God's Highlander (29 page)

‘What of Seonaid and the baby? It's due about March.'

‘I'll do what I can, but don't build up any hopes. Prepare what you can for a move; and, if you have nowhere else to go, come to the manse.'

‘Or come home,' put in Donnie's brother. ‘I think Pa's already sorry for the quarrel between you. He wouldn't see you with nowhere to go, not with Seonaid due to produce a baby.'

‘You're forgetting, we'll have Seonaid's father with us. He and Pa have sworn they'll never set foot in the other's home.'

‘I'll try to discuss the matter with your father, Donnie,' said Wyatt. ‘He's a good man. He'll not see anyone wandering homeless in the mountains – not even Hamish Fraser.'

Mairi came from the house and after giving her youngest brother an affectionate embrace she, Stewart and Wyatt set off for the Ross home.

Before they passed out of sight of the cot, Wyatt looked back. Donnie stood in the doorway with an arm about Seonaid's shoulders. Both were waving. There was no sign of Hamish Fraser.

E
NEAS ROSS LISTENED to news of the impending eviction of Donnie and the Frasers in a grave silence. When Mairi and Stewart had between them told their father all they knew, he looked to Wyatt for confirmation.

‘Do you think Garrett means to do it, Preacher? Or is he just trying to bring the Fraser girl back to heel?'

‘Pa! She's our Donnie's wife now….'

The big red-bearded Highlander spat in the fire. ‘I'm not talking of
marrying
.' He looked questioningly at Wyatt.

‘Garrett means it, I'm sure. He'll have the constables in the mountains as soon as the snows have gone, unless I'm able to change his mind.'

‘What will our Donnie do – and the baby? It must be due soon after the factor intends putting them from their home. Eneas, what can we do?' Magdalene Ross stood at the edge of the group about the fire in a state of deep distress.

‘
We'll
do nothing. It's not our problem.'

‘But our son's being turned out of his home. Our boy Donnie, and his wife. Soon there will be a child, too – our grandchild.'

‘Don't talk so foolishly, woman.' Eneas Ross roared the words and stood up from his low stool. ‘You don't believe the Fraser girl's baby's been sired by Donnie, any more than I do. If I had to put a name to its father, I'd say it was Garrett's bastard.'

Eneas Ross spat into the fire once more. ‘A man like the factor probably wouldn't care about turning his own child out of doors.'

‘I don't think Garrett's alone in that – even if it were true, Eneas. Think about it.' Wyatt spoke quietly, almost gently, but his words went home.

‘Donnie's no longer a child – isn't that what you all told me when you begged me to allow him to wed the Fraser girl? I said she would turn out to be nothing but trouble. I was right. Donnie's a married man now. He must look after his family, same as I do. Unless I'm mistaken, I'll be hard put to take care of my own this year. Garrett was only waiting for the right opportunity to start clearances on the Eskaig estate. My son … my
son
handed him that opportunity. Offered it to Garrett with both hands. I'm away outside for a while.'

Wyatt would have followed Eneas Ross from the house, but Magdalene restrained him with a hand on his arm. ‘Let him go. He'll sit on the wall in the darkness, smoking and thinking.' Magdalene looked up at Wyatt apologetically. ‘It's something he's done whenever he's had a problem since the children were small. He says he can think better when he's by himself in the dark. He's right. There were times when I felt my brain would burst with all the children in the house together.' She looked about her wistfully. ‘Things haven't changed very much, have they? They're all still here … except for little Donnie.'

Magdalene Ross turned to her daughter. ‘Was he all right? How did he manage through the snows?'

For a few minutes it seemed Magdalene Ross might dissolve in tears. She won the struggle to regain control of her feelings, but her voice came out as no more than a hoarse whisper. ‘He's so young to have the responsibility of a wife and baby. I wish there was something I could do to help him.'

Mairi put an arm about her mother's shoulders. ‘He's managing fine, Ma. Seonaid hasn't been too well, but she's on the mend now. Once this business with the factor is sorted out they'll both be as happy as any couple anywhere. You'll see.'

Magdalene Ross nodded, her head vigorously. ‘Yes. Yes, you're right.' She patted her daughter's hand absentmindedly. ‘I'm his mother. I worry about him. I worry about
all
of you. Now, come and help me with supper. You too, Tibbie. I've never cooked for a minister before. It's a good thing we have that sheep.'

Ian Ross rose from his stool by the fire and snuffed out the spluttering wick in a hanging cruise lamp that had been filled with melted mutton fat. He handed it to Tibbie to be refilled, then spoke to Wyatt. ‘You'll enjoy a good meal tonight, Preacher. Ma's the best cook in the mountains. Can I give you a wee dram now?'

‘Later. I'd like to go outside and talk to your father first.'

‘Do
you
think this trouble with our Donnie is the beginning of another clearance?'

‘I wish I knew, Ian. I hope not. I might know more when I've spoken to the factor.'

‘You tell him if he tries to turn the Rosses out of our home he'll not be dealing with blind men or boys, or sick old soldiers like Lachlan Munro. We'll fight to keep our home, just as generations of Ross men have fought to help the lords of Kilmalie keep their lands.'

‘Fighting a man who has the law on his side will gain you only sorrow, Ian. Let's have no more talk of violence.'

Leaving Ian Ross murmuring rebellion against John Garrett and all those who stood with him, Wyatt left the cot.

It was dark outside. Clouds were beginning to build up from the north, obscuring moon and stars. Wyatt could not see Eneas Ross until the bearded patriarch's pipe revealed his position. He was seated on the low wall that protected the croft's vegetable garden from the stock animals.

Wyatt made his way cautiously to where the other man sat, the aroma of strong tobacco drifting to meet him. He stood in silence beside Eneas Ross for some minutes, until the cold of the night caused him to shiver.

‘Ay, it's cold, Preacher. You'd best not waste too much time getting back to Eskaig in the morning. There's more bad weather on the way.'

‘You can cope well enough with the weather, Eneas. I'm more concerned with what will happen up here when the spring comes.'

‘If there's one thing that living in the Highlands has taught me, it's to take one problem at a time. How has young Donnie survived the bad weather?'

‘He's managed. Only
just
, but he and the others have come through so far.' Wyatt thought that everyone in the Ross house, with the exception of Magdalene, would be surprised to hear Eneas Ross enquiring after the health of his youngest son.

‘Will they get through another bad spell over there?'

‘If they're not snowed in for as long again, they'll be all right. Stewart helped Donnie find the sheep and bring them in.'

Wyatt sensed that Eneas Ross was nodding his satisfaction. ‘Those two boys always got on well together. Donnie will make out. He's a sensible lad.
Too
good for the Fraser girl.'

‘Donnie and Seonaid
are
fond of each other, Eneas. Your son is also very fond – and proud – of you. If you were to accept the marriage, Donnie would be the happiest young man in the mountains.'

‘I doubt if my blessing would make any difference. A curse was put upon any union of the families by a stronger man than I, almost a hundred years ago. No one's been able to break it since.'

‘Surely you don't believe in some obscure curse, Eneas. Superstition is something for savages without religion to believe in.'

‘This curse is more than superstition, Preacher. A Ross was left lying wounded on the field at Culloden by a Fraser who was to marry his daughter. When the English soldiers found the Ross they killed him. Before he died he put a curse on any marriage between a Ross and a Fraser. The curse worked. The dead man's daughter married the Fraser, but on their wedding night a candle was overturned and they both burned to death.'

‘That was a hundred years ago. People don't believe in such “curses” any more.'

‘Then, they should. Only a foolish man would go against it. Did you know Hamish Fraser's wife, Seonaid's mother, was a Ross?'

‘No. No, I didn't.' It explained a great deal of the bitterness Hamish Fraser felt for the Ross family.

‘She was a distant cousin. The daughter of my father's cousin. Not that she'd have been any happier with Hamish had she been a Cameron, a Mackenzie, or from any other clan. The man's a pig. If he hadn't been blind, someone would have killed him by now. Young Donnie's the most patient boy I've ever come across, but he'll fall out with Hamish if the marriage lasts long enough.'

‘What will you do when Garrett puts them out in the spring?'

‘As I said, Preacher, I take one problem at a time. I'll decide what to do when spring comes. I'm likely to have the same problem myself before too long. I should have seen it coming, I suppose. It's happened most everywhere else. It was bound to happen here, sooner or later. It shouldn't affect
you
too much. Might even save you a deal of walking. You'll still have the kirk and the folk of Eskaig to preach to.'

‘My father lies in a grave in Eskaig because of a clearance, Eneas. I can't stand back and do nothing – although I, too, might have troubles of my own by then.'

Wyatt told his companion of the problems besetting the Church.

Eneas Ross knocked out his pipe carefully against the wall and began to refill it immediately. ‘What's happening to this world of ours, Preacher? When I was a boy there were three things that were unchangeable: the weather, a man's home – and the Church. We've just had the worst snows anyone can remember, the factor's likely to clear us from our homes – and now the Church is tearing itself apart!'

‘What do you think you
might
do if Garrett forces you to leave here?' Wyatt persisted. The Highland family's movements were important to him.

‘Who knows? A man likes to feel he'll be buried alongside his father one day. Mine is in the graveyard in Eskaig, too, along with the boys Magdalene and I lost.'

Eneas Ross still carried a tinder-box. Striking a flint to it now, he lit a taper and applied it to his pipe. As he sucked it into life his blue eyes were fixed on Wyatt's face. When the tobacco was glowing and the taper extinguished he said: ‘Why are you so interested in what I'm going to be doing?'

Wyatt took a deep breath. This was a matter he had wanted to discuss with Eneas Ross since before the snows came. Now the moment was here he wished there had been time to rehearse the words he wanted to say. To express his thoughts and feelings clearly.

‘I want to marry Mairi.'

The ensuing silence lasted for so long that Wyatt wished he had brought the subject up in daylight, so he could see Eneas Ross's reaction.

‘What does Mairi think of the idea?' Eneas Ross spoke slowly and evenly, his voice carrying no hint of his thoughts.

‘She needs to be convinced she'll make a good wife for a minister. Perhaps it will be easier for her if I'm ousted from Eskaig.'

‘Perhaps. I do know the girl's fond of you. I suspect you're the reason she's working at reading and writing at all hours of the day and night. She's done well, Preacher. She's able to read to us every night from the bible you gave her. Magdalene thinks it's wonderful.'

Wyatt was delighted with Eneas Ross's words. ‘Can I take it you have no objections – if I can persuade Mairi to marry me?'

‘If Mairi's decided she wants to marry you, then nothing I say or do will stop her. On the other hand, if she doesn't want you, then nothing
you
do or say will change her mind.'

‘I think she'll say Yes … eventually.'

‘Then, here's my hand, Preacher. I'll be proud to call you my son.'

 

‘You've spoken to Pa about marrying me? You had no right to do that without discussing it with me first.'

Mairi was walking part of the way back to Eskaig with Wyatt. They were on an exposed mountain slope, and a strong wind blowing from the north-east made conversation difficult. Wyatt was beginning to wish he had delayed his revelation until they reached the shelter of a few trees just ahead of them, but a snowstorm was on the way. Mairi would soon need to turn back. He had not been able to put it off any longer.

‘I
have
discussed it with you. Every time we've met.'

Mairi lengthened her stride as the wind howled in cold fury.

‘What did I tell you then?'

With a sense of relief, Wyatt and Mairi stumbled over the last few yards of hardened snow to the trees. They had gained shelter from the physical force of the wind, but there was a note of ominous urgency in its voice.

‘Mairi, you must return home now. There's a blizzard not far off….'

Mairi looked up at the sky and then to the north, where thick low cloud was advancing towards them, swallowing the mountains in its path.

‘We have a few minutes yet. What did I tell you when you last asked me to marry you?'

‘You said something foolish about not having enough learning to be the wife of a minister of the Church.'

‘That's right. And nothing has changed.'

‘Hasn't it? Your father says you're sitting up all hours of the night learning to read and write. He says you read the Bible to the family most evenings.'

‘He was trying to impress you, that's all.'

‘I
am
impressed.' Wyatt thought he felt the first flake of snow on his face, herald of the approaching snowstorm. He wished there was more time.

‘Mairi, I
love
you. I want you to be my wife. Say Yes. It's a very simple word.'

‘I can't, Wyatt. Not yet.'

Her last two words gave him some hope – but she
had
to return home. He must hurry from the mountains, too, or the blizzard would overtake them both before they reached their respective homes.

‘I'll be back in the spring to ask you again. You told me before that you are more than fond of me. It's given me comfort during the time we've spent apart. Can I still have that, at least?'

Mairi nodded, and Wyatt would never know how close she was to telling him all he wanted to hear. What she herself knew. That she loved him.

He kissed her then, and as he held her he could almost have taken his chances with the advancing blizzard, but he would not put Mairi at such risk.