Unfortunately, it didn’t last long.
‘What did he say? Did he ask about me?’ squeaked Morna.
‘Aye, he was all questions, until I told him you were away from here and long since wed.’
‘Wed!’ she shouted, standing up with the scrape of a chair. ‘Why did you tell him that?’
‘He was talking of coming here and seeking you out. He lost interest when I told him you had a husband.’
‘Oh, how could you, Lyall?’
He shrugged. ‘T’was for the best, and it would be good if you did find a man to wed, though heaven knows where we will find one mad enough to take you.’
‘Oh, you are just like Cormac, that’s all he ever talks about, getting me married off. You are hateful, Lyall, and I am sorry you are back.’ With that, she sped out of the room in high dudgeon.
Cormac leaned his head back in his chair and clasped his hands over his chest. ‘William O’Neill. My God, I thought him dead these many years since. I always remember what he said to me at Bannockburn. ‘Remember my name, Cormac Buchanan, for I will be a great man someday.’ And was he?’
‘Not as far as I could see. O’Neill said he was an outlaw with a bad reputation. He was definitely a fighter and had the scars to prove it, and he was clever with his words. There were hard men at his back, men who looked to him as their leader. How does this O’Neill know so much about us?
‘Because he has taken the trouble of finding out. That, in itself, is dangerous. After Bannockburn, I sought information about this man. You and your lass had a lucky escape. William O’Neill is descended from the Bains on his mother’s side, a ruthless lot. They live outside God’s grace and are a law unto themselves, fighting like dogs for dominion over the Western Isles.’
‘You fear them?’
‘They do not overly concern me, for the most part, so long as they keep their murdering in their own lands. How they came to be this far south worries me though. I would know more about your encounter with O’Neill.’
‘I am weary, and it is too long a story, Cormac.’
‘Then Ravenna will fetch more ale, and you shall tell it.’