own master soon,
‘But why did she go with Donald of Mar so quickly?’ He looked bewildered. ‘Why didn’t she wait and say goodbye properly?’
Rhonwen knew the answer to that. She had fled because otherwise she would not have had the strength to fight Alexander. ‘She went quickly because too many people wanted to stop her marrying. If she had waited they would have succeeded, and your mother thought that would make her unhappy.’
‘And is she happy now?’
‘I don’t know.’ Her fixed smile betrayed her true feelings. ‘I hope so.’
II
Elizabeth of Mar summoned her son to her side whilst Eleyne was out visiting Morna. ‘You are happy with your wife, Donald?’ she asked doubtfully.
Donald stiffened. ‘You know I am. Eleyne is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me.’ He straightened his shoulders, unconsciously preparing for the attack he knew to be coming. His mother always made him feel like an unruly child and he hated her for it.
Elizabeth could read her son like a book. She concealed a smile as she seated herself on the chair nearest the fire. ‘Perhaps your father and I were wrong to try to put you off marrying her. For all her age, she seems a healthy woman and she has brought a good terce to the marriage as her dower from Fife. Her ladies tell me she carries the child with ease.’ She paused. ‘Because of that you do not seem to have realised just how delicate a woman in her condition is.’ She watched him mockingly. ‘I am sure she is anxious to please you in every way she knows, but for her sake you must leave her alone. I am surprised that you have not realised that yourself. You cannot continue to share her bed.’
‘That is none of your business – ’
‘I think it is. Obviously she hasn’t the strength or the wit to tell you this herself, so I have to do it for her. It is customary for a man to leave his wife alone in the later stages of pregnancy. Amuse yourself elsewhere. Bed that pretty red-haired wench who eyes you constantly in the hall. Your wife will understand. All she will ask is that you do it discreetly. She will be nothing but relieved that you have freed her from what must be a dreadful ordeal for her.’ She paused. ‘What you have been doing, Donald, is a mortal sin.’ She hissed the word at him without warning and was gratified to see him flinch as though she had struck him.
Donald’s face was white, then slowly it blushed to a deep crimson. ‘I never thought.’
‘Men never do.’ She watched him with grim satisfaction. Once she had weaned him from his wife’s bed, his infatuation would be doomed. It was too late to annul the marriage and the child might yet be a boy, but at least she would have the satisfaction of being proved right. Her son would realise what a terrible mistake he had made.
III
Morna’s baby arrived at dawn on Lammas Day. She delivered the girl-child herself neatly and efficiently and alone, then wrapped her in the lacy shawl Eleyne had brought the week before. She called her Mairi and when Eleyne came – no longer alone: for the sake of peace and quiet at home she brought one of her ladies with her now – the baby was sleeping peacefully in a woven reed cradle. Eleyne bent over the child and smiled. Then her smile faltered. Just for a moment in the shadows of the cottage she thought she had seen flames licking around the cradle. She put out her hand as if to snatch the baby up, but the flames had gone. Morna had not seen what had happened. ‘Blessed Virgin; Sweet Bride, protect you,’ she murmured soundlessly. Perhaps it was her own birth she had seen, no more – an image which had floated up from the past. Though the August day was airless and muggy, she had begun to shiver.
Morna came up behind her and stared past her at the child. ‘It’ll be your turn soon,’ she said softly. ‘And yours will be a boy.’
IV
Eleyne sat on the edge of the high bed and watched as Agnes and Bethoc hung her gown on a bracket on the wall, put away her shoes and readied the room for the night. It was the tenth night that Donald had not appeared. Her back ached and she felt heavy and ill and bored, cut off from the world by her condition and the very remoteness of Mar, which before she had loved. She looked down at the bulk of her stomach and groaned.
She could no longer pretend to herself that Donald found her attractive. Now that her belly had grown, he had drawn away, no longer pulling off her clothes to kiss her stomach, no longer touching her at all, no longer sharing her bed. Overwhelmed by misery and loneliness, she turned away so that her ladies could not see her tears.
‘Agnes,’ she asked, ‘will you fetch me a posset? It will help me to sleep.’
She had lost him. He had gone. Her bed was empty and cold. Agnes nodded sypathetically. ‘I’ll fetch it at once, my lady.’
Dismissing Meg and Bethoc, Eleyne leaned against the pillows. She was feeling strangely uneasy. Her head ached and her eyes were tired. She glanced towards the narrow lancet windows. West-facing they had seen the last of the stormy sun sink into a black pall of cloud.
It was many weeks since she had thought of him, but suddenly she found herself longing for his presence. She was lonely for him, lost without either of the men she loved.
When Agnes returned, she was not alone to Eleyne’s astonishment; Rhonwen was with her.
Eleyne stared at the old woman for a full minute in complete silence, then she levered herself off the bed. She understood now why her thoughts had returned to Alexander and she felt a momentary wave of panic sweep over her.
‘You’re pasty-faced,
‘You can see what I have been doing!’ Eleyne moved awkwardly to a stool and sat down. ‘Why have you come to Kildrummy? I did not send for you.’ She did not want Rhonwen here. She did not want the fear and the suspicion and the dread.
Rhonwen sat down near her. She was exhausted after her long journey, accompanied by two servants and three armed men. Her worldly possessions had been loaded on two packmules. ‘Sir Alan forced your son to send me away. He wants no friends of yours left at Falkland.’
‘I see.’ Eleyne looked at her thoughtfully. ‘And are you my friend?’
Rhonwen looked despairing. ‘How can you ask that? Of course I’m your friend. I love you, and I want what is best for you.’
‘It didn’t seem like that to me,’ Eleyne retorted harshly.
Rhonwen shrugged. ‘I did what I had to.’
‘And do you still serve Alexander?’
