The Faithful Heart (15 page)

 

 

“Plus pens for the animals, and we’d better check the wells also,”
Morgana recalled, as she moved outside to the centre of the bawn.
Tomas cranked up a bucketful, and they all drank thirstily.

 

 

“It’s fine, and plenty of it too,” Morgana remarked as she sat on
the grass.

 

 

“So one hundred and sixty plus eighty plus eighty is three hundred
and twenty men. And Tulach will hold one hundred and seventy. But
surely you don’t need so many men to fortify each castle,” Declan
protested.

 

 

“No, but at the same time I need a fighting force on hand if the
MacMahons move against the villages or farms, and I personally don’t
see why the men can’t till the soil if there is no threat. The
armies always used to stand down in the winter, go off to the larger
towns in search of other labour, or live off the hard work of others
though they grew no food themselves.Now we are simply going to have
to double up on tasks.”

 

 

“But Morgana, you know how they will feel.Manual labour is degrading
for a warrior!” Tomas warned.

 

 

“Well, just where do all the oats, milk, cheese, candles and so on
have to come from? From the labour of the women and the men who
don’t fight unless their homes are threatened, but who die exactly
the same, or are left crippled in exactly the same way as our
standing armies. The sailors are no better, sitting around in the
harbour most of the winter feeding off our stores! Things are going
to have to change.”

 

 

“The men won’t thank you for it,” Declan cautioned.

 

 

She gave a proud lift of her chin. “I can appreciate how they feel,
but we need all the hands we can get. Besides, I am not asking
anyone to do anything I’m not willing to do myself,” Morganadeclared
firmly.

 

 

“I’m amazed you didn’t end up as Mother Superior of that convent of
yours by now, you’re so bossy,” Declan teased.

 

 

"Ach, I'm a great worker, all right, but not godly enough," she
replied with a wink.

 

 

She moved to untie their mounts and once they had mounted, the trio
quickly began their ride toward Lisleavan.

 

 

“As long as we're here,” Tomas said as they approached Morgana’s
home, “we might as well assess these fortifications as well.”

 

 

“If you don’t mind,” Morgana replied gratefully. She led the way as
they rode around the bawn walls.

 

 

Lisleavan was four times larger than any of the other castles, and
was built with two sets of protective walls. The outer wall was
surrounded by a moat, and had four gates in the middle of each wall,
with a tower at each corner. Along the inner walls were four
entrances placed to the right of each entrancein the outer wall to
make access more difficult for intruders.

 

 

Within the inner wall were further walls which divided the castle
from the stables, and from the small village inside the castle
environs required for all the essential services to the settlement
such as baking, tailoring, and blacksmithing.

 

 

The castle itself was a four-storey rectangular structure lined with
ramparts on the second storey, and two spiral staircases on either
side of the entrance hall.

 

 

“This castle is laid out in the same way as Ma Niadh, except that
there are two more floors with living quarters, eight rooms each,
and two great halls instead of one. There is also a dungeon and
storerooms, and access between halves of the castle at each end of
the corridors,” Morgana explained as they did a tour of the upper
storey together.

 

 

“The doors are sturdy wood, but I would have some iron panels put in
up to about six feet to reinforce them. I would also put more doors
put in to separate the corridors into four parts each, so they would
have to fight from room to room to take possession of each part of
the castle,” Tomas suggested.

 

 

“My thoughts exactly,” Morgana agreed, as she sketched out her
plans, and moved to the lower floor.

 

 

“Twenty men in each room, eight rooms, is one hundred and sixty,
plus another hundred and sixty on this floor,” Declan tallied aloud.
They moved down the stairs again.

 

 

“Same plans for the doors and corridors as well,” Tomas said.

 

 

“My father and I and the other main members of our household have
rooms here on the first floor, and some of the apartments have been
subdivided for chambers for linen and other household items.”

 

 

“You will have to leave this floor as it is, then,” Declan said,
nodding.

 

 

The trio descended to the ground floor, where they surveyed the
other great hall and the kitchens behind it.

 

 

“If you divided up the hall with some screens, you could fit another
hundred men. And if you moved all the storage to the underground
caverns, you could fit another forty guards here,” Tomas observed.

 

 

“But I would pack the stores if I were you, Morgana. This castle is
the one nearest the MacMahons, and as such will be the first to be
besieged if trouble does come.”

 

 

“I’m well aware of that, Declan. But if we have no food at the
moment, what do you suggest we pack it with?”

 

 

“Just buy all the food you can when the money is finished being
minted.”

 

 

“I certainly will, Declan, but all of this takes time. And it's
marvellous having this estimate of four hundred and sixty men in the
castle, plus another sixty men in each of the three storey towers at
the corners of the bawn, but you're forgetting that at the moment
two-thirds of my fleet, which means two-thirds of my clansmen, have
gone. The rest who were here at these three castles scattered when
the hard times came. I have no one here at the minute to feed or
house except the people in the village, and most of them are
MacMahons who have been evicted by Dermot and Brendan, or so they
claim.

 

 

“But appearances can be deceiving, as we’ve all had cause to
discover, much to our regret. So while they may prove useful workers
when the time comes, the MacMahon men are going to have to prove
they can be trusted before I let them in my castle,” Morgana said.

 

 

“Speak of the devil,” Tomas muttered.

 

 

For just then Ruairc entered the downstairs storeroom from the
staircase on the right.

 

 

And judging from the grim expression on his handsome features,
Morgana was sure he had heard every word she'd just said.

 

 

 

CHAPTER TEN

 

 

The three men eyed each other uneasily.Ruairc looked as black as a
thundercloud at Morgana’s candid words about not trusting his clan,
but he did not challenge her, but merely greeted her with a small
formal bow.

 

 

The tension in the room was palpable.The O’Donnells had never liked
any of the MacMahons. Ruairc was only mildly tolerated as a foster
child of Morgan Maguire, though resented as the main suitor for
Morgana’s hand.

 

 

“Tomas, Declan, good to see you again,” Ruairc said casually,
remembering his manners though inwardly he was seething.

 

 

He turned to Morgana.“Mary told me you were back.” Ruairc scowled as
he stepped closer to Morgana and took her by the arm. “Where have
you been, and why didn’t you tell me where you were going? I was so
worried.”

 

 

With a warning look at the O’Donnell brothers, Morgana said, “I come
and go as I please in my own castle. I had things to do at Belleek.
Tomas and Declan were kind enough to escort me home. Niamh and Ronan
are calling on Father tomorrow morning. How is Father now?” she
asked over her shoulder as she swept past Ruairc and headed up to
the main hall.

 

 

“Much better. He seems to be getting stronger all the time,” Ruairc
answered at length.

 

 

Morgana could sense the fury simmering just below the surface as his
emerald eyes glimmered.

 

 

“I'm relieved to hear it,” Morgana sighed.

 

 

“Mary, can we have some refreshments for our guests, and please tell
me where my sister is,” Morgana called to the housekeeper.

 

 

“Still down in the dungeons,” Mary said with a smug grin.

 

 

“Then keep her there.With the O’Donnells coming, she would only be
in the way.”

 

 

Aofa hated Niamh O’Donnell even more than she did Morgana, and her
elder sister had no desire for any unpleasant confrontations with
the kind family who had pledged her so much help.

 

 

It was also possible that it was Aofa who had told Fergus to order
the Maguire ships to attack the O’Donnells in Donegal Bay in the
hopes of getting Niamh’s much publicised dowry from the Continent.
The last thing she needed was the two women scratching each other’s
eyes out over the luxurious gowns.

 

 

When the food arrived, Morgana made only small talk at the table.
Ruairc could sense from her tense posture that she was avoiding
discussing more important matters in front of him. He could also see
she was anxious to be out and about on the estate, but was not
willing to confide in him her plans.

 

 

The knowledge rankled, but Ruairc was tired of arguing with Morgana.
The more they fought, the more she drove him away, when all he
really wanted was to be close to her once again. Perhaps if he
didn't spend so much time chasing after her, she would come to him
of her own free will?

 

 

So he tried to be charming at the meal, reminding her subtly of all
the wonderful times the had shared before her brother's death. He
also filled her in on as much as he had learned about the estate in
recent months.

 

 

She tried to remain cool and aloof, but the attraction between them
sparked and flared despite her attempts to dampen it, and she found
herself laughing more than once, and then trying to tamp it down. It
seemed disrespectful somehow to be enjoying herself when there was
so much to do and her father was still on the mend.

 

 

Torn between duty and desire, at last Morgana could stand the
tension within her no longer, and showed the two guests to their
rooms on the first floor.

 

 

As she was leaving Declan and Tomas she said, “I’m going into my
study now to get these plans written up for the work crews. The
stonemasons and smiths left are going to have a great deal of work
to do.”

 

 

“I am sure Father will let you have the stone from our quarries for
a reasonable price. I also think we can safely lend you some of our
carpenters and stonemasons from Bruff Castle on the north shore of
the lough for, shall we say, a month?” Tomas offered.

 

 

Morgana stopped and stared. “Oh, Tomas, that would be wonderful, but
so generous an offer...”

 

 

“Consider it a peace offering on our part, and a pledge of continued
close relations between us,” Tomas replied suavely with a small
brotherly kiss on her brow, before Declan bent to hug her tightly.

 

 

Turning around in the corridor, Morgana met the furious green gaze
of Ruairc.

 

 

Oh no,
she sighed to herself.
Not another argument
.
She said goodnight, and they closed their chamber door.

 

 

She tried to push past Ruairc in the narrow passageway without
touching him, but his hand shot out like a striking snake. Grasping
her firmly by the elbow, he dragged her into the study at the end of
the hall and pushed her up against the shut door.

 

 

“I want you to tell me what's going on here, and if you have
promised to marry either of them in exchange for their help, I swear
I'll take your head off with my bare hands,” Ruairc fumed.

 

 

“This is absurd! Every time I talk to a man, you go mad with
jealousy!”

 

 

“If it is all as innocent as you pretend, then why do they all seem
to hug and kiss you,” Ruairc shot back.

 

 

“Because,” Morgana laughed,“because I told them last night to do it
to make you jealous when I saw you trailing around after me, and
besides, we have grown up with one another. We’re one big family,
brothers and sisters, and they are offering me support, are glad to
see me back."

 

 

He glared at her, but visibly relaxed, and started to pace up and
down in front of her.

 

 

“I’m sorry if I made you angry. It was unworthy of me to treat you
thus. But Ruairc, you must understand, I'm only here to help my
family. I'm not hear to, er, resume relations between us.

 

 

"But even more important, I'm living in a man’s world once more. You
can’t lose your temper every time you see me talk to another man. If
you really loved me as you once claimed you did, you're just going
to have to trust me.”

 

 

“What about trust from you?” Ruairc hissed. “I
heard
what
you said downstairs about the MacMahons!”

 

 

“Can you blame me for being suspicious? So many of our ships are
gone, our harvests ruined! The more I talk to people around the
area, the more I realise that these bad events all happening one
after the other are
not
bad luck or misfortune. They’re a
deliberate attempt on the part of your brothers to ruin us.”

 

 

“How do you know the O’Donnells aren’t involved?” Ruairc demanded.

 

 

“They can’t be, I’ve spoken to them, and....”