Page 7 of Highlander’s False Identity

“So, ye dinnae remember then?” she asked, her blue-gray eyes glinting in the half-light.

“Remember what?” Beathan said, beginning again to get irritated.

“About our kiss, back at the McKinley Castle,” she continued. Beathan could feel her eyes boring into the back of his head.

“What kiss,” he asked, distracted by a flock of geese that had pitched camp in the middle of the glen and seemed unfazed by them or the horse.

Prince harrumphed impressively, but it was to no avail, the noisy fowl steadfastly refused to budge.

Beathan had no choice; he had to dismount and physically shoo the stupid birds out of the way. As he got down, he cast a snide glance at the girl tied to his horse.

“Dinnae fash, I’m nae goin’ anywhere, laddie!” she smirked as if she had read his mind.

Beathan rolled his eyes and went on to clear the way ahead. Edme and the horse waited patiently until he remounted the leather riding saddle to continue their conversation.

“An’ there was me thinkin’ that evening under the kissing bough was a special one!” she pitched up, brightly, as Beathan brought Prince to a steady trot. “Och well, a girl can hope!”

Beathan did not turn, but he registered the tone.

“Aye, I think I can remember ye, noo,” he said slowly, making a great show of screwing up his face. “Ye were the little lassie who almost poisoned my dog!”

This wasn’t the answer that Edme had been expecting. Now it was her turn to look surprised.

“Ye what?” she asked, genuinely aghast. “I didnae poison nae dogs! I like dogs! What rubbish is this yer talking, laddie!”

The girl’s face had turned from smirking to serious. Now it was Beathan’s turn to smile at the look of utter confusion she was wearing. At last, he had wiped the grin off her face!

However, it wouldn’t do to show that he was amused. Wanting to make the wench pay, he cast his face with the most severe expression he could muster and continued with a deadpan delivery.

“Aye, my faithful dog, Ruaridh! Just after we left the McKinley keep, he was taken ill. The shepherd put it down to poison! The last thing he ate was some meat from yer kitchens!”

Edme’s eyes were agape, like a landed fish, her mouth bobbed open and shut. “But, but, but...?”

“Aye an’ ye were the one who brought it to him, well, to us,” added Beathan, slyly, observing her reaction. “Didnae ye ken it was off?”

“W-was it?” she asked, suddenly very pale. Her amused demeanor had been replaced by fear.

“Aye, well, it must ha’ been!” Beathan replied, his green eyes sparkling, as he took them off the winding road to look into hers.

Yes, now he remembered this maid. She had run giggling from him when she handed him the plate of meat and scampered off into the kitchens. It had been in stark contrast to her usual expression of studied boredom.

“Och, yer bum’s oot the window! I nae heard a tale so daft, why would I do that!” she scoffed, but Beathan noticed that she did not meet his gaze.

“I dinnae ken, lass, maybe ye can enlighten me? I puzzled over it long an’ hard!” Beathan added as they cantered on through the drizzle soaked landscape.

The birds were singing a merry song as if enchanted by the recent rain shower. The sun was just beginning to break through the uncertain skies, and as Beathan glanced up, he spied the beginnings of a magnificent rainbow starting in the Craig lands and stretching out to the Ross clan in the east.

He tried to point it out to the girl, but it seemed as if her mind was on other things. Looking worried, she asked him, “an’ then, how was yer dog the next mornin’?”

Beathan paused a while before answering. “Dead,” he said simply.

A deathly silence fell, as Edme turned ashen. “Nae!” she gasped.

“Aye,” he said solemnly, with just a brief side glance to her. In truth, he had forgotten all about this little incident, but seeing her gloat had brought it all back. He remembered right then that he had never much liked the young maid of McKinley, and it had seemed that time had proven him right!

To Beathan’s utmost horror, the girl’s face was streaming with tears, her sculpted cheeks overflowing and wet.

“Och, my God Beathan, if I had kent ye were going to give it to a dog!” she wailed.