Chapter 13: Trade winds

I spent the next few days with a squad of men and some picks and shovels, digging drainage ditches around a nearby field. The ditches quickly filled with water and we cut a channel down to the loch so that it could run off. The change in the field was marked. Although it was still marshy it was by no means as bad as it had been. I told Colmgil to give it a week or two and then to check and see how it looked. He was less sceptical now of my idea, having seen the amount of water that had seeped into the drains.

While we were sitting having a lunch of cold meat and bread I asked Colmgil about bees.

"Does anyone keep bees around here Colmgil?"

"Keep bees, my Lord, isn't that something that churchmen do to pass the time?"

"Churchmen might well be the answer Colmgil but see you, don't sneer. Bees are important little things and keeping them provides a source of honey and wax. Wax can be fashioned into candles and honey turned into mead, both valuable man."

Colmgil's sneer disappeared as he mulled over what I had said. I could see the wheels turn in his head as he thought of the possibilities honey and wax might present. I believed he was starting to recognise that he had a lord full of ideas, most of them workable and that it behoved him to listen to me more carefully in future. We discussed how we might secure some bees and where they might go. I suggested that my friends the churchmen on Iona might be willing to spare some bees for us if we sent someone to get them and he agreed to make arrangements to do just that.

The returning Knapdale men stopped off at Aird Driseig to pay their respects and to leave my share of the booty from Glen Almond. The men were still in high spirits after the victory and there was singing as they resumed their journey back to their own settlements. Colmgil fussed over where he was going to put the additional cattle, some sixty or so head of them. I left him to his task and returned to the house for something to eat.

Bridhe and Fiona had returned to the house too after having let Kirsty and I have my first night back alone together. The three women had become almost a cottage industry in soap and basket making and I could see signs of their handiwork appearing all through the settlement. There was a fair stock of soap building up too, enough to be a nuisance and I decided that Aird Driseig needed a warehouse if I was going to follow through on all of my trade ideas.

It might have been my imagination after Kirsty had told me her tale, but I was sure that Fiona was staring at me continuously and I began to feel like a mouse under the gaze of a cat.

That very afternoon I sought out the builders and laid out my requirements for a storage warehouse. We picked out a vacant parcel of land within the settlement walls and marked out the dimensions together. The builder promised he would enlist some assistance and begin the construction at once.

My next task was to visit the forge and discuss its possible additional uses with the metalworker. He confirmed for me that the forge was seldom in use and indeed he would welcome gainful employment in the absence of iron ore to work with. I shared my ideas with him and drew images of the various tools I thought we would need if we were going to start producing glass and pottery. My description of glass had him shaking his head in disbelief - turning sand into something that you could see through? - especially when I said it was produced by melting sand mixed with some lime. The idea that this molten sand could also be blown to produce vessels for drinking out of or eating from had him scratching his head. My reputation for new ideas must have been getting round the camp however because he agreed to use some of his precious iron to manufacture the tools I had described.

We had just agreed that I would need to find a potter to 'throw' clay for pots as he could not turn his hand to that, when I heard a shout and looked round to see Iain mac Donald waving at me. He was waving something above his head and if I wasn't mistaken it looked like a long bow. Feeling excited at the prospect of being able to arm my men with this formidable weapon, I rushed over to him to look at it. The bow was almost a work of art in itself, beautifully finished; the lines sleek and smooth.

Iain stood proudly displaying his work, a huge smile on his face.

"Have you made arrows for it too Iain?" I asked him.

"Of course, my Lord. What use is a bow without arrows!"

"Then let us test it out man, come on!"

Iain ran back into his workshop and emerged with a handful of feather fletched arrows. We raced out of the camp gates like two schoolboys (although Iain wouldn't know what a schoolboy was!) and he handed me the bow and a single arrow. I notched the bow and... and nothing. I couldn't draw the bow. It was just too hard to draw the string back and I did not have the strength. I tried again, using all of my effort, veins standing out on my forehead and neck but could only manage to pull the string back an inch or two. I handed the bow to Iain and he tried his luck but with similar results.

It was clear that men would need to practice long and hard to develop the arm strength that would be necessary to use such a bow. I had believed it was the bows greater size that gave it its increased range and hitting power but I had obviously got that wrong. This long bow was at least a couple of hundred years ahead of its time here in Scotland and I was desperate to be able to get the benefit of using it in battle.

"Iain, make me fifty more of these fine bows my friend. I will see what I can do about finding fifty men who will be able to use them!"

He had been looking somewhat disappointed when his fine new bow appeared to have been found to be useless but by ordering fifty more I had restored his faith that the bow would be fired in anger. Returning to the forge I asked the metalworker to make me fifty dumbbells - I hefted one of his ingots to gauge the weight and suggested each dumbbell should weigh as much as two ingots. He quailed at the amount of iron this would take. I re-assured him the iron would eventually be returned to him to re-use.

I approached Colmgil and handed him the bow, asking him to try and draw it. He couldn't manage it either.

"Find me fifty men who can use a bow Colmgil. These fifty men are to train every morning from now on with bows like this. They will also exercise their arm and shoulder with a weight I am having the smith prepare and when they are finished these fifty men will be a fearsome weapon against our foes."

Kirsty and I spent a pleasant week travelling round the lordship, meeting my captains and lieutenants and agreeing sites for salt and more soap production. I was also keen to encourage my people to rear more horses. These were in short supply and I had it in mind that in future my host would be completely horsed. Several of the settlements had a stock of horses and access to sufficient land to rear more. The land here was also marshy so I took some time to work at each place to show them how to drain the soil to improve it. While I was doing this Kirsty was demonstrating how to make the soap to women in the camps, leaving instructions on how to use it and how much I expected to be shipped onwards to Aird Driseig.

We crossed from Kilberry to Jura and set similar arrangements in place there. The locals fed us well on venison and fish and our ideas were well received, news of our plans having travelled ahead of us. I was intrigued by the names of the paps of Jura, in particular the 'mountain of gold'. I wondered where this name had come from and whether there was a chance that the mountain did actually have a seam of gold somewhere. The locals assured me that they had searched and searched but that there was no sign of the precious metal.

Our return to Aird Driseig was leisurely and we enjoyed ourselves, taking in the beauty of the land and basking in the friendship of the people of the lordship. I was impressed by the progress already made on the construction of the warehouse but as we rode through the gates, Colmgil came rushing towards us.

"My Lord, King Fergus sent a message some days ago commanding you repair to Dunadd with Fiona nic Duncan to celebrate your marriage."

I turned to Kirsty expecting an ab-reaction to this news but she was beaming at the prospect and I realised then that I would never understand women. The camp seemed to be most animated by this news, almost exited for me at the forthcoming nuptials. We made our way to the house to find out how Bridhe and Fiona were reacting.

Bridhe was excited and very pleased that her daughter's future was going to be formalised by the marriage. Fiona seemed a little more concerned but still seemed quite positive about the prospect of marriage to me. Her close scrutiny of me over the last few days was really starting to worry me. It was clear she had plans and that they included me and some alone time. I remained determined that I would remain true to Kirsty, despite the marriage.

Over thirty of us made up the bridal party that rode out of Aird Driseig that afternoon and completed the relatively short journey to Dun Add. King Fergus had already left for Iona we were informed and he expected us to follow on behind him as soon as we arrived. So, it was off to Crinan once more to find a boat waiting to take us over the water to the beautiful isle with its white sand.

I was growing increasingly tense as we approached Iona. This whole marriage thing was a sham so far as I was concerned but would Fiona expect something more. Kirsty's acceptance of it all was upsetting and her inclusion in the wedding party should have been awkward but clearly wasn't as she spent all of her time with Bridhe and Fiona, planning and organising what Fiona would wear and goodness knows what else. I stood alone in the prow of the ship, trying hard not to dwell too much on the fact that soon I would be a married man, a married man with every intention of committing adultery as soon after the wedding as possible.

King Fergus and the Abbot met us on the beach.

"Good, welcome Scott my friend. A fair day and as fine a setting as a man could wish for in which to enter into blessed partnership. Where is your beautiful bride?"