Margaret the Queen (10 page)

"It will not be for long. His wrath will cool. . ."

"Do not you believe it. He desires to be rid of me. I have known that for long. I shall not come back, I think. Indeed, I shall not bide long at Kincardine, if I can help it. I shall return to my own Orkney, so soon as I may contrive it. Although tell no others so, Maldred, I charge you. I shall shake the dust of Malcolm's kingdom from my feet."

"But you are the Queen, Highness! Queen of this land. Mother of the two princes."

"That is Malcolm's concern, not mine. He banishes me from his house and home. But, to be sure, I shall take my sons with me. If I am so unloved a wife, I am still a loving mother. The boys go with me, whatever Malcolm says. Did he command you to leave them here, Maldred?"

"No. There was no mention of the princes, to me."

"He is scarce a more fond father than he is a husband. Duncan and' Donald will suffer nothing from being deprived of his presence. And — they will give me the wherewithal to bargain. His heirs. Perch
ance I may need to bargain. Eve
n, it may be, for my life!"

He stared at her. "I do not understand him. The King. I cannot see what he is at. Why now? You have been wed near a dozen years
..."

"If you cannot see, then you are blind, cousin! It is that Atheling woman who has brought this to a head. He finds her to his taste. Have you not seen how he eyes her? He is not a man for loving women — only their bodies. Most that take his fancy he can bed at will. But not this one, this Saxon. She is proud and sure of herself— and moreover, the sister of the rightful King of England. So she is out of his reach — at present and the more desirable therefore, to a man of his sort
." "But. . . but n
ow!"

"Out of his way, he will feel the less constrained. If Malcolm is ever constrained!"

Maldred shook his head. "She is not like that. She is good. Virtuous as she is fair. And strong, too. She would never permit him . . ."

"She is all but his prisoner. And he is the King. Oh, I know that you too think much of her. I have seen you look at her, likewise! You, and others. No woman who affects men so is a saint — however much she talks of God and holiness! Watch her, Maldred my friend . . . !"

The King's orders were explicit as they were imperative, as to an immediate departure — and Ingebiorg was nothing loth to be gone. So only two days elapsed in preparation, whilst word was despatched to Kincardine to have all in readiness to receive the Queen and her attendants. The eventual leave-taking was a strange and strained proceeding, with all aware that something was far wrong, the palace staff most careful as to how they reacted, the local people sad and alarmed — for the Queen was well-liked — the visitors uncomfortable, embarrassed somewhat, and keeping well into the background. The Queen herself was, not unnaturally, tense and reserved. She avoided anything like an admission to the Athelings that she was being
sent
away or that her departure was other than a normal and temporary visit to one of her other palaces. Nevertheless, something of the truth behind this sudden move inevitably percolated through to the guests, although nothing could be said. No especial dissension developed between her and Margaret, the latter being noticeably quiet and withdrawn.

Maldred, in the end, was thankful to be on the road. There were numerous Kincardines in Scotland — the name merely meaning at the head of the rowan wood. Their destination was the royal hunting-seat of that name in the mortuath of the Mearns, near the eastern end of the vast vale of Strathmore, under the foothills of the Mounth, the great mountain mass of Drumalbyn. It was, in fact, the furthest away of the royal residences from Dunfermline — and chosen by Malcolm, no doubt, for that reason — involving a journey of almost one hundred miles, through Fife, Gowrie, and Angus. There were houses which the King could have claimed were his further north still, of course, in Moray; but these had belonged to his predecessors MacBeth and Lulach, of the northern branch of the royal house, both of whom he had slain — and after a dozen years on the throne, he still avoided that country and distrusted the Moraymen and Rossmen, for valid reasons. After all, MacBeth's son Farquhar was still alive and Mormaor of Ross, scornfully rejecting the non-Celtic title of earl.

A less than cheerful party of about a score, with a l
ong chain of pack-horses, they
travelled as fast as they might, with a chill November wind and drizzling rain no encouragement to linger. Ingebiorg took only four of her ladies with her, two of them Orkneywomen, two pages and the rest servitors and guards. They went almost due north, over the spine of Fife, crossing the skirts of Benarty and the Lomond Hills to the Tay valley, to pass the first night at the large abbey of Abernethy, where the Abbot Ewan, who had once been High Judex, or Justiciar, of Scotland under MacBeth, welcomed them, the more warmly when the Queen revealed that she went in bad odour with her husband, and indeed was all but being sent into exile. Malcolm was not loved by the Celtic churchmen, for whom he had little use, and who had not forgiven him for the death of their friend the good MacBeth.

They crossed Tay next morning by the ford of Elcho, east of St. John's Town of Perth, and turned north-eastwards to thread the Balthayock pass of the Sidlaw Hills into the head of Strathmore, by-passing Scone, moving within sight of the royal palaces of Dunsinane and Cairn Beth, only a couple of miles apart, the latter built by MacBeth for his Queen Gruoch who had found Dunsinane little better than a barracks. Strathmore, a wide and lovely vale, extended for some sixty miles eastwards to the Norse Sea, second only to the Great Glen of Alba itself in length, and much surpassing it in width and fertility. With the damp east wind off the sea in their faces all the way, however, even Strathmo
re's fair prospects palled, and
Maldred for one chafed not a little at the comparatively slow pace they had to take. This was not on account of Ingebiorg or her ladies, all experienced horsewomen, but because of the long file of pack-garrons laden with the Queen's personal possessions, clothing and the like. Needless to say, the young princes fretted even more than Maldred.

The second night was
passed at the cashel of Resten
neth, near Forfar, where the Keledei entertained the royal visitor to the best of their ability. The hospices of these Celtic Church monasteries were the recognised halting-places for travellers of all degrees, the quarters simple and the fare plai
n but usually plentiful. Resten
neth was a very ancient foundation, and better equipped than most, on a peninsula thrusting into its loch, having been founded by the Pictish King Nechtan, who was actually baptised here by St. Boniface after defeating the Angles in 685 at the great Battle of Nechtansmere.

In twenty-five miles next day they completed their journey, arriving at the rambling hall-house establishment of Kincardine on the Devilly Water, near the village of Fettercairn, as the early dusk settled on the drenched land, with the great heather hills of the Mounth looming high over them to west and north, and a cold mist off the sea rolling in from the east. Colin, Mormaor of the Mearns, a man in his mid-forties and another former friend of MacBeth's, greeted them, his own seat, the Green Fort of Dundevilly lying only a couple of miles to the north.

Kincardine, although pleasingly situated and commodious, was in a poor state to receive high-born ladies, having been unoccupied for long and consequently neglected. Malcolm Canmore had never favoured it, as his namesake and great-grandfather Malcolm the Second had, preferring as his summer or hunting palace the Ward of the Stormounth on Loch Clunie, between Gowrie and Atholl, much more accessible. The Mormaor Colin had done his best at very short notice to have the place cleaned up and made welcoming, with blazing fires and decorative greenery; but nothing could disguise the bare and unlived-in atmosphere. He indeed suggested that the Queen should come and lodge in his own house of Dundevilly meantime; but Ingebiorg, although grateful, declined, saying that the only way to turn the palace into a home again was to live in it, and that this endeavour could be good for her and her women, keeping them occupied along with the house.

Maldred was undecided thereafter as to his own programme. The King's orders to him had been merely to escort the Queen here, with no further instructions. One part of him was for returning to Dunfermline forthwith, duty done. But Ingebiorg appeared to assume that he was attached to her as aide and friend, as well as cousin — and certainly she was notably short of male attendants. Moreover, the young princes begged him to stay, a while at least. He lingered, therefore — although that was scarcely an apt description of the flurry of activity in which he found himself caught up, playing his part in the rehabilitation of Kincardine Palace, its facilities and amenities. There was an endless succession of tasks for an energetic young man to tackle, the Queen urging him on, and indeed working hard herself, like any housewife.

So the shrinking days passed quickly enough, and long evenings round the hall fire, with music and singing and story-telling, made pleasant relaxation for tired muscles. The youngest of the Queen's ladies, Cathula, daughter of the Thane of Aberlemno, began to take a more than passing interest in Maldred, which he did not actually discourage — although again he found himself not infrequently comparing, her unfavourably with Margaret Atheling or even Magda daughter of Oswin. She was sonsy rather than pretty, amiable, cheerful, uncomplicated and good company for any normal young man; but there was little of the challenge, fascination and sheer quality which kept drawing his thoughts back to Dunfermline. Being indeed entirely normal and male, he took what he was offered gladly enough, gave his share in return, but remained uncommitted.

It was not all work, of course — or at least, the work could be varied with occasional hunting expeditions. Kincardine was famous for its deer-drives. The mountains to west and north abounded with herds of red deer, and one of the earlier monarchs had ordered a great wall or dyke, of earth and turf, to be raised, many miles long and with angled bends in it, on the same principle as the defensive ditch and ramparts round a fort, towards which the deer herds could be driven but which they could not cross. Even so, most of the animals escaped, of course, for their fleetness of foot, when they swung sideways or bolted back from the wall, called for skilled archery indeed on the part of the waiting hunters and drivers both. The Mormaor Colin and his younger son Malpender, and some of the older Mearns thanes, co-operated in these drives — the others were away with the King's armies — and Maldred managed to acquit himself adequately enough. It was important for all such lordly households to lay in a store of smoked venison, to be kept in underground ice-houses, for the winter feeding, before the deer grew thin on account of their pastures being under snow. So Maldred helped to stock the palace ice-house as a change from more domestic labours.

December brought different weather, drier, colder, with frosts and clear days, but occasional flurries of snow. It was after a fairly heavy snowfall, one day in the second week of the month, that Maldred decided that it was time that he was gone. Travel in these conditions grew ever more difficult, not only because the snow could close the passes but because the rivers rose, and in a land mainly without bridges, the fords became impassable and the low-lying ground flooded and marshy. He usually spent his Yuletide at his home at Dunkeld in Atholl; but that required the King's express leave-of-absence. So it seemed to be time to take his leave of the Queen — and Cathula nic Neis — and return to Dunfermline.

At eighteen years, farewells were easily effected and quickly over, and promising to return before long, he rode off alone southwards, ice-puddles crackling beneath his garron's hooves. He wondered, in fact, whether he
would
be back, for he had not forgotten Ingebiorg's hint that she intended to contrive a return to Orkney.

Despite worsened road conditions, he completed the return journey in half the time they had taken to come. To his surprise, he found that the King had still not returned to Dunfermline, where a curious vacuum situation prevailed, with the distinguished visitors lacking hosts, and nobody in a position to take major decisions. Almost inevitably, perhaps, the strong-minded Margaret Atheling was doing what she could, supervising the palace steward and his staff, meeting the day-to-day questions and problems. But all otherwise was in a state of suspension. The Athelings were glad and relieved to see Maldred back — at least Margaret and Magda were — as some representative of the reigning house, if not for more personal reasons. So that, young and junior as he was, he found himself the authority at the palace on the rock.

If they were denied the monarch's presence at Dunfermline, they did not lack news of his doings. It seemed that he was very busy in Northumbria, the same Northumbria in which he had grown up, enjoying himself and doing what of all things he liked best, however little his victims enjoyed the process — that is, raiding on a massive scale. The reason and excuse for this change of plan — if such was needed — was that his cousin the Earl Cospatrick, once King William had departed southwards, had refused to submit to Malcolm and had instead left Cumbria and headed eastwards across Northumbria to his own powerful fortress of Bamburgh, which had been his seat when he reigned as earl and which he had managed to retain because of its almost impregnable situation. So now he was inside Bamburgh, with Malcolm besieging it, aiming to starve him out — since he could by no means capture the place — meantime the Scots filling their days by spreading havoc far and wide over the great province, burning, slaying, pillaging, to their hearts' content, all in the name of suitable and necessary discipline and pressure. As an excellent by-product, never-ending columns of slaves and serfs, the strongest of the men and the most acceptable of the women, were being sent back to Scotland by the thousand — along with vast herds of cattle, horses and sheep, of course — to improve the King's popularity at home. Word indeed came daily to Dunfermline to the effect that there was not a village or township or valley in the Merse, Teviotdale and Lothian, without its quota of these useful Saxon captives, to the satisfaction of all.