Children of the Mist by Nigel Tranter

Author:Nigel Tranter [Tranter, Nigel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Historical
ISBN: 9781444741018
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2012-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

16

Alastair had to wait, with some impatience, for the weeks to pass until the usual Yuletide visit of the duke and Mary Gray to Strathearn before he could seek advice on how to counter this latest dire threat of Glenorchy’s, since he did not see what he could do to any effect on his own. He took the threat seriously, but did not think that the danger was immediate; Black Duncan was not likely to appear in Glen Strae with a host of his Campbells to seek to dispossess the MacGregors – that was not his style. He would seek to use other methods, the ‘authority and power of the realm’ that he had talked of, and that would take time to arrange and marshal. Nevertheless, Alastair fretted, although none of his people appeared to share his anxiety. If Mary and Vicky did not come to Methven for Yule this year, then somehow he would have to reach them, and the Master of Gray, at court.

However, the Methven steward duly arrived a few days before Christmas to announce that his master and lady were come, and hoped that Himself would join them for the festivities of Hogmanay and New Year, and indeed the sooner the better. With nothing holding him back at Glen Strae, he accompanied the steward back, there and then.

It was always good to see his friends, and to remark on how little Johnnie Stewart of Methven was progressing, a happy and uncomplicated child, with something of his father’s appearance and his mother’s wits. Welcome was warm.

It did not take long, of course, before Alastair came out with Glenorchy’s latest menace, to his hearers’ concern. They did not underestimate the threat, as Roro and the other Gregorach did, recognising that Duncan would not have made it publicly, as he had done, were he not fairly confident of success. They must take steps to thwart him somehow, therefore. How best?

The duke thought that MacCailean Mhor might be a hopeful helper. He had aided Alastair before, and they had established some sort of mutual co-operation. And Argyll now esteemed Glenorchy as his enemy also. If he was to persuade the rest of Clan Campbell to, as it were, shun Black Duncan and his ally Ardkinglas, that might help, especially as Argyll was now Admiral of the Western Seas and in a position to aid King James against the Catholic Clan Donald federation, the present activities of which were worrying the monarch, council and Kirk.

Alastair agreed with that, save in that he did not altogether trust MacCailean Mhor. It was not, he averred, just traditional MacGregor suspicion of all Campbells; something about that young man warned him to be wary. That one would, he felt, just as readily sacrifice him as aid him, if it was in his own interests. Still, in the present situation, he might well find it convenient to display his undoubted animosity against Glenorchy.

Mary, whilst not contesting this, felt that her father could well do most in the matter.

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