nose against the grimy window pane. She had heard people in the clearing. Two men stood in front of the cottage, wrapped up against the cold, with hats covering their hair, scarves hiding their face from the gusts of freezing wind, and bundles tied to their back. Behind them a one-horse cart creaked to a stop. A woman climbed down and gestured towards the empty houses.

  Since her cloak was still damp from the various outings she’d made during the day to fetch water and check on Shadow, Rose grabbed McGunn’s black coat and slipped it on. It was far too big, of course, but at least it was warm.

  ‘Hello,’ she called, as she opened the door, shouting over the howling blizzard.

  The woman let out a piercing shriek and hid behind one of the men who held out his stick and pointed it to Rose’s chest.

  ‘Put your stick down, Garbhan. Can’t you see it’s only a wee woman?’ The other man said.

  ‘Aye, I can see that now.’ The man called Garbhan dropped his stick to the ground and pulled the scarf down from his face.

  ‘Sorry about that, lass. I didn’t mean to scare you but you startled me. I thought Sith Coille had been cleared by Morven and his gang last summer. I’m Garbhan McKenzie by the way, and this is my father, Angus,’ he added, pointing to the old man.

  The woman who had screamed peeked timidly from behind him.

  ‘Here’s my wife, Alana,’ he carried on. ‘And back there in the cart, there’s my mother and…’

  ‘Dad!’ Two small girls and a tall, lanky lad jumped down from the cart and ran towards them.

  ‘These three rascals are our children, Ross, Lorna and Ina.’

  The McKenzie family stood facing her, with an expectant look in their eyes. Rose cleared her throat and took a deep breath.

  ‘I am Rose,’ she started, unsure of how to introduce herself. The last thing she wanted was to tell the family she was Lady McRae. God knows what they would make of her presence here alone with Lord McGunn and what awful rumours they might spread…

  ‘Where are you travelling to in this dreadful weather?’ she asked.

  The friendly smile on Garbhan McKenzie’s face was replaced by a glum expression.

  ‘Inverness probably, or anywhere where we can find work and a place to live.’

  Behind him, Alana let out a sob and buried her face in her hands.

  ‘Don’t start crying again, woman.’ He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. ‘What’s done is done, and crying won’t bring our house back now that Morven’s thrown us out.’

  Rose’s heart tightened. Like so many other families in Westmore, the McKenzies had been evicted by Cameron’s factor.

  Garbhan gestured to the cottages.

  ‘We heard that Sith Coille was abandoned and decided to stop here a day or two to sit the storm out and avoid the gangs of bully-boys roaming the roads. Drunken thugs, all employed by Morven.’

  ‘I’ll kill Morven and McRae one day for what they’ve done to us,’ the boy growled, pulling himself up tall. ‘When I’m big and all grown up, I swear I will.’

  ‘Watch your tongue, Ross lad,’ his father scolded sharply.

  Shocked by the steely hatred in the boy’s eyes and the determination in his voice, Rose stepped forward.

  ‘Your father is right, young man, but don’t you worry, Morven will get his comeuppance. I will tell Lord McRae about him and he’ll make sure he’s punished for what he’s done.’

  The boy narrowed his eyes, doubtful. ‘Why should McRae listen to you, even if he cared?’

  Her mind was made up. She would tell them her name, right this instant, and give them the assurance that they would soon get justice.

  ‘Morven’s days are numbered, I promise you. And I can assure you that Lord McRae does care and that he’ll listen to what I have to say because, you see, I am his…’

  ‘What are you doing out there in the cold, graidheag?’ McGunn’s voice interrupted, gruff and loud.

  She swung round.

  He stood in the doorway of the cottage. With his shirt hanging loose, his face pale and half hidden by his dark beard and framed by his long hair, he looked like he’d just got out of bed – which of course, he had. What did he think he was doing, calling her sweetheart in front of these people?

  ‘It’s freezing out there,’ he added. ‘Come back inside and keep my bed warm.’

  What? Rose’s heart stopped. Had he gone completely mad? There was no way she could tell the McKenzies she was Lady McRae now.

  ‘Who’s that?’ Garbhan McKenzie frowned and pushed his children behind him.

  ‘He is… he is…’ Rose swallowed hard, unable to think of what to say next.

  ‘I’m Bruce McGunn. Rose and I are… ahem… good friends – very good friends, in fact – aren’t we, sweetie?’ He winked at her.

  Shock and fury rendered her speechless.

  Angus McKenzie opened his eyes wide.

  ‘You’re Lord McGunn, from Wrath,’ he said in a slightly trembling voice. ‘We won’t impose on you and your young lady, my lord. We’ll leave straight away.’

  Garbhan nodded and gathered his children in front of him and pushed them towards the cart.

  ‘Don’t be daft,’ McGunn replied sharply. ‘You can’t travel in this storm, not with little ones. There are plenty of empty houses here for you to stop by tonight, but first…’

  He flashed Rose another smile. ‘My sweet Rose has a lovely fire going in our little cottage, so why don’t you all come in and get warm? I’m sure she’ll make us some tea too.’

  His sweet Rose? How dare he? She would show him exactly how sweet she was feeling right now and what he could do with his tea!

  ‘Then we accept, with heartfelt thanks.’ The old man was unable to hide his relief. ‘Come on, son, let’s take care of the horse and unload a few supplies for tonight.’

  ‘Will you give us a moment?’ Rose asked the women in a clipped voice before stomping up to the cottage, with McGunn’s coat flapping around her.

  She followed him inside and slammed the door behind her. Melting snowflakes rolled down her wind-whipped cheeks, and droplets of water trickled down her neck. Her hair had worked its way out of the plait and hung, wild and tangled, around her face. In the giant coat, its sleeves well past the tips of her fingers, she probably looked half-crazed, and completely ridiculous.

  She was far too angry to care.

  ‘The fever must have addled your already weakened brain!’ she started. ‘How dare you let these people think we are… we are…’

  ‘Lovers?’ he suggested, arching one eyebrow. ‘It’s for the best, believe me. I heard what they said about being displaced by Morven and his gang. You don’t really want them to find out you’re married to McRae – the man who caused them to lose everything, do you?’

  ‘For the hundredth time, these evictions have nothing to do with Cameron,’ she hissed. ‘They are all down to his factor.’

  ‘You are the most mulish woman I ever met.’ He crossed his arms on his chest. ‘How long are you going to hide from the truth?’

  ‘I am mulish? Well, you are pig-headed, or bear-headed, take your pick of whichever animal has the thicker skull and the smaller brain.’

  His lips stretched into a slow smile. He was making fun of her. Again.

  ‘What, you’re not calling me monkey names today? I rather like it when you say I’m a macaque or a baboon.’

  She clenched her fists so hard her fingernails dug into the palms of her hands. If only she could punch him! But the sleeves of his coat were so stiff she couldn’t even bend her elbows.

  Still smiling, he took a few steps towards her.

  ‘What are you smirking at?’ she hissed, stepping back until her bottom hit the table, with a bump. ‘You don’t care one jot if you just ruined my reputation, if people believe I’m your fancy woman.’

  ‘Shh, graidheag, be quiet and trust me for once.’

  He lifted his hand and pressed a finger to
her lips. She shivered at the contact, no doubt because all she wanted right now was to bite him! His finger lingered on her mouth. She held her breath, parted her lips.

  ‘Can we come in?’ a timid voice asked as the door opened. ‘I hope you’re not upset because of us.’

  Alana McKenzie and her mother-in-law walked in, followed by the children. The women looked at her and Lord McGunn in turns, their expression full of curiosity.

  ‘Of course not. Please sit down near the fire. You must be frozen after travelling in the storm.’ McGunn gestured towards the table and turned to Rose. ‘My sweet, will you make tea for our guests while I go out to help the men? I’ll need my coat…’

  Seething with rage, she pressed her lips in a hard line, unfastened the coat and handed it to him.

  ‘Thank you, graidheag.’ He caught her hand and lifted it slowly to his lips, holding her gaze all the time as if daring her to pull out of his grip.

  She could hardly slap him now, not with the two McKenzie women and the children staring, so she forced a smile as he brushed the back of her hand with his mouth. It was only a light caress but once again the contact sent shivers along her arms and back, all the way down to her bottom of her spine. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and leant towards him, almost craving more of his heat, his strength, his touch.

  What was wrong with her? Her eyes flicked open, she snatched her hand away and took a step back.

  A smile twitching at the corner of his mouth, he slipped his coat on, dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out something blue she didn’t immediately recognise.

  ‘By the way, I believe this belongs to you. I found it in the mail coach.’

  It was her old bonnet – the one she thought she’d lost. He had found it and brought it back to her! She mumbled a thank you and snatched it from him.

  ‘I think you should hurry before it gets dark and there’s nothing left for you to do, my graidheag,’ she said, mimicking his earlier term of endearment.

  He arched his eyebrows but didn’t reply. As soon as he closed the door behind him, the McKenzie children burst out laughing. Even the two women chuckled. She turned to look at them in surprise.

  ‘What is it? Why are you laughing at me?’

  ‘It’s obvious you’re not from round here, miss,’ the elder girl replied, her eyes sparkling. ‘You shouldn’t have called him graidheag. That’s what boys call girls. You should call him graidhean.’

  Annoyed and still disoriented by her body’s strange reaction to McGunn’s kiss, Rose clutched her bonnet against her chest and pursed her lips.

  ‘Well, I don’t speak Gaelic, and right now, I can think of a few words I’d rather call him other than graidhean!’

  McGorilla, for one, she thought, proceeding proceeded to list more names in her head as she added wood on the grate, hooked the cooking pot full of water above the fire and placed tumblers on the table.

  Alana McKenzie sat down and looked around the cottage.

  ‘We used to have a croft house very much like this one back in our village. Now we have nothing.’ Her eyes filled with tears, her voice shook.

  Her mother-in-law squeezed her hand. ‘We still have one another, which is more than some folks can say.’

  Remembering the two women who were burned alive in front of her very eyes the day before, Rose’s resolve to see Morven punished hardened. The heartless man would pay for what he was doing to Cameron’s people, she’d make sure of it. For now, she would brew some tea and offer the McKenzies a little comfort.

  She opened a jar of preserve, took biscuits out of McGunn’s bag and turned to the children. ‘Now, I was wondering if you three were hungry.’

  They clapped and cheered and wasted no time in grabbing hold of a handful of biscuits and covering them with a thick layer of jam.

  ‘Fancy meeting Lord McGunn here!’ The older woman remarked in a quiet voice as she sipped her hot tea. ‘We heard so much about him. Garbhan’s younger cousin was in his regiment in the Punjab, you know, and he swore Lieutenant McGunn, as he was then known, was the bravest and the most fearless man he’d ever met. No doubt you know what they used to call him.’

  ‘The claymore devil?’ Rose poured a cup for herself and sat down.

  ‘That’s right. My nephew never got over the way he was discharged for dishonourable conduct. He said it was shameful the way the other officers made a scapegoat of him, and that he took the blame for one who had deserted the field.’

  Rose frowned in surprise and leant across the table.

  ‘An officer deserted the battlefield?’ McGunn hadn’t said anything about that.

  Alana nodded. ‘Captain Frazier, he was called. He ordered his unit off the battlefield instead of charging to the aid of Lieutenant McGunn, but as he was the son of a general and had important connections he got off lightly. It was claimed he suffered from heat-stroke and didn’t know what he was doing.’ She paused and sipped her tea. ‘A friend of mine, a lass from the village, is a laundry maid at the big house. She said that the same Captain Frazier is a guest of Lord McRae’s at Westmore Manor right now, along with a very smart crowd.’

  ‘They must be here for Cameron’s ball – I mean, for Lord McRae‘s birthday…’ Rose sighed. ‘Do you often see him…Lord McRae? I believe he takes great interest in his estate and his people.’

  The women looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.

  ‘Lord McRae? He’s hardly ever at Westmore,’ Alana replied. ‘And when he is, he has better things to do than trouble himself with the likes of us. Of course now he’s getting married to a grand lady from London, he’ll be up there even less. I heard the woman hates Scotland and only agreed to come because of his Lordship’s birthday ball and the reading of the banns in church.’

  ‘What grand lady? What wedding?’ Rose’s hand started to shake and a little tea spilled onto the table.

  ‘His Lordship is getting married next week. The banns were read at church on Sunday… Lady Sophia Fairbanks, she’s called. Apparently, everyone at the manor house is afraid of her. She has terrible tantrums and thinks nothing of slapping her maids and throwing her fancy silver hairbrushes or silk slippers at them when the mood takes her.’

  Rose tried to breathe, but her chest felt too tight and the room danced and spun around her as she rose to her feet.

  Alana frowned. ‘Are you not feeling well, Miss Rose? You look pale all of a sudden.’

  Rose’s cup shattered on the table and scalding hot tea splashed all over her dress, soaking the fabric. Her knees buckled under her and her fingers gripped the edge of the table for support.

  ‘Miss Rose, what’s wrong? Are you ill?’ Alana’s voice seemed far away.

  ‘Of course, she’s ill. Look at her!’ The older woman scolded. ‘Help me get her onto that bed over there.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Rose said. ‘Why are you saying that he’s marrying some lady from London…’ Panic made her heart drum in her chest, fast, too fast. ‘You must be mistaken. He can’t marry anybody. He just can’t.’

  The two McKenzie women stared at her in astonishment. The children glanced up from their jam and biscuits.

  ‘But he is, the banns were read in church, I told you. You need to get out of that wet dress, lassie.’ The old woman’s tone brooked no contradiction. ‘Have you any spare clothing?’

  Rose shook her head. ‘Only a nightdress and …’ She was about to mention her pantaloons, shirt and bolero when the woman interrupted her.

  ‘Then you shall wear your nightdress and wrap that nice thick plaid around you.’ She pointed to Lord Hunter’s blanket which he had left in a heap on the bed.

  ‘No, I don’t think…’

  ‘You’d be wasting your breath arguing, Miss Rose,’ Alana interrupted. ‘My mother-in-law always gets her way. Besides, you will only catch a cold if you stay in your wet dress. Look, you’re shaking already.’

  Rose was too shocked to explain that it wasn’t her wet dress that was making her shake
, but what the elder McKenzie woman had just said.

  Alana bent down to pick up Rose’s bag. ‘Come on, let’s get you undressed. We’ll talk later.’

  Garbhan and Angus McKenzie chose one of the larger cottages for their family, and Bruce helped them unload supplies and blankets from their cart. Together they gathered wood, made a fire and tidied the place up. Like the other abandoned houses, it contained a few pieces of furniture, crockery and cooking pots, even bedding. It was as if its former occupants had left to run an errand and would return at any moment.

  Bruce brought in a last pile of wood and stacked it near the fireplace to dry.

  ‘I hope you don’t mind me asking but I’m rather curious about your young lady.’ Garbhan tipped the straw mattress off the bed to shake off the dust. ‘She’s a pretty lass but she doesn’t sound like she’s from round here.’

  ‘No indeed,’ Bruce replied. ‘Rose is from Algeria, in North Africa.’

  Garbhan let out a low whistle. ‘Algeria? Now that’s a coincidence. Lord McRae brought back some fancy women dancers and musicians from that very same country two weeks ago.’

  He put the mattress back and stroked his chin, thoughtful. ‘What’s your young lady doing here?’

  ‘Her ship was caught in a storm and had to stop in the Kyle of Wrath for repairs.’ The MacKenzies didn’t need to know any more.

  Garbhan’s father carried on pulling blankets from a one of the bags he’d unloaded and piling them up on the bed.

  ‘I heard there were some funny goings-on in the hunting lodge with those dancers,’ he said after a moment. ‘Mind you, it’s the same every time McRae is up at Westmore. The man is a rotten apple. He’s nothing like his father. Now, he was a decent sort, Niall McRae…’

  ‘No McRae is ever decent,’ Bruce said between clenched teeth. As far as he was concerned, McRaes were, and had always been, devious, lying cheats and murderers.

  ‘No, he was a good man, really,’ the old man insisted. ‘He would never have gone along with the clearances. He wanted to improve the land and life of his cottars and crofters. I remember he even wanted to put an end to the feud with your family. He visited your grandfather often. There were even rumours of…’