Kaelin drew up a chair. Feargol stayed alongside him. Kaelin absently put his arm around the boy’s shoulder. ‘Draig is a fighter, Maev, and I don’t believe he is evil. Better to tackle him fist to fist.’
‘Your face looked as if it had been kicked by a horse.’
‘Was it kicked by a horse?’ asked Feargol.
‘No,’ Kaelin told him. ‘Draig is a big man and he punches hard.
However, my uncle Jaim taught me to fight with my fists, and, though Draig is strong and brave, he has little skill.’
‘In short,’ said Maev, ‘Uncle Kaelin caught him with one of my bulls, beat him senseless and then let him go. The Cochlands do not raid here now.’
‘Do they hate you, Uncle Kaelin?’
‘I don’t think so. One day maybe you can ask them. Now go off to your room and get out of those wet clothes.’
‘Can’t I stay a little while longer?’
‘I need to talk to Maev. Go on with you. I’ll still be here when you get back.’ The boy hesitated, then ran up the stairs.
‘He is like your shadow, Kaelin. You used to be like that with Jaim.’
‘I remember. I’ve been thinking of this trip south. You don’t need me, Maev. And I’ve no wish to see Eldacre again.’
‘You think I have?’ she snapped. ‘You think I want to look down at that cursed cathedral? This is not a trip taken for pleasure, Kaelin. I need you. Trust me on that. I don’t ask for much from you – or any man. Do this one thing for me.’
‘What is so important?’
‘I want you standing beside me when I visit Jaim’s grave,’ she said, her eyes suddenly glistening with tears.
Kaelin reached out and took her hand. ‘I’ll be there, Maev,’ he said, with a sigh.
Chara was watching from the foot of the stairs. She felt a touch of anger at the older woman’s manipulation. She didn’t want Kaelin for a graveside visit. She wanted him to meet the Moidart.
Snow was swirling in through the shattered roof as Gaise Macon stretched out on the floor before the fire. He lay on his back, his head resting on a folded cloak. Despite his weariness he felt there was no chance of sleep. Seemingly random thoughts roiled in his mind. He found himself thinking of Eldacre Castle far to the north, and his father, the Moidart. There was no comfort in the memories. His childhood had been one of insistent sadness, struggling to find a way to make his father love him. He never had. Even now, as a fighting soldier in his twenties, Gaise Macon could find no reason for his father’s lack of affection.
Lack of affection? It was more than that, thought Gaise. All his life his father had found ways to cause him pain. The young general wondered if his mother’s death, so soon after giving birth to him, had caused the malice in the Moidart. But why should it? He was not responsible. His mother had been killed by assassins, who also stabbed the Moidart.
‘It is a mystery you will never solve,’ he told himself.
His mind drifted and he saw again the angry, flushed face of Lord Person, and the meeting of staff officers following the battle. The king had not been present. He generally avoided crowds, and the cramped conditions in the huge bell tent would have been abhorrent to him. Instead he had returned, with his family, to a nearby estate owned by Lord Winterbourne.
Four generals and eighteen senior officers had attended the meeting, and the first part had involved a discussion as to the battle’s outcome. Many of the staff officers voiced the view that it was a great victory for the king’s cause. Gaise had found this to be laughable. Luden Macks, outnumbered almost two to one, and expected to retreat, had attacked instead. Two divisions of the Royalist infantry had been swept aside. The advance had been halted by the steadfast courage of the elderly Lord Buckman, commander of the King’s Guards. With troops streaming back through his lines Buckman had formed a fighting square, sending volley after volley into the charging Covenanters. It would not have been enough to stem the attack, but Gaise, from his position on the hills to the right, had led his four hundred cavalry in a furious charge. The Covenanters had broken. In pursuing them Gaise saw Lord Person and his two thousand Lancers on the opposite ridge. He sent a rider, requesting support. But the Lancers never moved.