Page 27 of Highland Queen

Chapter 9

In the days that followed, I did my best to keep Madelaine preoccupied. We expected to hear word any time now. The waiting, the worry, was difficult to bear. To keep her busy, I asked Madelaine to manage the ladies who’d come for the crowning while I attended to other work. I was in my meeting hall reading over some dispatches when I heard a trumpet herald.

Then another.

Then another.

I set the scroll down.

Someone of great importance had come. I rose.

A moment later, Macbeth appeared in the doorway. All smiles, he entered the hall to fetch me. But as he drew near, he remembered the ice between us. He stopped.

“Gruoch, will you please escort me to the square?” he asked.

“Who has come?”

“Thorfinn.”

“Here? He’s come here?”

Macbeth nodded. “By ship,” he said then came closer. My temper rose as he took each step. How dare he come so close to me? I imagined pulling my dagger from my belt and stabbing him to death. What would happen if I were to do such a thing?

They would think me a mad woman.

I cast a quick glance at my hands. There, I saw the bloody spots.

Maybe I was.

“He wanted to surprise everyone, to present a united force. He wants them all to know that to tempt me is to tempt him.”

“Us.”

“Sorry?”

“There is no me. There is us. We will be the rulers of this land, Macbeth. Not you alone.”

Macbeth stared at me. “Yes. You’re right. He went north to fetch Injibjorg. If all went well, she is here with him. Will you come?”

I turned to one of the pages. “Please find Lady Madelaine and ask her to meet us in the square.”

“Yes, my lady,” the boy said then ran off.

I nodded to Macbeth. “Very well.”

Signaling to my guards, I joined him. Two of my Moray men followed along behind me. Macbeth cast a glance back at them.

“You are quite safe, Gruoch.”

“Who says I don’t feel safe?”

Macbeth frowned. “Have it your way. I have been thinking about our next steps. There is a small castle not far from here, Glamis. It isn’t a large estate, but it is well fortified and comfortable. I went hunting there when I was young with—well, before the troubles. Between here and there is the ancient hilltop fortress at Dunsinane. I have sent a party to inspect the fortress. It is in need of repair, but I’d hoped to keep my—our—seat there.”

“At Dunsinane Fortress?”

“Yes.”

I cast a sidelong glance at Macbeth. In the very least, the plans he was making were wise. As much as I wanted to return to Moray, we needed to stay south and get the country in some sort of order. Macbeth and I needed our own place, somewhere from which we could control both north and south. Dunsinane would work well.

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