FLAME ACROSS THE HIGHLANDS (22 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Inside the bailey of
Dunstaffnage Castle  it was a noisy jumble of milling men and neighing horses.  The hot, raging mid day sun reflected upon  slashing swords and  upraised shields as the men of clan Campbell engaged themselves in mock battle, a  procedure ordered by Duncan to keep them fit now that peace had been instilled.  The clan had a definite formation in war which was often practiced.  Duncan's structure of fighting included a leader for each twenty men. Leadership of the ranks was jealously guarded because if a man did not keep fit, he could lose his position. Thus Ian was determined to keep his fighting skills in shape.  Besides, it did him well to get his mind off the turmoil that raged in his heart over the matter of Brianna.

Ian easily
outmaneuvered two of the men in a furious wielding of his broadsword, leaving them winded and thoroughly shamed.  "Gregor, you move as slowly as an old mon! You need to practice your footwork.  Menor, you thrust from the right side all the time, it makes you any easy target.  Vary your aim," he chided, returning their confiscated swords, won in the skirmish.  "Practice against each other and let me see what you have accomplished at end of day."

Leaning against the stone wall of bailey
, Ian watched  the melee as he rested, but his mind was not on his fighting men. Duncan's stubbornness was troubling him.  He could not understand why his Uncle did not just send Brianna MacQuarie back to her own lands and wait in patience for the ceremony that was to come? Why was it that just the sight of the lass caused every muscle of Duncan's body  to grow rigid?  There were many questions that truly puzzled him about his uncle's behavior of late.

"Ach, standing there like the village tinker, as if ye hae nothing to do.  Shame on ye, Ian." 
Aulay approached with a grin, offering challenge, one that was quickly accepted.

"Have care!"  Ian braced himself for a combat he knew would be a hard fought one. 
Aulay might be small but he was a most worthy opponent.             

With the hilt of his sword
gripped securely in one hand, Aulay tried to get the better of  Ian, springing upwards on his short legs as he lunged. In fighting, the first attack was always the fiercest.  He found his thrust blocked.

"You will have to do better than that,
Aulay lad.  If I were a real enemy you would be in woe for it."  Ian struck out but his blow was also parried. 

The sound of sword on sword rent the air as the two friends fought a furious game  to show who was the better swordsman, a test of strength and of skill which both relished.  Like two dancers
, they moved back and forth, swaying in time to some unheard rhythm.

"
Ye are in mean spirits today." Aulay gritted his teeth as the flat of the sword rapped him on the knuckles, a playful gesture that gave him warning that Ian was tiring of the sport and sought a quick win.

"
Duncan annoys me.  I canna understand him!" With the back of his hand, Ian wiped the beads of moisture away from his brow, then within the span of the blinking of an eye, returned to the game.

"Aye ye can.  He is nearly as stubborn as ye are."

"Thrice so."

Ian was deadly with a sword
, but Aulay's  lightning-quick agility was more than his match.  At last, however, Ian knocked Aulay's sword to the ground to the  tune of the little man's grumbling.

"Och, ye had the advantage.
The sun was in my eyes."

"By my grandfather's sainted
bones it was not!  Ian ran his hand over his stubbled chin and along the firm line of his jaw, his lips between a frown and a grin. A slight breeze stirred the tuft of fur club moss stuck in his bonnet. "But if you would like to try it again......"

Aulay
threw up his hands in an exaggerated gesture of defeat. "Not I. You win! You win!"  All of a sudden he grinned impishly. "So the fair Highland flower has come to seek ye as husband. Yer pride must be nigh to bustin'.  So why yer vexation?" A devilish grin quirked Aulay's lips.

"How did ye know
? About the lassie coming to have an exchange of husbands?"  Ian's fingers clenched around his sword so tightly that they turned pale.

"It's all over the castle, from scullery to parapet.  Yer cousin Caitlin has a chattering tongue
, and she was in the great hall the day that Brianna was brought in.  She was sitting in the corner, stitching when she heard. And wasted no time in spreading the story around. Aye, dear Caitlin.  How very like her." 

Ian grimaced in disgust.  Of his three female cousins, daughters of
Duncan, he liked Caitlin the least for she was of a catty nature. "I'm sure she will expound on the truth as usual."

"She seems to hae taken a disliking to the
MacQuarie lassie that goes beyond her clansman's name.  Jealousy perhaps." Bending down, he cross-laced his cuarans which had come undone in the fracas.  His voice hushed to a whisper.  "Don't look now but Perth is staring this way, and with such an evil expression that ye had best cross yerself!"

"
Perth!"  Ian spat the name with scorn. Perth had long been his adversary, circumventing his authority at every turn.  "He is another who has aligned himself as the lassie's enemy."

"Enemy?   I hae seen him staring at her from time to time with a far different look upon his face than that of a foe, but then I hae heard that he has an eye for bonny women.  And the
MacQuarie lassie is certainly bonny. Or hae ye not noticed," he teased.

"I've noticed as well you
know.  Perth, as ugly a devil as he is, thinks there is no woman he can not try. Or then again, there could be far more to it.  A man like that one is not to be trusted.  His allegiance is only to himself."  Ian's deep scowl revealed his concern for Brianna.  As he looked  in Perth's direction  and met his gaze, they fought a  furious  visual duel, as potent as with any weapon.  "Aulay!"  Ian put an insistent hand on his little friend's shoulder.

"What is it?  I'll do anything ye ask, as ye know."

"I want you to help me keep an eye on Brianna, to keep her from that one's harm." Ian sensed danger with a warrior's instincts and was determined to avert it at all possible cost.

Shifting impatiently from one foot to the other, Brianna felt cooped up and fidgety as she gazed out the window of her chamber.  She was impatient for something to happen.  Now that she had discovered Robbie Campbell's love for someone else she felt optimistic. It seemed a good omen to her own frustrated love, a sign that somehow everything would work out just as it should.  Robbie would woo his Macdonald lassie and somehow she would find a way to marry Ian.  That thought brought forth a warm feeling that was intensified as she watched the  swordplay down below.

Unerringly Brianna's gaze sought out Ian's tall  muscular frame as he stood talking to his small friend
, and she pressed closer to the window ledge, leaning out for a better glimpse of him.  He was such a magnificent sight, bare-chested, wearing only  green and blue plaid trews.  She stared longingly at his broad shoulders, the width of his chest, the hardness of his arms, remembering the feel of his strength wrapped around her.  Her eyes slid over him, intent on the way the tight-fitting tartan trousers clung to his hips and thighs, revealing the perfection of his masculine body. 

"He is quite a magnificent animal, isn't he?"  A woman's voice startled Brianna and she turned around to see one of Duncan's daughters hovering in the doorway, the  stocky one who resembled him so thoroughly that every time Brianna looked at her she could almost imagine a thick black beard.  Caitlin was the young woman's name.

"What do ye mean?"   Brianna feigned innocence.  "I was just looking at the sky, feeling a bit lonely for my own land." Brazenly the woman entered the room, affording Brianna no retreat.

"Fie if ye w
ere!"  Caitlin forced a smile. "Ye were looking down at the splendid manly form of my cousin.  But I dunna blame ye. Ye are no' the first one who has fallen under his spell.  Nor will ye be the last."  Cold blue eyes scrutinized Brianna's apparel, for she had stubbornly changed into her own gown.  "I had best get ye something to wear. That looks no better than a serf's garments. "

Running her hand over the texture of the woolen cloth
, Brianna winced but held her temper, saying as evenly as she could, "It suits me well." The gown she was wearing was made from cloth Glenna and Orianna had woven. She was proud to display it. "It is a special MacQuarie weave that I wear with honor. The rooms here at Dunstaffnage are chilly. Yer thinner cloth is not warm enough for my liking."

"Then I will find something more akin to yer frailty." Her eyes gleamed with contempt, belying he
r feigned courtesy. "But that must go.  I wouldna want ye to shame my father before the Clan and hae them say he is stingy."

Blood rose to Bri
anna's face, burning her skin. "And I tell ye this gown will do just fine!"  Her cold brown eyes did battle with the other woman's blue ones, daring her to say another condescending word.  "And as to yer father's being stingy, I would think it would be the least of his ills, he who holds a lassie against her will."

"Ye are my father's guest."

Guest?  Ha!"  Brianna responded by throwing back her head and giving vent to unrestrained, scornful laughter that quickly sobered. "He willna let me leave, though I came here of my own free will."

"Everyone in the castle know
s just why ye made yer journey. Is it any wonder my Father holds ye here?  A lassie of yer nature can be dangerous to the peace." Affecting the same swagger Brianna had noticed on the woman's sire, she walked around the room.

"A lassie of my
nature. Just what do ye be meaning by that?" Brianna was getting angrier by the moment, for she heard poison and insinuation in the  young woman's words.

"A brazen one to be sure."  Insolently the blue eyes looked Brianna up and down as if finding her wa
nting, "Who would seek a man who hasna asked for her."  At Brianna's look of surprise she added, "it is common knowledge that ye came here with the purpose in mind of getting my cousin in yer bed as husband."

"Yer father has a chattering tongue to tell ye so."  The very thought rankled Brianna's ire
, but she somehow managed to keep the corners of her mouth turned upwards. This lassie was trying to annoy her but she wouldn't allow such a thing.  The answering smile was smug.

"Not my father but my cousi
n. I heard the story from his own lips of how ye burn so wi' passion for him that ye couldna stay away."

"
Ian
told ye?"  Brianna was stung by that revelation.

"O
ch, how he loves to tell the story to all who will hear. Ye came to beg my father to let ye marry Ian, is that not so?"  Brianna could not deny it.  "Ah, how it puffs up my dear cousins pride, to take poor Robbie's  betrothed bride away from him.  But then there has always been competition between them."

"
Poor
Robbie doesna want me.  'Twill no' break his heart if we are not wed." Brianna remembered Robbie's confession of his liking for the MacDonald lass but held her tongue.  Unlike Ian, she would prove that she could  use discretion in what she said.

"Nevertheless ye
hae
been promised to Robbie.  My father is ever a fair mon and he willna hae Ian interfering.  A bargain is a bargain."  Even the way she emphasized certain words was amazingly like Duncan's.  A sing-songy lilt.

"Yer father is ever a stubborn mon who will not  listen.  I've heard Ian
discussing the matter with him.  He would wed wi' me but yer father denies his request again and again."  Brianna felt a surge of confidence push her irritation away as she remembered his emphatic words to Duncan.  He'd spent the last few days quarreling. That had to count for something. "Why will yer father no' agree?"

"Because he wants peace
, and he knows Ian too well to believe he means what he says.  He would leave ye waiting at the altar just as he has done to several lassies before.  It is, I am afraid, my cousins favorite game.  He would ne'er say the vows, for he treasures his sacred freedom."

"Men always do
."

"But Ian all the more.
'Tis no wonder the way the lassies flock about him. My father knows Ian would be careless about the matter  of marriage and then the peace would be broken.  And my father wants the feuding to be ended not begun again."

"Ian
would no' leave me waiting."  Or would he?  Just what were his feelings for her?  He had never told her that he loved her. Wanted her, yes, but wanting and loving were two different things. Suddenly, she was unsure of him, just as this woman had intended.

"Ye were no' the first woman who caught dear Ian's eye, nor will ye be the last.  He moves from flower to flower with all the buzzing of a bee.  Is it any wonder there are quite so many dark-haired an blue eyed bairns about who mirror his face?  If ye
but look around ye will see."  Placing her hand on Brianna's arm, Caitlin pretended sudden sympathy.  "Och, dear me, let us hope that is no' why ye are so anxious to wed Ian!   Has he? Is that why ye.....?"