Margaret Mallory - The Sinner

“Alex?” the woman asked in a hoarse voice. “Is that you?”

God in Heaven, the woman clinging to the rock was Catherine Campbell.

“Aye, it’s me,” he said. “Put your arms around my neck. I promise I won’t drop ye.”

Catherine’s skirts were heavy with water as he lifted her into the boat. Moving quickly, he loosened his plaid and wrapped it around them both, then he set to rubbing her back and limbs to get her blood moving. She was so cold her teeth were chattering.

Glynis found a blanket and draped it around Catherine’s shoulders.

“What happened, Catherine?” Alex asked. “How did ye get out here?”

“Sh-sh-aggy did it.” Her teeth chattered as she spoke. “He-he brought me out here and left me.”

“Are ye saying Shaggy meant for ye to drown?”

She nodded against his chest.

The saints have mercy! Alex had seen a good deal of violence in his life, and he knew of instances when men murdered wives or lovers in a rage. But the cold ruthlessness of this shocked him. Shaggy had wanted his wife to watch the water rise for hours, knowing all the while that she would drown in the end.

“We’ve got to go to shore and get a fire going for her,” he said to Glynis. “Then we’ll need to get her to her family.”

“What do ye want me to do?” Glynis asked. “I can row.”

Thank God Glynis wasn’t the sort of woman to lose her head in a crisis.

“I’ll row,” he said. “Just keep her as warm as ye can.”

A second woman had asked for his help.

* * *

Glynis tried to lift Catherine Campbell to the back of the boat as Alex took up the oars, but the woman slid from her arms like an eel. When Glynis tried again, Catherine wrapped her arms around Alex’s waist from behind and clung to him, just as she had to the rock.

“It’s all right. Just tuck my plaid around her,” Alex said. “My body will give off plenty of heat while I row.”

As he rowed, Alex calmed Lady Catherine with a steady, low murmur, as if he were soothing a babe in his arms. Glynis felt useless.

She bit her lip against her own disappointment. After what Lady Catherine had suffered, it was small of her to think about how her own plans were ruined. Alex would insist upon seeing Catherine safely to her brother’s castle, as well he should, and Glynis would never make it to Edinburgh.

The Campbell chieftain would send word to Glynis’s father. And she would go home in worse shame than before.

“The fog is lifting, and the wind is picking up,” Alex said to Glynis after a while. “We can put the sail up now, and we’ll be on the Campbell side of the loch in no time.”

After Glynis helped him raise the boat’s small sail, Alex gathered Lady Catherine in his lap and sat with one arm around her and one guiding the boat.

“Catherine, if ye feel well enough to talk,” Alex said, “can ye tell us why Shaggy left ye on that rock?”

“He wanted to be rid of me without earning the wrath of my brothers,” she said. “He wanted me dead, without blood on his hands.”

“Who else was involved?” Alex asked.

“Shaggy rowed me out to the rock himself—he didn’t want to risk any loose tongues,” Catherine said, anger strengthening her voice. “While he had me trussed like a pig for roasting, he took considerable pleasure in telling me how the water would creep up until I’d have no rock to hold on to.”

Glynis thought Lady Catherine sounded sufficiently recovered to sit on her own. Catherine did not, however, remove herself from Alex’s lap.

“Shame I didn’t succeed in poisoning him,” Catherine said. “I tried twice, but Shaggy is a tough old bird.”

Glynis exchanged glances with Alex, but he showed no surprise at this remarkable confession.

“The poison did no more than make him ill for a day or two,” Catherine said. “I tell ye, it was verra disappointing.”

Alex cleared his throat. “I take it he planned to inform your brothers that ye met with an accident.”

“Aye, and he’d have a few hundred men to say he was fighting the MacIains at Mingary Castle the day I disappeared,” Catherine said, her voice hard with bitterness. “Shaggy will pay for this. My brothers will see to it.”

They were finally drawing near the far shore, where several fishermen were at the water’s edge readying their boats for the morning’s fishing.

“They should be Campbells,” Alex said. “You two stay in the boat while I talk with them.”

Glynis took one of the oars and held it against the bottom of the loch to steady the boat while Alex climbed out. As he and the fisherman spoke in murmured voices, Glynis felt the eyes of the men on her and Lady Catherine.

“Catherine, these fishermen are your clansmen,” Alex said when he returned to them. “We can rest here at their camp before starting the journey to Inveraray Castle.”

Glynis wondered how many days and miles they would have to walk to reach the Campbell fortress, and her spirits sank lower.

The fishermen seemed in awe of their chieftain’s sister and took pains to make them comfortable. After providing them with food and blankets and stoking the fire, they left the three of them to rest and took their boats out to fish.

Glynis was so tired after being awake all night on the water that she fell asleep almost before her head touched the ground. When she woke, it was near dusk, and the fishermen were back. Alex was sitting next to her, whittling a stick with his dirk. She sat up and looked around her. Lady Catherine stood several yards away surrounded by several men who had just arrived.

“Who are they?” she asked Alex.

“The fishermen felt their chieftain’s sister needed Campbell warriors to escort her home,” Alex said, with his eyes on the men. “They fetched these.”

The Campbell warriors scowled at Alex when Catherine left them to sit next to him.

“These men will see ye safely to Inveraray Castle,” Alex said. “But save your story about what Shaggy did for your brothers’ ears alone.”

Catherine slid her hand through Alex’s arm. “I want you to take me there.”

“Glynis and I must be on our way to Edinburgh in the morning,” Alex said.

Relief flooded through Glynis. He would take her to her mother’s family after all.

“Why are ye traveling with her?” Catherine glanced sideways at Glynis as if she were mud stuck on her shoes.

“I’m taking Glynis to her mother’s relations, nothing more,” he said. “We don’t want her father to hear of it, so don’t tell the men who we are.”

“Surely your trip can wait,” Catherine said, sounding her usual haughty self.

“I must meet someone in Edinburgh before the end of the month.” Alex gave Catherine a smile that would melt a witch’s heart. “Come, Catherine, ye know damned well no one on Campbell lands would dare harm a hair on your pretty head.”

Ach, the man could charm the wings off a fairy. Glynis was disgusted with them both.

“I’ll forgive ye if ye promise to visit on your return,” Catherine said, taking his arm again.

“I’ll do that,” Alex said.

“My brothers will want to reward ye for saving me.” Catherine tilted her head and looked at Alex from under her dark lashes. “And I’ll want to reward ye as well.”

* * *

“We’ll leave as soon as the camp is quiet,” Alex said close to Glynis’s ear.

“I thought we were leaving in the morning.”

“I’d rather not be dragged off in the night to have my throat cut,” Alex said. “These men don’t follow Catherine’s orders, and they are mistrustful of strangers passing through their lands.”

Well, that was true of all Highlanders.

“In the meantime, I’ll encourage them to be cautious.”