“Otherwise they will guess we have only just met, and not known each other, as we pretended we had, for many years.”
Sheinna laughed.
“I wish I had known you for many years. It would have been such fun to have met you in London.”
Before the Duke could reply she went on,
“But I am sure you would have been far too busy to talk to me, because I was only a silly little debutante. My grandmother told me over and over again that the most intelligent gentlemen consider debutantes a bore.”
The Duke laughed.
“That is true, but I would never have said you were a bore. In fact you have not bored me once since I have known you.”
“But you can hardly say it’s a very long time,” she replied in a whisper.
“Some people I meet over and over again, yet I feel I never know any more about them than I did the first day I said, ‘how do you do’. But others, like you, I feel I have known for ever and I am aware not only of what they are saying but what they are thinking.”
Sheinna clapped her hands together.
“Oh, I am so glad you think like that. I have often felt like that myself and I know it’s because in some cases we have met in other lives.”
“Are you telling me,” the Duke asked slowly, “that you believe in the Wheel of Rebirth?”
“Of course I do,” she replied. “I could not have read all those books about the East without knowing that their philosophy is the only sensible reason for the world to exist.”
She saw that the Duke was listening intently and went on,
“How could anyone with brilliant brains like Lord Melbourne and the Duke of Wellington just disappear and be forgotten except in print? Of course either they will live again in the Third Dimension or are advanced enough to go on to the Fourth.”
The Duke looked at her in amazement and sat down again at the breakfast table.
“I am fascinated by what you are saying, Sheinna. It is what I learnt in the East and had never thought of it before. I have never found anyone who is as interested in the subject as I am.”
“I feel the same. It is very exciting now to know that you and I are thinking on the same wavelength. You can help me puzzle out esoteric issues I don’t understand.”
“We can certainly try. When we are on my yacht this afternoon, we will not be disturbed, so we can really get down to brass tacks.”
Sheinna laughed.
“That is hardly the right word for it, but I do know exactly what you mean and it will be very stimulating for me.”
“And for me too,” the Duke concurred.
He rose and walked towards the door.
“When I have finished my letters – and the bills – I will come and join you.”
“You will find me in the garden as I have already told you, Alpin.”
He smiled as he left the breakfast room, closing the door quietly behind him.
As she finished her coffee Sheinna thought this was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.
She had longed for someone to explain what was referred to in every book she had read about the East, but the young men whom she had danced with and talked to in London had either not travelled much or were uninterested.
Here, where she had least expected it, was someone who had really explored strange and unusual places and at the same time had been interested in the lives and religions of those who lived in them.
When she left the breakfast room, she did not go upstairs to put on her hat.
The sun was surely not too hot to burn her face and because she had lived so long in towns she liked the feeling of freedom and vitality in the Scottish air.
As she walked down the stone steps, she thought that the garden with its beautiful flowers and the butterflies and bees fluttering around them was something one could never find in a town.
There was nowhere more attractive than Scotland.
*
The Duke went to his study where there was a pile of letters left by his secretary, all requiring answers.
And there was a large bundle of bills to which were attached cheques.
He looked first at the letters, finding among them several from the ladies in London he had spent a great deal of his time with – they were all married and many of them boasted distinguished titles.
The letters they wrote to him were naturally very confidential and they had therefore not been opened by his secretary.
He had instructed them to print the word ‘private’ on the envelope of any letter they wrote to him and then no one but he would open it.
However, he was in a hurry this morning.
He wanted to be with Sheinna, so he just pushed the letters marked ‘private’ on one side and opened only the others.
Some of them were from hostesses whose parties he had enjoyed and several were from his friends who had missed him in White’s Club.
He noted as he read them that they hoped later on in the Season they would be invited to the Castle to shoot or fish.
He answered three letters and was just about to start signing the cheques when Rory came hurrying in.
“The Earl of MacFallin has just arrived to see you, Your Grace,” he announced.
The Duke drew in his breath.
“The Earl?”
“Yes, Your Grace, and he’s brought a number of his elders with him. I understand there be other members of the Clan outside as well.”
The Duke was silent.
He was thinking that he had not anticipated this eventuality, although it was not altogether surprising.
“Where have you put his Lordship?” he asked.
“As there be that many of them, Your Grace, I have showed them into the Chieftain’s Room and the footmen be arranging chairs for them.”
The Duke rose from his writing desk.
“You said, Rory, that there were others of the Clan outside. I hope they are not here to make trouble.”
“I hopes not, Your Grace, but I’ve sent one of the footmen to tell our own lads to be on guard.”
The Duke smiled.
It was so like Rory to think that necessary.
Equally he had no wish for the Castle windows to be broken or a vulgar riot in his own grounds.
It would be a mistake, he felt, to disturb Sheinna by telling her that her father was here.
Instead he walked slowly towards the Chieftain’s Room.
It had been a place of immense pleasure last night for the dancing and he thought it was typical that today it could well turn into more or less a Clan battleground.
He entered the room unattended.
He was aware as he did so that the Earl, looking extremely aggressive, was standing at the far end.
There were at least twenty elders seated behind him and about the same number of other members of the Clan standing.
As the Duke walked with dignity towards the Earl, he thought he looked very much older than he remembered him – but exceedingly disagreeable.
As he reached him neither of them made any effort to shake hands.
The Duke said quietly before the Earl could speak,
“Good morning, MacFallin. I understand that you wish to see me.”
“Of course I want to see you,” the Earl roared. “It has been rumoured, although I can hardly believe it is true, that you have had the audacity to announce that you intend to marry my daughter.”
“Your daughter has paid me the great honour of promising to be my wife,” the Duke replied seriously.
For a brief moment there was silence and then there came an audible murmur from the elders.
“She will marry you over my dead body!” the Earl shouted furiously. “Just how dare you get to know my daughter, as I imagine you did in London, and ask her to marry you when you have consistently abused and insulted the MacFallins ever since you were born!”
“As you know,” the Duke responded to this rant, “the hostility between our two Clans has lasted for at
least four hundred years. I think it is high time we woke up to modern ideas and modern thinking and behaved sensibly.”
“Are you saying I am not sensible?” the Earl asked, screaming the words at him.
“On the contrary, I feel sure you will be sensible enough to realise that in this century and in this time in our history we should all unite. If we must fight, let’s fight for Scotland and not amongst ourselves!”
He sensed as he spoke the words there was almost a murmur of approval from the elders.
But the Earl flashed back,
“That may well be your idea, but it is certainly not mine.”
“I don’t see why not,” the Duke persisted.
“As you might be well aware,” the Earl yelled, “the MacFallins have fought for our country against the English and distinguished themselves at the Battle of Culloden, which is more than the cowardly McBarens did.”
The Duke wanted to contradict him, but thought it would be unwise at this stage.
Instead he replied quietly,
“I was actually, my Lord, intending to call on you this afternoon to inform you of my engagement to your daughter, and to discuss how we can together contrive to make this part of Scotland much more prosperous than it is at present.”
“Do you really think that I would listen to you?” the Earl howled furiously. “I hate and despise you, as all my life I have always hated the McBarens. I would rather see my daughter in the grave than married to you or any of your dissolute kin.”
Because he was so violent there was a muttering of protest from the elders behind him and those standing in the hall looked at each other with some concern.
“What I am suggesting,” said the Duke, “is that we sit down comfortably and talk over how we can help unite our Clans, as your daughter and I intend to do by being married.”
The Earl’s face went red with fury.
“If you think I would ever allow you to marry my daughter, then you are very much mistaken. She is already pledged to marry a friend of mine and I will take care that the marriage takes place as quickly as possible!”
He was shouting out the words wildly and his men looked at him in surprise.
“If you are thinking of marrying Sheinna off to Sir Ewen Kiscard, you must be mad,” the Duke said sharply. “He is quite old enough to be her grandfather and has a reputation which stinks. No good father would entrust his young daughter to such a man. I can only beg you to see sense and if she cannot marry me at least she need not be sacrificed to your own perverse aggrandisement.”
“How dare you speak to me in such a manner?” the Earl shouted. “Sheinna is my daughter and she will do as she is told. I have chosen a husband for her and they will be married as soon as I get them in front of the Minister.”
He paused for breath before raging on,
“You keep your Clan and your own friends, most of whom I understand come from England, and leave us Scots to live our lives as we want!”
“I really think, my Lord, you are being somewhat unreasonable. Surely your daughter’s wishes with regard to a husband are more important than anything else.”
There were further mutterings from the elders as the Duke continued,
“No girl of her age would wish to be married to a man of seventy, who has dragged his name and his title through the gutter in a dozen different ways.”
“As I have told you already,” the Earl screamed, “Sheinna will marry whoever I shall wish her to marry. Sir Ewen is already distressed, as he told me this morning, to hear that she is contemplating marrying someone like you.”
Before the Duke could reply, he continued,
“You spend your time and your money in England instead of spending it here. You have allowed the poachers on your rivers to steal the salmon which should be coming up to mine. And from all I hear, this Castle, of which you are so proud, is falling down round your ears. I will make certain than no MacFallin helps you to put it to rights.”
He was speaking so ferociously that he was almost foaming at the mouth.
The Duke was wondering what he could now say to calm him down.
Suddenly the door opened and Rory came running in and because he was moving so fast, the Duke turned to look at him in astonishment.
Everyone fell silent.
“Your Grace,” Rory blurted out, “her Ladyship’s been taken away.”
“Taken away!” the Duke exclaimed. “What do you mean, Rory?”
“Some men,” he gasped, “led by Sir Ewen Kiscard, carried her away out of the garden. Although her Ladyship were a-struggling, they puts her in a carriage with him and they drive off.”
“I cannot believe it!”
“It be true, Your Grace, and them as seen her go says she was crying out for Your Grace.”
The Duke turned to the Earl.
“Is this your doing?” he demanded sternly.
“No! No! I intend to take Sheinna home with me,” the Earl replied weakly.
“Then why has Sir Ewen kidnapped her?” the Duke asked angrily. “There seems to be no other word for it.”
“I really have no idea,” the Earl stuttered. “But I expect he was determined she should not marry you and has therefore carried her away to make quite certain that she marries him.”
“I have never heard of anything so outrageous,” the Duke snorted. “I suggest that you and I follow them at once and prevent Sir Ewen from terrifying Sheinna, let alone marrying her. It is utterly monstrous that he should have abducted her out of my garden.”
There was a murmur from the elders and the other Clansmen as if they agreed with him.
The Duke said quickly,
“There is no time to be lost. Come along, my Lord, we will follow them and if your horses are fast, we will overtake them. As you well know, your daughter will be exceedingly frightened by now and I am horrified that Sir Ewen should behave in such a criminal manner.”
He was walking to the door as he spoke.
As if he could not bring himself to reply, the Earl followed him meekly and so did the Clansmen, while the elders began to rise from their chairs.
Without speaking, the Duke, with Rory leading the way, ran from the Chieftain’s Room into the hall.
Directly outside the door was the carriage that had brought the Earl to the Castle and behind it were a number of other carriages and wagons that had conveyed the other members of the Clan.
Standing by the Duke’s own carriage were two of his men who had seen Sheinna carried away.
“She was pickin’ some flowers, Your Grace,” one of them said, “when two men seized her up in their arms and runs off with her out of the garden and up them steps to where Sir Ewen were a-waitin’.”
“Was there no one to stop them?” the Duke asked.
“We be at the other end of the garden, Your Grace, when we hears a scream and runs to help her, but we was too late. We sees Sir Ewen in the carriage as they flings her beside him. Then they slams the door and drives off.”
“How many men were with him?”
“Only four, Your Grace, and the man drivin’ the carriage.”
“Which way did they go?”
“We expected them to go left, but I sees them after they went through the gates, passin’ down the cliff road towards the village.”
The Duke knew that at the village the river ran into the sea and there was a small harbour in which there were usually a number of small fishing boats.
If Sir Ewen had gone there, he might be intending to take Sheinna away by sea and it would be very difficult to find her again.
Turning to Rory he ordered,
“Follow me with my carriage and as many of our men as you can muster.”
He then climbed into the Earl’s carriage, which was in front of all the others, and snapped,
“Move as quickly as you can. We have to reach the village before Sir Ewen does.”
There were two horses drawing the carriage, which was certainly not as comfortable as his own nor
were the horses as fast.
The Duke’s only hope as they moved up the drive was that perhaps Sir Ewen’s horses were rough – not in any way as well bred as those he owned or the Earl’s.
The Duke became aware that two of his men had jumped up at the back of the carriage and there were two on the box beside the driver.
As he looked back he could see the other carriages which had brought the MacFallin elders and the Clansmen to the Castle were now following them.
They turned right after passing through the gates.
There was a straight road running along the side of the river and it was, as the Duke knew, about two miles to the village.
The Earl was muttering to himself, but he did not say anything aloud.
The Duke guessed he was exceedingly annoyed at his friend Sir Ewen for interfering in his business.
They drove in silence, the driver doing his best to move his horses as quickly as he could.
But there was no sign anywhere of Sir Ewen on the road ahead.
Then a little further on, the moors rose on the left hand side of the road and on the right were fields in which lambs were grazing between the road and the river.
They were more than a mile from the village when the Duke gave a loud exclamation.
Even as he did so the men sitting on the box of the carriage pointed with their hands.
There was a piece of waste land on their left and it was rough moorland the Duke knew only too well.
When the Vikings raided Scotland, they found this particular part of the country was low-lying and easy to invade, so the villagers and Clansmen at that time had built a hiding place for themselves.
They had dug into the hillside and at the end of quite a long tunnel they had excavated a large cave. In it they could hide themselves, their children and even a good number of their animals.
When there were no longer any Viking invasions, the children in the village found it an amusing place to play in, and of course, there were sightseers too.
Later a Duke learnt it was in a dangerous condition and it was reported to His Grace that because the soil there was sandy the roof of the cave was already collapsing.
And it was only a question of time before the tunnel which led to it would also fall in.
In which case anyone inside might be buried alive and the then Duke therefore had the entrance boarded up.
Love and the Clans Page 11