The Faithful Heart (34 page)

 

 

“The farming chores should carry on as normal, but armed guards
should go with you, and the gates will be closed night and day
otherwise. If you wish permission to leave the castle precincts for
any reason, see myself or Ruairc.And thank you all for your help and
support.”

 

 

They all filed out of the room muttering and talking excitedly, and
Ruairc turned to Morgana and kissed her.

 

 

“Thank you for showing them you still have faith in me.”

 

 

“I always have, Ruairc. And when we are married, we will share
everything, won’t we?”

 

 

“Just as we always have,
a stor.
When can we be married?”

 

 

“As soon as things are more settled, we will go to Father Doyle,”
she promised.

 

 

He stooped to kiss her. "Thank you, my love."

 

 

"I'll see you later." She went to the blacksmith’s shop, where she
began to supervise the forging of new weapons for the defence of her
castles.

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

 

 

April gave way to May and then June as Morgana and Ruairc struggled
to cope with the crisis of the shipwrecked crews.As Tiarnach
O’Connor had said, many of the men were in poor condition upon their
arrival at Lisleavan due to lack of nourishment and exposure to the
elements. Many more were unfit to do even the simplest tasks for
themselves. It became a running battle to maintain cleanliness in
the upper floors, and to keep the men fed until they could get up
and help around the castle.

 

 

Morgana’s own leg took a long time to heal, since she was nearly
always on her feet doing the cooking, cleaning, forging, tending to
the sick, or looking after the animals. Wherever her skills were
needed, she rolled up her sleeves and lent a hand.

 

 

Ruairc seldom saw her, for his duties as chief castellan were of a
different order. He had to ensure guards were posted at all gates at
all times, inspect the castle defences, and prepare Lisleavan for
the possibility of a long siege.

 

 

As the weeks passed, Morgana’s ships returned from their trade runs
with valuable supplies. All of the captains were impressed with the
changes they saw at Lisleavan. But Sean, head of the captains now
that Finn and Patrick were occupied elsewhere, was outraged at the
treatment of the Maguire crews, and burned for revenge.

 

 

“We couldn’t possibly move against them now, Sean! If they took
Lisleavan, they could slaughter those convalescing men like so many
sheep!” Morgana argued one morning in June. “We must bide our time.
But I promise you, I will get revenge upon them one day soon. Now,
what news from Dublin and Bristol?”

 

 

“Let’s see, the Earl of Kildare is still being kept at court, and
his son, Silken Thomas, has been passed over as Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland. He has been replaced by Skeffington, whom he hates with a
passion. So apparently Silken Thomas has threatened that he will let
the Pale become ungovernable, so that the English will see how
desperately we need his father here to keep the peace, and will
therefore send him home,” Sean informed her grimly.

 

 

“Good Lord, Ruairc won’t like that when I tell him,” Morgana sighed.
“Go on.”

 

 

“All of the Catholic clergy are being required to submit to Henry as
the head of the English church, on pain of death. All their
religious orders are to be dissolved. Sir Thomas More was arrested
on the thirteenth of April because he refused to recognise King
Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church.”

 

 

Morgana sat down abruptly. “If they have arrested the Lord
Chancellor of England himself, what hope do any of the ordinary
clergy have if they refuse to acknowledge Henry as their religious
leader rather than the pope?”

 

 

“None at all, if the king’s treatment of Elizabeth Barton is
anything to go by,” Sean said grimly.

 

 

“Elizabeth Barton?” Morgana asked, raising her eyes questioningly.

 

 

“She was a nun who vigorously preached against Henry’s presumption.
She was also known as the Maid of Kent.”

 

 

“Yes, yes, I did hear something about her.What happened?”

 

 

“Last November she was accused of treason, along with about thirteen
priests who had helped her form a movement against Henry’s
leadership of the so-called Anglican Church. She was executed with
four of the priests on the twentieth of April, while those who were
spared were made a great show of in London, used as examples of the
king’s mercy should they choose to be faithful to him and renounce
the Pope’s authority,” Sean explained.

 

 

“What of God’s mercy?” Morgana muttered, crossing herself.

 

 

“Henry the Eighth of England would play God with all our lives if he
could. I hear that all of the legislation in the new parliament he
has summoned is designed to make him more powerful than any English
king has ever been since the Magna Carta.”

 

 

“But he is only storing up problems for himself later,” Morgana
said, rising from her chair to pace up and down in front of the
hearth in her study. “He still has no son, for all we hear
continually of Anne Boleyn expecting again. If it comes to a choice
of Mary or the Princess Elizabeth, most sane people would choose a
grown woman as queen rather than a nine month old infant whom many
think to be a bastard.”

 

 

“But the king won’t listen to reason, and I fear it is only a matter
of time before the Emperor Charles V moves against him for the
insult done to his sister, the former queen Catherine of Aragon, and
to his niece Mary if she is proclaimed bastard herself and passed
over for the succession,” Sean said.

 

 

“This is grave news indeed,” Morgana sighed.

 

 

“If I may say so, Morgana, I think for the time being we should
confine our trade to Scotland and England.I have no wish to be
caught up in continental intrigue, and our shipping might be
restricted because of all this turmoil.”

 

 

Morgana nodded. “I agree. We can do good brisk trade from Bristol
and Chester for nearly all we need, even if it is slightly more
expensive than shipping goods from Flanders and Spain directly
ourselves. I would avoid the Pale ports as well, though, just in
case Silken Thomas makes good his threat to make the entire area,
which the English have ruled so long, ungovernable.”

 

 

“A good point. I’ll pass the word along at all the ports.”

 

 

“If you could run up to Scotland for timber and oats, and come back
as quickly as you can, Sean, it would be a great help.”

 

 

“I’ll do that. Then I fancy a bit of fishing,” Sean suggested
hopefully.

 

 

“That’s a good idea.The fish will be running in this direction soon
anyway, so bring back as much as you can. Oh, and remember to divide
your cargoes into three, for Tulach and Ma Niadh as well as
ourselves.”

 

 

"Aye, I will."

 

 

He turned to go, until another thought struck him.

 

 

“One last thing. About those duties.They were apparently marked as
ships full of silver and expensive gowns and jewels. The port
authorities eventually believed me when I said we knew nothing of
them, but when I asked if our ships had been seen recently, they
said there had been no sign except for the new ones with the yellow
and blue chequered pennants.”

 

 

“Why on earth would anyone steal twenty ships, strip them of crew,
and run treasure on them? It doesn’t make sense.”

 

 

“I’m sure it makes perfect sense to the men responsible, the
MacMahons. At least we discovered it in time, and can be on our
guard,” Sean stated.

 

 

“Thank you, Sean, for managing everything so well, and keeping your
eyes and ears open.” Morgana took his arm, and escorted him down to
the jetty in order to exercise her leg.

 

 

“My pleasure, chief.” He grinned, kissing her hand. He helped her
patiently down the winding staircase, but once she was on level
ground she was able to manage quite well on her own.

 

 

"Still stiff?"

 

 

"Aye, a bit, but there's remarkably little scarring. I think the
maggots we used to clean the flesh worked very well."

 

 

He wrinkled his nose in distaste. "Aye, I'll have to remember that.
By all accounts, you were lucky not to lose the leg."

 

 

"And more than that. Ruairc and my life too. And the worse thing is,
they were waiting for us. They knew we were coming to the convent
that day. Or at least, that I was. And Aofa's baggage train was also
attacked, and her kidnapped. Well, supposedly. We have not had any
request for a ransom."

 

 

"So it looks like she was the traitor all along."

 

 

Morgana nodded. "And thought Ruairc would be with her. They would
have either taken him or killed him. As it was, he was with me.They
certainly looked intent on killing him. I think they were just
trying to capture me," she said, her brows knitting.

 

 

"Well, whatever they were trying to do, be careful. As bad as things
have been around here, we would be in a sorry state without you." He
hugged her to him fondly.

 

 

"At least we have Patrick and Finn back, and Angus in charge of
Cullen."

 

 

"Aye, you've achieve a great deal since your return. You may only be
a woman, but you're the best person in this clan to become
tanaist
.
Have your investiture soon, Morgana, and put everyone's mind at
ease."

 

 

"Everyone except our enemies."

 

 

He grinned and blew her a kiss. Then he turned to the lough and
began shouting orders to the crew to get underway.

 

 

Mary scowled at Morgana’s back blackly as she saw the exchange
between her son and the young woman whom she had come to resent so
much.

 

 

Mary admitted to herself in her kinder moments that Morgana was
indeed a fine chief of the clan, but that didn’t stop her dreaming
of one day having some power of her own. She would bide her time,
and wait for the right moment.

 

 

Mary returned to the castle alone.

 

 

Morgana was about to go back as well when she saw a small corracle
with a makeshift sail pulling toward the jetty. She waved at the
young men pulling the oars, and one of them called, “Messages from
Patrick and Finn.”

 

 

Morgana looked around to see if anyone had heard, and then crouched
down low to tie the boat up to the dock.

 

 

The letters simply said that all the building works at both castles
had been completed, and they now had provisions enough to withstand
a six-month siege.

 

 

“That is good news,” Morgana commented as she folded up the note and
put it in her doublet. “Come up and get some water and have a rest.
But if anyone asks, say you’ve come from Belleek.”

 

 

Morgana was amazed that she had kept her secrets concerning the
other castles for so long, but she had been very careful not to tell
even Ruairc, and her only problem had been supplying Cullen.

 

 

Tulach and Ma Niadh were able to look after themselves fairly
independently thanks to the organisation and administration of
Patrick and Finn, and the fact that they were on the lough shore.
But Cullen needed everything to be brought by carts. Morgana now
wondered if Mary had grown suspicious of all the food which went
into the castle but seemed to disappear overnight.

 

 

Still, with the new cargoes coming in from her remaining ten ships,
things were not as bleak as they had first appeared so many weeks
before when she had come home.

 

 

Morgana recalled her delight all those weeks ago at the convent when
she had seen Ruairc again after two years apart. In spite her of all
her doubts and reservations concerning his trustworthiness, her
heart had soared with just one warm look from his emerald eyes. They
had become closer with every passing day, though he had not pressed
his romantic attentions to their natural conclusion. In fact, he had
hardly been romantic at all with her since she had been injured, she
mused, as she climbed the castle stairs.

 

 

Had he found her repellent? Or had he taken his aunt's vogorous
scolding to heart?

 

 

The clean crisp summer breeze had filled her mind and body with a
wonderful feeling of wellness for the first time since she had
learned of her father's illness. At the top of the stairs, she
paused, and turned right instead of left. She climbed up onto one of
the parapets, and tapped Ruairc on the shoulder.

 

 

“Ruairc, about your suggestion, to spend the day together I mean.”

 

 

“Yes?” Ruairc prompted gently, when Morgana broke off to look at the
ground and blushed crimson.

 

 

“Would tomorrow be convenient?” she asked quietly.

 

 

Ruairc smiled. “Most certainly. I shall see you at dawn.”

 

 

Morgana turned to flee, but Ruairc held her fast by the arm, and
pulled her to face him. He cupped her chin with the long, strong
fingers of one hand and said, “You have nothing to fear, you know
that. Trust me?”

 

 

Morgana gazed up into his emerald eyes and nodded as she finally let
out her breath with a gasp. “I do trust you, I just don’t want to
disappoint you,” Morgana admitted.