Chapter Nine
A crackling noise slowly brought Elise back to wakefulness.
Lured by the sound, she rose up from a dark, dreamless slumber, and through the haze she realized the noise was the sound of burning logs.
She didn’t open her eyes, taking a moment to listen to the crackle and hiss, to feel the warmth of the flames against her skin, to smell the faint, reassuring tang of wood smoke.
She was alive. Wrung out, exhausted, but alive.
Slowly, she opened her eyes. She was lying in her bed at Dun Arach with the covers tucked up to her chest and a merry fire burning in the hearth.
Beneath her, the feather-stuffed mattress felt wonderfully soft, and it was all she could do not to let her eyes drift closed and fall back into oblivion.
But she couldn’t allow herself that comfort.
She had to know if everyone was all right.
She pushed herself upright, only to feel the weight of a reassuring hand settle on her shoulder. “Easy, lass.”
Jamie was sitting in a chair by her bed. He hadn’t changed his clothes, and they were still damp from the voyage. His hair was damp too, curling more tightly than usual around his face. He looked tired, as exhausted as she felt, and there were dark circles beneath his eyes.
“Thank the Lord,” he murmured. “Ye had me worried there for a while.”
The drapes were drawn across the window so she couldn’t tell what time of day it was. “How long was I out?”
“A while,” he replied. “Ye passed out on the ship and we couldnae wake ye. I thought for a moment that ye…that ye…” He passed a hand over his face and took a deep breath. “No matter. Ye are awake now.”
“Is everyone okay?” she asked. “And have the pirates gone?”
“Aye, fled, thanks to ye. We took no casualties. Everyone that went out with us made it home. Again, thanks to ye.”
Elise sagged against her pillows. Everyone was okay.
Thank God for that. She wasn’t sure she could bear it if anyone had been hurt on her watch.
Memories of her power raging through her sent a sudden shiver down her spine.
She’d never experienced anything like that before, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to again.
She’d felt so strong. Invincible. Like she could remake the world if she chose.
And she recognized all too well the dangerous road that might lead her down.
“They knew we were coming,” she murmured. “It was a trap all along.”
“Aye,” Jamie agreed. “It was.” He blew out a breath and turned to stare into the fire.
“I was a fool. A vain, arrogant fool. I should have taken yer advice and not gone out there today. Because of my arrogance, I could have lost my entire crew.” His eyes were full of self-recrimination. “And I could have lost ye.”
“But you didn’t. All’s well that ends well, right? And if we hadn’t gone, what would have become of those lads we rescued from the rocks?”
He grimaced. “I know. It’s just that…just that…” He shrugged helplessly. His fingers curled into fists and a vein began throbbing in his temple. “I feel so damned helpless. Every decision I make turns to shite. What kind of chieftain am I if I canna keep my people safe?”
“One who’s trying his best. That’s all any of us can do.”
His eyes found hers and a faint, wry smile curled his lips. “Perhaps. But my best needs to be better.”
Elise said nothing. There was something they were missing in all this, she could feel it. Those pirates had known where to go, and Jamie himself had been their target. Why? What did they hope to gain?
“Are pirate ships normally so well equipped?” she asked. “Do they normally carry cannon?”
“No. But that ship could have been a navy vessel that they’d captured and taken for their own.”
“Maybe. But you told me that every time they attack, they disappear without a trace, more quickly than your own fleet can track them. That suggests their base must be close by. Somewhere on the island.”
“That was my thinking too. But I’ve scoured every inch of the coastline, and all the uninhabited islets within striking distance. There is nothing. It’s like they vanish into thin air.”
That didn’t feel right. Nothing about this whole situation felt right. What was she missing? What was she not seeing?
“I’ll leave ye to rest,” Jamie said.
“I don’t need rest; I need to act,” Elise replied. Yet even as she said the words, she felt fatigue flooding through her again. “All right,” she conceded. “Just a little nap.”
She didn’t even hear Jamie close the door behind him.
*
“Is this all of it?” Jamie asked.
He reached out, took a handful of grain in his hand, and slowly let it run through his fingers and back into the sack that stood open before him. More sacks filled the barn, and the air was thick with the yeasty smell of it.
“That’s all of it,” Phillip MacClelland replied. He held a bit of parchment in one hand and a pair of thick lenses sat on the bridge of his nose—an Italian invention that he’d picked up on his last visit to Rome. He claimed they allowed his old eyes to see better.
Jamie straightened from his crouch and faced his advisor. “It isnae enough.”
Phillip rolled his eyes, the movement pulling the burned skin by his eye tight. “That’s what I’ve been telling ye for the past hour. We are well short of what we need to get us through the winter. Even if we begin rationing, it willnae last.”
“Ye’ve tallied all the other grain stores and barns? Ye havenae missed any?”
Phillip gave him a look that suggested his laird was asking stupid questions.
“Aye, I’ve tallied them all. And not just me.
I’ve had Andrea check as well. The grain stores.
The root cellars. The dried meat and smoked fish stocks.
All are short. We have to face facts, Jamie.
We dinna have enough stores to make it through the winter. ”
Jamie let forth a string of expletives that would have had his old tutors cuffing his ears. “Then what are we to do?”
“Firstly, we should cancel the harvest celebration. We canna afford such excess, not with the stores as they are.”
“Cancel the most anticipated event of the year? The people would likely string me up!”
Phillip waved hand. “Hard decisions have to made in times like these. The people will understand.”
Aye, they might. But Jamie was reluctant to follow Phillip’s advice.
The harvest dance was a tradition that went back further than anyone could remember.
It was a time when the people of Islay got together to celebrate the bounty of the harvest—such as it was—and mark the turning of the year towards the colder, darker months.
It was a time when friendships were renewed, old grudges were forgotten, and where the young men and women of the island went on the hunt for their future partners.
Jamie himself had many happy memories of the festival—the firelight, the dancing, the baked apples and barrels of mead. Laughter. Singing. Sparks from the fire whirling into the dark night like fireflies.
“Nay,” he said. “It might be an excess, but God knows we need a celebration now more than ever. The harvest dance will go ahead as planned.”
Phillip scowled. “Fine. But whether we cancel the festival or not, we still need to increase our imports. The treasury is in good standing. We shouldnae have any problems meeting the increased expense.”
Jamie felt his stomach tighten and it wasn’t at the thought of increased expense.
What did he care for money when his people were in danger of starving?
No, what made his insides coil with dread was the thought of asking for more ships to brave the dangers between the mainland and the Isles, asking more crews to run the gauntlet of the pirates.
How could he put more of his people in danger? Yet, what choice did he have? What else could he do?
Phillip studied him as though he could read his laird’s mind.
“There is another way, my laird. A way we can be rid of this threat before the winter storms close in. A way we can ensure the shipping routes are clear enough to bring in all the supplies we need.” He laid a hand on Jamie’s arm. “Ye know what that is.”
Aye, he knew what that was. Marriage to Margaret of Concressault. Selling his islands to James of Scotland. Elise’s face flashed into his mind, and he knew he couldn’t do it. He just couldn’t.
He shook his head. “Nay, my friend. We’ll figure this out. I willnae bargain away my people’s freedom.” And I won’t marry a woman I don’t love.
Anger flashed in Phillip’s eyes, hot and bright. But it was gone in an instant as he mastered himself. He bowed stiffly. “As my laird commands. If ye will excuse me, I have work to do.”
He turned and walked away, looking like a man carrying too many burdens. Jamie knew exactly how that felt.
*
“Ow! Damn it!”
Elise swore loudly as the comb snagged in her hair for the umpteenth time. Resolutely, she worked at the tangle, cursing the useless implements they called combs in this time. She considered asking Andrea to come brush her hair but that would just make her look like a useless idiot.
Brush her hair? That was a joke. This was more like pulling her hair out by the roots. If she kept up like this, she’d be bald by the time she went home.
She harrumphed and set the comb down on the table.
She was in a foul mood this morning and it wasn’t the comb’s fault.
She hadn’t slept well, and lack of sleep always made her grouchy.
She hadn’t been able to settle and had found her thoughts churning round and round in her head.
Memories of the battle with the pirates kept replaying through her mind like some bad movie.
The screaming of the pirates. The exultation as her power thundered through her.
That had been the scariest part of it all: how much she’d enjoyed it.
There was at a knock at the door.
“Come in!” Elise called, glad of any distraction.