The Legend of Lady MacLaoch Read Online Free PDF Page A

around us, and the humming within me seemed to settle, as if there were something to the story meant just for me.
    “But ye said yer family name was Minary, right?”
    “Right,” I answered Angus, feeling his voice pull me from a mental fog.
    Bernie cleared his throat. Angus tugged on the starter cord, and the engine sputtered back to life.
    “Well now. As we’re having a bit o’ trouble with the motor, we’d best turn back. Hate to be stuck out ’ere, aye?” Angus said, relatively jovial, but I got the feeling that he was worried.
    “That was just a bit o’ the tour,” he continued. “The only part ye didnae see was Castle Laoch. Right shame that is, but ye can have a close-up look at it from land. I’ll tell ye, though, that ye should be careful of the MacLaochs and asking questions. That lot is still a fearsome sort.”
    “Aye, that they are,” Angus agreed.
    “And it depends on who ye talk tae about the Lady MacLaoch curse. Some will wave ye off and tell ye tae never mind with such fairy tales. Believe me, it is a true curse. The MacLaochs have had nothing but bad luck as chieftains. They are either cheating or lying, and there isnae a one of them loving like they should, aye, Angus?”
    “Aye, none of them ha’ gone tae their deadbed with a wife at his side—”
    “Och! Wha’ about Old Dooney? He went tae his death with a wife at his side.”
    “Aye, that he did, his wife was holding the knife and his mistress the poison!”
    Bernie and Angus guffawed loudly at this, only to subside in eye wiping and snorting.
    “But ye see what we’re getting at, lass? There’s a darkness on the chieftain’s seat that befalls its owner.”
    “Including the one they have now. Thirty-fourth, is it?” Angus asked Bernie.
    “Aye,” Bernie responded, “that one has had the worst of it yet. Father abandoned him and his mother—mind ye, his mum was a MacLaoch, and she drank herself so deep she couldnae take care of the wee boy. His uncle, the thirty-third chieftain, scooped him up off his drunken mother and took care of him as his own.” He nodded at me to emphasize his point. “Now before ye go on and think highly of the thirty-third chieftain, understand that he couldnae keep a woman around long enough to make her his wife and have a son and an heir of his own. Seeing his opportunity with his drunken sister’s son, he took it upon himself and claimed his sister unfit and took the boy for his own self.”
    “Aye,” Angus agreed again. “Had her committed, too. She died right after the cell door shut behind her, is what we heard.”
    Bernie nodded solemnly. “God rest her soul,” he said, and crossed himself. “Three years ago, the thirty-third chieftain died from a cancer in his bones, and his nephew took up the thirty-fourth title. Doing no’ a bad job and no’ a good job, if ye ask me.”
    “But we didn’t ask ye, did we Bernie? Stick tae the facts, would ye?” Angus hollered forward, and then said in a low voice to me, “He’s just broken up over the legend, takes it seriously, ye see. He takes it as a personal offense that the clan MacLaoch did such wrong by the lady. He has an overprotective sense for women.” He winked.
    “Oh, stow it, will ye?” Bernie hollered back. “I was saying, the thirty-fourth chieftain is a dark man, plagued, I think, with the worst of the curse.”
    “Aye,” Angus agreed solemnly.
    “We’ve heard many a thing about him, though we can say that with our own four eyes we have seen what a troubled man he is. He spent time in the Royal Air Force. The clan pulled him from duty when his uncle died. Rumor has it that he served on one of those special schemes while in the military, and it messed with him, they say.” Bernie tapped the side of his head.
    “Aye,” Angus agreed. “When ye see him, he’s nice enough, but ye can see the distance in his eyes, like he’s carrying a burden he cannae unload. Does quite a lot for the community, giving money tae the