By Honor Bound Part 7

I returned from war. Elen, walk with me to the chapel. I've a few prayers to say, and I'm sure you have, too. Is this your cloak? You'll need it, the day is chill. Until this evening, my friend." Bancho and Macbeth clasped hands, and then Bancho hurried Elen out the door.

"They're keeping you from Patric, are they?" he said gruffly. "That's unfair. He won't tell you this himself, but I will. Young Patric fought bravely when we met Macdowald. Together, he and Talcoran saved Macbeth's life when he was surrounded by Macdowald's men."

"I had not heard that." Perhaps if Macbeth were grateful to Patric, he would not object when Duncan gave them permission to marry at once.

The chapel was empty except for a blue-cloaked shadow that stepped from behind a pillar. Elen's cry of happy astonishment was smothered against the shadow's broad chest.

"What a surprise!" Bancho chuckled. "Why, Patric, I had no idea you would be here. Now, I will leave you two alone while I give thanks for our victory. I feel certain the good Lord will understand a betrothed couple meeting in His house."

"Bancho." Elen reached out one hand to stop her father's old friend. "You planned this, didn't you, so Patric and I could meet privately?"

"I don't know what you mean." Bancho headed for the altar.

Because of the location and Bancho's presence at the other end of the chapel, their embrace was a good deal more chaste and restrained than either Patric or Elen really wanted it to be. Still, it was wonderful to feel Patric's arms about her again, warm and strong and whole.

"You are unhurt?" she asked. "I was so frightened for you. I think I would die if anything happened to you."

"Nothing will happen to me." Patric laughed with all the carefree self-confidence of youth. "Let me look at you, my love. You've grown thinner. Once we are wed, I'll feed you well and plump you up a bit."

"Like Fionna?" she joked, and then blushed at the thought.

"Aye, like Fionna. She looks wondrous well, doesn't she? I'll fatten you in the same way, as soon as I can. Would you like that?" Again he caught her against his chest.

"Yes. Oh, yes. I want to bear your children. Have you spoken to the king?"

"Not about our marriage, no. There was no time for that when I saw him earlier. I can't do it tonight, either, with this great feast planned, and Macbeth and Bancho to be honored. I'll talk to him tomorrow. I 'm sure he will agree to let us marry at once. It will be only a short wait now until we are together, Elen, my love."

But in the morning came the news that the Thane of Cawdor had rebelled against King Duncan and had gone over to the Danes. The new allies were ravaging the eastern coastline, and pus.h.i.+ng even further inland.

"That d.a.m.ned traitor!" Macbeth's deep voice rang through the king's great hall. "My lord, I'll have his cursed head on a pike as I had Macdowald's. I'll make this land of Alba safe from invaders."

Elen, standing at one side of the hall with Lulach, could not share in the bloodthirsty cheers that now rose to the very roof-beams. Cawdor and the Danes had laid her hopes in ruins, at least temporarily. She felt Lulach's thin hand in hers.

"Patric will have to go away again, won't he?"

Lulach whispered. "He, and Macbeth, and Bancho. They all must go."

"I'm afraid so."

"I'm sorry, Elen. If I were king, I'd make everyone be happy and at peace. Why do they have to fight all the time?"

"Sometimes it's necessary, my dear." But in her heart, Elen was asking the same question.

Once more Elen and Fionna watched the army depart. There had been no time for Patric to speak to the king, not even time for Elen and Patric to meet again privately. There had been only a hasty good-bye kiss under Gruach's frowning gaze, before he was gone. She had a moment longer with Bancho.

"Thank you," she said, hugging him tightly. "Our meeting in the chapel was all we had. I am so closely guarded."

"It's to keep you safe, la.s.s. You and Patric will have your days together, when the time is right. You are both young and it's hard to be patient, I know, but try." Then Bancho, too, mounted his horse and rode away.

The late autumn storms, which had most fortunately held off during the campaign against Macdowald, now descended upon them, followed by a sudden mid-winter chill. Duncan's army in eastern Alba lay bogged down in winter quarters, unable to move for ice and snow.

At Dunfermline the royal court endured a tense, lonely Christmas, cheered only a little by the entertainments Duncan provided. Among the diversions was a new song he had written, performed by Duncan himself. There were those who noted sourly that the king stayed warm and safe and had ample time for writing music while his army was near to freezing.

In early February, Fionna was delivered of a healthy son. Gruach was present, but Elen, because she was an unwed maiden, was not permitted to see her friend until the next day. She looked in disbelief at the tiny creature who slept in a wooden cradle beside Fionna's bed.

"I want to name him Keith, for my father." Fionna was pale and drawn, with dark circles under her eyes.

"Was it very difficult for you?" Elen had a dozen questions about the ordeal Fionna had just undergone, but she was too shy to ask.

"Gruach and the midwife say it was a perfectly normal birth, but it took so long-a day and a night and part of another day. I'm so tired." Fionna sighed. "At least it's over now, and they say next time will be easier."

Fionna drifted into exhausted sleep, and Elen left. She had eagerly antic.i.p.ated bearing Patric's children, but now, for the first time, she felt a thrill of fear. She knew that sometimes women died in childbirth. More often, the babies died, either at birth or shortly after. Could she bear to lose the child of the man she loved? She made herself think of something else, and went to find Lulach.

The Danes had been defeated and were retreating northward. Macbeth and Bancho returned to Dunfermline to a tumultuous welcome and great honors. Macbeth was given the lands and t.i.tle of the traitorous and now dead Thane of Cawdor. He was everywhere acclaimed as a great general. His apartments were crowded day and night by friends and hangers-on.

Talcoran had been given new lands in Cawdor, bestowed by Macbeth from his own prize.

"I am happy for you," Elen told him. "It means little," Talcoran replied in his rough way. "I have no family, no heirs to leave my holdings to when I die. All of my kin were killed in a

Norse raid years ago." He paused, his dark grey eyes probing at her."You will marry and have children one day," Elen said. He made her nervous. She wished he wouldn'tlook at her in that intense way, as if he were trying to see directly into her innermost thoughts.

"I will marry only if my lord Macbeth commands it. I am content to be alone."

I wish I were, Elen thought after he had left. Patric had not returned to Dunfermline. Macbeth had sent

him north with the army, in pursuit of the retreating Danes. Elen suspected it had been done on purpose, to keep him apart from her. Watching the pa.s.sionately happy reunion of Macbeth and Gruach, and the tender meeting of Fionna and Conal mac Duff, Elen felt more lonely than ever before in her life.

"Patric is well," Conal a.s.sured her.

"I want him here." She could not look at mac Duff's joyful face as he watched Fionna nursing their son.Would she and Patric never be together, never have their own children?Several weeks after the army's return, Elen found Macbeth and Talcoran in deep conversation in Macbeth's chambers, while Gruach listened with undisguised excitement. For once, her cousins'

apartments were free of visitors. Even Lulach was out, practicing with his sword in the

courtyard.

"Come and sit with us, Elen. You may as well hear this," Macbeth invited her, reaching up a hand to draw Elen down onto a stool beside him.

"Something will have to be done." Talcoran was indignant. "But what? And when?""Aye, my friend. We must be careful, but youare right. Alba cannot go on like this.""What has happened?" Elen looked at the tense faces around her."Duncan has decided that since his brother-in-law Siward has been made the new Earl of Northumbria, there will be no need to keep an army on the southern border of Alba, or to fight in the south any more."

"But that is good news, Macbeth. That means there will be peace." Patric will be home to stay, shethought, but did not say it to Macbeth."There will be no peace," Macbeth told her angrily. "Duncan has just created his nephew, Moddan, Mormaer of Caithness. You know, I'm sure, that Duncan's grandfather gave Caithness and Sutherlandto Thorfinn of Orkney years ago, Thorfinn being another of the old king's grandsons. Now Duncan isgoing to attack his cousin Thorfinn and try to take those lands back from him."

Elen remembered the Norse giant who had been at court on her first night there, and what Fionna had said about him.

"Is it because Thorfinn would not submit and acknowledge Duncan as overlord of Orkney?" she asked."That's right. Duncan has made his nephew Moddan general and sent him north to lead his army againstThorfinn."

"But you are the king's general!" Elen exclaimed. "You and Bancho.""We are no more. Duncan has replaced us.""Forgive me, cousin, I know little of warfare, but Moddan has never led an army before, has he? And shouldn't the army finish with fighting the Danes before it attacks Thorfinn? The troops must be tired after three campaigns in one year. Can they carry on two wars at once?"

"Lady, you are wiser than Duncan," said Talcoran. "If he had half your wits, he'd be a better king."

"It's intolerable," Gruach declared, rising from her bench to prowl about the room like somebarely-restrained beast. "Macbeth, you cannot let this insult pa.s.s unanswered. Duncan had no right toremove you. You and Bancho saved him from total disaster at Durham after he led you all into that stupidsiege. You had ample opportunity to unseat him then, when nearly half his n.o.bles wanted to revolt. Youalone prevented them. You, by your loyalty, kept him on the throne. Next you conducted two successfulmilitary campaigns for him, and see how he repays you."

"Peace, wife. Let me think."Gruach whirled on him, her eyes ablaze."Peace is just what we will not have while that weak fool sits on the throne! He will destroy us all withthis war against Thorfinn. No one can defeat Thorfinn. He is too strong. You said that yourself. And don't forget"-Gruach's voice rose as she warmed to her theme-"don't forget that Duncan's grandfathermurdered both my nephew and my husband, my dear Gillecomgan. He burned my son's father. Youswore to me before we married that those deaths would be avenged. How much more must we endurebefore you show that you are a true chieftain-and a true man?"

"He is the king."

"Not the rightful king. Not by our old laws. And even the rightful king can be removed when he fails in his duty."

"No. I have sworn to honor him as my lord. I cannot break my oath."

"He breaks his word to you every day. And to Bancho. To all of us."

Elen had never seen Gruach so distressed. She rose and went to her cousin, putting an arm around her to comfort her, but Gruach brushed Elen aside

and continued her tirade.

"There are many who would follow you, if you will but give the word. Talcoran, would you not follow my husband?"

"To the death." Talcoran had not hesitated. Macbeth clasped his shoulder."You always were a true friend. But I must think carefully about this.""Don't think too long, husband. There are others who would willingly take your place if you delay.""Is there no other way?" Elen was frightened by what had been said. She knew that if anyone had overheard them, and carried the word to Duncan, all of their lives would be forfeit."None. Duncan must be removed." Gruach was implacableElen caught Talcoran's eye."Can't you think of something?" she begged.Talcoran cleared his throat. It was a habit Elen had noticed before. She thought it was because of his shyness when women were present."Is it not possible," Talcoran asked Macbeth, "that Thorfinn could be brought to an agreement?""Thorfinn the Mighty would never submit to Duncan." Gruach was scornful of this idea. Talcoran ignored her and spoke again to Macbeth."If Thorfinn wages war against Alba, the entire country will be laid waste. We have recently seen how theNorse fight, my lord, and what they do to women and children." Talcoran's eyes rested on Elen, thenmoved back to Macbeth. "When Thorfinn is done, he will be King of Alba, and there will be nothing left for Duncan-or you, or anyone else-to rule."

"I agree." Macbeth smiled grimly. "I know you, old friend. You have an idea. Tell it to me." "Thorfinn has no reason to go to war against you. You have sent no army to take his lands away. It is Duncan alone who would take them back. Thorfinn knows this."

Talcoran stopped, thinking. Macbeth waited patiently until he spoke again.

"Make an alliance with Thorfinn. Treat him as an equal and do not challenge his control of Caithness and Sutherland. Thorfinn is not on good terms with the King of Norway, who is a constant threat to him. I think Thorfinn would like the idea of an ally on his southern border while he concentrates on Norway. When you are Ri Alba"-here Macbeth stood up and turned away with an expression of distaste, but Talcoran went doggedly on with his speech-"When you are king of all Alba, you will have a dependable friend at your back so you can deal with the English threat."

"Trust a Norseman?" Gruach cried. "Never!"

Again Talcoran ignored her and spoke directly to Macbeth.

"You know I met Thorfinn when he was at court last autumn. We talked together many times. I think he can be trusted."

"You always were a good judge of character." Macbeth was thoughtful as he considered Talcoran's suggestion.

"I read your character well when first we met, my lord," Talcoran said. "I have never been disappointed in you. Now I think you will not be disappointed in Thorfinn."

Once more Macbeth's quarters were crowded with visitors. Now they came not to congratulate him, but to discuss in low, angry voices Duncan's plan to reconquer the lands north of Alba. Bancho was often there, as was Conal mac Duff. Elen thought Duncan must have been aware of these meetings, yet she never saw him indicate by word or action that he knew.

It was a few days after Talcoran had first advanced his plan that Macbeth returned from the king's council looking grim.

"Where is my wife?"

'Attending the queen," Elen told him. She motioned for Ava to leave them, and when they were alone, she said, "You look unhappy, cousin."

"The court is moving north."

"All of us? Isn't the queen too ill to travel?"

"That matters not." Macbeth's bitterness overflowed. "Duncan will have us trail after him like the s.h.i.+mmering tail of some great, blazing comet. We must witness his defeat of the Danes, and behold his triumph as the mighty Thorfinn is vanquished forever and Duncan claims all the land right up to the northern sea for his own."

"He'll never do it!" Elen exclaimed.

"No, cousin, he will never do it, for if he did, his next target would be Moray, and I cannot allow that." Macbeth drew a deep breath and let it out in a great sigh that seemed to come from the depths of his troubled soul. Elen had to strain to hear his next words. "I have not wished for this, but there must be a change in Alba soon, and it seems I must lead it."

July 1040.

It was evening when Patric's manservant pushed back the tent flap and entered, followed by a boywhose clothes were covered with dirt and straw. By the light of the single oil lamp burning on his table,Patric recognized one of Duncan's attendants.

"This lad claims to be a messenger from the king," the servant said, giving the boy a shove toward thecenter of the tent. "He says he must put his letter into no hands but yours."

"It's true, my lord." The boy looked more closely at Patric. "Aye, it's you. I've seen you at court." He pulled a crumpled parchment from beneath his jerkin and handed it to Patric.