*
Isa was awoken very early by the curtains being pulled back.
She saw that the dawn was only just creeping up in the sky and pushing away the sable of the night.
There was a mist over the hills and she could see the cascade pouring down in the garden.
She felt herself shiver as she realised how the sound of the water had nearly been the last thing she had heard on earth.
She was conscious of feeling sleepy and rather woolly headed as she climbed slowly out of bed.
Then she remembered that the Duke would be waiting for her and felt herself come alive with an eagerness to be with him and at the same time with an apprehension of danger.
She thought it would be an agony to be in the same room with Talbot McNaver and, when she looked in the mirror, she realised that she looked pale.
Moreover, because she was frightened, her eyes seemed to fill her whole face.
Then she hurried downstairs to the writing room where they had dined to find both the Duke and Harry eating a large breakfast.
They rose as she entered and the Duke enquired,
“You have slept well, Isa?”
“I slept almost from the moment I was in bed,” Isa smiled.
“That is what I wanted you to say.”
He helped her to the dishes, which had been arranged on a hastily improvised sideboard that had been a writing table.
As there were no servants in the room, Isa asked,
“What are our orders?”
“You both know what you have to do?” Harry answered. “Talbot will be shown first into the drawing room where I will meet him and inform him that I have something of importance to tell him.”
“You are certain that he will not be suspicious?” the Duke asked.
“The man I have sent to summon him will tell him as gravely and seriously as possible to come to The Castle and I have told him to look worried.”
He gave a little laugh before he added,
“As you are well aware, Bruce, no one can look as dour as a Scot if he is feeling dour!”
The Duke laughed and it seemed to break the tension.
“You two will be waiting for him in the Study,” Harry went on, “and when I bring Talbot into the room the light from the window will be full on his face. It will therefore be a second or two before he sees you both standing in front of the fireplace.”
“You are quite – certain,” Isa asked in a low voice, “that he will– not have a – weapon on– him?”
“Before he can draw one from his pocket or wherever else he might conceal it,” Harry asserted, “I will kill him!”
As he spoke, Isa realised that he was wearing the same sort of loose tweed jacket that the Duke was wearing over his kilt.
It would be easy to carry a revolver in the pocket of his jacket without anybody being aware of it.
Then, as if she had thought of it for the first time, she glanced at the Duke’s sporran. He was wearing the same one that he had worn yesterday and the otter’s head had only one eye.
It somehow seemed to reassure her more than anything else.
If God had sent a miracle to save them in the shape of a small glass eye, why should she doubt that He would not save them again?
Harry looked at the clock.
“If you have both finished your breakfast,” he said, “I want you to go into the study. I have sent for Talbot to come here as early as possible just in case by chance he learns something which might alert him to the fact that you are in The Castle and not, as he believes, in the cave.”
Obediently the Duke rose from the table and put out his hand to Isa.
As she felt the strength of his fingers and the warmth of his hand, she told herself that she would not be afraid, but would trust both him and Harry who loved him.
Harry went ahead to make certain that the passage was clear and they went into the Duke’s study.
It was an attractive room, as she had thought the first time she had seen it.
Its pictures of grouse and dogs, salmon and stags were a fitting background for the man who apart from all his other gifts was an outstanding sportsman.
Then she told herself that everything about him was outstanding.
As the door closed behind him, he held out his arms. She ran towards him and he held her close but did not kiss her.
He merely said,
“Because I cannot live without you, I intend, as soon as this horrible interview with Talbot is over, to send for the Sheriff.”
She looked at him in surprise, not understanding, and he went on,
“After that we can be married anywhere you wish, but because after what has happened, I could not bear you to leave me, we will be married by consent.”
Isa would not have been a Scot if she had not realised what he meant.
To declare that they were man and wife in front of witnesses would mean by Scottish law that they were married legally.
Just for a second she thought that such speed was unnecessary and would perhaps hurt her father and mother.
As if he understood, the Duke said,
“It is, if you wish, something we can keep secret until we can arrange to be married in the Kirk where my ancestors are buried.”
Isa gave a little murmur, but she did not interrupt and he continued,
“I will ask your father and mother to come and stay here and we will explain to them why I cannot bear you to leave me. At the same time I want you as my wife and whatever happens you will bear my name.”
It was then that Isa understood the reason for his haste and she felt the tears prick her eyes.
He was thinking, she knew, that if after today Talbot should again try to kill him and succeed, she would be provided for generously for as long as she should live.
She would also be the Duchess of Strathnaver.
She was so touched and so moved by his consideration for her that she could only hold onto him.
Hiding her face against his neck she said,
“Please – take care of yourself –I am so frightened – desperately frightened – that I might lose you.”
The Duke held her so tightly that she could hardly breathe as he said,
“Pray God that will never happen! But I want to ensure, my lovely one, that never again will you have to earn your living by appearing in public or that your father and mother are not provided for.”
“How can – you be so kind – so understanding?” Isa asked.
He put his fingers under her chin and turned her face up to his.
“I am, of course, praying,” he said, “that there will be no need for such precautions or unseemly haste, except that I am impatient to have you as my wife.”
Then his lips were on hers and there was no chance of Isa answering him.
He kissed her until the room seemed to swim dizzily around them and they were both breathless before there was a knock on the door.
He took his arms from around Isa and said in the same quiet calm voice that he had used in the cave,
“Talbot is here and we must stand in front of the fireplace as Harry directed us to do and try, my precious, not to be afraid.”
There was something in the way he spoke that made Isa feel intensely and overwhelmingly proud of him.
He would be just the same, she thought, if he was facing the guns of an enemy Army or the spears of some savage tribe in the jungle.
She forced herself to smile at him.
Then she held her head high as they moved to the side of the room in front of the fireplace.
Since it was a warm day the fire was not yet lit and there was the fragrance of flowers on the air that came from the blooms brought from the Duke’s garden.
Because it seemed as if there was nothing to say, they stood in silence.
Then feeling that she must touch him, Isa slipped her hand into his.
Only by the strength of his response did she realise that the Duke was in fact tense and apprehensive ab
out what would happen in the next few minutes.
Then they heard Harry’s voice outside in the corridor and a second later the servant on duty opened the door.
Talbot McNaver walked in with Harry following close behind him.
One glance at Talbot told Isa that he had dressed for the occasion.
His kilt was a newer and smarter one than he had worn yesterday.
Instead of a casual tweed jacket he had on a dress coat with silver buttons and a sporran of white sealskin.
It showed that he expected to take the place of the absent Chieftain.
He walked into the middle of the room and Isa thought that before he saw them there was a gleam of triumph in his eyes that were slightly too close together.
Then, as the door closed and Harry came to his side, Talbot turned his head and had his first sight of the Duke and Isa.
For a moment he seemed to be frozen into immobility.
Then the expression of astonishment on his face was almost ludicrous.
He stared at them as if he was seeing some supernatural beings that did not in fact exist.
“Good-morning, Talbot,” the Duke said calmly. “We have asked you here for an explanation of what occurred yesterday.”
For a moment Talbot McNaver could not speak and Isa could understand that his voice had died in his throat.
Then he said slowly feeling for words,
“I don’t – know what you are – talking about.”
“That is a lie and you know it!” the Duke said. “You left us to die, but fortunately it is not yet time for you to take my place, as you planned to do.”
The Duke spoke sternly, but Isa knew that he was being deliberately provocative.
Suddenly an expression of rage contorted Talbot McNaver’s face.
“How the devil did you get out?” he demanded spitting the words at the Duke. “If it was one of my men who ratted on me, I swear I will kill him!”
“Perhaps you will fail,” the Duke parried, “just as you failed to kill me. Now, Talbot, I require an explanation before I hand you over to the Sheriff and charge you with attempted murder.”
“You would not dare!” Talbot came back. “I shall deny it!”
“I was afraid that you might try to do that, but I have a number of witnesses who will make quite sure that you do not escape the punishment of your crime.”
Talbot looked at him wildly.
Then put his hand into his pocket.
Isa thinking that he intended to shoot the Duke moved swiftly in front of him.
But before Talbot could bring a weapon from his pocket, Harry had the muzzle of his revolver in the centre of his back saying firmly,
“If you threaten the Duke, I will kill you!”
With a swift movement and the desperate strength of a cornered rat Talbot turned round, forced up Harry’s right arm, which held the revolver and with his other first struck him violently below the belt.
As Harry’s revolver exploded, the bullet hitting the ceiling, he doubled up.
Even as the Duke moved forward to stop him, Talbot had reached the door, opened it and Isa could hear him running down the corridor.
It all happened so quickly and, because the Duke was concerned for Harry, he stopped to see that he was all right before following Talbot.
“Stop him!” Harry murmured painfully.
The Duke obeyed, but by the time he had reached the corridor, Isa with him, they saw only Talbot’s head.
He was just disappearing down the broad stairway that led to the front door.
When the Duke and Isa reached the open door, there was only a footman to look at them in bewilderment.
He told them that the gentleman was running towards the harbour.
The Duke hesitated and as he did so Harry came down the stairs behind them.
“You are all right?” the Duke asked him.
“I will survive,” Harry replied with a twist of his lips.
“He has gone to the harbour.”
“Doubtless to find the men who assisted him yesterday,” Harry said grimly.
They were joined at that moment by Donald and Andrew, both carrying rifles.
“Follow Mr. Talbot,” Harry said sharply. “Catch up with him and prevent him from getting away.”
They nodded as if they understood and set off at a sharp trot through the garden, which was the quickest way of reaching the harbour.
Without even discussing it, the Duke, Isa and Harry followed.
They passed through the formal gardens, which ended in a fence that was nearly at the edge of the cliffs directly below the harbour.
By the time they could stand looking down, Isa could see Talbot.
He was talking to the Englishman and the two men who had tied them up in the cave yesterday.
Directly below them Donald and Andrew slipped and slid down the perilous cliff path to the harbour.
Talbot saw them too.
He stared at them wildly and then a moment later he and the three men had swarmed down an iron ladder below which there was a rowing boat.
The two fishermen grabbed the oars while Talbot and the Englishman sat in the stern.
By the time Donald and Andrew had realised what was happening and were running along the quay, the rowing boat was already heading for the open sea.
The two men were rowing feverishly and with an expertise that carried them quickly away with every stroke of their oars.
Now the boat was going further and further out into the open sea and it seemed to Isa that Talbot had escaped and had won again.
Then she realised that Donald and Andrew had reached the far end of the quay at the entrance to the harbour and were each down on one knee levelling their rifles on the boat.
The Duke realised at the same time as she did what was happening.
“No!” he cried. “No!”
There was no chance of either of them hearing him, but Isa knew that he was incensed at the idea of Talbot, despicable though he was, being killed by one of his own Clan.
There was a sharp crack from both rifles shooting almost simultaneously, but the men went on rowing.
Talbot and the Englishman in the stern both turned their heads but neither of them collapsed.
‘They have missed,’ Isa thought.
A second or so later the rifles were re-loaded and the second shots rang out.
By now the boat was well out to sea and being tossed roughly by the waves.
The wind had risen during the night and the North Sea was tempestuous.
For the first time Isa was aware that spray was rising high from the waves breaking violently on the rocks below The Castle.
Then, as she heard a third volley from the two rifles, she thought that Donald and Andrew were just wasting their time.
Talbot had escaped and would live to strike another day.
Because she was afraid for the Duke she moved a little closer to him, holding onto his hand and wishing wildly that she could protect him.
She was surprised when he did not seem to respond.
Then she was aware that both he and Harry were watching the rowing boat with an intense expression on their faces that seemed somehow strange.
Isa followed the direction of their eyes and understood.
The boat had listed over at a strange angle.
The men had ceased to row and were crouching on one side trying to avoid the rifle fire.
Meanwhile Donald and Andrew went on firing at the boat.
Suddenly a wave broke over it and it tipped over, throwing all the occupants into the sea.
The now empty boat was drifting half-full of water and was being tossed relentlessly by the waves.
The oars floated away and the three men and Talbot were all in the sea attempting to cling to what was left of the boat.
The Duke and Harry watched in silence.
Then, as first one man and then another, disappeared beneath the waves, Isa realised that they could not swim.
> Vaguely at the back of her mind she remembered hearing that fishermen seldom learned to do so. They said that if their ships were wrecked it was better to have a quick death than a long drawn out one.
Now she could see Talbot facing towards the shore and she knew that he was trying to swim back.
A great wave swept over him and for a few seconds he was submerged.
He then reappeared, but only briefly in the swirl of another swelling wave.
It was impossible not to watch and to hold her breath as she did so.
She knew that even if they had tried to save any of the men drowning, it would have been impossible to get there in time.
There was no sign of Talbot’s three accomplices, then just another glimpse of him before he seemed to be sucked under.
Now there was nothing to be seen except for some oars being churned over and over by the waves.
Four men and the boat had vanished.
It was then, because what she had seen was so horrifying, that Isa fainted.
Chapter Seven
Isa came back to reality and found that she was being carried by strong arms.
She looked up to see the Duke looking down at her and with a murmur of contentment moved her cheek closer to his shoulder.
“It’s all right, my darling,” he said calmly. “It is all over.”
“They are– drowned?”
“All of them,” the Duke said firmly, “and it is something I want you to try and forget.”
He carried her a little further and then set her down gently on her feet.
“Can you walk?” he asked. “I think it would be a mistake to have anyone in The Castle asking what happened.”
“Yes– of– course,” Isa replied.
Equally she was glad to hold onto his arm.
She could not remember when she had last fainted, but it had been horrible to see the men fall into the water and struggling panic-stricken before they disappeared.
The Duke walked slowly and, by the time they reached the steps up to the front door, she felt almost normal.
“Go and lie down,” the Duke said quietly, “I have a lot of planning to do and later I will come and tell you about it.”
He helped her up the stairs until she was in the corridor where her bedroom was situated and then waited until she had entered it.
She was in fact glad to be able to put her head down and try not to think about anything that had happened, hoping that perhaps she would sleep.
169. A Cheiftain finds Love (The Eternal Collection) Page 11
