The Hart and the Harp

by Sorcha MacMurrough

  “You don’t really want his support, though, do you, Brother? You want to see him dead,” Orla said, staring at him in surprise.

  “Whether I do or not is no concern of yours. I will be high king, and rule over the largest territory here in the West of Ireland. I don’t care how I get it. Tiernan will pay for having tried to take Grainne away from me, and supporting Ruairi as high king when by rights we were once his father’s overlords."

  Orla smiled smugly. “I think the situation with Grainne Maguire was the other way around, don’t you? You seduced her, even though I know your tastes don’t actually run to women. Then when she realized what a monster you were, she tried to escape to Castlegarren to get Tiernan’s protection once she had asked for a divorce, since her own family would have nothing to do with her. They couldn’t risk your enmity, now could they, Muireadach? But poor Grainne didn’t get far, did she? Only out into the courtyard, before you cut her wrists and made it look like she had done it herself.”

  Muireadach grabbed his sister by both shoulders and shook her until her teeth rattled in her head.

  “You will never repeat that again to another living soul, do you hear me, Sister! Else I shall devise a far worse fate for you than Grainne ever experienced,” he rasped.

  “Let me go now, Muireadach, or I swear I'll tell everyone." Her eyes glittered coldly. "But if you keep me sweet, buy me some new gowns and jewels, and give me a month to win Tiernan over, well, I’ll forget that I ever saw anything.”

  “All right, you little witch,” Muireadach agreed reluctantly. He pushed her away so roughly that she fell onto the floor and crashed into a settle, bruising her side badly.

  “Thank you, Brother,” Orla said sarcastically as she picked herself up off the floor.

  “Get off with you, wench, and be about it straight. Marry Tiernan or Lasaran in a month’s time or not. It’s all the same to me,” Muireadach barked. "Just never forget who has the power here. Especially now that I have Shive MacDermot."

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Back at Castlegarren, the unsuspecting Tiernan busied himself with his estate duties during the day, but he often brooded over why Shive hadn’t come home as promised. He recalled how angry she had been with him over when he had last seen her, and believed at first that pique had kept her away, though he could not for the life of his grasp what she could have been so peeved about. She was not one for strange moods, but nor could he understand how badly his alternating coolness and anger had wounded her.

  But after another week without her by his side, Tiernan swallowed his pride and eventually sent to Rathnamagh to ask Shive when she was coming home.

  Mahon, alarmed at the purport of the message, went charging over to Castlegarren as fast as his horse could carry him.

  He demanded an interview with Tiernan, and stated without preamble as soon as he entered his presence, “What do you mean, Shive isn’t here? Tiernan, this is serious! I saw Shive out of the gates myself, on the road to this castle ten days ago. How could she have failed to get here safely?”

  “I don’t understand it myself,” Tiernan muttered. “We’ll send out men to search.”

  Tiernan summoned Cian to organise some of the troops to cover every inch of land from Rathnamagh to Castlegarren. Just as they were making the preparations, Lasaran and Orla entered the great hall.

  Once they had listened to the news of Shive’s disappearance, they both assumed long dejected faces, and kept casting meaningful glances at each other, until Lasaran finally said, with seeming reluctance, “I’m sorry to have to say this, Brother, but if you send the men out to search, you’ll only look even more foolish than you already do.”

  “What do you mean, foolish? Get out of my way, Lasaran, I haven’t time for your nonsense. Shive is missing,” Tiernan insisted, trying to push past his brother, who was blocking his way.

  “Shive isn’t missing, Tiernan. That’s what I keep trying to tell you.”

  “What are you talking about? Mahon says she left her Rathnamagh days ago, and yet never arrived here!” Tiernan practically shouted in exasperation, running his fingers through his ebony hair.

  “That’s because Shive wasn’t coming here, she, well...” Orla trailed off suggestively.

  “What is it you’re saying?” Tiernan demanded.

  “It’s common knowledge now. Shive’s eloped with Ruairi,” Lasaran lied.

  “No, I don’t believe it! She would never!” Tiernan exploded, grabbing his brother by the throat and shaking him like a dog.

  Mahon hastened to push the two of them apart, but Tiernan was in a towering rage, and he was too overwhelmed by the accusation against the two cousins to know what to believe.

  “We all saw them together the day of her inauguration. I know you're hurt at her betrayal, Tiernan.” Orla smiled winsomely. “But you must admit, you had your suspicions that they were far more to each other than mere cousins.”

  “I don’t believe this. You’re trying to tell me that Shive ran off with Ruairi?” Tiernan repeated incredulously.

  “Some of our men were in the woods hunting that day. They saw the two of them together with their own eyes. I can summon them for you if you like,” Orla offered.

  “Well, I don’t believe it ,” Mahon insisted. “Bring these witnesses forward, and get them to swear to it!”

  Orla did as Mahon had instructed, and sent to her estate at Bothandun for the perjurers. The four men Orla and Lasaran had bribed were only too happy to repeat the story they had been supplied with, until in the end even Mahon began to have his doubts about Shive’s character.

  “I can’t believe Shive would do such a thing. I'm sure she loved you,” Mahon sighed. “It makes no sense. She took nothing with her apart from the barest essentials.”

  “I thought I loved her, but I’ve been a fool all over again, just as I was the first time with Grainne,” Tiernan hissed, shaking his head, and cursing the day he and Shive were ever born.

  Then he looked up at the others’ inquiring eyes, and growled, “Go on all of you, get out!”

  “I’m sorry Tiernan, truly. I never wanted to cause you such upset. But you’re better off knowing the truth now, than finding out later,” Lasaran said quietly, with seeming sincerity.

  “Leave me, all of you!” Tiernan demanded again, when he saw Mahon and Lasaran lingering.

  Lasaran scurried away guiltily, but Mahon remained at Tiernan’s side.

  Mahon shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Tiernan. Really, I had no idea. I guess that leaves me as head of the family now. I can tell you one thing, it’s not a role I relish.”

  “No, I don’t blame you, Mahon. All the responsibilities, all the difficult decisions are now going to have to be yours,” Tiernan said glumly as he stared out the window, and wished he could just stop feeling the anguish which burnt in his breast.

  “That’s why I don’t understand her just leaving like that. She had so many great plan for both our families.”

  “I think she and Ruairi loved each other all along, and just couldn’t help it,” Tiernan tried to say charitably, though it cost him a great deal of effort.

  “Tiernan, I’d like to think we’ve begun to trust each other enough to become friends in spite of this. I wouldn’t want our families to go back to being at each other’s throats again,” Mahon said in a conciliatory tone.

  Tiernan raised his head then and frowned. “What? No, no of course not. I can’t really blame you for all of this, now can I, Mahon? Shive and Ruairi knew what they were doing. I just wish she had asked for a divorce straight out, instead of making me a laughingstock in front of everyone all over again.”

  “Maybe she thought you wouldn’t let her go,” Mahon remarked quietly.

  Tiernan hurled all of the books and papers on his desk onto the floor with an angry sweep of his arm. “You’re damned right I wouldn’t have! She was my wife, and what is mine, I keep!”

  Mahon, alarmed, stepped backwards. “I’m sorry again, Tiernan, about
all this. But I beg you, in the interests of peace and stability for us all, don’t go after Ruairi. Shive was a free woman. She had the right to choose, didn’t she? After all, it wasn’t as if you ever wanted to marry her in the first place, or have her as the mother of your children.”

  Tiernan laughed bitterly then, so stinging were Mahon’s innocently spoken words. He had to cover his eyes to prevent the other man from seeing his tears.

  In truth he had been thinking over what he'd said to Shive the last time they had spoken, and had taken her criticism of his ideas on marriage to heart.

  “The last thing she said to me was something to the effect of me wanted children, of being allowed to choose her own destiny. And of my not being able to control her no matter how hard I tried. I guess she knew that she was leaving. I was so harsh and unyielding, as she put it, regarding children and our marriage, that there was no way on earth she was going to come back to me. And no way she was going to tell me to my face that she was eloping with Ruairi." Tiernan let his head fall into his hands and sat there brooding for some time in grim silence.

  Mahon decided it was best to leave him on his own. “I’ll see you soon, Tiernan. Take care of yourself. Once again, I’m sorry. If she had planned to elope with Ruairi, Shive never gave a single hint or sign, nor confided in me. I hope you believe that.”

  “I do, Mahon. Thank you for being so concerned, and for coming to see me,” Tiernan said, raising his hand to shake the young man's.

  “If there’s anything--”

  Tiernan shook his head. “No, nothing. I'll just have to try to get over it the best I can. After all, it wasn’t as if we were ever really married, now was it? She never loved me. It was just a political marriage,” Tiernan sighed, and felt as though he were going to be sick.

  Mahon disappeared quietly out of the room, and shook his head. He knew his cousin too well to ever believe she had been creeping around behind her husband's back. Orla and Lasaran had put together a plausible tale for anyone who didn't know her well. Now Tiernan, insecure in her love, believed the tale. And was wounded enough to accept it at face value, and not even dig deeper.

  He mounted his horse, and tried not to let the cold hand of fear squeeze his heart. He started drawing up in his mind a list of his best trackers t search for any trace of his beloved cousin.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  While Tiernan and Mahon tried to recover from the shock of her disappearance and what seemed to be Shive’s elopement with Ruairi, Shive languished in the cellar of the O’Rourkes' main castle at Bothandun.

  She was fed nothing but thin gruel, and was frequently ‘interrogated’ by Muireadach himself, who loved inflicting punishment upon women, and was also eager to find out as much as he could about Shive’s fortifications, and Tiernan’s as well.

  He was particularly interested in the layout of Castlegarren, for though his sister had been visiting there for some time, and Lasaran was Tiernan’s brother, he knew they weren’t interested in anything to do with fortifications. Shive, by all accounts a fine warrior, would be able to tell Muireadach more if only he could get her to talk.

  Shive shielded her distended abdomen from the blows, but by the end of the first week of her captivity, she began to fear for her baby’s life as well as her own.

  The man who served her food, Oran, an older man, took pity on her and began to smuggle extra food to Shive when no one else was looking. He also occasionally reproved Muireadach for being too rough with Shive.

  “That’s not the way you tame a woman,” Oran said sarcastically, when Muireadach was being particularly brutal one day.

  Muireadach grinned lewdly, and then began to unbuckle his sword from around his waist. “True enough, old man. I can think of a better way. Though I can’t see the pleasure in it myself. Women always give in to me after...”

  “No, not that way either, you fool,” Oran scolded roundly. “Neither method was too successful on your wife, now was it?”

  Muireadach remained dangerously silent for a few moments.

  Shive looked from one man to the other in alarm, fearing for her own safety, frightened lest the two men should begin a sword fight in such an enclosed space.

  Muireadach shrugged seemingly nonchalantly, and climbed the ladder to the upper story without another word. “Perhaps you’re right," he called down. " I know most of what I need to about Castlegarren anyway. My new spy at Rathnamagh can get me the rest.” With a sinister laugh, he vanished.

  Shive stared at Oran for a few moments, rubbing her sore ribs. “Thank you. He would have raped me for certain if you hadn’t intervened. But why did you? You know what his temper is like,” Shive said quietly as she nursed her sore jaw and sat down on the filthy straw wearily.

  “I knew his father, and have been loyal to this family for years. But I never imagined he would turn out like this, so bitter and twisted and cruel. Besides, Tiernan O’Hara will be livid if anything ever happens to you.”

  “Or the child I carry,” Shive revealed, taking a chance on the old man feeling even more sympathy for her.

  “Child! Good God!” Oran muttered. “Why did you not speak, then, tell Muireadach of your condition?”

  “He wouldn’t go easier on me, if that’s what you think. On the contrary, Oran, I believe that if he knew I was carrying the possible heir to the houses of MacDermot and O’Hara inside me, he would kill me as surely as night follows day,” Shive said. “I’m in your hands now. If you tell them, I’m a dead woman.”

  He looked unutterably weary now. “Nay, I won’t tell. Muireadach’s wife, Grainne, was beaten by Muireadach and his men all the time. They all treated her cruelly, though Muireadach himself has never had much use for women. His perverted interests lie elsewhere. Poor Grainne lost the child she was carrying, and died soon after trying to escape from the marriage.

  “Muireadach doesn’t know I saw it all. He took his dagger and slashed her wrists, and left her to bleed to death like a slaughtered pig. He didn’t want Tiernan to get her back after he had deliberately seduced her into thinking he loved her.

  “Muireadach doesn’t love anyone but himself. He hates your husband for being more handsome, brave and more successful than he could have ever hoped to be. It was Tiernan who gave him his scar, you know,” Oran revealed in a hurried whisper.

  “I had no idea,” Shive sighed, now realizing just how bitter the rivalry between Muireadach and Tiernan must have been.

  “Aye, they were childhood friends. One day Muireadach picked a quarrel with Tiernan’s youngest brother, Cian, I think he is called, and tried to kill him, though he was only a tiny lad at the time. Tiernan took up the challenge. I must admit he could have killed Muireadach easily. Instead he gave him the scar to remind him of the fact that he could have taken his life if he had chosen to. It was also as a reminder to Muireadach that he was dishonorable and never did fight fairly even as a child. To him, winning was always everything, the only thing. With Tiernan, well, love, honor, loyalty is paramount.”

  Shive stared at the old man in wonder. “If Muireadach is as bad as you say, then why do you stay here?”

  “I keep hoping I might have some restraining influence upon him. He loved his father, and respects me. Besides, I’m an O’Rourke. Where would I go if I did decide to leave Muireadach to his evil ways?”

  “You could come home with me. I always have need of good, loyal trustworthy men of honor in my household. As does my husband Tiernan. Please, Oran, help me escape before it’s too late,” Shive begged urgently,.

  Oran handed her a bowl of food, and then clanged shut the iron door of her small cell. He gazed at her through the bars for a brief second, hen nodded. “I shall think about it, my lady. Even if I do agree, it will take time to plan. If we’re caught, we’re both dead.”

  He slipped away into the darkness of the dungeon, leaving Shive aching, freezing and feeling very much alone, and longing for Tiernan with every fibre of her being.

  Another week passed, during
which time Oran made no sign to her that he was anything other than her jailer. At least Muireadach’s brutal visits didn’t occur as regularly as they had done, and Oran prevented any of Muireadach’s men from trying to vent their lusts upon her by standing guard almost night and day himself. Shive was able to eat more now that her jaw was less sore, and was able to sleep more since she wasn’t in continual agony from her bruises.

  At last, one evening at the beginning of August when Oran was certain they were not being overheard, he whispered, “I’ve been making plans. Muireadach goes from the castle a week today. They say he has an important meeting in the north. There will be so much tumult at the time of the preparations, it will be the perfect chance to slip away.”