“No, it will not, Lorna,” Minna agreed, “but it is the best I can do. I will be back in a few hours, just before dawn.”
When Minna walked out of the bedroom, Lorna dropped to her knees and began to pray. She was a devout woman, and she had often prayed for her young mistress before, while her father was alive, but tonight was different. It was as though all the forces of nature were conspiring against her.
* * *
When she went out on her expeditions, Minna always used the servants’ stairs, because the staff always retired before midnight, there were no guards there and they were very poorly lit. She was so used to ascending and descending them by only the faintest glimmer of light, that she rarely stumbled. Neither had she ever met anyone else on her journey.
However, that night was different. That night she heard the sound of someone stumbling upstairs towards her, mumbling incoherently. As they came closer, she heard her brother’s voice and smelled the pungent aroma of whisky. She did not stop to wonder why he was coming up by the back stairs, but crossed to the other side to avoid him. He was singing some bawdy song and she could feel rather than see him swaying from side to side as he ascended the steps.
Presently, however, he stumbled, and as Minna heard the noise of his knee hitting the granite she winced, but could not help a surge of evil triumph. Jamie deserved every bit of pain he received. Suddenly he yelled out an obscene curse that hurt Minna’s ears and made her feel sick. It was a word that was so foul she felt like hitting him, but she clenched her hands into fists and waited for him to pass her.
She listened until he passed out of earshot before resuming her journey downstairs. When she reached the horses, neither looked very pleased to see her.
“Sorry, boys,” she said regretfully. “There will be extra oats for you when we arrive home. In the meantime - well, the faster we go, the faster we will be done.”
She mounted Caesar and rode out into the wild night. Within a minute they were all soaked, but they persevered, although the only thing keeping Minna going was the gratitude of those who would be receiving the food. Once more she cursed Jamie. This was all his fault.
Minna thought back to the first time she had visited the village after her father had overthrown Laird Hepburn. It had all started when she had gone to visit the village of Cairnbrae for the first time.
A year earlier…
As she rode into the main street, Minna noticed several things at once. Most of the houses had holes in their thatched roofs and there were several derelict buildings. The churchyard was overgrown and full of weeds, and the wall around the town well was crumbling, already missing several big stones on its parapet. It was quite clearly very dangerous, and she wondered why it had not been repaired.
At first, Minna thought the street was deserted, then she saw something that almost broke her heart. First, she was alerted by the crying of a tiny baby, whose desperate wails sounded as if his heart was broken. The young woman who was holding it was weeping quietly too. The two of them made a picture of absolute despair.
Minna dismounted and approached the young woman, then knelt down by her side. “Please tell me what is wrong, and what I can do to help you,” she said gently.
As she looked up, Minna realized that the girl was young, perhaps the same age as she was. She had a pale, freckled face, fair hair and deep gray eyes which were now swimming with tears.
“What is wrong?” she asked again, feeling desperately sorry for the young woman. “Is it your baby? Is it ill?”
The woman wiped her eyes, brushing her tears away, but more came, streaming down her pretty face even harder than before. “I havenae got enough milk tae feed him,” she replied. “I have hardly enough to eat myself. He will starve tae death soon.”
“So you are both starving?” she asked, her voice threaded with anger mixed with pity.
“Aye, Mistress,” she replied. “We are. I think I might just walk intae the river an’ drown us both. At least we will die quicker.” She was looking at her little son with so much love in her eyes that Minna felt a lump in her throat and had to swallow down tears of pity.
Then anger took its place, a fierce, all-consuming fury that threatened to burst out of her in a fierce roar. She restrained herself, however, and got to her feet, took the young woman’s hand and pulled her up too. “No!” she snapped angrily. “You will not starve, and neither will your baby, not while I am around to stop it. Come with me.”
She walked back to her horse, holding the young woman’s hand, then held the baby while the girl scrambled onto Caesar. Looking down into his face, Minna felt a fierce protectiveness well up inside her. He had stopped crying, but his little face was screwed up as if in pain, and his cheeks were thinner than a young baby’s should have been. Minna passed him up to his mother, then mounted behind her and they rode off in the direction of the castle.
“Where are we goin’?” the young mother asked. She sounded slightly wary, and Minna thought that she must be in a desperate state to allow a perfect stranger to take her to an unknown destination. She wondered if she would have allowed a man to do the same thing.
“To the castle,” Minna replied. “What is your name?”
“Eilidh,” the young woman replied. “But - are ye takin’ me tae the Laird?” Her voice was trembling.
Minna patted her shoulder. “No, Eilidh, he is the last person I would take you to,” she said soothingly. “But it is a big castle and he lives in a very small part of it. Do not fret - you are quite safe with me.”
“Who are you, Mistress?” Eilidh asked.
It was not lost on Minna that Eilidh had begun to address her with a title of respect.
“My name is Minna,” she replied. “And what is your son called?”
“David, after his father,” she replied. “He is away in Dundee tryin’ tae find some work there. He has never seen his son.”
“Oh, no!” Minna was shocked. “No - this can't be allowed to happen. Did he leave because he needed to earn money to feed you?”