by Alisa Adams
"And what if she punished you by refusing you marital congress?" she went on relentlessly. "Would you rape her? Do some more beating? Tie her up? You are entitled to do all those things if your wife disobeys you, sir. Under those circumstances, I would say that a man owns a woman. And if a woman has a fine mind like mine, but is not permitted to study or improve it in any way, would that not be very frustrating? Would you like to be a woman?"
He again turned to look at her in amazement.
"I have never thought of it like that," he replied, looking into her eyes which had now become blue-gray like the approaching storm clouds. "Indeed, Mistress Montgomery, you have a fine mind. I apologize for offending you."
She smiled at him sideways. "No, it's I who should be sorry. It's just that I get so angry sometimes."
They rode on in silence, and presently the wind freshened, and it began to rain.
"Come with me!" Alexa called to him, urging Jenny into a canter.
* * *
It was another mile to the castle, but they covered it quickly and arrived, not drenched to the bone but not dry either.
Alexa gave their cloaks to a servant then went to order them some warm spiced wine. She led him into a cozy parlor just off the big entrance hall, and they sat down to wait for the drinks.
"You are a very passionate woman," Gregor said, "which is strange because you look so innocent and calm. I like passion."
"You just said you didn't!" Alexa protested.
Gregor shrugged. "Maybe I hadn't seen it properly before." He smiled at her. "Lorraine is a calm and settled person. I do not foresee too many quarrels in our marriage."
Alexa smiled with mischievously.
"And you want some?" she asked, eyes twinkling.
"Not all the time!" He laughed.
"Whenever you feel the need of one you can come over here and argue with me," she suggested. "Then you will have a happy marriage!"
Gregor frowned at her. "You are truly a mad, mad woman!"
He laughed again.
"Stay for dinner!" Alexa offered on impulse.
"I cannot," he replied regretfully. "Father has no idea where I am. But thank you." He accepted the wine gratefully, and they sipped for a while in silence.
"Do you think," Alexa said suddenly, "that we should convene a meeting of all the landlords and tenants in the area to plan a strategy to deal with the Sutherlands?"
"I think it is a wonderful idea. But will they listen to an eighteen-year-old lass?"
"No – but they will listen to a big twenty-something man like you!"
"Twenty-eight," he supplied, smiling. "It is a very good idea, and I am surprised that no one has thought of it before, but I suppose the problem has never ever been so bad. One of Laird MacKnight's best men was killed by a Sutherland claymore at the last encounter. The situation is dire. I will suggest it to my father, and we will arrange it before there is any more trouble. Now, I must be away while there is still daylight. Good day, mistress. It has been an interesting conversation!"
She laughed.
"Indeed, it has, sir," she agreed. "Travel safely."
* * *
As she watched him ride away, Alexa told herself over and over again: He is betrothed, Alexa, and you are with Graham. He is not for you. But somehow she felt no better.
To console herself, she conjured up the image of a darkly handsome Frenchman with an exotic French accent. It was her favorite fantasy for times when she felt a little down, as she did now, since she had always had a secret fancy for them. She felt better at once.
6
Strategies
Iain Drummond was very amenable to the idea of gathering all the lairds in his castle to solve the Sutherland problem. Alexa said nothing to him about the original idea being her own, so he was quite content to allow Gregor to take the credit.
Gregor's conscience gnawed at him a little, but he accepted that Alexa wanted it that way, and acquiesced. The lairds were less pleased when Gregor insisted that Alexa sit in on the proceedings, arguing that this was not the place for someone as young as eighteen, and especially not a woman!
Gregor had suggested the meeting, however, and so had the final say.
"Gentlemen," he said sternly, "Mistress Alexa has a role to play in our plan, and it is my wish that she should be here. If any one of you has an objection please let them voice it, or else hold his peace or leave, whichever suits best."
He looked at Alexa, who was sitting in a corner wearing her boys' tunic and hose. With her hair tied back severely from her face, she looked just like a stable lad. There was murmuring and growling for a moment, then a collective, if grudging, nod.
Graham, sitting beside her, patted her knee and smiled at her proudly.
"May I go on?" Gregor asked.
"Aye!" came the reply.
Gregor cleared his throat.
"You all know why we are here," he began. "For nigh on ten years now, the Sutherland family has wreaked havoc among these hills and valleys. Many of our tenant farmers are obliged to pay them tribute or suffer their vengeance, and some are actually starving because of it.
“Their wives and daughters have been carried away, and heaven alone knows what has happened to them? As well as this, our own livelihood is suffering because our tenants cannot pay their rents. This is insufferable.
“We have all tried to do something about it, but we have never come together as one force before. We have never used our combined strength against these monsters, and now is the time that we must, so I need your ideas.
“Here is what we have done already, which has failed. We have searched high and low for the entrance, and have never found it, but it is there, and what is there can be found somehow.
“We have tried besieging the stronghold, but they have so many supplies there it is impossible, and because they could come and go as they pleased, we could not stop more getting in. Clearly, we will have to think of other strategies. Can anyone think of anything we have not already tried?"
There was quiet and then some mumbling, but no one made any suggestions. Alexa waited, then stood up. There were indignant noises from a few of the most conservative among the members, but no one said a word.
"I think we should approach this in a different way," she suggested. "Let us divide it into pieces and find a way to solve each one. If we then add all the pieces together, we should have a whole plan. Agreed?"
The lairds looked at each other.
"Let us hear her out," said Laird MacKnight. "I have no wish to lose any more good men to this loathsome family!"
Alexa smiled at him, then bowed.
The laird smiled back, his cheeks turning quite pink.
"Now, here are the problems we face," Alexa began. "We have a heavily fortified stronghold on a hill which is unapproachable from all sides. How do we solve that problem?
“We have a band of at least twenty people, mostly men and all heavily armed, who can fire at will at us down below. How do we solve that problem?
“They can seemingly get in and out at will, source supplies and get them in. How do we solve that problem?
“We do not know what any of them looks like – since they keep themselves heavily disguised all the time and do not speak amongst themselves unless necessary – and then they disguise their voices."
She paused.
"There is a reason that the Sutherlands have eluded capture for so long. Do not underestimate them. They are cunning, and we have often not given them enough credit for being the clever strategists that they are. We must be just as cunning. Do you think that the Sutherlands go out to attack willy-nilly?"
She looked around and saw heads shaking.
"Of course they do not," she went on. "If they attacked Jamie Aidanson's farm yesterday, there would be nothing there for them today so they will leave it alone. But if they have not attacked Archie Kerr's farm for three months, it is a likely target. If we concentrate men and firepower on those areas where an attack is likel
y, we will not have to spread ourselves so thinly, and each one of us must be heavily armed with a claymore, a dagger, and a crossbow.
“The further away we can keep them from the house the better, and crossbows are our deadliest weapons, but better at a distance than at close range."
"You speak as though you are going to be there yourself, mistress." One of the lairds laughed.
"That is because I will be, my Laird," she replied tartly. "And lest you underestimate my ability with these weapons." She indicated to her claymore, knife, and crossbow. “I invite you to stand against yonder wall, and I will use you for target practice!"
Graham frowned and looked at her fearfully, but she did not even glance at him.
There was a ripple of laughter, but the laird's eyes widened, and he calmed down at once. Alexa cast a threatening glance around the table.
"Would anyone else like to take up the challenge?" she invited. "No? Good."
She took a deep breath and began again. "We cannot see their faces. We can either count on some luck and manage to tear one of their masks off, or we can capture one of them. I prefer the latter. We can take him dead or alive, but I prefer alive, because we need information from him, whereas if he is dead, it's only possible to see his face, but it is better than nothing."
Gregor and Graham were surprised at Alexa's cool ruthlessness. This was a side of her they had not seen before – indeed, they had never heard any woman speak like this at all. It sounded like a Latin lesson, so cool and formal was it. They listened with amazement and saw that all the faces around them were wearing the same expression of rapt attention.
"Lastly, and most importantly, there is the matter of the entrance tunnel," Alexa went on. "I need each of you who has had any dealings with a previous attempt to find it to come and see me."
No one commented on her remark, but it seemed that Alexa had now become the de facto leader.
"If we can find it, we can ambush them. If we can find it, we can starve them out. The only problem is that I know there are small children in there and I do not want them hurt. Now, does anyone have any other ideas?"
"We could place a spy inside," Laird McKinnon said thoughtfully.
"The only way to get him inside would be to have him captured," Gregor said. "We could not ask a woman. She would be cruelly used by all those savages. Hector Sutherland is a monster by all accounts."
"We know he is," Alexa said grimly. "Thank you, Laird McKinnon. It is certainly a plan worth thinking about. Perhaps not a spy though. Perhaps a saboteur? Someone who could put some noxious substance in there and choke them all out. Something like that? I wish we had someone on the inside though. The trouble is that we have no idea where that entrance is."
"Mistress," Laird Duncan said, frowning, "have you ever heard the expression 'hidden in plain sight'? Perhaps it is so obvious that it is before our very eyes, but we cannot see it."
'My Laird – I think you have an idea there!" Alexa smiled at him, and he looked very pleased with himself.
"So – I think what we should do first is find that tunnel, and from there we can go forward. But let us make no presumptions – it may be hidden in plain sight as Laird Duncan suggests, or it may be very cunningly concealed. We must organize search parties to quarter the ground around the stronghold, but let us refuel ourselves first before we expire from starvation!"
* * *
The lairds filed out after a few more minutes to go to dinner, and many of them were discussing Alexa.
"A fine young lady," Laird MacKnight said keenly. "A good mind, and pretty too. Is she betrothed to anyone?"
"Not betrothed, no," Gregor answered. "She is being courted by Graham Hamilton though. Look – he's walking beside her, and I almost feel sorry for him."
"Pity," Laird MacKnight said sadly and sighed. "My Alec is looking for a suitable bride."
Gregor laughed. "Trust me, my Laird, that woman is not suitable for any but the strongest man."
Laird MacKnight raised his eyebrows.
"Sadly, my Alec is a weak man," the laird admitted.
And a fat man, Gregor thought, laughing inwardly. Alexa would not look at him twice.
* * *
Having been the outcast at the beginning of the evening, Alexa was now the center of attention. Gregor and Iain made sure that she was not receiving too many invitations to suitable young men's houses. If it were left up to the lairds, she would already have been married off half a dozen times!
At dinner, Alexa was much in demand as more and more ideas were bandied back and forth. Most were impractical, some dangerous, and others so fanciful that they had no hope of success.
But at least they are thinking, she thought. At least there is now the will to move forward.'
If nothing at all else was achieved, that was progress.
"I think you have stirred up a fire," Gregor remarked dryly as they walked back into the hall.
"It is time someone did," she replied tartly.
Iain Drummond, hearing this, frowned. For all his faults, he was a caring brother to his sister-in-law, and he loved Moira so much that, for her sake, he would risk much to keep Alexa out of harm's way.
* * *
When they had all sat down again, Gregor took over.
"Lady and gentlemen," he began. "We have worked out the most immediate plan. We know which farms are likely to be on the Sutherland's list of targets next so we will leave a force at each one of these. We shoot to kill as many as we can, and all of those left alive we capture. We will interrogate them by fair means or foul, and after that, they will have a fair trial and hang or go to prison. But we must find that tunnel. So how are we going to do it?"
He sat down.
Alexa looked around then put up her hand.
"We search by night and day," she suggested, then put her hand up as objections were raised. "Yes, I know that they will see us, and they will know we are looking, but they are now overconfident, and that will make them careless. They will stand and laugh at us but do not be deterred, because as long as they are laughing, we will know that we are not close.
“When they stop laughing – then we will know we are within striking distance. But, of course, we don't know whether they will do that, so we have to have other signs. It may be too far away, in which case it makes our job extra difficult."
Gregor spoke up. "The idea Laird McKinnon put forward about a spy may have some merit. One of the family that we could turn to our own side would be best. Do we know anything about them?"
"Aye," Laird Douglas said heavily. "They are distant cousins of my wife, and I am ashamed to be related to them, however distantly. We know that the father's name is Hector and that he has three older sons who are, I think, in their twenties. I do not know their names. He has a daughter after that and a gaggle of small younger children. It is said that he behaves very brutally towards them, and none of them has ever been outside the Sutherland fortress."
There was a thoughtful silence.
"The daughter?" Alexa suggested. "A brutal man usually picks on women and children first."
There was a murmur of agreement around the table.
"And how do we speak to her?" Iain Drummond asked. "As I said, the family never comes out of the fortress except on raiding parties."
"And we have to assume that she will be hostile." Alexa sighed. "I cannot think of a single thing."
Everyone began to stretch and yawn. There was a feeling of deep despondency.
"What do girls like?" Gregor asked thoughtfully. "What would girls wish for if they could wish for anything?"
Everyone looked at Alexa.
"A handsome lover," she said. "A pony, lots of pretty dresses, bonbons, diamonds."
She looked around to see what reaction her suggestions had.
"I think," Iain said, "that we can rule out the pretty dresses, bonbons, and diamonds. A pony would be stolen by the Sutherlands themselves. Hmmm… Handsome lover? Who will it be?"
They all look
ed at Gregor, then at Graham. They were the two most handsome men in the room.
They both confirmed their assent to the project. The only problem was choosing between them!
"Let Mistress Alexa decide!" Laird McKinnon said jovially. "After all, she has the best eye for these things!"
Alexa laughed.
"I would rather let the king's head decide!" she said ruefully.
"Aye!" came an enthusiastic chorus.
"Shall we ask the king's head to decide who is going?" Gregor suggested.
Alexa took a shilling out of her purse and flipped it.
"Heads!" Gregor shouted.
Alexa uncovered the face of the coin. It was the king’s head.
The two men shook hands.
"So how are we going to place the handsome lover in her path?" Laird Roberts asked.
"The wood closest to the fortress has a good vantage point," Gregor replied. "I have often seen from afar people standing there. If I could but venture a little closer, I think she will come out at some time, although we may have to wait a few days – or weeks. It is a plan of sorts. It may not work, but if it does not, we will think of another one."
7
A Meeting in the Dark
When everyone had left, Iain, Alexa, Graham, and Gregor sat by the fire for a while. They were shortly joined by Moira and fell to discussing Gregor's upcoming marriage.
"When is it going to be?" Moira asked with excitement. "You know that all we ladies love a wedding!"
All but one, Alexa thought dourly. She would do just about anything short of dying to get out of having to put on a dress and smile for simpering women and stupid men.
"October," Gregor replied. "But we want to rid these hills of the Sutherlands first."
