Chapter 6 - 3

After a long day of playing tourist, a rather weary group trudged back up the hill to Emma and Frohike's house. Everyone was hot, tired and a little grouchy but they had all enjoyed the sights. As they got closer to the house, Emma noticed that the van was parked out front. "Hey, we have company," she told the others.

"Who's that?" Rosalie asked.

"It's got to be at least one of my dad's coworkers."

"How can you tell?"

"My dad wouldn't have brought the van. It's so cool. Maybe they'll let me show you all the 'toys' inside. Come on." This last comment was made to Megan and Rachel. The three girls with Ian close on their heels ran the last block to the house. The adults arrived at a much more leisurely pace.

When they got there, they found Emma chattering away about the day's adventures with a group of men. Emma introduced the newcomers to Byers, Langly and Jimmy. With so many people at the house, Frohike and Emma's original dinner plans were not going to work and after a long day out, no one really felt like cooking anyway. Pizza was universally voted to be the best option so a large order was placed.

While waiting for the pizza to arrive, a reluctant Langly took the kids out to the van to show them some of the things it could do. Having that many children packed in the VW bus was a little uncomfortable for him but after awhile he discovered that they were not all that different from Emma. The little boy didn't say much at first but was soon asking questions like the rest. For a bunch of normal kids, they were pretty computer savvy. Of course, Emma knew a lot more than they did but she'd learned all she knew from him.

Hunger and the arrival of the pizza brought everyone back into the house. After dinner, Frohike sent Emma and the other kids out to the grocery store to get some novelty ice cream treats. This surprised Emma because ice cream was one of the things they had stocked up on. He quietly told her that the adults needed to talk privately about the weekend. She understood and assured her father that they would walk slowly. "Not too slowly. I want you back here in an hour."

"No problem," Emma assured him as she turned to join the other children waiting at the door.

Once the youngsters were gone, Frohike quickly outlined the case the Gunmen were working on.

Rosalie was a little surprised by all that he had told them. "Emma said that you were investigative reporters but this is a lot more involved then I imagined."

"You're sure they're after the painting?" Pat asked.

"That's what we were told by our associate who has been tracking this thief," Byers told him.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Becky figured there must be some reason they were telling them all this.

"As a matter of fact there is." Frohike explained, "I need someone to look after Emma. There is no real danger to any of you or her but I want someone I can trust to keep an eye on her. I know that she has a lot of respect for all of you and will feel safe with you."

Pat reassured Frohike, "We'll just treat her like one of our own brats: put her to work and keep her out of trouble."

Becky offered assistance also. "All of the girls will be competing. That will keep her busy most of the day Saturday. I'm sure she won't mind hanging out with Megan, Rachel and me." Becky usually helped the girls with their hair and costume changes for the Highland Dance Competitions while Bruce, Pat and Rosalie worked in the booth. "The rest of the weekend, the kids usually spend most of their time helping with sales or checking out the rest of the events. Will that be all right?"

"Yes, that'll be fine. It would be best, though, if they didn't hang in or around the building where the painting will be on display. Emma knows what's going on but has promised not to tell the other children. She has been told she can go see the painting once but then needs to stay out of the way."

The four visiting adults nodded agreement to each other. Rosalie spoke for all of them. "That shouldn't be a problem."

"I really do appreciate your willingness to include her. I'll try to check on her when I can. There is one more favor I'd like to ask, if it wouldn't be an imposition."

"Shoot," Pat encouraged Frohike.

Byers explained that all the Gunmen had been asked to wear kilts to help with their undercover work but that they felt they were missing some important equipment. After a bit of discussion as to how they were going to be dressed, the four Gunmen went to put their kilts back on and Bruce and Pat went out to the vehicles to select some appropriate 'hardware'.

Frohike received a standard military dirk and a basket hilt sword. Byers got only a dirk but it had a jewel in the top of the handle to go with his dress outfit. Jimmy was fascinated by the tiny knife and fork that were attached to the outside of the short sword's scabbard. Frohike's was more functional and did not have jewels or the extra implements.

These swords were attached to the heavy belt that each man wore around his waist. Jimmy, since he was dressed to compete in the athletic events, couldn't really wear any swords but he was so crest fallen that Bruce gave him a sgian dhub, a small knife that is kept in the top of the knee high wool socks worn with most kilts. Everyone else got a sgian dhub also.

For Langly, they really outdid themselves. Bruce lent him an ancient style kilt, called a 'great kilt': one that was gathered under a belt instead of being precisely pleated. Langly kept the full-sleeved shirt that Yves had given him but Bruce had him try on the leather armor vest his father had made to match the one that Mel Gibson wore in Braveheart. It was a little big but no one would be able to tell.

Next they had him put on a baldric, a belt that crossed his chest and back from his left shoulder to his right hip. This belt was made to hold an enormous sword called a claymore. It was nearly five feet long, so the only way anyone could wear it was to strap it onto his back.

"Grab the hilt with your right hand," Bruce told Langly. The handle of the sword stuck up high enough above his shoulder for him to grasp. "With your other hand, reach over your shoulder and pull the leather strap holding the sword in place." Langly felt around with his free hand and quickly located the cord. Pulling on it, he soon had the sword off his back and in his hands.

"I've got one more thing for you," Bruce held up a round, leather-covered shield that had an intricate pattern of small brass nails hammered into its surface. "These usually have a six inch spike sticking out of the center but I don't advise people to carry those around in public." Bruce turned the shield around showing Langly the handles. "Put your arm through the longer strap and wrap your fingers around the shorter one."

Emma and the other kids came in the front door at this point. Emma was delighted to see all her guys dressed as she and Yves had discussed. "Wow, you guys look great! Don't they look great?" Emma inquired of her friends.

Both Megan and Rachel humored Emma by agreeing with her but for them it was no big deal. They were used to seeing the men in their lives dressed in kilts.

Emma walked up to Langly where he stood with the claymore in one hand and the shield in the other. She made a deep curtsy in front of him. "Lord Manhammer," she called him by his D and D character's name, "I await your command." She held the pose, expecting him to say something.

Langly didn't disappoint her. "Rise, impertinent child, before I smite thee with my sword."

Laughing, Emma did as ordered then went around to all the others examining their costumes. She looked closely at her dad's kilt. "Hey, that's my tartan!"

Frohike looked down at the fabric. "It is?"

"Yeah, that's the MacKenzie tartan."

Rosalie came over and added her opinion. "She's right. That's clan MacKenzie."

"That's so cool!" Emma was pleased to see her father in her family colors. "Yves gave you the kilt, right?"

"Yes. I had nothing to do with choosing it."

"Do you think it was an accident or did she plan it that way?"

Byers had been listening to the exchange. "I don't think Yves does anything by accident. She probably did quite a bit of searching to find a kilt that was the right size and length in that particular tartan. You'll have to be sure to thank her, Doc."

Emma smiled to herself. Yves was always so nice. "You're right. I will." But since Yves wasn't there it would have to wait.

Impulsively, Emma ran up the stairs, yelling as she went, "Dad, is the camera still in your closet?"

"No, Emma, you don't need to take pictures."

She came back to the edge of the railing, "Oh, yes, I do!"

"Emma!"

Ignoring her father's protests she got the camera anyway. Knowing she had very little time before they decided to go change, she fumbled with the flash trying to attach it to the camera. "Dad," she pleaded, "I can't get the flash on right."

"Really, Emma, this isn't necessary."

Langly liked his outfit and wanted a picture to show his D and D buddies. "She's just having fun. Let her take some pictures. You guys don't mind, do you?" he asked Byers and Jimmy.

"No, that's fine." Byers thought he looked pretty good and it didn't bother Jimmy either.

"Okay, come here. I'll fix it." Frohike took the camera and the flash and put them together for her. "Do you remember how to set the F-stops?" He had been teaching Emma how to take pictures using a 35-millimeter camera.

"I'm not sure."

He handed the camera back to her. "Here, you try."

Emma took the camera from him and set it up to take flash pictures. She showed it to her father. "Is this right?"

"You got it."

Emma took pictures of all the Gunmen in their kilts alone and in a group. She also took pictures of all her friends from Seattle. When she finished the roll of film, she wanted to take more but Frohike told her she had plenty.

Byers took the dirk off his belt and examined it closely. "This has got to be an expensive piece. Are you sure you want to let us wear all these? If we have them on, you can't sell them."

Pat waved Byers off. "No worries. If anyone asks you where you got the swords, just send them our way."

Rosalie agreed. "You'll be our walking advertisements."

The next morning, the Tougher family along with Frohike and Emma drove out to Alexandria to set up shop on the grounds of the high school where the Highland Games were to be held. Frohike had all the girls in his car. He said nothing during the entire drive but there was no lack of conversation.

The girls talked nonstop about nothing and everything. Often, they would even talk at the same time. He had no idea how they understood each other but it was music to his ears. His pleasure at hearing Emma act and react like a normal 12 year old far out-weighed any possible irritation at the noise level within the confines of the car.

They pulled into the vendor area and began unloading the vehicles. Most of the girls' dance gear was loaded in Frohike's car along with a considerable amount of equipment of his own including a generic workman's uniform and a counterfeit staff ID badge.

After carefully studying the security layout at the high school, Yves and Frohike decided that they needed to add some extra surveillance equipment. With most of the vendors unloading and setting up and the general bustle in all areas on the site, Frohike was able to unobtrusively add several small cameras to areas in which he found them to be lacking.

By late afternoon, everything was ready to go. Frohike had left early to check on some last minute preparations of his own. Everyone else went back to the house to rest up for the next day. When they got there they discovered that Jimmy was there as well as Frohike. Jimmy had relished the time he'd spent with the family the night before. He figured it was because it had been so long since he'd seen his own family. Ian really enjoyed Jimmy's company, playing basketball with his tall friend and showing him the games he had on his Gameboy. Jimmy promised to bring his car next time to take Ian for a ride.

After dinner, most everyone decided to sit outside and enjoy the cool of the evening. At a lull in the conversation, Rachel asked her grandfather, "Grandpa, tell Emma the story about the curse on the Duke of Hamilton's palace."

Pat enjoyed having an audience and this was one of his favorite tales to tell. He had grown up near Hamilton in Scotland and had spent many hours as a boy exploring the Duke's land. The game warden had chased him and his friends off it several times.

His Scottish accent grew thicker as he began his account of the fate of the Duke's palace.

"The Duke of Hamilton was a greedy man. He made most of his money through coal mining. He owned all the land around the city of Hamilton and almost everyone there worked in the mines. The men dug the coal, it was loaded into large wicker baskets then the women carried it up to the surface.

"The women wore the baskets on their backs keeping them in place with long straps that circled their foreheads. There were ledges around each level of the mines for the women to rest. When they put the baskets down, they would scream to ease the tension in their bodies as they removed the straps from their foreheads.

"These were dirty, nasty jobs but most people had no choice but to work for the Duke, to live in the shacks he provided for them and to buy their food from the store he owned.

"One horrible day, there was a cave-in at one of the mines. Several men were killed and many more were injured. This left a lot of families with no one to provide for them. Their fathers, husbands and sons were dead; they had no money and no place to live. The Duke let the widows and orphans continue to live in the shacks figuring he could kick them out when he needed the room for more workers.

"One particular family was hard hit by this tragedy. A young man and his sister were left to care for their invalid mother when their father died in the cave in. Their ma had broken her back in a fall in the mines and could not be moved from her home. Her two children nursed her the best they could but when a group of Irish folk were brought in to replace the dead miners, the Duke ordered all the shacks emptied of the poor souls who were still living there.

"The old woman was tossed into the street. The Duke's men wouldn't listen to her daughter's pleas for them to have mercy and leave her ma in peace. The woman's son tried to stop the men from evicting his family but that only got him arrested. He escaped and went to hide out in the Duke's forest so he wouldn't be thrown in jail.

"Shortly after that, the old woman died.

"The Duke brought the daughter into his palace to work in his kitchen. I don't know if he felt sorry for her or not but it gave the destitute girl food, a place to sleep and the means to help her brother.

"Everyday she would save left over food and late at night she would give her brother whatever she managed to steal. They had a prearranged meeting spot in a clearing in the middle of the forest.

"Now, also in this forest lived a herd of wild, white Highland cattle. These were the meanest animals you ever saw. When my buddies and I would wander around in those woods, we had to be very careful not to bother them because they would charge you and gore you just for standing in their way. We were more afraid of them than we were of being caught by the game warden."

Emma interrupted the tale at this point. "Did you ever see any?"

"Aye, several times."

"Did they ever chase you?"

Pat grinned and admitted, "Aye, they did."

"What did you do?" asked Emma, her eyes growing large. The other children had heard this story before and were not shocked by their grandfather's childhood antics.

"I quickly climbed a tree and stayed there until the cow got tired of waiting for me to come down and left."

"Did it have horns?"

Pat held his hands up more than a foot apart. "Each horn was about that long."

"Wow, but you got away okay." Emma was relieved.

Pat laughed, "Sure, I did, until I got home and my Ma laid into me for being gone most of the night."

"Now," he said continuing the story, "the Duke heard that one of the bulls had gone rogue and was killing the other cattle. He organized a hunting party and set out one bright moonlit night to kill the bull.

"That same night the young man waited for his sister just inside the trees at the edge of the clearing where they would meet. He saw his sister step out of the forest on the far side. He came out into the open where she could see him but the young woman had stopped. She looked to her left. This time her brother heard the noise that made her pause.

"The sound grew louder and was getting nearer.

"The rogue bull charged into the clearing with the Duke's dogs and the hunters on horseback hard on its heels. The bull turned to meet the challenge and the Duke took aim. As he fired the bull turned and ran back into the forest, but the bullet continued on its course, striking the young man where he stood frozen by the scene before him.

"In horror, the girl watched as her brother fell to the ground. She ran to his side only to find him dead. She screamed in agony, her whole family now gone. Holding her brother's body in her arms, she rocked slowly back and forth and wept.

"Remembering that she was not alone, the girl stood to confront the Duke. With tears streaming down her face, she raised one blood-drenched arm and pointed at him.

"She said, 'Your greed has taken my loved ones from me and it will destroy you and all you hold dear! Your mighty palace, which was built on the backs of my family and others like us will sink into the earth and in its place there will be nothing but a foul, disease infested swamp.'

"This said, she knelt by her brother's dead body and taking his hand in hers she pressed it to her cheek. None of the hunters dared disturb her and when she turned to go, no one followed her. She was never seen nor heard from again."

Emma closed her eyes as she felt the young woman's pain. She knew what it was like to lose someone you loved. After a few seconds she looked back up at Pat and asked the question upper most in her mind. "Well, what happened? Did the palace sink into the ground?"

"Aye, it did. The young woman was right. It was the Duke's greed that caused it. He had mined under most of his property leaving only the area under the palace untouched. Eventually, he sold the rights to that area, too. The ground became too weak to sustain the weight of the huge, stone palace. It started to sink into the ground but it took years for it to happen."

"And the swamp?"

"It was still there when I was a lad."

"Really? It actually became a swamp?"

"Aye."

"Wow," Emma breathed the word in amazement. "So, it's a true story."

"That I canna say for sure."

"It sure seems like it," Emma insisted.

Very early the next morning, everyone was ready to go. All the men were dressed in their kilts. Even Ian had his on. He wore a sporran that his grandfather had made him out of an old mink pelt that had belonged to Ian's great-grandmother. The three girls were also dressed in their kilts since this was the first outfit that needed to be worn to compete.

Frohike had a hard time finding a chance to talk to Emma alone. He finally took her upstairs to his room.

"We're clear on everything for this weekend."

"Yes, Dad." Emma was a little impatient to be off.

"Humor me and tell me what you're expected to do."

"I need to listen to Pat and Rosalie and do what they say."

"Bruce and Becky, too."

"I know. And when we are not competing, I need to check in with them and tell them where I will be."

"What else?"

"I can go see the painting once but then I have to stay out of the way. And if I see Yves, I'm not supposed to talk to her or anything." Emma's eyebrows knitted together as she tried to remember all they had talked about. "I can't think of anything else."

"You brought your inhalers."

"They're in my bag."

"Make sure you use them before you dance."

"I will."

Frohike stood for a few seconds as thoughts of what needed to be done ran through his head. He brought his attention back to his daughter. "That's about it. You're a smart girl. Trust your common sense and everything will be okay. Now, give me a hug and let's get out of here."

Emma did as her father asked then stepped back and admired his outfit again. "You know you can't drive with that sword on don't you?" she teased him.

"I'm not driving. I'm going with the rest of you. I don't want to leave the car sitting somewhere over night. Which reminds me, I don't know if I'll be back here tonight. Don't worry about me if I'm not. We'll be taking turns in the van doing surveillance."

At the words 'don't worry' Emma immediately began to do just that.

Frohike could tell. "Emma, everything is going to be fine. Enjoy the games. You've waited a long time for this." He took her hand and walked her down the stairs.

Rosalie was waiting for them. All the others were out in the vehicles. "Is everything okay?"

Frohike looked at Emma again, "I think so. Are you ready, honey?"

Emma nodded but not enthusiastically.

"I told her that I probably won't be here tonight and she's not happy about it."

Rosalie put her hand under Emma's chin and tipped her face up so that she was looking at her. "We'll be here with you and your father is going to catch this thief. You will be fine and so will he."

Megan came running back to the house. "Grandpa wants to know if we are leaving anytime today."

"Tell him we'll be right there," Rosalie instructed her granddaughter. "Shall we go before Pat wakes up all your neighbors?" she asked Emma.

Emma cheered up a bit, "Let's go," she said and headed out to the waiting vehicles. Frohike moved to follow her out the door when Rosalie stopped him. "Melvin, you will be okay, won't you?"

Frohike was surprised by her concern. "Yes, I don't see that there will be any problem with this investigation."

"Good. I'd hate to find out that I just lied to Emma."