kelpie awoke from a dream in which she was trudging along beside a loch against blinding rain. she blinked a little as she remembered that she was back at inverlochy castle—the same place she and mina and bogle had spent the first night after leaving glenfern. she shivered a little, partly at the memory of mina and bogle, and partly from cold. hugging the stolen cloak and her old plaidie about her, she hurried down the tower stairs and out to the central court, where morag mhor and the other women were preparing breakfast.
“slugabed!” morag greeted her, and kelpie grinned cheekily, knowing all about morag’s pretended fierceness by now. there were more men than ever to feed, since the glencoe macdonalds and the stewarts of appin had joined, and kelpie was glad that they were in friendly cameron country, where it was safe to build fires and they
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could have hot porridge. she had got heartily tired of a diet of oatmeal mixed with cold water. she looked thoughtfully up at ben nevis, which looked larger and more lowering under its quilt of snow than in the green and tawny blanket of summer, and realized suddenly that she had had enough of army life.
rab paused by the fire to sniff the oatmeal hungrily and announce that he thought he would just go out and lift some cattle for breakfast. he chucked morag mhor under the chin as he said it, and received a sound clout on the ear as a reward. “ouch!” he exclaimed, making a great show of nursing his ear. “you will ever be bullying me, morag avic, and i a poor helpless man at your mercy.”
kelpie giggled, and morag shook her fist at the other ear. “this is the day we go to ask lochiel and the camerons to join us, and you would be lifting their cattle! amadan!”
rab began explaining that they didn’t really need the camerons at all, but kelpie stopped listening, for she was thinking that this would be a good time indeed to leave the army. she had had enough of battles. just a few miles up the great glen was the pass that led to glenfern. would she be welcome there? surely ian would remember that she had warned him against alex, and so would forgive her for running away and leaving him struck down and half dead. would he and his father join montrose? she wondered. or would lochiel dare to raise his clan?
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she turned to morag mhor, who had sent rab, protesting, out to the river for more water, and was now vigorously stirring the porridge. “lochiel would be daft to call out his clan,” she suggested. “with his grandson in campbell hands, he could not dare.”
morag thought about it for a while, her lean face still and expressionless. “there was a wise woman in our village long ago,” she said at last, “who used to say to me, ‘always dare to do what is right,’ and i am thinking lochiel will say the same. would you understand that, kelpie?”
“no!” said kelpie forcefully and scowled. ewen cameron himself had used those same words. so here again were those ideas that she did not want to think about. she set her small face into a hard mask and dropped the subject. “i am thinking i have had my fill of armies and battles,” she announced. “i will stay behind when you go up the great glen, and perhaps go to stay with friends here in lochaber.”
“well, then, and a blessing on you,” said morag. “may you find a home for your bones and your spirit—though i think you will never stay in one place for long. i’m thinking i’ll go back to gordon country myself soon. no doubt there are orphans left by the campbells who would be needing a mother.”
kelpie followed the army as far as lochiel’s home at torcastle, curious to see whether or not lochiel would
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raise his clan. he did. the traditional cross was made of two sturdy sticks bound firmly together. and according to the ancient ceremony the ends were set aflame, extinguished in goat’s blood, then lighted once more: one of lochiel’s men held the cross proudly high and set off at a trot that carried him deeper into cameron territory. the torch would be passed from runner to runner until the whole area had received the message of war.
the army stayed at torcastle for two days while camerons came flocking to the call of their chief. if any had misgivings about argyll’s possible revenge on them, they did not show it; nor did lochiel, that stern old man who held his head so high. kelpie did not wait to see the glenfern camerons arrive, for she had sudden misgivings about seeing ian again. instead, she went back to the tower room at inverlochy castle in a very thoughtful frame of mind.
for several days she stayed at the castle, enjoying her solitude, and getting her food from homes nearby with surprising ease. for the very people who had once regarded her with deep suspicion were now delighted to give food and hospitality to the wistful lass who had been a prisoner of argyll, who had been helped by ewen cameron himself, and who had even got away with lady argyll’s fine cloak. food, scanty though it might be with the men away in the army, was shared, and there was not a home where she was not urged to bide awhile.
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but she shook her black head. och, no, she said. she was away up the glen. but she would take her leave marveling at such openheartedness to a stranger—even one who had not yet stolen anything. after thinking about it, kelpie decided not to take anything at all. somehow the good will seemed more valuable than anything she might steal.
then the mild weather turned into sudden bitter cold. the night wind hurled blasts of snow against the tower walls, crept up the winding stairs, and whined outside like the banshee. it was so cold that kelpie thought she might put away misgivings and go to glenfern after all. surely lady glenfern would not refuse her shelter in this cold!
she was heading back to inverlochy in the early dusk when she decided this. her stomach was comfortably full of hot broth and scones from a generous young cameron wife, she was a trifle sleepy, and it would be good indeed to sleep tomorrow night or the next in the comfort of glenfern, under the same roof with wee mairi.
it was fortunate that kelpie’s senses remained alert even when her mind was on other things. even so, she had nearly walked up to the castle gate before she realized that something was wrong, and she never knew exactly what it was that warned her. but suddenly she stopped, alive to the sharp feel of danger, her small figure dark and taut against the faintly luminous patches of snow. an instant later she simply was not there, and the campbell
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soldier who came running out of the gate, under the impression that he had seen something, shook his head and cursed the weather.
kelpie lay in the snow where she had thrown herself behind a small hillock, not daring to raise her head but listening as if her life depended on it—which it did. soon there was no doubt. inverlochy castle was being occupied—by mac cailein mor and his army!
with sick dismay she pieced things together. someone called for campbell of auchinbreck. then there was a harsh and authoritative lowland voice. and by crouching behind a thick clump of juniper and twisting her head cautiously, kelpie could just make out a galley with black sails silhouetted against the gray waters of the loch.
oh, there was no doubt whatever! the campbell had gathered his courage and his army and had come after montrose.
