The Faithful Heart

by MacMurrough, Sorcha

  Morgana sighed in relief. “That is good news.Now, how soon can you get the men here?”

  “With those numbers plus food, we are going to have to make three full trips with all the ships.”

  “Right stop in at Ma Niadh on the way out, to give Patrick warning, and I shall see the first five ships here by dawn tomorrow?”

  “Tide and wind willing, you shall,” Tiarnach promised, and took his leave.

  Morgana scribbled some figures hastily on a scrap of paper, and then went to see Owen down in the village. Her progress was slow as she hobbled along on her bad leg, but she found him in the courtyard nearest the castle, and pulled him to one side. She informed him of Tiarnach’s astonishing news, and then began to issue orders.

  “The carts need to be harnessed, and we need food and supplies, medicine, and some able-bodied men able to fetch and carry and tend to the sick. We also have to clean out every empty house in the village, and if possible to get some families to double up. We might even need to build more houses.”

  “We'll never be able to fit them all!” Owen gasped.

  “We must try, and all of this must be kept secret. The last thing we need is for the MacMahons to find out that we know they are responsible for the piracy. Can you get the carts ready, take them to Cavan and even Armagh if need be, for more food? Here is some money, and don’t forget the household goods as well. The O’Connors and O’Donnells have pledged their support, but even they will not have enough for so many sick men.”

  “Trust me, Morgana, I shall send some men over to Cullen to help Angus, and we will be back before dark with as much food as we can carry,” Owen promised.

  Morgana stumped over to the bakery, and told Michael, “We have to get the ovens going full time. Get some men to mill the grain, and the women to help with the dough. The ships’ crews are all coming home, and we need as much food as we can manage.”

  “I will see to it, Morgana,” Michael reassured her.

  A trip to the carpenter’s shop sent the men off for firewood which would have to be sufficient for both Lisleavan and Cullen, and Morgana sent further logging crews to Ma Niadh and Tulach to supply them with fuel.

  “What on earth is happening here?” Ruairc demanded as he saw the village become a hive of activity despite the lateness of the hour.

  “Some of the ships' crews are coming home. We need to get food, bedding, and medicines organised, and a roof over their heads as well if they don’t all fit into the castle.”

  “Where have they all come from?” Ruairc puzzled.

  “Shipwrecked off the coast of Sligo. Tiarnach O’Connor has offered help to rescue them.”

  “Why the secrecy then, Morgana?” Ruairc demanded.

  She sighed and looked directly at him at last. “Because it was the MacMahons who stole their ships. Thousands of men have been abandoned on the rocks for months,” Morgana said, deciding to gamble on Ruairc’s love and tell him the whole shocking truth.

  Ruairc gasped, and he fingered his sword hilt convulsively. “Those bastards...”

  “My feelings exactly, but we shall just have to bide our time, Ruairc. As the French say, ‘Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.’ If your family don’t know the men have been found, they won’t expect reprisals. I will not be drawn into a fight with them now, not when I have two thousand sick men to attend to.”

  “We can only fit seven hundred here inside the castle itself, and even then they would be crammed in,” Ruairc observed.

  “I’m clearing houses in the village now, and getting the carpenters to build more. Can you organise any sort of bedding you can manage, hay, anything, on the upper floors? I’m going to go to the kitchen to see to soups, stews and as much meat as I can roast in the ovens,” Morgana said as she headed back to the castle gates.

  “Morgana, whatever you wish me to do, I shall. You have only to ask.This is some homecoming,” he added in an undertone, which cause her to look up to meet his piercing emerald gaze.

  “Oh, Ruairc, I don’t think there will ever be a time for us to be alone, to be happy for even a brief time,” Morgana sighed.

  “We had nearly a week at the inn,” he smiled. “I can wait, Morgana, for now I am certain you will one day be mine.”

  “I promise, you, Ruairc, as soon as it can be arranged, I will spend that day and night with you,” Morgana vowed.

  “You haven’t forgotten your promise, then?” Ruairc grinned.

  “No, nor the part about the night either. I won’t say I’m not scared, but I do know the last week, of waking up by your side in the morning has been heaven.”

  “For me too, a thaisce,” Ruairc murmured, as he stroked her cheek and bent to kiss her on the lips.

  Just then, Mary came out of the castle door, and stopped in her tracks. There was fury in her eyes as she stared at the two young lovers looking so happy. She was just about to spin on her heel and leave when Morgana looked up and saw Mary’s resentful expression.

  “Mary, assemble the entire household in the great hall right now, please. I have serious news.”

  “Morgana, what...” Ruairc started to ask.

  “Just wait and see, my love.” Morgana smiled gently.

  As the last of the servants trickled into the hall, Morgana highlighted the situation for them briefly. She calculated that even with her secret citadel at Cullen, Lisleavan and the village would have to house twelve hundred men.

  So she spelt out for the castle workers their list of duties, and declared, “Ruairc here you all know for many years, as my father’s loyal foster son, as well as my betrothed.I now wish to make him head of this castle, so if you have any questions concerning defence, provisions, and so on, you can consult either him or myself. You all have your chores to do, but I want this castle fortified and organised in preparation for any hostilities.

  “The farming chores should carry on as normal, but armed guards should go with you, and the gates will be closed night and day otherwise. If you wish permission to leave the castle precincts for any reason, see myself or Ruairc.And thank you all for your help and support.”

  They all filed out of the room muttering and talking excitedly, and Ruairc turned to Morgana and kissed her.

  “Thank you for showing them you still have faith in me.”

  “I always have, Ruairc. And when we are married, we will share everything, won’t we?”

  “Just as we always have, a stor. When can we be married?”

  “As soon as things are more settled, we will go to Father Doyle,” she promised.

  He stooped to kiss her. "Thank you, my love."

  "I'll see you later." She went to the blacksmith’s shop, where she began to supervise the forging of new weapons for the defence of her castles.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  April gave way to May and then June as Morgana and Ruairc struggled to cope with the crisis of the shipwrecked crews.As Tiarnach O’Connor had said, many of the men were in poor condition upon their arrival at Lisleavan due to lack of nourishment and exposure to the elements. Many more were unfit to do even the simplest tasks for themselves. It became a running battle to maintain cleanliness in the upper floors, and to keep the men fed until they could get up and help around the castle.

  Morgana’s own leg took a long time to heal, since she was nearly always on her feet doing the cooking, cleaning, forging, tending to the sick, or looking after the animals. Wherever her skills were needed, she rolled up her sleeves and lent a hand.

  Ruairc seldom saw her, for his duties as chief castellan were of a different order. He had to ensure guards were posted at all gates at all times, inspect the castle defences, and prepare Lisleavan for the possibility of a long siege.

  As the weeks passed, Morgana’s ships returned from their trade runs with valuable supplies. All of the captains were impressed with the changes they saw at Lisleavan. But Sean, head of the captains now that Finn and Patrick were occupied elsewhere, was outraged at the treatment of the Maguire crews, and bu
rned for revenge.

  “We couldn’t possibly move against them now, Sean! If they took Lisleavan, they could slaughter those convalescing men like so many sheep!” Morgana argued one morning in June. “We must bide our time. But I promise you, I will get revenge upon them one day soon. Now, what news from Dublin and Bristol?”

  “Let’s see, the Earl of Kildare is still being kept at court, and his son, Silken Thomas, has been passed over as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He has been replaced by Skeffington, whom he hates with a passion. So apparently Silken Thomas has threatened that he will let the Pale become ungovernable, so that the English will see how desperately we need his father here to keep the peace, and will therefore send him home,” Sean informed her grimly.

  “Good Lord, Ruairc won’t like that when I tell him,” Morgana sighed. “Go on.”

  “All of the Catholic clergy are being required to submit to Henry as the head of the English church, on pain of death. All their religious orders are to be dissolved. Sir Thomas More was arrested on the thirteenth of April because he refused to recognise King Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church.”

  Morgana sat down abruptly. “If they have arrested the Lord Chancellor of England himself, what hope do any of the ordinary clergy have if they refuse to acknowledge Henry as their religious leader rather than the pope?”

  “None at all, if the king’s treatment of Elizabeth Barton is anything to go by,” Sean said grimly.

  “Elizabeth Barton?” Morgana asked, raising her eyes questioningly.

  “She was a nun who vigorously preached against Henry’s presumption. She was also known as the Maid of Kent.”

  “Yes, yes, I did hear something about her.What happened?”

  “Last November she was accused of treason, along with about thirteen priests who had helped her form a movement against Henry’s leadership of the so-called Anglican Church. She was executed with four of the priests on the twentieth of April, while those who were spared were made a great show of in London, used as examples of the king’s mercy should they choose to be faithful to him and renounce the Pope’s authority,” Sean explained.

  “What of God’s mercy?” Morgana muttered, crossing herself.

  “Henry the Eighth of England would play God with all our lives if he could. I hear that all of the legislation in the new parliament he has summoned is designed to make him more powerful than any English king has ever been since the Magna Carta.”

  “But he is only storing up problems for himself later,” Morgana said, rising from her chair to pace up and down in front of the hearth in her study. “He still has no son, for all we hear continually of Anne Boleyn expecting again. If it comes to a choice of Mary or the Princess Elizabeth, most sane people would choose a grown woman as queen rather than a nine month old infant whom many think to be a bastard.”

  “But the king won’t listen to reason, and I fear it is only a matter of time before the Emperor Charles V moves against him for the insult done to his sister, the former queen Catherine of Aragon, and to his niece Mary if she is proclaimed bastard herself and passed over for the succession,” Sean said.

  “This is grave news indeed,” Morgana sighed.

  “If I may say so, Morgana, I think for the time being we should confine our trade to Scotland and England.I have no wish to be caught up in continental intrigue, and our shipping might be restricted because of all this turmoil.”

  Morgana nodded. “I agree. We can do good brisk trade from Bristol and Chester for nearly all we need, even if it is slightly more expensive than shipping goods from Flanders and Spain directly ourselves. I would avoid the Pale ports as well, though, just in case Silken Thomas makes good his threat to make the entire area, which the English have ruled so long, ungovernable.”

  “A good point. I’ll pass the word along at all the ports.”

  “If you could run up to Scotland for timber and oats, and come back as quickly as you can, Sean, it would be a great help.”

  “I’ll do that. Then I fancy a bit of fishing,” Sean suggested hopefully.

  “That’s a good idea.The fish will be running in this direction soon anyway, so bring back as much as you can. Oh, and remember to divide your cargoes into three, for Tulach and Ma Niadh as well as ourselves.”

  "Aye, I will."

  He turned to go, until another thought struck him.

  “One last thing. About those duties.They were apparently marked as ships full of silver and expensive gowns and jewels. The port authorities eventually believed me when I said we knew nothing of them, but when I asked if our ships had been seen recently, they said there had been no sign except for the new ones with the yellow and blue chequered pennants.”

  “Why on earth would anyone steal twenty ships, strip them of crew, and run treasure on them? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “I’m sure it makes perfect sense to the men responsible, the MacMahons. At least we discovered it in time, and can be on our guard,” Sean stated.

  “Thank you, Sean, for managing everything so well, and keeping your eyes and ears open.” Morgana took his arm, and escorted him down to the jetty in order to exercise her leg.

  “My pleasure, chief.” He grinned, kissing her hand. He helped her patiently down the winding staircase, but once she was on level ground she was able to manage quite well on her own.

  "Still stiff?"

  "Aye, a bit, but there's remarkably little scarring. I think the maggots we used to clean the flesh worked very well."

  He wrinkled his nose in distaste. "Aye, I'll have to remember that. By all accounts, you were lucky not to lose the leg."

  "And more than that. Ruairc and my life too. And the worse thing is, they were waiting for us. They knew we were coming to the convent that day. Or at least, that I was. And Aofa's baggage train was also attacked, and her kidnapped. Well, supposedly. We have not had any request for a ransom."

  "So it looks like she was the traitor all along."

  Morgana nodded. "And thought Ruairc would be with her. They would have either taken him or killed him. As it was, he was with me.They certainly looked intent on killing him. I think they were just trying to capture me," she said, her brows knitting.

  "Well, whatever they were trying to do, be careful. As bad as things have been around here, we would be in a sorry state without you." He hugged her to him fondly.

  "At least we have Patrick and Finn back, and Angus in charge of Cullen."

  "Aye, you've achieve a great deal since your return. You may only be a woman, but you're the best person in this clan to become tanaist. Have your investiture soon, Morgana, and put everyone's mind at ease."

  "Everyone except our enemies."

  He grinned and blew her a kiss. Then he turned to the lough and began shouting orders to the crew to get underway.

  Mary scowled at Morgana’s back blackly as she saw the exchange between her son and the young woman whom she had come to resent so much.

  Mary admitted to herself in her kinder moments that Morgana was indeed a fine chief of the clan, but that didn’t stop her dreaming of one day having some power of her own. She would bide her time, and wait for the right moment.

  Mary returned to the castle alone.

  Morgana was about to go back as well when she saw a small corracle with a makeshift sail pulling toward the jetty. She waved at the young men pulling the oars, and one of them called, “Messages from Patrick and Finn.”

  Morgana looked around to see if anyone had heard, and then crouched down low to tie the boat up to the dock.

  The letters simply said that all the building works at both castles had been completed, and they now had provisions enough to withstand a six-month siege.

  “That is good news,” Morgana commented as she folded up the note and put it in her doublet. “Come up and get some water and have a rest. But if anyone asks, say you’ve come from Belleek.”

  Morgana was amazed that she had kept her secrets concerning the other castles for so long, but she had been v
ery careful not to tell even Ruairc, and her only problem had been supplying Cullen.

  Tulach and Ma Niadh were able to look after themselves fairly independently thanks to the organisation and administration of Patrick and Finn, and the fact that they were on the lough shore. But Cullen needed everything to be brought by carts. Morgana now wondered if Mary had grown suspicious of all the food which went into the castle but seemed to disappear overnight.

  Still, with the new cargoes coming in from her remaining ten ships, things were not as bleak as they had first appeared so many weeks before when she had come home.

  Morgana recalled her delight all those weeks ago at the convent when she had seen Ruairc again after two years apart. In spite her of all her doubts and reservations concerning his trustworthiness, her heart had soared with just one warm look from his emerald eyes. They had become closer with every passing day, though he had not pressed his romantic attentions to their natural conclusion. In fact, he had hardly been romantic at all with her since she had been injured, she mused, as she climbed the castle stairs.