Even though she was alone in the room, Edilean nodded, then read on.
4
HER BIRTHDAY IS tomorrow.”
“What?” Malcolm asked his nephew as he scooped out a load of oats.
“Her birthday. It’s tomorrow.”
“Oh, aye. Her. You know, do you not, that she has a name?”
“I heard it, but I don’t remember it.” Angus had been out all night, searching out cattle and checking that none had been stolen. But as he roamed the hills, he kept counting down the hours until Lawler’s niece would have to marry one of those demons Lawler called friends. When it came to the moment, which one would she choose? Old Ballister or the young, bad-tempered Alvoy? That night, Angus had tossed about in his plaid as he’d imagined her alone with one of them.
She’d asked Angus for help—but he’d laughed at her. That thought had haunted him for the last two days. Now, in the afternoon, sitting in the stable and watching Malcolm work, he still couldn’t get his mind around what he’d done.
“What’s eating you, lad?” Malcolm asked.
Angus told him. He sat on the stool, fatigue pulling him down, and he told Malcolm all of it.
When he finished, Malcolm looked at him. “What are we going to do to save her?”
“We are going to do nothing!” Angus said. “We have to think of the whole. We have to think of the babies and feeding them. If we thwart Lawler—if we rebel—we will be punished, not her.”
“Have ye got that out of your system now?”
“Aye, I have,” Angus said, and as he looked at Malcolm, the tiredness began to leave him. He felt energy moving through his body. “What I thought is that they can’t marry without the kirk.”
“Do you mean to burn it down?” Malcolm asked, eyes wide in horror.
“Nay,” Angus said. “I just thought we’d take the pastor for a night out.”
“He must know that Lawler wants him here tonight.”
“I thought... Mind you, it’s just an idea that passed through my head, but I thought that we might get Shamus to help us make the pastor forget his appointment. If we showed up at the vicarage with a little or mayhap a lot of Lawler’s port, perhaps the old man would forget he’s to be at the kirk tonight.”
“Why Shamus? When did you start to trust him?”
“In my eyes this is a sin sure to get me sent to hell. If I have to go, then I want someone with me who deserves to go.”
“Excellent idea,” Malcolm said, trying to look serious, but the corners of his lips were twitching in merriment. “But if we stop the marriage tonight, what do we do about tomorrow? And the day after?”
“I don’t know,” Angus said. “I think we’ll have to secret her away and somehow hide her. Then we’ll... Why are these problems put onto me?”
“Because you always come up with a solution for them,” Malcolm said. “Do you want me to go with you to see Shamus?”
“Nay. I want you to steal a barrel of port.”
“That will take but a moment,” Malcolm said. “Go on, go to Shamus. You’ll have to use the coins you have hidden in the third stall to bribe him.”
Angus didn’t pause to ask how his uncle knew about those. There was no time to lose.
“What do you mean that you canna go?” Angus asked Shamus as he was eating. They were in the small, dirt-floored old cottage where Shamus lived with his tiny mother and three younger brothers. His four older brothers had left as soon as they were tall enough to stand up to their abusive father. To this day some people still wondered how Shamus’s father had fallen off a cliff in broad daylight. Whatever the cause, no one had been sorry to see him go.
“I have to drive a heavy wagon to Glasgow tonight,” Shamus said.
“Since when are you a driver?”
“Since the little miss asked me to do it.”