Clandara (24 page)

“Do you like my dress, James?”

Janet closed the door and came into the middle of the room. She looked extremely handsome in a gown of pale blue velvet, the bodice and sleeves edged with silver lace, and two rows of large pearls arranged in festoons round her neck. James looked up at her and nodded.

“You look very well. Blue suits you.”

She saw to her surprise that he was not yet dressed, though she had sent one of her servants up to help him more than an hour ago. His tartan coat was still on the back of the chair and his peruke stood on its mahogany stand.

“We will be late,” she said quietly. They had not quarrelled since that day when he asked her to stay with him. And she had never once referred to it, but her heart was full of hope, and she submitted to his moods and attempts to provoke her with inhuman patience. He was a proud man, and she had seen him in a moment of weakness and seen his tears; it was not likely that he would forgive her for it for a while, until he could forgive himself.

“Shall I help you, James?” she said gently.

He shifted irritably in the chair. His wound was healed now and he was back on duty with the Prince. But the doctor warned him against over-taxing his strength. It was nearly the end of the month and the rumour was that the Prince's army would begin its march to the south very soon.

“I'm not in any mood for dancing,” he said. “Why don't you go and leave me here?”

“Oh, James.” She came towards him quickly, her disappointment showing on her face. “James, don't say that now. I've been so looking forward to it … I ordered this dress specially and you told me we could go.”

“You can go,” he pointed out. “I've no objection. You have your dress and there's no reason why you can't go to Holyrood and show yourself off if you've a mind to. But you're not showing me off. I've changed my mind. I'm not going. And you can ring for that damned fool of a servant and tell him to put those clothes away and get me out my ordinary coat and breeches.”

“Please.” She stood before him, turning her blue feather fan over and over in her hands, struggling not to cry as if she were a small child suddenly denied a treat. “Please, James. I don't want to show you off. I only want you to come with me because I won't enjoy it if you don't.”

“And I shan't enjoy it if I do!” He stood up and went to the door and opened it. “You'd better go or you'll be late. Hugh will take care of you; or David. They're both there.” He shrugged and spoke less harshly. “Besides, if I see Lord George there tonight I'll probably knock him down. I've had enough of listening to him blocking every plan that has an element of chance in it. How the hell does he expect to win, without taking a risk now and then? Oh, go on, woman, for God's sake. I'm tired and I'm no fit company for you tonight. Go to Holyrood and enjoy yourself.”

“Wouldn't you rather I stayed with you?” she asked him. “I will, if you want me to; the Ball means nothing to me without you.”

“No.” He came up to her, suddenly ashamed of himself, and angry because he was so ashamed. He owed her so much which he could never repay in the way she wanted. He could make love to her again, and he did, but that was not enough. He could not love her, and he could not pretend any longer that she did not love him. He lifted her face and looked at her. “I can't understand how such a clever woman could be such a fool,” he said. “Go on to Holyrood, and see if there isn't a man among them there who's worthy of you. And that's not a jibe, I promise you. Anyone in the world would be better for you than me.”

“I am the best judge of that.” Janet managed to smile up at him, but he saw her eyes were full of tears. “Even when you're cruel to me, I'd sooner have it than another man's kindness. Very well, I'll go. I'll be back before morning … perhaps I'll see you then?”

“Perhaps. You usually do.”

He shut the door behind her and went back into the room; he knocked against the chair and angrily kicked it over. Now that she had gone – he could hear her carriage moving away outside the front door – he was restless and half regretful. There was nothing to do in the empty house; he had no stomach for books and no wish to sleep. He could go down to the drawing-room and get drunk, but that prospect only bored him. He had not wanted to go to Holyrood with Janet, and make small talk to the men he saw every day surrounding the Prince, and answer the enquiries about his wound. He did not want to dance reels with Janet or with any of the other women who would be there, all of them with one eye on a place in the Prince's bed. How disappointed they would be to know that the Bonny Prince of their imaginings was much more interested in tactics and winning the war than he was in any woman. He had the pick, and he had taken none.

After a moment James pulled hard on the bell-rope, and Janet's servant came running upstairs to answer it. The man knocked and came in, blinking nervously. He was terrified of his mistress's lover; once or twice James had boxed his ears for some omission, and he cursed him as often as he spoke to him at all. He was a Lowland Scot, and quite unable to appreciate the regal manners of the Highland gentry to their servants. He would have despised James if shown the intimacy with which he treated Murdoch, and he hated him for the brutality which was the reverse side of that particular relationship. That was the one wish Janet had refused to grant him. She would not allow the Red Murdoch into the house to care for James. Not a girl in her service would be safe, and the men would have left her within the first day.

“My coat,” James snarled at him. “And my hat. I'm going out.”

Ten minutes later he was in the streets and walking as far away from the bright windows of the Palace as he could. It was inevitable that he should eventually turn in the direction of the city's brothels which he knew so well from his student days at the University. He had not been there for a long, long time. He had forgotten the charms displayed by an honest whore; he said that to himself and laughed aloud. In the clear air his head felt hot and heavy as if he had been drinking or the fever had returned. He had been three long weeks in that house, suffocated by its atmosphere, by the clean sheets and the excellent food and the ministrations of her doctor and her servants and herself. God damn it, he had nearly died there. And when he was better he had taken her into his bed and exhausted himself in the effort to escape his own misery and wipe out the debt he owed her. Too long with an amateur whore, skilful and patient and cursed rich … He saw a familiar doorway, half open to disclose a plump, bedraggled girl sitting on a stool with her skirts tucked up above her knees, drinking ale out of a pot and giggling to someone he could not see. He felt in his pocket for his purse; there were two guineas in it. Enough to get drunk and have half a dozen of the miserable women in the street. He pushed the door back and went in.

“Don't tell me,” Hugh Macdonald said, “that the Frasers of Clandara have changed their mind and joined their Prince.”

The old smile was on his face again, but his eyes were like steel as they looked down into Katharine's; he had recovered his composure within seconds, but when she spoke her voice trembled, and she thought suddenly that if it had been James himself she would have fainted at his feet.

“Step aside, please. I have nothing to say to you.”

Hugh went on smiling; he said softly to the startled man beside him, one of the principal tacksmen on the Dundrenan lands: “Leave us, Ian. I'll follow you later.” Then he put out his hand and caught her arm. His fingers suddenly tightened on it until she winced.

“I hope you're not going to escape so quickly,” he said. “I never expected such a pleasure … Lady Katharine, after all this time. Am I hurting you?' He looked down at her hand. “Is this the one that struck my brother in the face? I ought to break it for you. What are you doing here?”

She faced him defiantly; after the first shock, her courage had returned.

“I came to find James. I heard he was wounded. Hugh, for the love of God, tell me how he is!”

“Well!” He regarded her with the same smile, his head on one side in mock amazement. “Am I supposed to believe that you care what has happened to him? How touching! I suppose you hoped he was dead!”

“Would I be here if I did?” she demanded. “If you're not going to answer me, then let me go. If you don't, I'll scream loud enough to make you.” He did not answer her at once, and she could not see anything in the cold inscrutable face.

“We can't talk here,” he said suddenly. “I've come to know this palace well; there's a little anteroom down that passage-way at the end of some stairs. Come with me if you want to know how James is …”

Something in his eyes warned her not to go with him; something she had seen long ago at Clandara on the night of the Ball when she had surprised him watching her.

“Why can't you tell me here?” she said.

“Because my father and David will come out of the supper-room at any moment and it is as much as my life is worth to be seen talking to you. What are you afraid of – I always thought you had the spirit of a man? Or is this concern for James a lie?”

“Take me to the anteroom then.” She rubbed her wrist; it was aching and there were red marks on it.

She followed him down the narrow passage and they suddenly seemed very far from the noise and the crowds, and at the head of a steep staircase she paused. He held out his hand to her and after a moment she put hers into it. “Such trust,” he said gently. “Don't you know if I chose I could throw you down those stairs and you'd probably break your neck?”

Katharine looked at him and shrugged. She felt so shaken that he had to catch her firmly and lift her down the first few steps. “Hugh, I have a strong feeling that you are going to kill me. I had it in the corridor and I have it now. But if you will only tell me about James first, you can do what you please. I have no wish to live without him.”

He turned on the tiny landing and opened a small door set into the wall. The room was a disused guard-room; one small window showed a square of black sky with a few stars shining. It was so dark that she could hardly see the outline of his face as he came close to her.

“Firstly, I killed your miserable brother. I ran him through the back because James had lost half a dozen opportunities of killing him. I wanted you to know this first.”

“He told me; I didn't believe him.” Her voice was a whisper.

“You should have done; James is no liar. Now I promised to tell you how he is … he's safe and well, my dear Katharine. He had a nasty wound, but it's healed up and he's back with the army. And he has a very satisfactory mistress, very rich, very handsome and quite determined to marry him. Personally, I think she'll succeed; she's a woman of great character. And he's perfectly contented with her. He's quite forgotten you. Have I kept my word and told you all?”

“You have.” She closed her eyes. She felt as if she were in the middle of a nightmare.

“You made him suffer,” he whispered. “He was like a madman for a long time until I found this woman for him and she brought him back to sanity. He came back and begged you and you struck him, didn't you … and cursed him? He told me so. He told me he knelt to you …” Though she could not see him she knew there was no smile now upon his face. “You shouldn't have come here – it may be days before they find you …” When his hands came up and closed over her throat she gave a little cry and stumbled backwards. Her foot caught against a stool which had been upended in the corner and it fell with a clatter.

“Who's there? Who's on the stairs … answer or we fire!” The shout came up to them and it was followed by a beam of light that swayed with the movement of a lantern.

She saw his face for a moment and it was twisted, the mouth drawn back over his teeth, the narrow eyes glittering as if he were a demon instead of a man. She pulled back from him and opened her mouth to scream. The cry was choked back by his hand which fastened over her mouth, and then, in a horrible travesty of James, he changed his grip and seizing her in his arms, he kissed her. The touch of his mouth awoke her strength. She began to struggle fiercely, fighting the powerful arms that held her, seeking to wrench herself free from the gagging kiss. And then the beam of light became a glare that fell upon them, and suddenly he let her go, his face a mask again, the mocking smile beginning to turn the corners of his mouth, and he turned to the two members of the Prince's guard who had been patrolling the dark lower passages.

“You damned fools,” he said softly. “Can't you see you are disturbing this lady and myself?”

The men were Highlanders from the glen of the Macgregors. They stared suspiciously at this member of another clan, and then at the shadowy woman, half hidden in the little room.

“We heard a noise,” one of the men explained. “You must remember, sir, there's a price on the Prince's head and assassins creeping over from the English border. We have orders to shoot anyone caught skulking in the Palace. Ye can think yeself and the lady lucky we didna fire at ye first.”

Katharine pushed past him before he could answer them; she saw one of the younger men staring at her with contempt.

“Where are the State Apartments?”

She was trembling so violently that she could hardly speak.

“Up the stairs, lady, and back down the passage at the top.”

She did not look back at Hugh; she lifted her skirts and stumbled up the narrow stairs down which he had helped her, and finding herself in the same dim passage with the lights of the main palace corridor at the end, she began to run.

“Och, my God, my God!”

Annie knelt beside her, bandaging her bruised wrist with cold cloths soaked in vinegar. They were alone in Katharine's room at the inn where Henry had taken rooms for them, and they had sat there since dawn while he waited impatiently downstairs. She had said nothing to him of her encounter with Hugh; she had found him in the Palace, searching anxiously for her, and whispered that she felt faint and overcome and begged to be taken home. He had not questioned her; he had ordered their carriage immediately and brought her back to Annie. And now Annie knew what had happened.