God's Highlander (28 page)

‘Did I hear you say you were going to see Donnie and Seonaid?' They were the first words she had spoken to Wyatt since his arrival.

‘Yes. They're the first couple I've wed since coming to Eskaig, and I'm taking a personal interest in them. I want to assure myself they're all right.'

‘I'll come with you….' Seeing the knowing smiles of her brothers, Mairi added heatedly: ‘I've been forced to stay inside the cot with this lot for weeks. It will feel good to get away from them all for a couple of hours.'

‘You could always take a walk to see if there are any sheep beneath the ridge. That way you'd be free of
everyone
. Wouldn't you prefer that, little sister?' a young Ross suggested.

‘I'll go where I want to go. Right now I've had enough of foolish brothers. Your clothes will be dry in about half an hour, Wyatt. I'll be outside enjoying the sunshine.'

Mairi left the cot to a chorus of good-natured catcalls from her brothers. When she had gone, Tibbie crossed to the fire and adjusted Wyatt's wet clothing unnecessarily.

While she was close to Wyatt, she said softly: ‘Mairi's very fond of you, Minister.'

‘I'm very fond of her, too, Tibbie.'

Tibbie's warm smile transformed her pale and tired face. ‘I'm glad. I was beginning to think Mairi would never find someone like you. She's a very special girl, Minister. She's worked hard on the schooling you gave her. You'll not find a better wife in the Highlands – or anywhere else.'

‘A
ren't your feet cold?' Wyatt looked aghast at Mairi's bare feet as he set out with her for the Fraser cot.

Mairi seemed surprised at the question. ‘A little. But they'd be just as cold if I were working outside the cot.' She shifted the bundle she carried to a more comfortable position. ‘I'll be able to dry my feet when we get there. What will you do about your shoes?'

Wyatt had his own clothes on again. The coat, shirt and trousers were dry, but his shoes were still wet and uncomfortable. He had to admit that Mairi had made a good point.

They were both carrying bags of food for Donnie and Seonaid and her father. Eneas Ross might have disowned his youngest son, but Magdalene Ross had not. Cheese, butter and newly baked bannocks were in the bags, together with salted beef, and a quarter of a sheep that had been found injured beneath the snow.

‘I've missed you, Mairi. There have been many moonlit nights when I've looked up at the snow on the mountains and prayed you were safe and well up here.'

‘We were snug enough to have seen out another month of snow. I don't know whether it was due to your praying, or to Pa's sound planning! ' There was the faintest trace of humour in the sidelong glance Mairi gave him.

All conversation ceased for some fifteen minutes while they scrambled up a steepish slope of broken rock in order to avoid a low-lying area where snow had drifted. On the far side of the ridge was an area of broken rocks which gave some shelter from the wind. Here Mairi dropped her bundle to the ground. Standing with her back to a large boulder, she rubbed the shoulder which had borne the weight of her load and watched as Wyatt flexed aching arms.

‘You've lost weight, Wyatt. You haven't been ill with that fever you told me about?'

‘I wasn't too well for a few days after Christmas, but it wasn't as bad as the last time. Each attack seems to be less serious than the one before.'

‘Poor Wyatt. You really should have someone to look after you.'

‘I agree….' Wyatt took a deep breath. ‘Have you thought any more about the discussion we had after Donnie and Seonaid's wedding?'

‘What more was there to think about? I told you then what I thought. Look at me, Wyatt. What sort of wife do you think I'd make for the minister of Eskaig?'

‘The sort of wife I want – and I'll not settle for any other.'

When Mairi did not reply immediately, Wyatt added: ‘Anyway, I may not be the minister of Eskaig for very much longer.'

Startled, Mairi asked: ‘You're not thinking of leaving?'

‘I may have to.' He gave Mairi an outline of the dispute between Church and State, and the widening breach within the Church itself.

‘What will happen to you? What will you do?'

‘It all depends on the people here. If they agree with what I'm doing, I'll stay on as a Free Church minister. If they don't….' Wyatt shrugged. ‘If they don't, then I'll know I was a better soldier than I am a minister. '

Mairi was very upset, but before she could say anything more they both heard a sound from the ridge they had crossed a short time before. Moments later they were joined by Stewart Ross, the second-youngest of Mairi's brothers.

‘Hello, you two. I thought you'd have reached the Fraser place by now. What's held you up?' He turned a cheeky grin upon Wyatt. ‘Not interrupting anything, am I?'

Mairi did not respond to his cheerfulness. ‘Wyatt was just telling me he might have to leave Eskaig. There's a dispute within the Church. But what are you doing here?'

Stewart Ross lifted Mairi's bundle with ease and tucked it beneath an arm. ‘I thought Donnie might need a hand to get things together up at the Fraser place. There'll be more snow on the way in a day or two, and old man Fraser won't be much help.'

‘Does Pa know where you are?'

‘No, but Ma thought it would be a good idea. Shall we go?'

Wyatt would have liked to speak at much greater length to Mairi, but neither of them could have anticipated the unexpected interruption. Lifting his own bundle, he set it on his shoulder and followed Stewart Ross. Along the way he had to repeat his story of the problems of the Church of Scotland for the benefit of Mairi's brother.

Stewart Ross was more philosophic than sympathetic.

‘It sounds a bit like a family argument to me. You ministers should be ganging up against the English government, not quarrelling among yourselves.'

The young man spoke in the manner of many Highlanders, as though there had never been union with England.

‘I agree,' said Wyatt. ‘Although first we need to decide who's right and who's wrong. The trouble seems to be the more we talk the wider grows the rift between us.'

‘I doubt if
not
talking will help, either. Take Pa and Hamish Fraser, for instance. They haven't spoken for nigh on thirty years, yet they hate each other as much as they ever did….'

For the remainder of the journey to the Fraser cot Stewart Ross chatted on about the feud between Eneas Ross and Hamish Fraser, its causes and effects. If he noticed there was no response from Wyatt and Mairi, he did not let it silence him.

 

When the roof of the Fraser cot came into sight, protruding from the snow of the high moors, it was apparent something was wrong. There was no smoke coming from the chimney. The three travellers looked at each other in alarm, not daring to voice their thoughts. Then they began to run. Only when they topped a low rise immediately before the house did they slow their pace. Donnie and Hamish Fraser were hauling a wooden sled piled high with peat turfs towards the house.

When Donnie caught sight of the approaching visitors he released the sled-rope, let out a shout of joy and ran to meet them. After hugging Mairi and Stewart, he shook hands with Wyatt and beamed at all three.

‘You don't know how good it is to see you. All of you. I've longed to hear someone talk the way we always did during the winter months at home. What wouldn't I have given to hear Pa telling us about his army days, with Ma smiling knowingly when he stretched the truth a bit more than usual. Have you done that these last weeks?'

‘Of course, but Mairi spent every spare minute of the day stuck in a corner with her learning-books … and we missed you,' said Stewart Ross.

‘We were worried because we couldn't see any smoke when we came in sight of the cot. Where's Seonaid?' asked Mairi.

‘Lying abed. She's been ill. I don't know what it was. Something to do with the baby, I think. Belly cramps and a bit of a fever for a while. She's a lot better now. She was up for a while this morning.'

‘What about the fire?'

Donnie looked embarrassed. ‘I hadn't got around to everything before winter set in. There wasn't enough peat up by the house. The fire went out three days ago.'

‘What have you eaten in those three days?' Mairi put the question.

‘Same as we seem to have eaten for most of the winter. Cheese. I tried making bannocks before the fire went out, but they dropped in the ashes and burned while I was tending Seonaid.'

Hamish Fraser called out peevishly to know what was happening. Donnie grimaced and he suddenly looked very tired. ‘He'd be a lot easier to get along with if he didn't moan all the time. I told him so once, and he sulked for a week.'

At that moment a figure appeared in the doorway of the Fraser cot. It was Seonaid – but a very different Seonaid from the girl who had married Donnie only a few months before. Her hair had not been washed during the long winter months and it straggled about a face totally devoid of any colour. She wore only a cotton nightdress, or it might have been a slip. The garment was stretched so tight about her distended stomach it had split apart at the seams.

Seonaid had not yet seen them and she called out: ‘Where's Donnie, Pa? Where's he gone? Call him and tell him I need him. I want some water….'

Mairi became suddenly brisk. ‘Stewart, go and help Donnie with the peat. Wyatt, can you get a fire going? Leave Seonaid to me. When I've tended to her I'll start something cooking.'

Less than an hour later strips of salt beef were sizzling in a skillet, bannocks were heating on an iron girdle over the fire, and Seonaid was sitting up on her dry-heather bed, her hair washed and tied in a ribbon behind her head. She looked better already.

Meanwhile, Wyatt was stacking peat turfs while Donnie and
Stewart were out searching for sheep lost in the snow among the surrounding crags.

Hamish Fraser sat in a corner of the cot saying little and doing nothing. He resented the intrusion into the privacy of his home, especially by the two extra Rosses, and made no attempt to hide his resentment.

Wyatt attempted to draw the blind man into conversation on a number of occasions, but eventually gave up. He felt he could be of more use to the small family group by helping with the chores.

In spite of his hatred of the Ross family, Hamish Fraser ate every scrap of the meal cooked by Mairi. However, when Donnie and Stewart came inside the cot laughing and joking together he suddenly snapped: ‘I don't know what you two have to be so cheerful about.'

‘Come now, Mr Fraser, you've every reason to be cheerful, too. We've just found all except one of your sheep; you've peat here at the house, a fire going, and good food in your belly. What more could you want? Something to drink, perhaps?' Stewart fished inside his shirt. ‘Here, I've brought Pa's flask with me. It's full of good whisky.'

‘I'll not drink Ross whisky. It's galling enough to have to eat your food. As for reason to be cheerful … there's a lot of winter to come yet. When it's over all we have to look forward to is a visit from the factor. The constables will be with him, too, I've no doubt.'

‘Why should the factor come calling on you with constables?' Wyatt asked sharply.

‘You'd better ask Seonaid's man. He's the one who's supposed to be running things now. Although how he's going to keep a wife and child without a roof over their heads I don't know.'

Wyatt looked to Donnie, and the young man shrugged his shoulders. ‘It's not as bad as that. A sheriff's man served a paper on us a day or two before the snows began. It's nothing, really. The sheriff's man said it's probably no more than a means of increasing our rent, that's all. We'll manage.'

‘If you believe
that
, you're a bigger fool than your father,' Hamish Fraser snorted derisively.

‘What does this paper say?' Wyatt persisted.

Again Donnie Ross shrugged. ‘I don't know. He can't see, and neither Seonaid nor I can read. The sheriff's man said—'

‘Do you still have the document?'

The urgency in Wyatt's voice finally got through to Donnie, and he looked at Seonaid.

‘It's on the top shelf – over there.'

Donnie found the document and handed it to Wyatt. Three days without heat in the cot had made everything damp. The paper lay limp in Wyatt's hand, but he knew what it was even before he looked at the bold heading that dominated the page:

Wyatt looked up from the document in dismay. ‘This is a writ of removal. A clearance order!'

‘There!' exclaimed Hamish Fraser. ‘What did I tell you? Didn't I say that's what it was? You didn't believe me. Called me an old fool behind my back. Now who's the fool, eh? Now who's the fool?'

While Hamish Fraser gloated over the accuracy of his gloomy warning, Donnie looked stunned.

‘Garrett can't do this, can he? He can't just throw us out of the cot?'

‘The factor can do whatever he wants – when he wants to do it. The minister in his comfortable kirk in Eskaig can pray as much as he likes to God. Up here in the mountains it's
Garrett
who's our God.'

‘Blasphemy won't help anyone,' Wyatt snapped. ‘I'll speak to Garrett when I return to Eskaig.'

Hamish Fraser snorted and turned his sightless eyes on Wyatt. ‘Speak to who you like, Minister; it'll do us no good. Seonaid went to see Garrett once before when he ordered us out. She thought she'd succeeded in keeping us here. Now she knows better.'

Sitting on her bed, Seonaid's glance was fixed upon the bulge that stretched the fabric of her nightdress.

‘Garrett wants us out, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. This is just a beginning. The Rosses will be next. Then it will be every other cottar in these mountains. Garrett wants sheep in our place. That's what he's always wanted. Sheep don't answer him back, or question his way of running things. He doesn't even have to leave his
house to make money. He can just sit indoors and wait for the sheepmen to bring him their rent once a year. There was a time when a laird was proud of the number of clansmen who owed him their allegiance. Now the landowner's ashamed of his kinsmen and never comes near them.'

‘I think I've heard the same sentiments from Eneas Ross,' said Wyatt quietly. ‘You and he are not so different, Hamish.'

‘We're both Highlanders. It's
all
we have in common – that and the fact we'll
both
be homeless come spring. You wait and see. Garrett has a free hand now, or so I hear. He'll make the most of it while he can.'

After spending a couple of hours at the Fraser cot, Mairi declared they would need to leave if they were to reach the Ross croft before dark. After holding a brief prayer meeting, Wyatt went outside before the others. He was joined by a worried Donnie Ross and his brother.

‘Were all those things Seonaid's pa said the truth? Can Garrett really turn us out with nowhere to go?'

‘I wish I could say it might be otherwise, Donnie. With the authorisation document Garrett has been given by the new Lord Kilmalie his power on the Eskaig estate is absolute.'