“Aye, I’ll have some wine, please,” she agreed with a nod. Ewan ordered a pint of ale for himself and wine for Annie. “Aye ye nae gonnae take yer hood down?” he asked as they waited for the barman to fetch their drinks.
“Nay, I’m still a wee bit cold. I’ll keep it up fer now,” she replied.
He shrugged, not thinking much of it. “All right, if that’s what ye want.” When the barman placed their drinks on the counter, Ewan took some time finding his change to pay the man. As he did so, he asked him, “What’s tae dae up at the castle?”
“Ach, the place has been under siege by an enemy laird fer three weeks now,” the barman, a small, wiry man with a thin beard, replied, holding out his hand for the payment.
“Is that so?” Ewan replied, counting out his coins slowly and placing them in the man’s palm one by one. “That’s a shock tae discover, indeed. Me and the wife here, we’ve come all the way from Oban tae visit her sister who works there as a maid. But when we got there today, ye can imagine how surprised we were tae find an army camped outside the gates. Some of the soldiers turned us away.”
“Aye, that’s Laird Ewan Ballentine’s army. But I doubt it’ll be there fer long,” the barman said, closing his palm over the coins.
“Oh, why’s that?”
“Rumor has it that reinforcements are comin’ any day now, sent by Laird Allen, the ally of our Laird Galbraith. Ballentine hasnae enough men tae defeat Laird Allen and Laird Galbraith’s forces together. Folks say the whole thing will blow over in a few weeks.”
“I see. Well, that’s unfortunate. We cannae wait about that long, can we, Wife?” he looked down at Annie.
“Nay, and ’tis very upsettin’, comin’ all this way for naethin’. I dae hope me poor sister’s all right in there. Three weeks is a long time tae be shut up like that,” she said, doing a very convincing job of sounding worried.
“Aye, it is. I dinnae wantae worry ye, Missus, but nae a morsel of food has gone in or out the place the whole time,” the barman answered, taking two empty tankards from the man waiting next to Ewan and starting to refill them with ale as he carried on chatting.
“I wouldnae be too sure of that,” Ewan said, pausing to take a deep draught of ale before he went on. “While we were there, we heard two of the soldiers talkin’ of a secret entrance tae the castle.”
“Did ye now?” The man flicked a glance at him and gave a small smile. “Ach, that’s just stories,” he said dismissively, handing the other customer his refilled tankards. He looked back at Ewan and added, “Ye must excuse me, I’ve other customers tae serve.”
“Aye, nice talkin’ tae ye,” Ewan said as the man moved off down the bar.
He and Annie stood at the bar for a little while until two seats at a table occupied by another couple became vacant. “Come on,” Ewan said, taking Annie’s arm once more and moving rapidly towards the table before anyone else could nab the seats.
“Are these seats taken?” he asked the couple politely.
The man shook his head. “Nay, help yersel’s,” he replied, raising his tankard in a half salute. He was a plump, clean-shaven fellow of about forty in a well-made coat. His double chin bulged over the collar of his neckcloth, giving him the air of an overweight otter. A prosperous farmer maybe, Ewan guessed.
“Thank ye kindly, Sir,” he replied with a slight bow. “A good evenin’ tae ye both.” He bestowed his most charming smile on the man’s wife, a thin woman with small, piercing gray eyes, a mass of red hair, and the red nose of a drinker. She smiled up at Ewan with thin, chapped lips, revealing two missing front teeth. He maintained his smile while shuddering inwardly at the frank admiration in her look.
He turned to Annie. “Annie, will ye sit down and take a rest, dear?” he asked, every inch the concerned husband as he pulled out a chair.
“Aye, sit yersel’s down and get comfy,” the woman said in a scratchy voice, her beady eyes resting unsettlingly on him.
“Thank ye, Husband, I will.” Annie smiled shyly at their new companions as she slipped into her seat and arranged her cloak around her. He noticed she still had not lowered her hood. He thought it a little odd since it was by no means cold in the bar. He was pleased when she addressed their companions in a friendly manner. “Good evenin’. Thank ye fer lettin’ us sit down. We’ve done so much travelin’ these last few days, I feel quite worn out.”
Good lass, Ewan thought, for it was a brilliant opener to introducing themselves and relate their fabricated story, in order to elicit the information he sought.
“There’s always been rumors of secret passages and such like under the castle, but that’s true of all those sorts of places,” said the man presently, now drinking the ale Ewan had supplied. His name was Bob Shilling, and he owned and ran a chandlerystore in the next town with his wife Joyce. The couple were in Killicraigie visiting Joyce’s ailing mother.
“Aye, that’s very true, Bob,” Joyce piped up in her scratchy voice, her mass of hair bobbing as if it might fall off her head as she nodded. “But I grew up around here, and before I met Bob and married him, I used tae work at the castle as a laundry maid.”
Ewan’s ears perked up at that. He leaned his elbow on the table and gave her his best smile. “Is that so, Joyce? So, ye have firsthand knowledge of the place. How interestin’.”
Joyce’s small eyes gleamed as she returned his smile and leaned forward, giving him a good view of the tops of a pair of scrawny, freckled breasts. He tried not to look. “Aye, I dae. And I can tell ye for sure, there’s a whole nest of—oh!”
“Och, I’m so sorry,” Annie cried apologetically, having accidentally knocked her glass of wine over Joyce’s skirt. “How clumsy of me! Here, come tae the bar with me, and I’ll sponge that off fer ye before it stains.”
“Aye, let’s go. This is a new dress, and I dinnae want it ruined,” Joyce said, clearly annoyed. The two women hurried away to the bar.
Damn! We were just gettin’ somewhere then,Ewan thought, disappointed. He chatted idly to Bob as they waited for the women to return. He was anxious to hear what Joyce had to say. But when they came back, he was disappointed again. For as Joyce took her seat, with a big damp patch on the front ofher skirt, Annie looked at him beseechingly and said, “Husband, I dinnae feel so good in here. D’ye think we could go? I need some fresh air.” She looked pale, and there was a fine sheen of perspiration on her forehead.
With his disappointment overtaken by real concern for her, he immediately stood up. They hurriedly bid the Shillings good night and wished them well for their stay. Then Ewan took Annie’s arm and escorted her out of the inn.
