Hamish Fraser called out peevishly to know what was happening. Donnie grimaced and he suddenly looked very tired. ‘He’d be a lot easier to get along with if he didn’t moan all the time. I told him so once, and he sulked for a week.’
At that moment a figure appeared in the doorway of the Fraser cot. It was Seonaid – but a very different Seonaid from the girl who had married Donnie only a few months before. Her hair had not been washed during the long winter months and it straggled about a face totally devoid of any colour. She wore only a cotton nightdress, or it might have been a slip. The garment was stretched so tight about her distended stomach it had split apart at the seams.
Seonaid had not yet seen them and she called out: ‘Where’s Donnie, Pa? Where’s he gone? Call him and tell him I need him. I want some water….’
Mairi became suddenly brisk. ‘Stewart, go and help Donnie with the peat. Wyatt, can you get a fire going? Leave Seonaid to me. When I’ve tended to her I’ll start something cooking.’
Less than an hour later strips of salt beef were sizzling in a skillet, bannocks were heating on an iron girdle over the fire, and Seonaid was sitting up on her dry-heather bed, her hair washed and tied in a ribbon behind her head. She looked better already.
Meanwhile, Wyatt was stacking peat turfs while Donnie and Stewart were out searching for sheep lost in the snow among the surrounding crags.
Hamish Fraser sat in a corner of the cot saying little and doing nothing. He resented the intrusion into the privacy of his home, especially by the two extra Rosses, and made no attempt to hide his resentment.
Wyatt attempted to draw the blind man into conversation on a number of occasions, but eventually gave up. He felt he could be of more use to the small family group by helping with the chores.
In spite of his hatred of the Ross family, Hamish Fraser ate every scrap of the meal cooked by Mairi. However, when Donnie and Stewart came inside the cot laughing and joking together he suddenly snapped: ‘I don’t know what you two have to be so cheerful about.’
‘Come now, Mr Fraser, you’ve every reason to be cheerful, too. We’ve just found all except one of your sheep; you’ve peat here at the house, a fire going, and good food in your belly. What more could you want? Something to drink, perhaps?’ Stewart fished inside his shirt. ‘Here, I’ve brought Pa’s flask with me. It’s full of good whisky.’
‘I’ll not drink Ross whisky. It’s galling enough to have to eat your food. As for reason to be cheerful … there’s a lot of winter to come yet. When it’s over all we have to look forward to is a visit from the factor. The constables will be with him, too, I’ve no doubt.’
‘Why should the factor come calling on you with constables?’ Wyatt asked sharply.
‘You’d better ask Seonaid’s man. He’s the one who’s supposed to be running things now. Although how he’s going to keep a wife and child without a roof over their heads I don’t know.’
Wyatt looked to Donnie, and the young man shrugged his shoulders. ‘It’s not as bad as that. A sheriff’s man served a paper on us a day or two before the snows began. It’s nothing, really. The sheriff’s man said it’s probably no more than a means of increasing our rent, that’s all. We’ll manage.’
‘If you believe that, you’re a bigger fool than your father,’ Hamish Fraser snorted derisively.
‘What does this paper say?’ Wyatt persisted.
Again Donnie Ross shrugged. ‘I don’t know. He can’t see, and neither Seonaid nor I can read. The sheriff’s man said—’
‘Do you still have the document?’
The urgency in Wyatt’s voice finally got through to Donnie, and he looked at Seonaid.
‘It’s on the top shelf – over there.’
Donnie found the document and handed it to Wyatt. Three days without heat in the cot had made everything damp. The paper lay limp in Wyatt’s hand, but he knew what it was even before he looked at the bold heading that dominated the page:
WRIT OF REMOVAL
John Garrett representing Lord Kilmalie of Eskaig
versus
Hamish Fraser and Others
Wyatt looked up from the document in dismay. ‘This is a writ of removal. A clearance order!’
‘There!’ exclaimed Hamish Fraser. ‘What did I tell you? Didn’t I say that’s what it was? You didn’t believe me. Called me an old fool behind my back. Now who’s the fool, eh? Now who’s the fool?’
While Hamish Fraser gloated over the accuracy of his gloomy warning, Donnie looked stunned.
‘Garrett can’t do this, can he? He can’t just throw us out of the cot?’
‘The factor can do whatever he wants – when he wants to do it. The minister in his comfortable kirk in Eskaig can pray as much as he likes to God. Up here in the mountains it’s Garrett who’s our God.’
‘Blasphemy won’t help anyone,’ Wyatt snapped. ‘I’ll speak to Garrett when I return to Eskaig.’
Hamish Fraser snorted and turned his sightless eyes on Wyatt. ‘Speak to who you like, Minister; it’ll do us no good. Seonaid went to see Garrett once before when he ordered us out. She thought she’d succeeded in keeping us here. Now she knows better.’
Sitting on her bed, Seonaid’s glance was fixed upon the bulge that stretched the fabric of her nightdress.
‘Garrett wants us out, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. This is just a beginning. The Rosses will be next. Then it will be every other cottar in these mountains. Garrett wants sheep in our place. That’s what he’s always wanted. Sheep don’t answer him back, or question his way of running things. He doesn’t even have to leave his house to make money. He can just sit indoors and wait for the sheepmen to bring him their rent once a year. There was a time when a laird was proud of the number of clansmen who owed him their allegiance. Now the landowner’s ashamed of his kinsmen and never comes near them.’
‘I think I’ve heard the same sentiments from Eneas Ross,’ said Wyatt quietly. ‘You and he are not so different, Hamish.’
‘We’re both Highlanders. It’s all we have in common – that and the fact we’ll both be homeless come spring. You wait and see. Garrett has a free hand now, or so I hear. He’ll make the most of it while he can.’
After spending a couple of hours at the Fraser cot, Mairi declared they would need to leave if they were to reach the Ross croft before dark. After holding a brief prayer meeting, Wyatt went outside before the others. He was joined by a worried Donnie Ross and his brother.
‘Were all those things Seonaid’s pa said the truth? Can Garrett really turn us out with nowhere to go?’
‘I wish I could say it might be otherwise, Donnie. With the authorisation document Garrett has been given by the new Lord Kilmalie his power on the Eskaig estate is absolute.’
‘What of Seonaid and the baby? It’s due about March.’
‘I’ll do what I can, but don’t build up any hopes. Prepare what you can for a move; and, if you have nowhere else to go, come to the manse.’
‘Or come home,’ put in Donnie’s brother. ‘I think Pa’s already sorry for the quarrel between you. He wouldn’t see you with nowhere to go, not with Seonaid due to produce a baby.’
‘You’re forgetting, we’ll have Seonaid’s father with us. He and Pa have sworn they’ll never set foot in the other’s home.’
‘I’ll try to discuss the matter with your father, Donnie,’ said Wyatt. ‘He’s a good man. He’ll not see anyone wandering homeless in the mountains – not even Hamish Fraser.’
Mairi came from the house and after giving her youngest brother an affectionate embrace she, Stewart and Wyatt set off for the Ross home.
Before they passed out of sight of the cot, Wyatt looked back. Donnie stood in the doorway with an arm about Seonaid’s shoulders. Both were waving. There was no sign of Hamish Fraser.
Thirty-three
ENEAS ROSS LISTENED to news of the impending eviction of Donnie and the Frasers in a grave silence. When Mairi and Stewart had between them told their
father all they knew, he looked to Wyatt for confirmation.
‘Do you think Garrett means to do it, Preacher? Or is he just trying to bring the Fraser girl back to heel?’
‘Pa! She’s our Donnie’s wife now….’
The big red-bearded Highlander spat in the fire. ‘I’m not talking of marrying.’ He looked questioningly at Wyatt.
‘Garrett means it, I’m sure. He’ll have the constables in the mountains as soon as the snows have gone, unless I’m able to change his mind.’
‘What will our Donnie do – and the baby? It must be due soon after the factor intends putting them from their home. Eneas, what can we do?’ Magdalene Ross stood at the edge of the group about the fire in a state of deep distress.
‘We’ll do nothing. It’s not our problem.’
‘But our son’s being turned out of his home. Our boy Donnie, and his wife. Soon there will be a child, too – our grandchild.’
‘Don’t talk so foolishly, woman.’ Eneas Ross roared the words and stood up from his low stool. ‘You don’t believe the Fraser girl’s baby’s been sired by Donnie, any more than I do. If I had to put a name to its father, I’d say it was Garrett’s bastard.’
Eneas Ross spat into the fire once more. ‘A man like the factor probably wouldn’t care about turning his own child out of doors.’
‘I don’t think Garrett’s alone in that – even if it were true, Eneas. Think about it.’ Wyatt spoke quietly, almost gently, but his words went home.
‘Donnie’s no longer a child – isn’t that what you all told me when you begged me to allow him to wed the Fraser girl? I said she would turn out to be nothing but trouble. I was right. Donnie’s a married man now. He must look after his family, same as I do. Unless I’m mistaken, I’ll be hard put to take care of my own this year. Garrett was only waiting for the right opportunity to start clearances on the Eskaig estate. My son … my son handed him that opportunity. Offered it to Garrett with both hands. I’m away outside for a while.’
Wyatt would have followed Eneas Ross from the house, but Magdalene restrained him with a hand on his arm. ‘Let him go. He’ll sit on the wall in the darkness, smoking and thinking.’ Magdalene looked up at Wyatt apologetically. ‘It’s something he’s done whenever he’s had a problem since the children were small. He says he can think better when he’s by himself in the dark. He’s right. There were times when I felt my brain would burst with all the children in the house together.’ She looked about her wistfully. ‘Things haven’t changed very much, have they? They’re all still here … except for little Donnie.’
Magdalene Ross turned to her daughter. ‘Was he all right? How did he manage through the snows?’
For a few minutes it seemed Magdalene Ross might dissolve in tears. She won the struggle to regain control of her feelings, but her voice came out as no more than a hoarse whisper. ‘He’s so young to have the responsibility of a wife and baby. I wish there was something I could do to help him.’
Mairi put an arm about her mother’s shoulders. ‘He’s managing fine, Ma. Seonaid hasn’t been too well, but she’s on the mend now. Once this business with the factor is sorted out they’ll both be as happy as any couple anywhere. You’ll see.’
Magdalene Ross nodded, her head vigorously. ‘Yes. Yes, you’re right.’ She patted her daughter’s hand absentmindedly. ‘I’m his mother. I worry about him. I worry about all of you. Now, come and help me with supper. You too, Tibbie. I’ve never cooked for a minister before. It’s a good thing we have that sheep.’
Ian Ross rose from his stool by the fire and snuffed out the spluttering wick in a hanging cruise lamp that had been filled with melted mutton fat. He handed it to Tibbie to be refilled, then spoke to Wyatt. ‘You’ll enjoy a good meal tonight, Preacher. Ma’s the best cook in the mountains. Can I give you a wee dram now?’
‘Later. I’d like to go outside and talk to your father first.’
‘Do you think this trouble with our Donnie is the beginning of another clearance?’
‘I wish I knew, Ian. I hope not. I might know more when I’ve spoken to the factor.’
‘You tell him if he tries to turn the Rosses out of our home he’ll not be dealing with blind men or boys, or sick old soldiers like Lachlan Munro. We’ll fight to keep our home, just as generations of Ross men have fought to help the lords of Kilmalie keep their lands.’
‘Fighting a man who has the law on his side will gain you only sorrow, Ian. Let’s have no more talk of violence.’
Leaving Ian Ross murmuring rebellion against John Garrett and all those who stood with him, Wyatt left the cot.
It was dark outside. Clouds were beginning to build up from the north, obscuring moon and stars. Wyatt could not see Eneas Ross until the bearded patriarch’s pipe revealed his position. He was seated on the low wall that protected the croft’s vegetable garden from the stock animals.
Wyatt made his way cautiously to where the other man sat, the aroma of strong tobacco drifting to meet him. He stood in silence beside Eneas Ross for some minutes, until the cold of the night caused him to shiver.
‘Ay, it’s cold, Preacher. You’d best not waste too much time getting back to Eskaig in the morning. There’s more bad weather on the way.’
‘You can cope well enough with the weather, Eneas. I’m more concerned with what will happen up here when the spring comes.’
‘If there’s one thing that living in the Highlands has taught me, it’s to take one problem at a time. How has young Donnie survived the bad weather?’
‘He’s managed. Only just, but he and the others have come through so far.’ Wyatt thought that everyone in the Ross house, with the exception of Magdalene, would be surprised to hear Eneas Ross enquiring after the health of his youngest son.
‘Will they get through another bad spell over there?’
‘If they’re not snowed in for as long again, they’ll be all right. Stewart helped Donnie find the sheep and bring them in.’
Wyatt sensed that Eneas Ross was nodding his satisfaction. ‘Those two boys always got on well together. Donnie will make out. He’s a sensible lad. Too good for the Fraser girl.’
‘Donnie and Seonaid are fond of each other, Eneas. Your son is also very fond – and proud – of you. If you were to accept the marriage, Donnie would be the happiest young man in the mountains.’
‘I doubt if my blessing would make any difference. A curse was put upon any union of the families by a stronger man than I, almost a hundred years ago. No one’s been able to break it since.’
‘Surely you don’t believe in some obscure curse, Eneas. Superstition is something for savages without religion to believe in.’
‘This curse is more than superstition, Preacher. A Ross was left lying wounded on the field at Culloden by a Fraser who was to marry his daughter. When the English soldiers found the Ross they killed him. Before he died he put a curse on any marriage between a Ross and a Fraser. The curse worked. The dead man’s daughter married the Fraser, but on their wedding night a candle was overturned and they both burned to death.’
‘That was a hundred years ago. People don’t believe in such “curses” any more.’
‘Then, they should. Only a foolish man would go against it. Did you know Hamish Fraser’s wife, Seonaid’s mother, was a Ross?’
‘No. No, I didn’t.’ It explained a great deal of the bitterness Hamish Fraser felt for the Ross family.
‘She was a distant cousin. The daughter of my father’s cousin. Not that she’d have been any happier with Hamish had she been a Cameron, a Mackenzie, or from any other clan. The man’s a pig. If he hadn’t been blind, someone would have killed him by now. Young Donnie’s the most patient boy I’ve ever come across, but he’ll fall out with Hamish if the marriage lasts long enough.’
‘What will you do when Garrett puts them out in the spring?’
‘As I said, Preacher, I take one problem at a time. I’ll decide what to do when spring comes. I’m likely to have the same problem
myself before too long. I should have seen it coming, I suppose. It’s happened most everywhere else. It was bound to happen here, sooner or later. It shouldn’t affect you too much. Might even save you a deal of walking. You’ll still have the kirk and the folk of Eskaig to preach to.’
‘My father lies in a grave in Eskaig because of a clearance, Eneas. I can’t stand back and do nothing – although I, too, might have troubles of my own by then.’
Wyatt told his companion of the problems besetting the Church.
Eneas Ross knocked out his pipe carefully against the wall and began to refill it immediately. ‘What’s happening to this world of ours, Preacher? When I was a boy there were three things that were unchangeable: the weather, a man’s home – and the Church. We’ve just had the worst snows anyone can remember, the factor’s likely to clear us from our homes – and now the Church is tearing itself apart!’
‘What do you think you might do if Garrett forces you to leave here?’ Wyatt persisted. The Highland family’s movements were important to him.
‘Who knows? A man likes to feel he’ll be buried alongside his father one day. Mine is in the graveyard in Eskaig, too, along with the boys Magdalene and I lost.’
Eneas Ross still carried a tinder-box. Striking a flint to it now, he lit a taper and applied it to his pipe. As he sucked it into life his blue eyes were fixed on Wyatt’s face. When the tobacco was glowing and the taper extinguished he said: ‘Why are you so interested in what I’m going to be doing?’
Wyatt took a deep breath. This was a matter he had wanted to discuss with Eneas Ross since before the snows came. Now the moment was here he wished there had been time to rehearse the words he wanted to say. To express his thoughts and feelings clearly.
‘I want to marry Mairi.’
The ensuing silence lasted for so long that Wyatt wished he had brought the subject up in daylight, so he could see Eneas Ross’s reaction.
‘What does Mairi think of the idea?’ Eneas Ross spoke slowly and evenly, his voice carrying no hint of his thoughts.
‘She needs to be convinced she’ll make a good wife for a minister. Perhaps it will be easier for her if I’m ousted from Eskaig.’
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