"What do ye think the MacLeod will do now?" Lachlan asked.
Connor went to the window and imagined a mass of MacLeod warriors charging across the field toward the castle.
"Taking the castle by force would cost him too many men," Connor said. "He'll want to consolidate his control of the countryside first so that he can keep food and our clansmen from reaching the castle."
"Up until now, he's held Trotternish with relatively few warriors," Lachlan said. "His control is thin."
Connor had come to the same conclusion from his night forays.
"After what Sorely and the others did, Alastair MacLeod will be angry, but not foolish," Connor said. "My guess is he'll sweep across the Snizort River with a large force, burning MacDonald homes in retribution and strengthening his hold on the countryside. We must stop him from crossing the river with all those men, and he knows it. He'll hope for a sound defeat to show us the futility of our cause. After that, he'll lay siege to the castle and bide his time while he starves us out."
"Sounds about right to me," Lachlan said. "How long will it take him to gather his forces?"
"Even if he moves quickly, it will take him a couple of days," Connor said. "If we're lucky, he'll want to wait until after the purification of the fields and herds by the fires of Beltane, which gives us three days."
He hoped to hell the other MacDonald warriors and MacIain's arrived before the MacLeod attack began. It would be a disaster if the enemy crossed the river en masse.
"I'm making ye captain of my guard," Connor said. "Come, I'll speak to the men now. We must prepare for battle."
* * *
The sun was high when Ilysa awoke. Though she still felt groggy from her long night, she told herself she must go downstairs to see that everything was going as it should. She sat up. But then she remembered that the responsibility for managing the household was not hers - or at least it would not be for much longer - and flopped back down.
She stared at the ceiling and contemplated the events of the last two days. Between the arrival of Connor's bride and the discovery that her father was the son of the MacLeod chieftain, she felt shaken to her foundations.
Alastair MacLeod is my grandfather.
No matter that by Highland tradition she belonged to her father's clan, she would always be a MacDonald. She had told Alastair as much. She could no more go live with him among the MacLeods than she could live among the hated English. And yet, it made her feel less alone in the world to know that she had a grandfather who wanted her.
Alastair was gruff, much like her brother, and he seemed an honorable man. Despite the briefness of their acquaintance, she found she liked him a great deal. She felt certain that under different circumstances he and Connor would get along well. It pained her that her newfound grandfather and the man she loved would soon be waging war against each other, as MacLeods and MacDonalds seemed destined to do with regularity. If Ilysa needed it, that was one more reason to wed the MacNeil chieftain and leave Skye.
When she finally dressed and went downstairs to the hall, she found the men preparing for war. She stopped one of them, who told her that the chieftain expected the battle against the MacLeods to come soon, perhaps even before their other warriors arrived.
Connor was busy giving orders to the men, who all seemed to be in motion. When he saw her, he stopped in place. For an instant, his eyes burned into her. But then, he broke their gaze and abruptly left the hall.
Seeing him filled her with such a painful longing that she told herself it was just as well Connor could not bear to be in the same room with her. All day, Jane and her mother were constantly underfoot, adding to her misery. The two expected to be waited on and entertained, while all the other women oiled plaids to keep the warriors dry and prepared food for them to carry.
Just before sunset, a cheer went up in the castle when Alex arrived with fifty warriors from their stronghold on the isle of North Uist. Connor looked as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders as he greeted his cousin.