Chapter 10
The slower of the guests believed the whole thing to be a hoax.
“I’ve never been so entertained in me life!
” one of the elderly ladies said to Meria.
“It was so lifelike, Lady Meria. I swear the Sassenach king would nae have been able to put on such a splendid display in his golden court. Please tell me before I burst with curiosity: Is the man really Cal’s brither, or was that part o’ the act?
” but all Meria could do by way of a reply was shudder and shake her head.
There was so much speculation about the sword fight that even Logan had his own opinion on what had happened.
“Poor Will was so put out by losin’ to Master Creel, it must have turned his mind!
And who can blame the lad? His sword was superior in every way, a point that was very neatly proved by the fight.
” When anyone asked him about Callum’s outburst at the end of the fight, all Logan could do was shake his head and shrug.
“I have nay idea about the laird havin’ a long-lost younger brither, although heralds and messengers did pass through our village one or two years back, makin’ inquiries about a wee slave boy by the name o’ William MacNair.
But why would anyone bother to link the two names?
I ken the man as Will Fearguson, an’ sure as hell he is neither wee nor a slave. ”
No one could ask Will what had made him get up at the beginning of the feast and attack Laird Callum. As for Laird MacNair himself, he was now swearing on his grave that the blacksmith was his brother. It was all very confusing.
“It’ll all be proved to be a performance, ye mark me words. Something the two o’ them concocted to show off the sword’s merits, I’ll bet,” Laird Gray said with some finality. “Now, let’s get down to eating this food!”
It was a sentiment that everyone at the feast agreed with, all except those who had been directly affected by the revelation that Will Fearguson was, in all likelihood, Callum’s long-lost brother.
The moment Will had lowered his sword, Ailsa had wasted no time in holding off Callum’s enthusiastic greeting with one hand by saying, “There’s lots of time to be doing that in the future, M’Laird, but for now let’s get Will out of the banquet hall where he can regain his equilibrium.”
And by that, what Ailsa meant was that she wanted to get Will out of sight before he was interrogated as to why he attacked his brother.
As if he was in a daze, Will followed Ailsa into the alehouse, the only place she could think of that was out of earshot of the hall.
She brought the besom with her; the man she dragged outside with her seemed chillingly disassociated with the recent events.
Stunned and unaware of his whereabouts, Will seemed meek enough now, but she was unsure how long it would last.
Pushing him down onto one of the low shelves that housed twenty ale caskets, Ailsa snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Och, wheesht now, ye bampot. What was all that about then? Ye ken ye could hang for this? Ye better pray ye really are the laird’s wee brither!”
No response. After checking Will had no other weapons in his hands (he had dropped both his sword and dirk on the floor in the hall, much to Ailsa’s relief), she went to the water pump that fed the ale tuns, filled a large wooden ladle with water, and threw it into Will’s face.
That got his attention. He shook his head and wiped his eyes, glaring at her afterward, before saying, “I feel like an open wound that has just been lanced, Ailsa. I thank ye.”
Ailsa had stood back so no droplets of water got on her, but when he spoke, she knew the old Will who had given her the first swimming lesson was back.
“Ye better prepare yerself for the onslaught, Will, because I have nay doubt the laird’s men are searching for ye.”
She did not want to guess whether Laird MacNair needed to find Will to take him to one of the dank dungeon prison cells under the castle floorboards or embrace him as his long-lost brother. Time would tell what the repercussions of attacking a laird in his own castle might be.
She placed a comforting hand on Will’s shoulder and felt the panting force that had caused him to launch into his unprovoked confrontation slowly dissipate from his body. The muscles in his arms stopped twitching and jumping; his breathing calmed to its normal pace.
The sound of flies buzzing against one of the alehouse shutters filled the air. Will gave a loud exhalation and stood up.
“I better go an’ turn meself in, Ailsa. I’ve never been the sort o’ man to stand by an’ allow others to decide his fate for him. I must search for Laird Callum MacNair, me…brither.”
Ailsa gasped. “So, ye did ken!”
He shook his head. “Nay. There was always the chance that the man was some adventurer who had heard me brither tell the story of his origins and then taken it upon himself to copy it. He was a skinny boy who arrived at Laird Gray’s castle making the claims, after all.
Who’s to say he had not picked it up from somewhere else? ”
“Did ye nae keek the great similarities between the two o’ ye?” Ailsa was aghast. “Ye’re as alike as two peas in a pod, albeit if one pea was a smidgen shorter than t’other.”
Will shrugged. “It’s easy for ye to say, Ailsa, but I have nay mirror at the back o’ me head to make such a match.”
This statement only made Ailsa’s eyes widen. “The likeness between ye both is remarkable because there is a certain foreign aspect about yer eyes an’ cheekbones. It is unlike yer average Highlander an’ sets ye both apart. No imposter could mimic such a unique appearance as ye both have.”
“Come.” Will reached out his hand for her, and she held it. “Let’s go an’ find this brither o’ mine.”
They walked out of the alehouse together and found the courtyard in an uproar.
Sentries and guards were running in and out of doors and chambers, but Ailsa was relieved to see the men did not have weapons in their hands.
That meant Will was to be apprehended and not killed.
She felt an overwhelming sense of love and relief for Laird Callum’s generosity of spirit.
“Dinnae fash, gentlemen!” Ailsa shouted out to the soldiers. “I have Will with me still. I’ll take him to the laird’s chambers.”
The captain of the guards was called, and when he reached the couple, he looked at them both with misgivings but seemed to accept that Will was no longer in such a fury as the sentries from the feast assured the captain he had been.
“Och aye, Mistress Ailsa, ye’ll find Laird Cal in the audience chamber awaitin’ yon…blacksmith.”
From the way Will had attacked their laird and the outrageous claims Callum was making about the blacksmith being his brother, the captain no longer knew what to call Will.
“Thank ye, Captain Macrae,” Ailsa said in a carefree tone to emphasize her lack of concern about Will’s unpredictability. “I will take him there anon.”
She led Will around the banquet hall from whence the sound of merriment and good cheer was coming and went straight to the audience chamber.
There were no guards outside the door. Perhaps they were waiting inside?
This was the room where Callum would listen to villagers’ grievances or suggestions from the farmers who rented their land from him.
Ailsa announced herself, not knowing what they were going to find on the other side of the door.
“Come, but leave any weapons outside,” Laird Callum’s deep voice sounded from within.
Ailsa noticed the laird’s intonation was different and wondered how young Will had been when the brothers were separated. She lifted the latch and entered. There were no guards in the room. Callum was alone.
“I have brought the blacksmith back to ye, Laird,” Ailsa said, and then made to leave the room, but Will put his arm out to stop her. “Ye must bear witness to this, Ailsa, in case that forsworn bustert there tries to tell things different.”
If she was to be honest with herself, Ailsa was all too eager to hear what the two men were about to say to one another, if only so that she could tell Lady Meria afterward as the poor lady had to stay at the feast she had so lovingly ordered prepared.
She was curious how the scene would play out.
Will seemed defeated now that his broiling wrath had burnt itself out.
Laird Callum seemed to be holding back deep emotions too.
She understood why Will had asked her to stay and bear witness.
Laird MacNair spoke first. “I have searched high an’ low for ye for the last three years, William. Where have ye been hiding?”
Will stood with his arms hanging down by his sides, staring at the floor. Ailsa recognized this stance. All soldiers stood like that after a battle because their arms were so tired from swinging their swords with all their strength.
“Perhaps ye might offer yer…brither a chair, Laird?” Ailsa suggested.
“Och aye, of course,” Callum agreed with her, and almost collapsed into his own chair behind the desk because he was also exhausted.
Ailsa pushed Will down onto one of the armchairs arrayed in front of the desk, and he looked a lot less intimidating once he sat. The housekeeper and the laird waited for Will to say something. There was a general sigh of relief when he raised his head and began to speak.
“Three years? An’ what about the other twenty years afore that?”
Callum hung his head, drawing on the desk surface with his finger before saying in a softer tone, “I was a servant in Laird Gray’s castle, William. I was hardly in a position to leave an’ seek ye out. I swear I would have found ye sooner if ye had nae gone an’ changed yer name.”
Will’s face went deadly pale at the effort it cost him to keep a tight rein on his temper.
“Really? I went an’ changed me name? How thoughtless o’ me.
So that’s what kept ye from lookin’ for me?
Och well then, I must accept the blame!” Will’s words flew out of his mouth, spitting sarcasm and venom.
“I must have been a few years short of turnin’ ten.
I had been stuck in the orphanage waitin’ for so long for a home to call me own for what seemed like ages, so of course it was up to me to insist me foster parents keep callin’ me by a man’s name who was nae even me faither. I did nae realize I was to blame.”
Callum’s face flushed red, his cheekbones suffused with blood.
“Our mither gave ye the name Wee Willie MacNair. The least ye could have done was acknowledge it somewhere in yer appellation. I’m no’ a bloody soothsayer, ye ken.
How was I to predict yer whereabouts if ye did nae keep our mither’s clan name! ”
“I was a wee yin! How was I to insist upon such an absurdity! Cal MacNair was nae even me faither!” Will was leaning forward in his chair now, shouting the words. “Why did ye no’ go to Laird Gray an’ ask for him to locate me?”
Callum hung his head. “I-I was a lowly servant, William. Stop actin’ as if I had any leverage.”
Will resorted to biting sarcasm again. “Och well, that’s understandable then. I’ve seen Laird Gray in the banqueting hall, an’ he seems to be the most stern, unapproachable man!”
Laird Gray’s physical exterior showed him to be kind and understanding with a hearty appetite, so all three occupants of the audience chamber knew Will was being contemptuous.
“The truth is this, Brither!” Will shouted.
“Ye landed with yer arse in the lard when ye happened upon Laird Gray’s castle, an’ ye could nae be bothered to stir yerself or put yerself out to beg an’ plead yer new master for help to find me.
I ken how castles are run, ye indolent glaikit rascal!
I ken that even the lowliest servant is allowed to seek an audience with the laird an’ make a request.”
Will put on a fake begging voice. “Och please, yer lairdship, please send a rider to MacTavish Castle to find out what happened to me poor wee brither.”
Will reverted back to his normal voice. “Aye, that’s all it would have taken for ye to find out that the children were returned to their mithers at the tavern—all except one poor lad whom nobody wanted an’ so ended up at the orphanage no’ one mile away from the room he had shared with his mither an’ brither for the first four years o’ his life! ”
He caught his breath, winded from shouting out the spew of invective at the man who had abandoned him.
Ailsa could barely hear what Callum was whispering.
“I was six…I was starvin’ when I reached Castle Gray. Ye make it sound as if I was then as I am now, in some kind of position to bargain and solve the mystery of what happened. Only I was nae. I was a wee lad too.”
Will scoffed, “Bleh, bleh, bleh. Ye whine about the horrors of yer escape as if ye died on the side of the road instead of swanking up to a castle full of servants an’ food.
An’ then ye try to talk about yer experience as if it was as bad as me own.
I was little more than a bairn, an’ ye upped and left me at the back o’ a cart on me way to a slave market.
I had just watched me mither killed and been ripped away from the only home I had ever known.
An’ then ye decided it was all bonny an’ dandy to escape without so much as a farewell or forewarning. ”
“I was six!” Callum stood up to bellow the words at his brother.
Will responded by standing up and taking a step forward to yell into his brother’s face, “I was three! Ye were me only clan!”
Ailsa had had enough. She took Will by the hand and began dragging him out of the door, saying to both men, “Ye have been at loggerheads long enough! Come, we’re going out to get some air.
An’ neither of ye are to lay eyes on one another again until ye have come to an agreement.
If ye still feel the same way after all o’ it, then Will, ye can ride out o’ the village, an’ we never want to hear from ye again. Understand?!”