Maeve remained calm. ‘You cannot go; I will not permit it. Too much rests on you. You have been cursed, to the risk of your life. You will stay here, until the curse is lifted.’
He shook his head in frustration and spoke with near contempt. ‘Curse! The man has been paid to do this!’
‘The poets have always been paid,’ she said calmly. ‘They have never been the less honoured for that.’
‘Finn O’Rahilly is the dregs of the poets. He will take his coin from whoever will pay him. He has no honour. You can lift the curse tomorrow; you can lift it now. Tell everyone of Alexander, tell them what nonsense this charlatan speaks. And then let me find who it is that has set him up to this …’
Her face was grey with anger now. ‘What do you know of the poets? “Dregs”? He sat as a boy at the feet of Mac an Bhaird himself! He might have accomplished many things; all you see is what he has been reduced to. Lift the curse? He has made it and only he can lift it. And I will send Alexander to him, to show himself, and to show the curse is ill-founded.’
‘Please, Grandmother …’
Maeve turned with venom upon her granddaughter. ‘You dare to speak? What is this to you? You have turned your back on this family. I have only allowed you into my house because your brother insisted upon it!’
Deirdre stood up now and showed herself the equal of the old woman. ‘You could not have stopped me. He was my grandfather. There are things I know that you would not wish to have known. You could not have stopped me coming here now.’
Maeve had opened her mouth to speak, but something in my cousin’s words silenced her. She looked at Deirdre with something approaching hatred.
Sean took a step towards his sister. ‘Deirdre, there are other forces at work here. O’Rahilly has been put up to this. I will …’
‘I will go to him,’ I interjected. ‘Just tell me where to go.’
Only now did any of them notice me. Sean opened his mouth to remonstrate, but my grandmother held up her hand.
‘You have had your say. Let your cousin speak.’
I spoke directly to Maeve. ‘I will go to this man and tell him he is wrong. I will tell him that my mother did not drown, but lived to bear me. Let him make what protest he likes then – his “curse” can have no validity. And when that pretence is stripped from him, he may be better induced to reveal who is behind this.’
Deirdre came over to me and took my hands in hers.
‘Alexander, you have only just come back to us. We have so much to put right, we three. You do not understand the risk you will be placing yourself in. Sean, who knows this country so well, was very nearly murdered by an assailant in the darkness. His life is still threatened, endangered. How could you, a scholar and a stranger here, hope to go where you must go, do what you must do, and return to us in safety? Do not risk your life on this fool’s errand.’
She had almost persuaded me. The call to me in her eyes, in the face that I had known a lifetime, almost reached me, but then her last words overturned the rest. I sought to reassure her.
‘It is because it is a fool’s errand that I go. The charms and incantations of your poets cannot touch me.’ I turned to my grandmother. ‘I suspect your purse will also be needed.’ Maeve nodded her agreement. ‘But understand that I do this for my mother’s sake, to find out who is threatening her family, who has such malice for you, for Sean and for Deirdre.’
She regarded me in her accustomed cold manner. ‘Do it for whatever reason pleases you. Eachan will go with you, to show you the way and to help you find O’Rahilly. His whereabouts are secretive, but messages can be got to him if you make yourselves known at Bushmills.’
Sean was prepared to countenance this, but his better mood was short-lived.
‘I will not go. Curse or no, Sean’s life has been threatened. I will not leave him. You must find someone else.’
Maeve was struck motionless in astonishment.
‘You’ll go where you’re told to go,’ said Sean.
Eachan looked him full in the face. ‘I will not,’ he said, and went to sit on the floor in a corner by the door, arms folded across his knees.
Sean cursed him and all his line in English and Irish and some hybrid of the two, with such vehemence that I almost expected one or other of them to have a seizure, but Eachan was not to be moved. ‘Then you cannot go,’ said my cousin, finally turning to me in frustration.
‘I will go with him.’ It was Andrew Boyd who had spoken.
‘I will take him by the new settlements, where you are not known, Sean, and where we are less likely to meet with the Irish. He can masquerade as a Scottish planter seeking his fortune, and I will play his servant. We will reach Coleraine safely that way and take our chances from there to Bushmills.’
Nobody said anything for a moment, but Deirdre’s face was ashen. Eventually she spoke. ‘Why are you doing this?’
‘Because I have had my fill. The sooner this is ended the better. It will be the last service I do this family. When it is over, I go my own way.’
Maeve looked at him. ‘Go with my blessing. You have never shown your father’s loyalty, but you might prosper, for a while. Now, I must go to the other women. Deirdre, you will come with me.’
‘No, not yet.’
‘As you please. You will hardly be missed.’ She did not look at me as she left; there were no parting words of love or farewell from my grandmother.
Sean ranted a few more minutes, at Eachan for his obstinacy and parentage, at me for my lack of gratitude – for what I do not know – at Andrew Boyd for his duplicity in taking my side, but eventually he ran out of curses and causes, and began to think. He told Eachan to make ready the two best horses from the stables, and fetch money for our journey, and then he turned to Andrew, and the curses of only a few moments ago were forgotten. ‘Pay no heed to my grandmother,’ he said. ‘She is an old witch. It is an honourable thing that you do and you will always have my gratitude for that.’
But there was no gratitude in Deirdre’s eyes. She stood before Andrew, looking at him a long moment before finally speaking. ‘Do you really hate me so much?’ Without waiting for a response, she went in the way of her grandmother. Andrew stood there, unmoving, unflinching, but I saw something in him break.
After she had left, Sean went over the plan for our trip. I was of little consequence for the most part of this, that was until my cousin revealed a plan that would require more audacity and a stronger nerve than I possessed: when we arrived at Coleraine, we were to go to the home of the Blackstones, where I was to be presented as Sean himself.
This took my attention. ‘Have you taken leave of your senses? No, but have you? These people will know within minutes of looking at me that I am not you, that is if their credulity survives the opening of my mouth.’
He laughed. ‘If I can be taken for you in Aberdeen, you will pass for me in Coleraine. These people do not know me from my grandfather’s horse. Other than Edward Blackstone, who is to be in Carrickfergus another two days, I met them only once, at Deirdre’s wedding. I arrived late. There had been more interesting – distractions – eh, Eachan? – on the road. I made my bow to the father, paid my compliments to the mother, and attempted to dance with each of the sisters, who were evidently half in fears, half in hopes that I would ravish them. The temptation was not great, I will tell you that. Not one of them speaks Irish, and your northern tones will sound little different in their ears from what they hear from the Ulstermen hereabout. The idea that you might not be me will not enter their heads.’
‘And what – for the sake of conversation – am I to tell them I am doing there? From what you have told me of them, I hardly think they will know the whereabouts of a Gaelic poet.’