Part 3
Within days, Allie was able to sit up, then to stand and move around for short periods of time. He found it hard staying still for long, when Anna spent most of her time working so hard in the infirmary.
"What did I tell you, Alasdair Donnchad MacKenzie?" she scolded him, finding him on his feet again for the umpteenth time that day, "You're not doing your side any favours. Those wounds need time to heal…"
Allie grimaced as he was caught, but not in pain. He had always known that he was in trouble when she called him by his full name, even when they were children.
"I just don't want my side to seize up, that's all," he maintained, "I've got to keep mobile…"
"You want to go back to that bloody battlefield, don't you?" Anna accused him.
"When I'm well, yes," he responded, honestly, "We've got a war to win."
Anna shot him a furious look and stalked out of the infirmary.
OOOO
Over the next few weeks, Allie's resolve to return to war only solidified further. He did not do himself any favours with Anna, though, turning her against the idea, albeit unintentionally. He had been sitting by the fire with Dòhmnall, enthusiastically swapping battle stories with him and the other men, when the older man's eyes swivelled upwards and a contrite look came over his face. Allie turned around in time to see Anna's quickly retreating form. After cursing, he excused himself to go and find her. He found her in her house.
"What do you want me to do, turn my back and abandon every oath I have made to the clan, to our clan?"
"No," Anna replied, "I just don't want you to go."
"Anna, you know that I have no choice…Even if I didn't want to, which I do, I'd be compelled to. My sense of honour demands no less of me…"
"And how can I let you go off to a war that may take you from me? You're in a weakened state, you are not yet back up to full strength."
"I'm getting better every day. It will not be long until I'm fit again…"
"And then you're going to leave me again?"
"Argh, woman! You're infuriating, sometimes…"
"Well, if I infuriate you that much, why don't you get out of my house and go back to your war buddies? It's obvious to me where your priorities lie…"
Allie took this chance to back away, so that he could calm down then reassess the situation logically.
By the next day he was ready to put the plan into action. After questioning various residents of the village, upon being unable to find Anna, he learned that she was down by the glen, on linen duty.
"What are you doing down here?" she asked, just keeping her concern hidden below the surface, "You know that the path down here is not stable."
"My side is fine, I needed to see you, it couldn't wait."
"It sounds important, if it couldn't wait for an hour or two."
"It is…Anna, I've been thinking, ever since I left to go back to battle after that night…we've got something much greater than any war that we could fight against another clan…"
Anna just listened to him, expectantly.
"Anna, before I go back into battle, I'd love it if you'd marry me and become my wife…"
Anna's mouth fell open, demonstrating how this was the last thing she had expected. Allie was too busy searching for an answer in her expression on her face to see her hand speeding towards him. Anna slapped his hard across the side of the face. Yep, that had definitely not been what she had been expecting!
"Alasdair Donnchad MacKenzie!" her voice was hushed, but seething with anger, "That is the most selfish thing I have ever heard from you…You are leaving me in a few days to go and fight a war AND YOU EXPECT ME TO MARRY YOU!"
Anna's voice stepped up more than a few octaves while she got the words out and Allie just listened in stunned silence.
"Uh…" he finally stammered, "Well, I thought it was an idea…"
He winced as she shouted back, even louder, now, "YOU THOUGHT IT WAS AN IDEA?"
With a huff of total fury, Anna grabbed the linen she had washed, bundled it into her basket and started back to the village.
"Anna, wait!" Allie came to his senses, "Don't go…Please, don't leave things like this…Why does marrying me sound like such a bad idea?"
"Alasdair…" Anna spun round.
Allie now knew that he was in trouble, she never really called him 'Alasdair' anymore, not unless he was in a lot of trouble. Or when…Allie snapped his head out of it, now was not the time to be thinking of that.
Anna continued speaking despite the tears that were brimming in her eyes.
"I will not do it, I will not become a war widow."
Alasdair could not find anything to say to this, so stood in silence, watching Anna retreat.
Over the next few days, Anna avoided Allie and Allie avoided Anna. If, at any time, they did run into each other, they remained indifferent and cool towards one-another. Anna felt as if Allie valued the war over her. Allie felt like Anna didn't understand how much he felt like he had to do this. He was doing it for his clan, their clan and therefore for Anna herself. Soon enough, the day of Allie and Dòhmnall's return to the battlefield dawned.
"Where's Anna?" Dòhmnall asked Allie, who was saddling his horse.
Allie just shrugged, "I don't know, she's avoiding me…"
Dòhmnall just stared at the man who had seemed so in love, only a couple of weeks before. What on earth had happened? He went off in search of his daughter, before he left, so he could say goodbye. He found her moping in her house.
"What on earth are you doing in here?" he asked, "We're all leaving soon. Aren't you going to say goodbye?"
Anna got up and hugged her Father, but Dòhmnall pulled back and reiterated, "No, not to me…to Allie…"
"No," Anna replied.
"Why not? We're going soon…C'mon Anna, surely it all can't be as bad as that."
"He asked me to marry him…"
"And?" Dòhmnall didn't see anything at all wrong with that, it was wonderful news.
"And," Anna responded, "he's leaving to fight the final battle of the war and he expects me to marry him…I will not become a war widow, Da'."
"I never expected to become a widower, Anna. Sometimes you just lose the one you love…"
"There's a difference between getting killed in war and getting murdered in your own home…"
"That's why we're doing this, Anna. To show that we will not be bullied…To show that the MacDonalds will have to answer for their crimes. So that nobody else has to lose a wife or a mother again like that, like our family did…"
Anna didn't say anything.
"Anna?"
"So now I have to lose not only my Mother, my brother and my home, but also my Father and the one I love?"
"I have no say over that," Dòhmnall told her, "Only God himself could tell you that. You just have to make the most of what you've got, while you've got it."
Anna was silent and unmoving once more.
"Well," her Father conceded, "It's your decision, lass."
He walked out to rejoin the troops.
By the time that they were ready to go, there was still no sign of movement from Anna's house.
"Why don't you go and talk to her?" Dòhmnall suggested to Allie, "She stubborn, but it is only her fear of losing you that is controlling her."
Allie just shook his head, mounting his horse.
"It is getting late, Dòhmnall," he insisted, "I think that we need to get going."
Anna watched them through the thatch of the window. They were going. It took every ounce of her self- discipline not to go out and shout at him not to leave her. But she would not have him staying unless it was what he wanted.
As she watched them disappear into the early morning fog, she supposed that he must not want a life with her. She had been fooling herself to think that he had.
OOOO
"How incredibly sad!" Harriet exclaimed, "Just when things were looking so promising for them. Now he's going back to war."
"What are the chances of Alasdair having been killed in one of those wars?" Sturgis asked.
"Pretty high," Mac supposed, "Those battles were pretty bloody and brutal."
"But he had survived, so far," Bud pointed out, "Even through what we'd today consider to be his boyhood."
"Yeah, but now he's been injured," Harm argued, "And Mac's right…During this final battle, the MacKenzies would have totally thrown themselves into the slaughtering of Macdonald troops. That kind of blood thirst can cause you to be reckless."
"But Anna can't have lost him, as well…" Harriet lamented, "She just can't have…"
"Only one way to find out," Sturgis surmised, "Please read on, Colonel…"
OOOO
Anna was inconsolable for days.
"Won't be long, now, lass," Moira MacNeil commented to her, day after day, "They'll kill themselves some MacDonald scum then be happy with themselves. You mark my words, it won't be long, now…"
But the men did not come home anytime soon and Anna began to feel hollow inside. Everyone in the village, whether MacKenzie, MacIver, Macauley or MacNeil, furiously debated what could be keeping their troops. Every time this subject came up, Anna had to leave the general area, because some of the conversation made her sick to her stomach.
"Anna? Are you okay?" One woman noticed just how much this talk was affecting Anna. Sorcha MacIver worked with Anna at the infirmary and was just a year younger than her.
"Yeah," Anna answered her question, picking herself up from her knees, after releasing the contents of her stomach into the grass below, "My dinner just didn't agree with me, is all…"
Sorcha was never one to play along with a tale she didn't believe, not even for the sake of an easy life.
"You're really worried about him, aren't you?" Sorcha plunged right in.
Anna just looked up, about to refute the claim, but caught sight of the determination in the other woman's eye. All the fight left her and she deflated.
"More than I ever thought possible…Oh, Sorcha, I never said goodbye to him. What if he doesn't make it home?"
"You can't let yourself think like that!" Sorcha scolded her.
"But I was so horrible to him, I don't know why I behaved like I did. He asked me to marry him and I slapped him!"
"You had a right to be annoyed," Sorcha conceded, "But did you really believe that he was only asking you when faced by the possibility of not returning home?"
"I don't know what I believed," Anna confessed, "I was only thinking that he wanted to leave me…yeah, I guess and go off to war and get himself killed…Oh, Sorcha, I don't want to lose him…"
"That's not going to happen. You are going to live one day at a time and take care of anything as it happens."
Anna spent the next few weeks putting Sorcha's wise words into practice. They both worked tirelessly, for the casualty list was now double what it had been previously. As Anna watched yet another body of a young man, being carried out of the infirmary, she could hold it in no longer. Quickly and quietly excusing herself, she went home, lay down on her pallet of straw and cried herself until she was exhausted and fell asleep.
"Hello? Anybody home? Anna?"
Anna woke up to Moira's voice, the next morning. The sun was already high in the sky and it would probably soon be afternoon, rather than morning.
"Hmmm? Moira?" Anna stirred.
"Goodness gracious, lass!" Moira exclaimed, "Are you still in bed? We were expecting you hours ago…"
"I'm sorry, Moira," Anna apologised, even though the woman was nothing but an old busybody, " I just haven't been feeling very well, lately…I guess I must have been catching up on lost sleep."
"Well, you're going to have to get yourself going," the old lady ordered her, "There are waves of casualties coming in from the battlefield. We've been covering for you so far, but we can't do it for much longer."
"Of course, Moira," Anna snapped to, "I'm sorry, I'll just be a minute."
OOOO
Moira was partly right about the casualties, there were a fair few of them, more than there had been.
"Did she come and get you?" Sorcha all but screeched, "I told her she was to let you sleep! Oo, I'm going to give that woman a piece of my mind, I told her we were able to manage okay on our own…"
"No," Anna halted her, "Don't say anything to her, we've got work to be getting on with, right now. Besides, I really need to be getting on with things, it helps me not think about…it all."
Anna was glad that there were more of them, because the numbers of injured coming to them increased, until they needed to erect a shelter outside, because the was no more room inside. Anna was dealing with the most appalling wounds, all day long. Some of the injured told her that the allied forces were gaining significant ground and pushing the MacDonalds back into a corner. Anna didn't know just how seriously to take this, though, because these men were often delirious with pain and were saying a lot of other things that didn't make sense. By nightfall, when the stream of injured did not slow, she surmised that it must be true and the battle must be going strong. She stayed up all night, tending to the injured. Before daybreak, things started slowing down, so she went home to get a few hours of sleep. But the respite didn't last long, for new streams of injured started coming in and Anna found herself working tirelessly again. One injured man she tended told her that the MacDonald forces had tried to slip through allied lines. That had been what had caused so many casualties. The allied forces had refused to sleep, staying up all night to make sure that no McDonalds got past them and escaped south. Now the enemy had retreated back north and the allies were on the move to surround and box them in.
"Did it look as if it might be over soon?" Anna asked the man.
"Could be," he replied, "But those MacDonalds are cheeky devils. They're always pulled something out of their sleeves…Still, at least they've lost more men than me have…"
Anna left the man to get some sleep while she tended to the rest of the injured.
"Do you want to go and get some sleep?" Sorcha asked her, later that evening.
"No thanks, Sorcha," Anna told her, "I'm fine. You should get some rest. You've gone longer without it than I have."
So Anna continued to work late into the night, before she went home. She was awake bright and early again the next morning, but the flow of injured had slowed. In the afternoon, it almost halted altogether. These combatants who had family in the village were able to go home, where their families cared for them, when they were well enough to move. This at least removed some of the strain on the infirmary staff. The previously large staff of carers slowly shrank back to half the size again. Anna still stayed on linen duty, so that the infirmary would get ahead in its duties.
A few days later, when returning from washing at the glen, a young boy ran past Anna, almost knocking into her.
"Easy there, Hamish! What on earth has you in such a rush?"
"They're home!" the boy exclaimed, "The warriors have come home."
"What? All of them?"
"Aye, they're still unloading the horses…"
Anna cursed, not entirely surprised that while her man had been arriving home, she had been scrubbing soapy linen.
Once she got to the village, she saw it full of men, all in varying states of health.
"Please," she prayed fervently, "Let him be well."
She quickly dropped the linen off at Sorcha's.
"Are you not with your man?" the girl just stared at her incredulously, "He's just home and here you are, concerning yourself with linen…"
"I'm only just home, myself," Anna explained, "I didn't know they were home."
"Get yourself home, then," Sorcha ordered her, "And don't let me see your face around the infirmary for at least a couple of days!"
Anna just nodded as she felt her cheeks flush in excitement. Somewhere in this thronging crowd, her warrior was waiting for her!
But the closer to home she got, the more the doubts grew in her mind. Would Allie be glad to see her? After what had happened, would he still want to be with her? Had she destroyed any chance of a life with him? She started to feel awkward, too. What would she say to him? When she thought of how she had gone off at him, she began to wonder if she would have the nerve to speak to him at all.
Anna needn't have worried on this score, though. As she approached home, she suddenly caught sight of him through the crowds, standing with her Father.
"They both look well," she thought as she stood watching them.
Looking at Alasdair, he didn't seem to be hurt in any major way, not from the way he moved. He had a few negligible scratches, but that was all. He also seemed to be in good spirits. He was smiling broadly as he chatted and joked with the other men around him. Anna felt her resolve shrivel and her heart sink…He was happy and he hadn't even noticed that she wasn't there. He probably hadn't even thought about her…He didn't care.
Anna moved, about to retreat to somewhere private, where she could be alone with her thoughts. But she stopped as she saw Allie place an urgent hand on the shoulder of the man who was speaking to him. He began to say something….Anna recognised her name on his lips then Allie began to look and search through the crowds, in the direction of her house. Anna felt her heart soar again and she didn't care about what she would say to him. All she needed was to be with him, to feel his arms around her.
"Allie!" she shouted as she took off running.
Allie heard but did not see her because of the people around him, who also distorted the sound of her voice, so he did not know where she was coming from. He just pushed his way towards her house, not aware that she wasn't coming from that direction.
"Allie," he heard her call his name again.
He got the impression that she might be behind him so, a little confused, went to turn around. Anna's full weight caught him just as he had turned. Catching him off-guard, they both fell, Anna landing on top of Allie as they hit the ground.
Although Allie had had some of the wind knocked out of him, he attempted to say something, but Anna didn't give him the chance, fastening her mouth onto his. As she kissed him, frantically, Allie's arms wound round her, holding her to him. He began to kiss her back with just as much passion, even as he lifted and pushed her up, so that he was sitting up and she was straddling his lap. Anna knew from his kisses and his touch that he was not pushing her away, for he was holding onto her, even as he pushed her. Allie pulled away only to get them both to their feet then they embraced again, Anna's arms around Allie's neck and his arms holding her to him. Everyone around them just smiled in amused tolerance, watching the uniting of two young people who were obviously very much in love. Even Dòhmnall laughed out loud, from where he was untacking and unsaddling his and Allie's horses.
Oblivious to everyone and everything around them, Alasdair and Anna's kisses only grew more frantic, until, with an impressive show of synchronisation, Anna jumped into Allie's arms, locking her arms back round his neck and her legs around his waist while Allie held her securely around the hips. The distance and obstacles between them and Anna's house was quickly negotiated without incident.
OOOO
"Now that is romance!" Harriet declared.
"Do you know anything else, Ma'am?" Bud asked as Mac placed the final sheet of paper down on the desk.
"Anna and Alasdair were married only a couple of weeks later," Mac told them all, "They never ended up going back to their original village, although Dòhmnall MacKenzie did, to reclaim his Chieftaincy of the tribe. Anna and Allie settled in an area in the north of the isle. They had children and raised them, at the same time eking out an existence living off the land. Life passed well for them. Alasdair got his wish; he died at what was then considered to be a ripe old age. He was warm in his bed and Anna was at his side. She passed not too long later…"
"That's beautiful!" Harriet breathed, "They deserved to live out the rest of their days peacefully."
Sturgis nodded, agreeing, "I'll be quite happy if my life turns out like that."
"There's something to be said for tranquillity," Harm agreed.
"Unfortunately," Mac spoke up, "The descendents of the clan MacKenzie didn't have it quite so well…After the Act of Union in 1707 the Hanoverian government began to try to systematically wipe out all forms of Celtic and Gaelic tribal culture, including the language. Children in schools were taught only in English and Gaelic was outlawed, along with tartan, the bagpipes and Scottish highland dancing. Many highlanders had their homes burned and their cattle taken south to the lowlands or to England. The highlanders were left devastated by these attacks and those that defied the new laws were either transported to the colonies, hanged or worse…"
"Hanged, drawn and quartered?" Sturgis asked.
"Probably," Mac nodded, "but that was not the end. The Jacobites went to war against the Hanoverian forces in 1746, at the battle of Culloden, and they got slaughtered. Some years later occurred what came to be known as 'the clearances.' In order to 'improve the land' by grazing sheep on it, clan chiefs began to turn on their kinsmen, in favour of making money. Many highlanders were evicted from their land and forced to migrate to the coast to become fishermen or crofters…My family, the descendents of Anna and Alasdair left Scotland in the early 1800s, set for the States, hoping that it would be 'the land of opportunity' that they desperately needed…And the rest is history…"
"That was so interesting, Ma'am," Harriet enthused, "I really wish I knew my own family history as well and far back as that."
"It was," Harm and the other staff members agreed.
"It's an inbuilt urge to find out where you come from," Bud contributed, "It's like finding out a bit of yourself."
After Mac had sorted out and stacked up all of the papers again, everyone began to get up to go.
"Say," Harm spoke up, "what are you two doing tonight, Mac, Harriet? Why don't you join us to watch the football, tonight?"
Harriet's face brightened.
"Only if nobody minds," she replied.
"We don't want to muscle in on a guy's night," Mac added.
All the men shook their heads, signalling that they wouldn't mind the addition at all.
"Give Bobbi a call," Harm suggested to Sturgis, "See if she's free, as well."
Mac nodded enthusiastically, she and Bobbi Latham got on very well. As everyone left the bullpen, that night, they all felt the warmth in their hearts that one feels when in the presence of family.
The end
AN: The following are traditional Gaelic forms of English names and some are even have equivalents in other European languages, such as German. The others are just traditional names that don't really have an English equivalent. Many of the names are still commonly used today.
Cailean – Colin
Iseabail – Isobel
Dòhmnall – Donald
Uilleam – William
Iain – John
Aonghas – Angus
Seamus – James
Donnchad – Duncan
Sorcha – Claire
Elspeth
Alasdair – Still very popular
Murdo
Hamish
The word 'Sassenach' is a term traditionally used to refer to an English person.
'The Jacobites' was the name for the Scottish forces loyal to King James VII (Jacobus is Latin for James) who resisted English rule.
'Hanovarian forces' were English forces fighting the Jacobites. 'Hanover' was the original name of the English Royal family, but was changed to 'Windsor' around 1914 or so, to make them sound more English and less German (they had German roots), against whom the English were fighting a war. (Interestingly, this is also why we call 'German Shepherd' dogs 'Alsatians,' as they were also used by the English to relay messages between troops fighting trench warfare.)
'A cuisle' is a Gaelic term of endearment, meaning basically 'My darling.' It's literal translation is 'my pulse.' It is thought to come from a longer phrase, 'a chuisle mo chroí' which means 'pulse of my heart.'