Bruar's Rest

Now, hurry up and spit it out, what is it?’
    ‘Well, in our burial ground, which lies on Parbh, there is one place left. It was meant for my father, but he can’t take it because he forfeited it to me.’
    ‘And why not?’ She seemed surprised. ‘Surely big Rory has more claim than you?’
    ‘I thought that too, but my father took the right eye from a Seer while filled with anger. It was a terrible thing. It happened because mother was in danger of losing her life during Jimmy’s birth, but you know how important a Seer’s eyes are. There is an unspoken rule in Highland parts: one must never do battle with a foresight man.’
    ‘My God, I never would have put your Dad down as such a fool—a drinking one, aye, but not as mad as that he would do damage to a seer.’
    ‘He wasn’t right in mind at the time. I won’t say anything else on the matter.’
    ‘Oh yes, you will! You started the story, now finish!’ Megan rose to her feet, only to be pulled back down with a forceful tug on her arm.
    She kissed his cheek, brushing his hair with moist lips and asked softly, ‘Is the Seer you talk of the one who dwelt in a cave beyond Balnakeil, him with a beard of red flame?’
    ‘His beard was of red hair, not flames; yes, that’s him.’
    ‘Gosh, I’ve heard folks from the north who wandered through Glen Coe mention his powers. Some say that in his day he could predict an end to the world.’
    ‘He predicted my mother’s end, and that’s all I know.’
    Gently she played with his thick blonde hair, asking quietly, ‘Did that mean she was dying?’
    ‘It seems the birth of my young brother Jimmy was too much for her tender frame.’
    ‘But surely then the Seer was telling the truth?’
    ‘Yes, but folks thought my father meant to kill the Seer, because with him being a drinking man and the Seer dead against strong alcohol, they thought my father harboured a grudge. It was desperation at his failure to help. He begged the foresight man to bring assistance for mother, but he refused, saying she was dying. Father belted the Seer so hard he knocked the eye clean out of his head. Who could blame him? Mother was dying with the labour.’
    ‘People can be forced into doing terrible things when worry and fear fills them.’
    ‘He cursed father, and let mother die!’
    ‘Oh, don’t torture yourself, my lad. I’m certain big Rory gave the pig exactly what he deserved.’ Her words were for his benefit, but her inner fears went deep, and she felt shivers running through her bones. She’d been warned by her mother that the power of the Seer can bring about the events he foresees, whether good fortune or bad fortune. She whispered to her silent companion, ‘May it be that the red Seer put a curse on your father, and it will pass down to you?’
    ‘Ha, I don’t believe in rubbish talk like that.’ Shrugging his broad shoulders and changing the topic of conversation, he said, ‘In all of this country there’s no prouder man than me.’
    ‘And tell me now, why is that?’
    ‘You, Megan, because I have met you. So if I’m cursed, then that’s fine.’
    ‘Look,’ she asked, ‘what is this promise that you ask of me?’
    He rose from the rock seat they’d shared and held her close until she could feel his heart thumping in his chest. ‘Megan,’ he said, ‘I know at fifteen you’re a mite too young to share my bed, yet surely you feel I’ll love none other. You’ll be my bride when the time is right, because we are meant. But it’s about the future I want to ask of you. In later years, if Death shortens my lifeline, will you make certain I am laid in the ancient burial ground at Parbh? My Aunt Helen will tell you where it is.’
    She felt that cold shiver return to run the whole length of her slender spine. It made her push him away, turn without a word and run off into the purple heather.
    He darted after her, and soon was holding her again, brushing aside her windswept hair.
    ‘Lassie, promise me.’ His repeated request grew louder, his jaw rigid, face stern.
    ‘Bruar, talk like that frightens me. I’ll be your woman when time says, even have a dozen wee bairns, the spit of you. But this talk of death—it pulls a black shadow over us, stop it.’
    But he kept on at her, and soon, if only just to hear no more on the morbid subject, she made the promise he asked for.
    ‘All right, if you die first and there’s breath in me, I’ll take you back to the place on a grand charger. If I