The Return of Black Douglas (25 page)

She sighed wearily. She had no choice but to leave Màrrach. A little heartbreak now was preferable to a huge one later. With the help of Alysandir’s sisters, Isobella began to plot her escape.

It was Barbara who went to her brothers with the news and to enlist their help in escorting Isobella and Bradan to Duart to live with the Macleans. But they refused.

Finally, Isobella said, “Then, Bradan and I will go alone.”

“Ye willna be able to get a horse from the stable,” Drust said.

“Then we shall walk.”

“Ye dinna ken where Duart Castle is. How will ye find yer way?” Colin asked.

“Sooner or later we should meet someone who could help us,” Isobella replied.

Drust and Colin exchanged glances, and Ronan said, “I will escort ye to Duart.”

“Do ye realize what ye are saying?” Drust asked. “Alysandir might disown ye and cast ye oot of the clan.”

“Aye, I ken he might, but Isobella and our sisters are right. ’Tis wrong the way Alysandir has treated his own son. Bradan is a good lad. He doesna deserve to be an outcast. We are his uncles, and I am ashamed that none of us have come forward to acknowledge that before now. Since none of ye will take the step, I will. If Alysandir casts me aside, Bradan will have at least one Mackinnon uncle residing wi’ him at Duart.”

“We canna let ye take the burden on yer shoulders. We are all Bradan’s uncles,” Drust said, “and we will all help him. Probably for the last time, for I will be an outcast when Alysandir realizes I am the one who made the decision for all of us.” Then he looked at Isobella with a grin and said, “’Tis the right thing to do, aye?”

“Aye,” Isobella said and hugged him. “I love you, Drust, for what ye are doing.”

“What aboot us?” Colin and Ronan asked, and the twins chimed in.

“I love all of you,” she said, and realized suddenly that it was true.

Later, the three sisters came up with a plan to get Alysandir out of the way so he wouldn’t see them leave. Isobella and Bradan hid out of sight, while Drust and his brothers planned a hunt and rode away. When Alysandir could not find Isobella, he asked Barbara if she had seen her. “Not since she left to go down to the cave with Marion and Sybilla.”

As soon as he departed, Isobella and Bradan fetched their horses from the stables and rode away for their planned rendezvous with Alysandir’s brothers. Once they caught up with them, Isobella said, “I am worried that Alysandir and his men will find us and this will all be for nothing.”

“I wouldna be worrit aboot that,” Drust said, “for Ronan took the big lock from the dungeon and put it on the door where the saddles and bridles are kept. It will take them several hours to tear doon the door, for they canna break the lock.”

“I am so sorry I agreed to your helping. I had no idea just what we were all getting into.”

“Contention is the bone we brothers cut our teeth on,” Drust said. “He will be angry and will see we are punished, but he will forgive us because deep in the best part o’ Alysandir’s heart, he will know we did the right thing.”

Isobella said a prayer right then and there that God would put the perfect woman for him in his life, for he deserved nothing less.

***

When Alysandir arrived at the cave and saw only Sybilla and Marion, he knew he had been duped even before he asked, “And where, pray tell, is Isobella?”

“She is no’ here,” Marion said, sounding, she knew, like the idiot she was.

Chapter 28

“Will you walk into my parlour?”

said a spider to a fly:

“’Tis the prettiest little parlour

that ever you did spy.”

—“The Spider and the Fly,” 1829
Mary Howitt (1799–1888)
English poet, author, and translator

As gently as a blown-out torch, the sun slipped beneath the horizon. The wind stirred in the trees, their lofty branches dark silhouettes against a darkening sky. And all around them was nothing but the clip-clop of hooves and the silence of the night.

It was almost midnight when they arrived at Duart Castle, standing proud and defiant on a crag like a sentinel guarding the Sound of Mull. Isobella looked at the steps leading to the gatehouse while Drust spoke to the guards inside. She waited, fighting the panic that rose to tighten like hands around her throat.

When he did not return, a strange sense of foreboding threatened her iron will, eroding the feeling that she had made the right decision to come here. Doubt filled her with despair. She longed for the familiar surroundings of Màrrach. She glanced at the pale face of Bradan, and although he did not show it, she knew the lad was scared.
What have I done?
She glanced around her. The brothers were quiet, but there was no hostility in their silence.

At last, Drust returned with two guards and they were escorted to the entrance of the castle. A hoof pawed at the cobblestones as Ronan helped her down. Bradan’s horse tossed its head, and the metal bit clanked as Drust lifted the lad and took him by the hand. Isobella hugged Colin, Gavin, and Grim, saddened that she would never see them again.

“My heart breaks,” was all she could manage, and then she pulled away and joined the others, drawing her cloak more closely about her as the four of them were escorted inside.

The evening meal was long past, and everyone was abed. The interior light was smoky and dim; the late night sounds strange, the scent unfamiliar. The loneliness that filled her quickly changed to fear as she listened to Drust and Ronan refusing to hand them over to anyone but Angus Maclean.

As they waited for the chief of Clan Maclean, her hands felt clammy and cold. Somewhere in the castle a door slammed. Footfalls echoed down passages
.
Imagined images of the Maclean swirled around in her head. She envisioned him as Blackbeard with lit cannon fuses in his hair, the ends of his pigtails smoking, pistols jammed in his bandoliers, and a bloody sword in his hand.

She heard voices close by, but only one that was gruff and authoritative. She swallowed a gulp of air. She glanced at the doorway and the black depths behind it. A candle appeared. Her gaze was frozen upon the frame of candlelight centered in the doorway. And then, a shadow appeared, growing larger and darker as it drew near.

Isobella watched, dry mouthed, as Angus Maclean walked into the room. He was the stuff of myths and fairy-tales, the quintessential monster. His face was expressionless, as if it had been carved from granite. His cheekbones were prominent and his brow broad, and she couldn’t decide if he looked like he had just stepped from the pages of mythology or a nightmare.

She was right to compare him with Blackbeard, for he did embody the pirate. He was tall, dark, and swarthy, with shaggy black hair and heavy-lidded, piercing black eyes that missed nothing. Upon first inspection, his gaze moved rapidly from Isobella to Bradan before it rested upon Drust and finally Ronan.

“And to what do I owe the honor of a visit from the Mackinnons at this hour?” the Maclean asked.

“I have brought Isobella Douglas, the sister of Elisabeth. She wishes to be united with her sister,” Drust said.

The Maclean looked Isobella over. She felt like a prisoner on the auction block. “Yer sister spoke the truth when she said she had a twin.” He smiled triumphantly and hooked his thumbs proudly in his belt. “’Twould seem I now have the complete set.”

That sent a cold shiver over her, and she glanced at Drust, who purposefully did not look at her.

“And the lad?”

“Bradan,” Drust said, and Isobella saw the muscle work in his jaw and saw, too, Ronan’s clenched fists.

The Maclean’s gaze rested upon Bradan for some time. Isobella was willing to bet that he had already figured out the lad was Alysandir’s son, but if he did, he did not mention it. Instead, he turned to the two guards at the door.

“Take the lass and the lad to the quarters of Elisabeth Douglas and see they are well cared for.”

She was sure everyone in the castle could hear the release of her long-held breath. When she glanced at Angus Maclean, she saw amusement gleaming in the depths of in his black eyes. She turned and hugged Drust and Ronan, and thanked Drust for at least the tenth time for bringing them here.

“I will never forget this. Never. I know I don’t need to tell you… all of you, how much I love you, but what you don’t know is that I will miss you every day of the rest of my life.”

And then she was hurrying up the stairs, wiping away tears as she held tightly to Bradan’s hand. They followed behind the two guards, and then they turned down a long, dark hallway.

Elisabeth’s room was at the far end, but that did not matter. Isobella felt like she was walking on air. The guard rapped swiftly upon the door with the hilt of his sword, so loudly that she was certain it echoed throughout the castle.

“Just a damn minute! Do you think I’m deaf?”

Isobella smiled. Elisabeth!

The door swung open. “You better have a good reason for… Oh, my God! Izzy!” She grabbed her sister in a bear hug. Isobella was not sure if she squeezed Elisabeth tighter or if it was the other way around. She would have said something, but Elisabeth beat her to the punch.

“I never thought this would happen. How did you get here? How did you know where I was? Come in!”

Isobella followed Elisabeth through the door, and Bradan accompanied her.

Elisabeth looked down at him. “Well, he cannot be yours, so where did you find him?”

“He is Alysandir’s son,” she whispered.

Her brows rose in unison with the sly smile. “And Alysandir is obviously someone important… to you, I take it?”

Isobella gave her a miserable half-smile. “Most of the time.”

Elisabeth laughed. “Oh my, I cannot wait to hear of it. Come, sit down and tell me everything that’s happened since we’ve been apart.” She looked at Bradan again and said, “Let me put down some bedding for the lad.” She had barely spoken the words when someone knocked on the door.

Elisabeth opened it, and in walked a servant with the things Isobella and Bradan had brought with them from Màrrach and a stack of bedding for Bradan. There were also a tray of cold food and a container of wine. Isobella wasn’t hungry, but they made a pallet for Bradan by the fire. They watched him eat while the two of them talked over a goblet of wine. Later, Isobella glanced at Bradan and saw he was asleep.

Elisabeth and Isobella sat in the bed talking.

“How have they treated you?” Isobella asked. “I was so happy to see you weren’t locked in the dungeon or the tower.”

“Oh, never that. Actually, they have treated me like one of the family. Angus explained his grievance was not against me, that I was…”

“A pawn.”

“Exactly.” Elisabeth’s brows rose questioningly. “You have also been free to come and go?”

“Yes, except for this trip. Alysandir’s brothers escorted us here, unbeknownst to him. They will not have an easy time of it.”

“And other than this trip, you were treated fairly?”

“Of course. I wasn’t allowed outside the castle gates without an escort, but I went anyway.”

Elisabeth laughed. “I do the same.”

Isobella smiled. “So, is there anyone special in your life?”

“No. I think Angus has ideas of a match between his son, Fergus, and myself, but that will never happen. But that is another story. Right now, I want to hear about Alysandir. Is he handsome?”

“Oh, Elisabeth, you have no idea.”

“Oh, my, you’re in love.”

Isobella sighed, “I’m afraid so.”

“Then why are you here?”

“It’s too long a story to go into tonight. Have you told them how we arrived here?” Isobella asked.

“You mean the time travel?”

“Yes.”

Elisabeth said, “Are you crazy? I don’t want to be burned at the stake.”

“No one quizzed you about our sudden appearance in the glen?”

“No, but I can tell that you were.”

“Yes,” Isobella said. “Alysandir is smart and very observant. He immediately began asking questions.” Then, she explained how things went until she told him the truth.

“You’re lucky you weren’t thrown in the dungeon, and braver than I,” Elisabeth said. “Although it has been difficult at times for me to keep my mouth shut. I’ve had some close calls when I referred to something in our time, but so far I’ve been able to charm my way out of it.”

“Have they commented on your strange speech?”

“Yes, I explained our father was a linguist who studied many different varieties of English spoken elsewhere. I said he devoted himself to reconstructing the evolution of English to a more pure form, that our vocabulary and pronunciation was different from everyone else.”

“My, you do excel at fabrication.”

Elisabeth nodded. “How about you? What did you use for an excuse?”

Isobella spoke of the shipwreck that never happened, and Elisabeth laughed. “Lord, if our parents only knew what a couple of creative liars they raised.”

Elisabeth shrugged. “At least our stories are similar. I didn’t know how long I would be here, but I didn’t want my head lopped off the moment I arrived. Necessity, as they say.” She put her hand on Isobella’s. “Do you think Douglas will always be evasive about our going back home?”

Isobella replied, “I feel we are caught in a battle between gods and mortals. Perhaps Douglas is a puppet on a string the same as we are.”

“Or he may be the one pulling our strings,” Elisabeth said. “Is he still being evasive?”

Isobella nodded. “Most of the time. Have you heard from him?”

Elisabeth smiled. “Just once. On the way here when he told me…”

“…
Fear na ye
?”

Elisabeth nodded. “How often do you talk to him?”

Isobella shrugged. “It varies. He has a way of popping up uninvited and then staying away when I summon him. He laughs one moment and jerks my chain the next. I am amazed to see such affected trickery in a ghost.” She paused a moment, then said, “You only heard him speak, but you haven’t seen him?”

“Not even a twinkle of one of his blue eyes. I don’t think he likes me. I wasn’t very nice to him that day in the glen.”

“He can be a bit strange sometimes,” Isobella replied.

“Everything about our coming here is strange,” Elisabeth said, “but what do you mean?”

“Just that I’m not always certain just whose side he is on.”

Suddenly Elisabeth hugged her. “Oh, Izzy, life has been lonely without you. I have missed you so much. You won’t believe it, but I’ve learned to be more patient, so that now I’m no longer saying that when I see you, ‘I’m going to poke both your eyes out for getting us into this bind.’”

Isobella laughed. “I must admit I wasn’t certain when the door opened if you would hug me or punch me flat out as you once said you wanted to do. I was afraid you would be angry or hate me for this.”

“Never,” Elisabeth said.

They talked until the sky was turning a pale grey. Isobella yawned and said, “Good night, Izzy.”

“Night, Lizzy,” Isobella said, using the pet name from their childhood before Elisabeth announced she never wanted to be called Lizzy again. When Elisabeth didn’t rebuke her, she thought her sister truly had changed. Isobella smiled and whispered, “I’m sorry I said you were the crabgrass in the lawn of my life.”

“When did you say that?”

“On our sixteenth birthday.”

Elisabeth burst out laughing. “Oh, Izzy, there will never be another you.”

The next two weeks were almost magical, with picnics and dances and boat rides. Elisabeth commented that it had not always been like that. “It’s because you’re here and he wants to make certain you remain.”

“He would let me leave if I wished?”

“You came of your own accord. You would leave the same way. There is a strange code of honor among these Scots.”

“Yes, Alysandir told me about it. I…” Isobella suddenly felt terribly nauseated. She barely made it to the chamber pot. When she felt a little better, Elisabeth made her lie down. She put a cold cloth on Izzy’s head. “How long has this been happening?”

“This is the first time. I’m just not accustomed to the food here.”

“What you aren’t accustomed to is being pregnant.”

Isobella gasped. “I can’t be pregnant.”

“You’ve had sex with Alysandir and more than once. Did you use the withdrawal method?”

Isobella’s face turned a ghastly white. “Maybe I have a bug.”