A Heart of Stone

CHAPTER ONE 1824-1

CHAPTER ONE

1824Vanora McKyle was standing very still on the deck of the small ship that was sailing towards the North.

She was thinking, as she had often mused before, that nothing in the world could be more beautiful than the moors of Scotland when they were purple with heather and the lights were different from those of any other place she had ever seen.

She had so far had a very interesting voyage from England.

She had not been intending to come home yet to Scotland, as she had been happy living with her uncle in London and helping him with the book that he was writing.

Very unexpectedly her brother, the Chieftain of the McKyle Clan, had insisted that she should return home.

Vanora’s mother had died when she was not quite seventeen.

Her parents had been talking about how she should finish her education and the far North of Scotland was not the place to find Tutors or schools that would teach her what she wanted to learn.

Vanora’s mother had been a relation of the Duke of Buccleugh, one of the richest Dukes who owned more land in Scotland than any of the others.

Her brother, for many years, had been the Secretary of State for Scotland and he had, on his retirement, been made Lord Blairmond.

When he heard his sister had died, Lord Blairmond invited Vanora to come to London and suggested that she should stay with him and attend a Finishing School, which was what her mother had always wanted for her.

Her father agreed and Vanora had gone to London and she was excited at moving into a world she had never seen before but had heard so much about.

Her uncle had greatly enjoyed her company. He had never married and so he was somewhat lonely.

He also, as time passed, found Vanora so intelligent that she could help him with a book he was writing about his years as Secretary of State for Scotland.

He owned a large library and Vanora found herself absorbed not only in the books he wanted her to research but also in those she chose for herself.

She was, in fact, very happy with her uncle and it never occurred to her to want to return to Scotland.

Then unexpectedly so that it was like a sharp blow, her father died suddenly of a heart attack.

This meant that her brother Ewen became Chieftain of the McKyle Clan.

*

Six months after he had taken up this responsibility, he sent for Vanora.

“I really cannot understand it, Uncle Angus,” she said, “why Ewen wants me to return. After all he must be very busy with the Clan. He always had different ideas from Papa’s and will now be putting them into action.”

“I shall indeed miss you, my dear,” Lord Blairmond replied, “but I think that you ought to go. If ever you want to return, you know that I shall be waiting for you eagerly.”

Vanora was almost in tears when she left.

She had spent nearly three years in London and had made a great many friends. And it was an effort to turn her back on them and return to Scotland.

By a lucky chance a close friend of Lord Blairmond was going to Edinburgh in his yacht and he offered to take Vanora with him, which made the first part of the journey very pleasant, but she only wished that she had time to see Edinburgh.

She had read a great deal about the famous City when King George IV had visited Scotland for the first time two years earlier when he had received an enthusiastic reception which surprised everyone.

‘If I cannot go and see Edinburgh now,’ Vanora told herself, ‘perhaps I will be able to do so later. I cannot imagine that I shall find a great deal to do except sit by the River Aulay and watch Ewen fishing.’

Lord Blairmond’s friend had found her a passage on a ship from Edinburgh to John O’Groats. It had none of the comforts that Vanora had enjoyed on the yacht, but she was a good sailor and enjoyed being at sea.

She was able to gaze out at the glorious coastline of Scotland all the time they sailed North.

The Aulay was the river on her brother’s estate and it ended in a fishing village by the sea called Aulaypool.

Vanora learned from the Captain that he invariably called in there and so there would be no difficulty in her disembarking when they arrived.

On arrival she found her brother’s servants waiting for her at the harbour with a carriage drawn by two horses.

She had, just before the ship arrived at Aulaypool, been entranced as they passed the bay where standing out majestically was Killdona Castle.

Ever since she had been small she had heard about Killdona Castle and had longed to see it.

But this had been impossible.

An age-old feud had existed for a great many years between the McKyles and the Earl of Glenfile who owned The Castle.

For centuries the McKyles and the MacFiles had intermittently fought each other.

Neither of them had been able to claim an outright victory until fifteen years ago when the old Earl of Glenfile finally routed the McKyles having claimed that they were stealing his sheep.

Whether that was the truth or not, the battle was fierce and bloody and a great number of men on both sides were wounded and it seemed almost a miracle that not a single man was actually killed.

It was then that the Earl had declared himself the victor and told the McKyles that, if they could not behave in future, he would sweep them off the face of the earth!

Vanora had been only a small child at the time and could recall little of what had happened.

She had, in fact, been protected by hiding in one of the caves in the Strath with her mother and a Nanny and there they had been safe until the battle was over.

Her father was furious at being defeated, but there had been nothing he could do.

The Earl of Glenfile had not only a much larger Clan under his command but he was a larger landowner and very much richer.

Vanora had always heard it said that ‘a Scot never forgets’ and that was certainly true where the McKyles were concerned.

She could not remember as she grew older ever dining with her father without his raising his glass to drink a toast to the damnation and utter destruction of the Earl of Glenfile and those who followed him.

She mused as the ship sailed past Killdona Castle that nothing could look more romantic or more attractive.

It had been restored and renovated several times since it was first built and in the last century tall towers had been added that gave it a very picturesque appearance.

Some way above sea level was a nicely laid-out garden that led directly down to the bay.

‘I do wish I could visit The Castle and see inside it,’ Vanora reflected.

But she knew that, in the circumstances of the feud, it was something that would never happen, so it was no use wishing for the moon.

Instead, as they drove away from the little harbour, she told herself that she was happy to be home.

It would be exciting to be back in their own castle, which was actually older than Killdona.

Her mother had told her legends and Fairy stories about it ever since she was old enough to understand and it would have been impossible for any Scot not to be proud of such an illustrious history.

At one time the McKyle Clan had owned far more land and were of great standing with whatever Scottish King was reigning at the time.

Yet gradually they had preferred to stay on their own land and leave the political world to look after itself and, by the time Vanora’s father became the Chieftain, he was content with making sure the lambing went smoothly and, if they were not exactly rich, that no one was in want.

As the horses carried her up the Strath, she could see that the River Aulay was fairly high and this meant that the fishing would be good and so plenty of salmon to eat.

When she first saw the McKyle Castle tower, she felt a little thrill of excitement go through her.

She was home!

Even though she would miss her mother and father, Ewen was there and she would be among her kith and kin.

He was waiting for her at the front door and she felt he looked a little older than when she had last seen him.

“You have come!” he exclaimed, “I was frightened, after all I had written, that you would refuse me.”

“You were so insistent that, of course, I could not say ‘no’ and here I am.”

He laughed and they walked inside together.

It was just as she had remembered it, perhaps just a little more austere and lacking in the feminine touch her mother had always given it.

They went up the stairs to the drawing room which as usual in Scotland was on the first floor.

Tea was waiting for her by the fireside and she poured out a cup for her brother.

“Now tell me what is happening?” she asked him. “The way you wrote made me very apprehensive in case something terrible has overcome you.”

“Nothing bad,” he replied, “but I need your help.”

“Of course I will do anything I can, Ewen.”

She nearly added that it had better be something very important as her uncle was annoyed that she should be leaving him when he had not yet finished his book.

Now, as she was waiting for her brother to speak, she was aware that he was looking a little strange.

It was as if he found it difficult to tell her what was on his mind.

“Come on, Ewen,” she urged, “what is the secret? Are you to be married or something equally dramatic?”

“No, nothing like that and I have no intention of getting married or of producing an heir until I have set my people back in the place they are entitled to.”

“What do you mean by that?” she asked.

“I mean to make the McKyles as significant as they surely were in my grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s day. That, as you know, was before we were humiliated by the Earl of Glenfile.”

Vanora sighed.

“Oh, not that old story again, Ewen! I am sick and tired of hearing how he beat us up. If you ask my opinion, I think he had good reason to do so. From what I heard, the McKyles were stealing his sheep!”

“I don’t know who you have been listening to,” her brother said sharply, “but that is a lie that I am determined to rebut. Now the first thing I want back is our Stone.”

Vanora stared at him.

“Our Stone!” she exclaimed.

She had heard the story so often, but had never thought it of any great consequence.

When the MacFiles had defeated the McKyles, the Earl had taken away from them the Stone the Chieftain of the Clan was always seated on to be proclaimed Chieftain.

The McKyles had adopted the old custom set by the ‘Stone of Scone’ on which all the Scottish Kings were crowned until it was removed to Westminster Abbey by Edward I.

During her researches for her uncle, Vanora had been interested in the stories about the Stone of Scone.

She had learned that in accordance with the custom of his ancestors, the King of Scotland was not crowned at the beginning of his reign and he was later ‘set upon the Stone’ which was at Scone.

The Stone was alleged to have accompanied the Scots on their mythical journeying and it had a great appeal to them with their inborn fey and vivid imagination.

The old Stone of Scone foretold that ‘wherever the Stone should rest a King of Scots would reign.’

After the stories about the Stone and the very strong feelings the Scots had for it, she found one aspect rather disappointing.

It was to learn that the Stone in Westminster Abbey was of a coarse-grained sandstone, fitted at each side with iron staples and rings for carrying it, although these might have been added by Edward I.

The McKyle Stone, that had been with the Clan all down the centuries, was of marble.

It was not very deep, but was wide enough to be set on the chair on which the Chieftain sat when he received the loyal allegiance of his people.