Princes of Ireland - Edward Rutherfurd [342]
The stranger came quite early in the morning, a single rider from the north. Having hissed at a man in the yard to fetch Sean O’Byrne, the rider remained outside, still mounted, wrapped in a cloak and with a covered face. When O’Byrne came out, the stranger insisted on moving a short distance away from the house so that their conversation should be private. They were together a quarter of an hour; then the stranger rode away.
When Sean came back inside, Eva thought he looked somewhat amused, but also excited. He’d be leaving in an hour, he told her, and not returning until the following morning.
“I’ll be taking the boys and some of the men,” he announced. He sent the stable boy to fetch Seamus. “Tell him to bring his weapons,” he instructed. Fintan was to ride over to two of the neighbouring farmsteads and ask each to gather as many armed men as possible. “I’ll pick you up,” his father told him, “along the way.” But even this, he indicated, would not be enough. “I need at least a dozen, maybe twenty men.”
What was this all about, Eva asked? Was it a party of Butler men that he had to fight? No, he said, something else. He’d explain it all tomorrow. In the meantime, he said, she mustn’t say a word to anybody. Just that he’d gone out on a patrol. Could he at least, she demanded, tell her where he was going? No, he could not.
“And what,” she asked, “if a Butler raiding party comes here while you and the men are away? What am I to do then?”
This made him pause.
“There’s been no sign of them yet,” he said. “And we’ll be gone less than a day.” He considered. Then he turned to Maurice. “You’re to stay here,” he ordered quietly. “If there’s danger you are all to ride up into the mountains. Do you understand?”
For an instant, just an instant, she saw the look of dismay in the boy’s handsome eyes. She knew very well how he must be longing to go with Fintan and her husband on this adventure—whatever it was. But in another instant it was gone. He bowed his head gracefully, acknowledging the order, and then turned to her with a smile.
“It will be my pleasure.” You had to admire his aristocratic style. Sean O’Byrne gave him an appreciative nod.
“Fintan had to stay at home last time. It’s your turn now.” Soon afterwards he left.
It was one of those warm September days when a huge blue sky stretched cloudless, over the hills, and the great sweep down to the plain spread out until it turned into a haze. There was a hint of smoke in the air.
Eva spent the rest of the morning quietly. After she had completed her household chores, she went into the little orchard and picked up the apples that had fallen, taking them back to the storeroom where she laid them out on a long wooden table. Later they would be boiled and preserved. Maurice attended to the cattle. The herd was all down from the hill, grazing now. He had an old cattleman to help him; also Seamus’s wife and young children. In her care also were a stable boy and three women who worked in the house, Father Donal and his family, and the old bard. These were the only people at Rathconan that day.
The hours passed slowly. In the early afternoon, Eva sat in the orchard. It was very quiet. Apart from the occasional lowing of the cattle on the pasture above and the soft scraping of the breeze on the crisp apple leaves, all was silence. She wondered