Clandara by Evelyn Anthony

Author:Evelyn Anthony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

The Countess of Clandara smiled up at her step-daughter. Whenever Katharine saw the Countess that same smile greeted her, friendly and unvarying, and it always made her feel uncomfortable. And yet she could not refuse to see her on the rare occasions when Jean Macdonald slipped downstairs and begged her to come up. The Countess was never allowed out of her room; for her own safety she was advised to stay out of sight of the Earl, and her only source of news was Katharine. Jean heard little or nothing unless she eavesdropped in the kitchens, for none of the household servants spoke to her.

“It’s kind of you to come,” the Countess said. “I try not to trouble you more than I can help.”

“It is no trouble,” Katharine said quickly. She looked round the bleak room; it was badly lit and the fire in the big grate smoked. Outside the windows the wintry sky was growing very dark.

“What can I do for you?” she said.

“Just talk to me a little and tell me what is happening in the outside world. Sit down, please. Do you know, I feel sometimes as if I were already in my grave in these two rooms? … What has happened to the Prince and his army?”

Katharine shook her head.

“Nothing but failure,” she said slowly. “They have come back to Inverness; half their number have deserted and the Prince is in despair. The English army are coming up through the countryside towards them, burning and hanging in every town and hamlet where they pass.”

“How terrible,” the older woman said. Her voice was very flat, almost uninterested. “But they won’t harm you; the Frasers didn’t join.”

“Some of them did,” Katharine answered. “Lord Lovat sent his son to the Prince; he’s the head of our clan and for all I know we may be punished without any discrimination being made whether we joined or not!”

“I can’t believe that.” the Countess said. “Even in the ’15 they didn’t punish those clans who stayed aloof.” Her smile diminished a little and then suddenly it disappeared.

“Have you heard if the Macdonalds are still with him?”

Katharine turned away; she did not wish her step-mother to see the colour that rose in her face at the mention of that forbidden name. She looked down at the ring which Henry Ogilvie had given her and twisted it round and round upon her finger until the central sapphire was hidden in her palm.

“I know nothing more than what I heard in Edinburgh,” she said. “They are still with the Prince.”

“They would be,” Margaret Clandara said. Her eyes began to glitter. “I can’t imagine Sir Alexander or James and his brothers deserting, can you? I imagine that when the final battle comes they’ll be at the forefront of it … James was such a great fighter. You have no idea how much he loved to fight; his spirit was too wild for this dull age. A few centuries ago he would have been a king …”

“If you are going to speak of him,” Katharine stood up, “then I shall leave you.

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