169. A Cheiftain finds Love (The Eternal Collection)

by Barbara Cartland

  She thought that by this time the servants would have retired to bed and she was not mistaken.

  When she reached the hall, there was not even a night- footman in attendance.

  Very quietly she unbolted and unlocked the front door and stepped out.

  It was easy to see her way by the light of the moon.

  She knew, even though it would be a long walk home, that she would not find it difficult to make her way over the moors and it would at least be quicker than if she had been driving.

  To reach the moors, however, she had to go through the garden and across the stream from the cascade.

  There was, she knew, a small bridge built a little way from it.

  As she moved over the smooth lawns and passed the flowerbeds, she kept wherever possible in the shadow of the trees for the moonlight was very bright.

  It had taken her some time to change her clothes and write the letter and she was therefore not surprised to find that all the lights had now been extinguished in the garden.

  Looking back she saw the lights in the windows of The Castle were also going out one by one.

  She thought perhaps that the Duke would be surprised in the morning when he found that she had left.

  Then she told herself that he was so sceptical that he would not worry in the least that she had felt too slighted by what he had said to stay any longer under his roof.

  ‘I hate him!’ she told herself. ‘Papa and Mama were quite right and I should not have come in the first place. If those men kill him, it is only what he deserves.’

  It was then as she moved towards the bridge, which she could cross the stream by that she heard voices and stopped.

  There was a large fir tree just on her right and, because she had no wish to be seen or questioned, she slipped under its branches.

  She stood with her back against the trunk, knowing that she would not be noticed by anybody looking casually at the tree.

  It was unlikely that at this time of the night anybody would be curious enough to look too closely.

  The voices came nearer, but they were low.

  Suddenly Isa was alerted for quite distinctly she heard the Englishman whom she had heard in the cave say,

  “You are quite certain, Rory, that you have searched everywhere indicated?”

  “Aye sir, and t’was easy tonight with so many people aboot, and no one curious as to what I were a-doin’.”

  “You found nothing?”

  “Nae, sir.”

  There was silence, then the Scotsman, and there was no doubt that it was the same man she had heard before, said,

  “We are not likely to get another chance as good as this. But the map definitely indicates that the treasure should be about this distance from the old Castle.”

  “There is always the chance, I suppose,” the Englishman said, “that it was uncovered when The Castle was rebuilt and the gardens created.”

  “My dear fellow,” the Scotsman replied, “if a treasure of that magnitude and antiquity had been found, the very stones of Scotland would have talked about it! Nothing so important as that could be kept a secret for long.”

  “Assuming you are right,” the Englishman said, “what do you suggest we do now, Rory?”

  “I dinna ken, there’s nae much we can do,” Rory replied. “But I’ll take another look around, if it pleases you, sir.”

  “Of course you have to do that,” the Englishman replied sharply. “Tell him, McNaver, whether we are here or not, he will have to keep his eyes open.”

  “I was thinking,” the Scotsman replied, “that The Castle was extended so tremendously and the gardens have taken up so much acreage that was not used before, that perhaps we are looking too far afield.”

  “We have been through all this before,” the Englishman said with a note of impatience in his voice. “We have allowed for the new building, the gardens which then, as now, were bounded by this stream. We could, of course, look nearer to the cascade.”

  “That is going to be difficult as it is covered by the rock garden,” the Scotsman replied.

  “I know, I know,” the Englishman agreed in an irritable tone, “but we can hardly give up now.”

  “No, no, of course not!” the Scotsman agreed. “Let me remind you that, as Rory and I are McNavers, we fight to the end. That is what our family motto has told us to do!”

  There was a contemptuous note in his voice, but the Englishman merely laughed.

  “Very well, go on fighting!” he said. “You and I know it is damned well worth the trouble.”

  “Of course!” the Scotsman said. “Now, Rory, what do you suggest we do?’

  “I’ll have another look round tomorrow, sir,” Rory replied. “They’ll want all the help they can get in cleanin’ up the garden, and the house as well for that matter! Mabbe I’ll have another idea then.”

  “When you have, let me know,” the Scotsman said, “but be careful, for God’s sake be careful, and keep your mouth shut!”

  “I am sure he will,” the Englishman interposed. “There will be a large sum of money waiting for him if he finds what we seek. Now I, for one, am going off to bed, Talbot, and you had better do the same.”

  “I suppose it’s a waste of time to do anything else,” the Scotsman said grudgingly.

  They murmured something that Isa could not hear and then she was aware that they were all three crossing the bridge as she had intended to do and walking away.

  She wanted to follow them, but was afraid that if she moved from the tree they would see her in the moonlight.

  Only when they had disappeared in the distance did she very cautiously come out from below the boughs.

  Nervously, she moved down some steps, which led her to the bridge that crossed the stream.

  As she reached it, she looked back to where the cascade was roaring down behind the Water Garden.

  Only then did she realise that, despite the Duke’s sneers, she now had something to tell him.

  Not only that the men had been searching during the ball for the treasure but also she had one important clue, the Scotsman’s name was ‘Talbot’.

  There would, of course, be many Scots of the same name in the vicinity, but not so many who were well educated and spoke with only a faint accent.

  She stood beside the bridge, which was made only of a few planks crossing the stream without a railing to hold on to.

  Suddenly she decided that she was making a mistake.

  Why should she run away? And if she did do so, would it not in the Duke’s eyes prove her guilty of what he had accused her?

  Her chin came up and her pride returned to sweep away the humiliation that she had been feeling because he had spoken to her so scathingly.

  She would prove him wrong if it was the last thing she did!

  She turned round and carefully retraced her steps. When she reached The Castle door she was afraid that somebody might have discovered that she had opened it and would have locked and bolted it again.

  To her great relief, however, it was exactly as she had left it and she entered the hall.

  As she walked up the stairs, moving quietly over the carpet, she reached the first floor and saw that the door was open into the drawing room where the Duke had received his dinner guests.

  Without really meaning to, she looked inside.

  Almost as if her thoughts had conjured him up, he was there, standing looking at her, the lights not extinguished but lowered, so that he was silhouetted against them.

  His face was therefore in shadow, but what light there was showed hers very clearly.

  For a moment they both stared at each other.

  Then the Duke in the same contemptuous voice that he had used before said,

  “Have you been looking personally for this strange elusive treasure, Miss McNaver? Or have you had a much more agreeable assignation in the garden?”

  Chapter Four

  Isa stiffened, then her temper rose and she replied,

 
“On the contrary. Your Grace, I have just found out something of importance that I think you should know. But if you are not interested, I can, of course, leave The Castle now, as I had intended to do.”

  She had no idea as she spoke that her eyes seemed to flash fire! And the light from the drawing room turned her hair to small leaping flames.

  With a twist of his lips that made her even angrier than she was already, the Duke said,

  “Perhaps you should come into the drawing room, Miss McNaver, where we can speak without being overheard.”

  He intended to make it a reproof.

  But Isa walked ahead of him into the room holding her head high and feeling her anger rising like a flood tide within her.

  Two lamps by the fireside lit the portrait of the Duke’s grandfather over the mantelpiece and Isa looked up at it remembering that his blood flowed in her veins.

  Although his grandson might be a Chieftain, she was a McNaver and afraid of nothing, not even of him!

  The Duke closed the door behind him and walked towards her.

  “Well, Miss McNaver,” he asked, “what have you to tell me?”

  “I was in two minds whether to go home as I had intended to do – ”

  “You were going home?” the Duke interrupted in surprise.

  “Did you expect me to do anything else after you had been so insulting?”

  “You intended to walk back to your parents?”

  “As you see I am well equipped to do so,” Isa said. “But then, when I was in your garden I changed my mind.”

  “Why?”

  The monosyllable was sharp.

  And she answered in an equally aggressive voice,

  “Because I overheard some new evidence that I thought Your Grace should know.”

  “New evidence?”

  Deliberately, hoping that it would annoy him, Isa sat down in one of the straight-backed chairs and forced herself to appear at her ease.

  She had the feeling that the Duke was interrogating her as if she was a raw recruit or perhaps a Clansman whom he overawed.

  She was determined not to be subservient to him and she said slowly,

  “I was wondering whether to ignore what I had overheard and go home as I had intended. Then I remembered that it was not only Your Grace’s life which was at stake but the honour of the Clan.”

  She did not look at the Duke as she spoke.

  She reckoned that he would be twisting his lips in a way that had told her before that he did not believe her.

  She was certain too that he would be looking contemptuous.

  Suddenly she wished that she had not returned to The Castle.

  The Duke could think what he liked and, if his treasure was snatched from him, he and those like him would realise how foolish they had been.

  In fact perhaps, as the Scotsman had said in the cave, he would already have been disposed of.

  “You speak of the honour of the Clan,” the Duke said quietly, “and that, as you are well aware, is more important than either of us.”

  She glanced at him as if surprised that he could read her thoughts and then looked away again.

  “I am waiting,” he said after a pause while she felt for words.

  “Very well, I will tell you what happened,” Isa said. “I decided after your insults that I would return home and send for my luggage in the morning.”

  “I am sorry, Miss McNaver, and I am prepared to apologise, but you did not tell me you were an actress.”

  “I am not an actress!” Isa parried sharply. “I am a singer and the only stage I perform on is a Concert platform.”

  She felt that he was looking at her with even more contempt than he had before and she continued,

  “I am not making any excuses, but when it was discovered that I had an unusual soprano voice, I felt that it was a way to help my father and mother who were extremely poor and in consequence were ignored by the Chieftain of our Clan, even though my father commanded a Battalion of the Black Watch.”

  “I can understand how it has hurt them,” the Duke said quietly, “and it is certainly something that I will rectify.”

  Isa was too annoyed to be pleased by his promise and she merely went on,

  “I accepted your invitation to the ball not, as you insinuated, to impose myself on you, but because I genuinely believed that you should know what was happening.”

  “I have already apologised,” the Duke replied, “but, when Lord Lovat remembered that he had seen you in London, it came as a complete surprise.”

  Isa did not speak and he carried on,

  “I understand that you did not use your real name.”

  “My father would not allow me to,” Isa answered, “so when I sing it is as ‘Isa of the Isles’.”

  The Duke nodded as if he understood and she then said,

  “But this, Your Grace, is no concern of yours. What is important is that, when I was leaving a short while ago, I overheard in the garden the three men I had listened to in the cave. They have been searching the gardens where they think that the treasure is hidden.”

  “In the gardens?” the Duke exclaimed. “That seems very unlikely.”

  “As I told you before, they have a map of some sort. It must have been drawn when the old Castle was in existence and this present building is very much larger.”

  “What did they say?” the Duke asked.

  “Rory said that, because there were so many people about, he had been able to search without arousing suspicion, but he had found nothing. But I did learn while they were talking the name of the Scotsman.”

  “That is interesting,” the Duke commented. “What is it?”

  “Talbot McNaver.”

  The Duke stiffened and now he stared at Isa as if he could not have heard her aright.

  “You are quite certain?” he asked.

  “Absolutely,” Isa replied. “The Englishman addressed him as ‘Talbo’ and the Scotsman said when there was a question of giving up, ‘let me remind you that Rory and I are McNavers. We fight to the end. That is what our family motto tells us to do’.”

  “Talbot McNaver!” the Duke exclaimed. “It is hard to believe that he would do such a thing, despicable though he is!”

  “You know him?” Isa asked.

  “Talbot McNaver is not only my cousin,” the Duke replied, “but he is also, until I have a son, my Heir Presumptive.”

  “But of course! I have heard talk of him,” Isa said, “but I thought that he lived in England and never came North.”

  “That is what I thought too,” the Duke responded, “but obviously we are both mistaken.”

  Because she was curious, Isa said in a more pleasant tone of voice than she had used until now,

  “Tell me about him.”

  The Duke, who had been standing, now sat down in a chair.

  “Talbot has been a trouble to his parents ever since he was born. He has always hated me because I was more senior in the family than he was.”

  He gave a little sigh as if he was looking back into the past before he went on,

  “He used to torture me when we were children and later did everything to discredit me first with the Clan and then in London when I went there.”

  “He sounds horrible,” Isa murmured.

  “Fortunately for me, because he has the reputation of being a rake, only a few people listened to him,” the Duke continued. “He hates Scotland and it must be ten years since he left here.”

  “Then the Englishman somehow found the map that shows the whereabouts of the treasure and brought it to him,” Isa suggested.

  “That, of course, is the reason for his return,” the Duke replied.

  “If he is your heir, then that is why he wishes to dispose of you.”

  “I did not think that he would go to such lengths as to murder me,” the Duke remarked.

  “But, as he said,” Isa pointed out, “it is easy to have an accident on the moors or to fall from one of the towers of The Castle.”


  “I refuse to be intimidated by Talbot,” the Duke stipulated firmly.

  “I don’t suppose that he would do the deed himself,” Isa pointed out. “Do you think he has any followers in the Clan?”

  The Duke made an expressive gesture with his hand.

  “There are black sheep in every community and, if Talbot is prepared to pay, there are always men like Rory, whoever he may be, ready to accept it.”

  “Then you must be very careful, Your Grace.”

  The Duke looked at her with a smile before he said,

  “I thought just now that you would be as eager to dispose of me as Talbot McNaver is!”

  “Like Your Grace, I do not accept insults easily!”

  Unexpectedly they both laughed.

  “What can I say to you?” the Duke asked. “How is it possible that you can look like you do and apparently, according to Lord Lovat sing like an angel, and yet be prepared to save my life?”

  He looked at her for a moment before he added,

  “And perhaps find the treasure that has evaded us for so long.”

  “It would be very disappointing,” Isa said in a low voice, “if it did not exist as it is something I have believed in ever since I can remember, ”

  “And you have searched for it?”

  “I told myself stories that I had discovered it in the back of one of the caves or found a trap door under the heather that led me down a long and twisting passage to where it lay at the bottom of it.”

  The Duke laughed.

  “I believe I told myself much the same stories and I remember searching The Castle with my friend Harry just in case there was a secret entrance that had been overlooked.”

  “The story goes,” Isa stated, “that the Chieftain and the Elders were coming back to The Castle when they were shot down by Viking bowmen.”

  “Which suggests, of course,” the Duke said, “that the treasure was hidden on the moors. Well, we have also looked for it there.”

  He spoke with a note of amusement in his voice, but Isa said seriously,

  “On the map which your cousin has given to Rory, it indicated that the treasure was even nearer than where they were looking in the garden.”