“Try no’ to dwell on the worst that can happen,” Ismay told her, lifting her friend’s head into her lap. “They will all return. Let us think of that day. The day we see smiles on their faces again.”
Hilary and Joan shared a knowing glance.
“Do ye love him, Ismay?” Joan asked her, hurrying to sit near them on Ismay’s bed.
“Aye, do ye?” Hilary echoed.
“I dinna think I do,” she told them, thoughtfully considering her own answer. “I have loved but one man in my life, and it doesna feel the same with the chief.”
“Yer father doesna count, Ismay!” Hilary slapped her arm playfully.
Hilary and Joan knew about Ismay’s father, Baron of Raigmore, Lord John Drummond. Of course, she hadn’t told them herfather was a MacPherson. The same one who rescued Chief MacDonald’s wee murderer years ago.
“How can he not count?” Ismay demanded. “If not—”
“For goodness sake!” Hilary sat up and gave her an impatient look. “Do ye truly not know the difference?”
When she shook her head, Joan took her hand and held it as if Ismay were the sorriest, most pathetic being to ever live.
“Ismay,” Joan began breathlessly. “Being in love is unlike anything else in our lives. Being in love makes ye feel consumed by the other person. Thoughts of him haunt and overwhelm ye while ye go aboot yer day. Ye dinna care aboot food or sleep. When ye are with him, the sight of him could fill the rest of yer days. The sound of him is like the familiar sound of bagpipes when ye have been lost and finally found yer way home. Would ye do anything fer the Lochiel, Ismay?”
“Aye,” Ismay told her without any hesitation.
Her two friends offered her knowing smiles.
Ismay’s eyes opened wide. “I’m in love?”
Hilary nodded. “With the Lochiel.”
“Nae, I canna be.”
“Why not?” they both asked.
“I have stayed here too long. If I dinna keep moving, I will be found.”
“Found by who?”
She told them bits about Chief MacRae and how he chopped off her hair.
“The Lochiel will kill him if he comes near ye!” Joan assured her.
“I dinna want him or my mother to find me. Who knows what they will do? What if they bring MacRae soldiers and they hurt ye or Hilary? I never planned on staying at Tor Castle. The Lochiel knows as much.”
“Nonsense!” Hilary finally huffed after staring at Ismay as if she had gone mad. “Ye canna leave us to the Lochiel after he has lostanother woman he loved.”
“Hilary, ye are overreaching,” Ismay assured her. “He doesna love me.” Even when she said it, she didn’t believe it. Still, what did she know about being in love? It was already proven. She knew nothing.
“Enough of this,” she told them, scrambling off the bed. Once out of it, she yanked open the window curtains and pulled her friends out of her bed.
In love or not, she was not going to spend days pining as if he were already dead.
He wasn’t. He promised.
*
Constantine waited alongthe river at the Fords of Arkaig on the Achnacarry side, securing the only ford on the river with about a thousand men. They waited for the MacKintoshes to arrive. Word had already reached the southern end of Achnacarry that, as he and Miss Drummond had suspected, some of the other clans of the Chattan had pledged their arms to the MacKintoshes.
When the MacGregors of Breadalbane had arrived to pledge their aid to the Camerons, Constantine was happy to welcome them. They were allies and had fought together at Glen Fruin. The MacGregors were mostly outlaws—like him. The difference being, the MacGregors had all the English laws against them. Because they were always fighting for their lives, or their names, they were known for their passionate fighting and terrifying swords. Constantine was glad to have them on his side.
