As Clova gave a cry of horror seeing him lying there spread-eagled, his hands flung out in front of him, a huge wave breaking over the rock that he had fallen onto swept him into the sea.
For a moment she could see his head emerging above the foam. Then the wave receded and there was no further sight of him.
Tarquil did not speak, neither did the stalker, but they started to row quickly and expertly away from the breaking waves.
They headed South under the shelter of the land until Clova saw ahead of them the mouth of the river that ran through the Strath.
Just before reaching it they were for a short time in the open sea without the protection of the cliffs and she was aware a storm was rising and the wind coming from the North was very strong.
Every moment the sea was growing more and more turbulent, but they managed to reach safely the small harbour, which contained several fishing boats, but showed no other sign of human habitation.
Angus pulled the boat alongside an iron ladder that led from the water level to the quay above it.
He held the boat steady as Tarquil helped Clova onto the ladder and then followed her himself.
When he reached the top, he looked back but did not speak and just waved his hand in a gesture of salute to the stalker who replied similarly.
Tarquil hurried Clova along the quay until at the end of it they reached a shed where she saw that there was a horse stabled.
They entered it and now in the darkness and out of sight of anybody who might have seen them in the moonlight Tarquil put his arms around her.
“You are safe, my precious! He can never threaten you again.”
She was trembling as she hid her face against his shoulder.
“Is Cousin Euan – dead?” she murmured.
“He would have been unconscious when he hit the rock,” Tarquil related. “The sea will have carried him away and nothing is likely to be heard of him again for weeks, perhaps months, until he is washed up on some distant shore.”
Clova gave a deep sigh and he added,
“It’s all over and now I am going to take you home.”
He did not wait for her reply, but picked her up in his arms, put her on the horse’s back and then mounted behind her.
They both had to bend their heads as they rode out of the shed.
Tarquil moved quickly and carefully, keeping out of sight of the scattered crofts, which were all shrouded in darkness.
Then they rode beside the river towards Strathblane Castle.
Because she could hardly believe that what had happened was true, Clova closed her eyes and, with her cheek against the soft tweed of Tarquil’s coat, felt that it must have been a nightmare.
Now she was safe, she was in his arms and she could feel his heart beating against hers.
He rode in silence, intent she knew on getting her back as quickly as possible to The Castle.
She so wished that instead she was going with him to his own home and need not leave him.
‘How could any man be – so wonderful?’ she asked herself.
She recognised that no other man could have saved her in such a hazardous and daring manner.
Cousin Euan was dead and, although she thought that it was wrong to be glad that anybody had died, yet, because he was no longer there to menace her or anybody else, it seemed sensible to know that the world would be a cleaner place because he was not in it.
But for the moment she could think of nothing but Tarquil.
All too quickly she realised that he had drawn his horse to a standstill, having brought her through the protecting fir trees until she was within a very short distance of The Castle.
She opened her eyes and looked up at him.
Although the moonlight had waned a little, he could see the expression of love in her eyes and the trembling of her lips.
She felt his arms tighten as he said,
“You are safe, my darling, that is all that matters.”
“I prayed and prayed to – you,” Clova told him, “but I did not think it – possible that – anybody could – save me.”
“He did not hurt you or touch you?”
There was a sharp note in his voice that told her how much it mattered and she quickly replied,
“He – he was intending to keep me there – until tomorrow – so that everybody would believe that I had gone – with him willingly and that we were immediately to be ‘Married by Consent’ – so that there could then be – no chance of my escaping.”
“I thought he might do something like this,” Tarquil said angrily.
“H-how did you know? How – were you – aware?”
“My men were watching from the moors and from here in the trees,” Tarquil answered. “I myself was only a short distance from The Castle when you were driven away by Euan’s gang of young criminals.”
“They told me,” Clova murmured, “that there was an old – woman who – wanted to see me – before she died.”
“They reckoned you would not refuse that,” Tarquil said and for a moment his lips rested on her forehead.
“Suppose you had not – come when you – did? He would have – forced me to – marry him.”
“If that had happened, I would have killed him with my bare hands!” Tarquil said. “But Angus has made sure that if his body is ever found, there will be no marks on it except for those he sustained from the rocks that he fell on.”
“Then – I really am – free!”
“God heard your prayer,” Tarquil answered. “Now, my little love, you must go back to The Castle and, if anybody sees you, make up some excuse for being out late. You know nothing, nothing of what has happened tonight and the fact that your cousin has disappeared will not, I think, perturb anyone.”
His voice sharpened as he added,
“If people are curious, they will doubtless believe that he has gone off to find more exotic entertainment than is available in the Highlands.”
As Tarquil finished speaking, he swung himself down from the saddle and then lifted Clova to the ground beside him.
Because she could not help herself, she clung to him longing to tell him that she wanted to stay with him but knowing that she had to obey his instructions.
He put his arm around her and then in a voice that was deep and hoarse he said,
“You are so beautiful, so absurdly ridiculously beautiful, that I find it difficult to believe that you are real.”
She felt her heart turn over at the depth of emotion behind his words and lifted her lips up to his.
He kissed her passionately, but at the same time she thought that there was a kind of reverence in his kiss, as if he found her very precious.
Then, as everything was forgotten in a sensation of ecstasy that was part of the moonlight, the stars and the scent of the fir trees, Tarquil released her.
He turned her round gently so that she faced The Castle and said unsteadily,
“Go while I can let you. And God go with you.”
He gave her shoulders a little push as he spoke and she moved away from him longing to turn round and run back, but knowing that he would expect her to obey him.
It took her only a few minutes to reach the front door.
She did not have to knock as she guessed that Andrew, the young footman, who was rather stupid, would when she did not return just go back to bed and leave the door open for her.
She hurried up the stairs.
When she reached the top, she took off her evening slippers so that she made no sound as she walked down the carpeted corridor past the General and her Cousin Mary’s bedroom.
She knew if she rang for Jeanne she might think it strange for her to have been gone for so long.
However, when she opened her bedroom door, she saw in the light of the candles that were still burning on her dressing table and by her bed that Jeanne was lying back in an armchair beside the fireplace, fast asleep.
On tiptoe Clova walked across the room, blew out all the candl
es except one and then undressing quickly she climbed into bed.
Only when her head was on the pillow in the darkness was she aware of how desperately tired she was.
She did not want to think of what had occurred or her fear and horror at what Euan had said to her in such uncompromised terms.
She wanted to feel that Tarquil’s arms were still around her and she was safe, safe because he had saved her and because he loved her.
‘I love you! I love you!” she whispered into the darkness.
Then waves of exhaustion seemed to sweep over her and she knew no more –
*
Clova awoke and realised that the sun was shining into her bedroom through the sides of the curtains and she was alone.
Jeanne must have crept out without disturbing her and she saw that her clothes were no longer where she had thrown them down when she undressed but had been taken away.
She did not ring the bell, but lay for a long time thinking back over what had happened last night and finding it so extraordinary that it was hard to believe that it had all actually occurred.
She could still feel the horror of that dreadful drive with her face covered with the plaid and the disgust and revulsion she had felt when Euan told her what he intended to do.
She could also remember her utter despair when she had felt that there could be no escape from him.
Then Tarquil had come to her like a Knight of old saving a Princess from the ogre’s Castle or from the fiery dragon.
He had carried her away, not on a white charger, but in his arms!
It was impossible not to feel a shiver go through her as she remembered the agony of their descent down from the wall of Mallic Castle.
Then down the cliffs to where the little boat was waiting for them.
‘How could any man be so brave and so clever?’ she asked herself.
Then, as if by a miracle, Euan had died when Angus the stalker had severed the rope that he too was using to pursue them by what Clova knew were two brilliant shots.
Euan was dead, her Clan was free of him and of his nefarious activities and so was she.
‘I am free! I am free,’ she wanted to cry out. ‘Free to love Tarquil and free to help my people and Scotland as I so wish to do.”
Because she could no longer lie thinking about it, but felt that she must start at once, she rang the bell for Jeanne, who came hurrying into her bedroom.
“How could I have done anythin’ so awful, my Lady, as to fall asleep while I was a-waitin’ for you?” she asked. “Why did you no wake me?”
“You were tired and so was I,” Clova smiled, “so I slipped into bed and I never heard you leave the room.”
“’Twas kind of you and it’s now nearly eleven o’clock, my Lady. I let you sleep after goin’ so late to bed. Lady Mary has a headache and’ll no wish to be disturbed and Sir Robert’s gone fishin’.”
“Then there is no need for me to hurry,” Clova sighed, “and I would like a bath.”
It was nearly luncheontime when she left her bedroom and she wondered if Tarquil would come to see her before or after luncheon.
But there was no sign of him when it was announced that the meal was ready and she ate alone waited on by Dougall and a young footman.
She felt rather small and insignificant in the huge Baronial Dining Room with the life-sized portrait of her grandfather staring at her from the other side of the room.
‘What I need is a – husband,’ she thought and felt herself blush at the idea.
The sun was shining and after luncheon she would have liked to go for a walk in the garden and feel the warmth of it on her skin.
The wind that had blown furiously at dawn had now subsided to a soft breeze, but she dared not leave The Castle in case Tarquil came and she missed him.
When at last he was announced, she was looking out of the window in the Chieftain’s Room and she could not suppress a little cry of delight as he walked towards her.
She thought that she had never seen anyone look more handsome or more distinguished.
She realised that she was seeing him for the first time dressed as a Chieftain and not in the ordinary tweed jacket that he had worn on other occasions.
Now there was something quite formal about him and she thought too that his voice was somehow different as he asked,
“You are rested?”
“I slept late – and now I have been – waiting for you.”
“I have called, as you asked me to do.”
She felt that there was something strange in the way he spoke.
She looked at him a little puzzled as he stood at her side, the sunshine from the window illuminating his face and turning her hair into a halo of gold.
She waited, a question in her eyes, and after a moment Tarquil said, still in that strange voice she did not recognise,
“I want to talk to you, Clova.”
She longed to reply that the one thing she wanted him to do was to kiss her.
Instead she sat down on one of the red velvet window seats and made a little gesture with her hand for him to join her.
He did so, turning sideways as she had done, so that in the carved seat they faced each other.
“Was everything all right when you returned?” he enquired.
“No one knew when I came back,” Clova replied quickly, feeling that this was somehow unimportant. “The front door was open and Jeanne, my maid, was asleep in a chair in my bedroom and I did not wake her.”
Tarquil nodded as if to show his approval.
Then to Clova’s surprise he looked away from her out through the window at the well-kept garden with its colourful flowers and beyond it to where the green fields stretched out along the Strath and down to the river.
She felt that he was comparing it with his own land and asked him swiftly,
“Tarquil, what is – wrong?”
“There is nothing wrong,” he replied, “now that you are safe and you can no longer be menaced by your dreadful cousin.”
She did not speak and after a moment he went on,
“He has been the disturbing influence that has resulted in the continuing bitterness and feuding between our Clans. Now we can live in peace and I am sure that under your guidance the McBlanes will prosper.”
Clova looked at him, puzzled by the way he was speaking and the fact that he was not looking at her.
She felt suddenly as if he had withdrawn a long distance from her.
While her whole being was vibrating towards him and yearning for him, he seemed to be unaware of it.
“You know without my saying it,” Tarquil continued, “that I am at your service to help you in any way I can, but I think you will find that the McBlanes who live on the estate, and perhaps also those who have moved away, will be ready and willing to assist you, should you invite them to do so.”
Clova felt as if an icy hand was clutching at her heart and, because she was frightened she asked impulsively as a child might have done,
“Why are you – talking to me – like this? What have I – done? Why do you – no longer – love me?”
The words seemed to burst from her lips and, as Tarquil turned to look at her, he saw that there was a stricken expression in her eyes and she was trembling.
He put out his hands towards her, but at once, as if deliberately controlling himself, he rose and walked away from the window.
Clova watched him, feeling as if, when she had least expected it, the ceiling had crashed down on her head and the whole Castle lay in ruins at her feet.
Tarquil was standing in front of the huge fireplace where the whole trunk of a tree could be burnt.
He looked up to where over it there was a portrait of Clova’s great-grandfather looking very impressive in a bonnet decorated with blackcock feathers on the side of his head.
He stared at it and then he said,
“You must understand my position. Surely there is no need for me to put it into words?”
“
I don’t – know what you are – saying to me,” Clova said. “Last night – ”
“Last night was exceptional and something we both have to forget,” Tarquil interposed.
“Why? Why should I forget that you saved me when I was in utter despair – and that you – told me you loved – me?”
Her voice dropped as she said the last words and yet he heard them.
“It was difficult to be sane and sensible in the circumstances we found ourselves in.”
There was silence and then Clova asked in a broken little voice,
“Are you – saying that you – you have changed your mind – and you no longer – love me?”
It was the cry of a frightened child who found herself alone in the dark and Tarquil clenched his fists before he replied,
“Of course not! I love you as I have never loved anyone in the whole of my life. But I have some pride left and some sense of decency and you must be aware that I have nothing to offer you.”
Clova gave a little cry.
“Are you – thinking of my – money?” she asked him.
Now her voice had changed and she jumped up from where she was sitting and ran towards him.
She stood in front of him so that he was forced to look at her as she persisted,
“Do you – love me? Do you really – love me as you said you – did last night?”
“I love you,” Tarquil replied harshly, “but for God’s sake don’t make it harder for me than it is already.”
“But I love you – Tarquil! I love – you with my – whole heart.”
He drew in his breath and she saw the pain in his eyes as he said,
“Will you try to understand that I am impoverished to the point where it is only by going without every luxury, at times even without proper food, that I can pay those who work for me.”
There was a note of despair in his voice as he went on,
“However hard I try I seem to sink deeper and deeper into debt and if it was not for the fact that my people depend on me for their very existence, I would go to Edinburgh or Glasgow and find some lucrative work to do.”
Clova did not speak and he looked away from her as he went on,
“What you have to do is to forget me. You will find, because you are so attractive, that men will come flocking to meet you. And since you can afford to entertain, you are sure to meet somebody sooner or later who will look after you and protect you as I am unable to do.”
Love Joins the Clans Page 12