Saturday 8 December 2018

A Story Inspired By A Song by Angela MacRae Shanks

guess the song
Thyme Blossom Bloom Flower Light Purple Vi
clue... A herb found in the Highlands
Some say I’m mad. Others, most I fancy, say I’ve been bewitched … enchanted. My heart and mind’s been turned. If love is a manner of madness, a bewitchment, and it’s known love can turn a man’s head, can lead him to … well, I’ll leave that for now. Then it’s true. I am so. Madly bewitched. Heart and mind and flesh. But upon my oath, I never meant to be.
    ’Twas early summer when we first met and the trees were blooming, heady and sweet. Rowan and birch, cherry and haw – hardy highland trees all gnarled and silvered with lichen in the pure mountain air. And though the blooms werena so much to look at, the fragrance now ... that could lift a man’s heart as only sweet highland air can do.
I climbed the mountain for a last lingering look across the glen, up among the heather and wild thyme, for on the morrow I’d join my regiment and we’d all march away. The Highlands were risen in arms against the king, were astir with rebellion, and we were charged to quell it. Yet my heart wasna in it. It beat heavy in my chest knowing kin would fight kin, and I would need to do the same.


On I climbed and left the last few twisted trees behind when I came upon her kneeling in the heather gathering herbs. I’d seen her before; I knew who she was. Who did not? For she was beautiful as a fawn is, all soft brown eyes, fringed and gentle, peeping from a sweep of conker-brown hair.


Catriona. I’d heard talk of her, that she was mysterious, hard to get close to, yet there was scarce a lad in the glen that didna wish to try. Lady of the woods they called her, for she was said to spend her days in glades and upon hillsides gathering nature’s bounty, creation’s medicine. Making balms for the sick and wounded. What chance had I with such as her? Me? Andrew Gow. Humble cottar from Strathavon with naught to my name but a scrape of land and a rental I’d no hope of paying. ’Twas why I took the king’s shilling. That or eviction.
She eyed me intently from among the fragrant herbs. ‘What brings ye up the mountain, Andrew?’
My heart leapt that she knew my name. ‘I wished to take my last farewell of the glen.’ I spoke the simple truth. ‘And ’tis from here ye see the grandest sweep of river and hill.’
She nodded, curious as a kitten. ‘So, where is it ye’ll go, then?’
‘Wherever I’m ordered. To battle, I suppose, for king and country.’
She rose then, and I saw what I took for respect in her eyes. She came closer, close enough to admire the perfection of her skin, to count the freckles under her eyes, smell the sun-baked pine needle scent upon her. ‘Which king, Andrew? Will ye don a coat o’ crimson?’
I nodded. ‘Aye, the king that sits upon the throne o’ this realm.’ But I knew as I said it, ’twas not what she wished to hear. ‘The king of Hanover.’
‘Nae the true heir, then? Ye’d fight for the usurper?’
The respect I’d imagined in her eyes seemed to dull and lose its shine, and she lowered her head, unable to bring herself to look at me.
‘’Tis he who’ll pay me a decent bounty,’ I muttered, loath to admit such a thing. ‘I’m needing to pay my rent.’ 
She nodded, but I could see the disappointment in every fibre of her, and it wrenched my heart to see it. I swallowed, sick to my soul. ‘What else would ye have me do?’
She looked back up at me, and I was lost. When she gave me her hand, it was not me that took it and led her to lower ground. To the soft mossy pasture between the trees and laid my plaid for her to lie upon. It was some other, braver man. Not me. It was some stout-hearted Jacobite who loved her that day and he who knew the warmth of her skin, the softness of her mouth. And ’twas he who came gently to her and lost his heart among the wild mountain thyme.


Later, she looked at me, then lay back and brushed an insect from her chest, gazing through the hazy sap-green canopy to the wide sky above. Peace, such peace. She pressed my hand and whispered, ‘Andrew,’ and I knew I was bewitched. Clay to her hand, for I’d have given all I had right there and then to stay by her side.
‘Will ye build a place fer us Andrew, here upon the mountain?’ Her face was all a-flush.
And so ’tis what I did. I built her a leafy bower by a cool mountain stream where the sparkle of water, silver in the sun, drew me even more surely under her spell. A place for our love and around it I laid all the wildflowers of the mountain, though none as wild or rare as her.
And so, ye see, there is this word – Catriona – and ’tis all that filled my head. So loath was I to leave her, I tarried long by her side. Lord, all I wished was to love and to know the love of her, but as time passed another word came to me, and then another and another. First came deserter. Then traitor. And finally fugitive. And I knew I was all these and more.
Yet not thon other, braver man. He was none of these, for he was a fearless Jacobite, daring and true. But for me, Andrew Gow, I was all that and more. Wanted was another word that later came to me. When they’d take me I’d suffer not a soldier’s death by shooting but the miserable shackled one of a felon upon the gibbet.
And so, in truth, I was bewitched … enchanted, for a madness surely took me. A madness I call love. She turned my heart and mind, and Lord, my flesh, so I am now reborn. I am thon other, braver man – a stout-hearted Jacobite – and another word is in my head. Turncoat. For my coat’s no longer crimson and I do wear a white cockade upon my breast.



She pinned it there and smiled a gentle smile, then let me take her hand.
‘Catriona,’ I softly whispered, ‘will we go, lassie?’


And so we did. Together we joined the growing stream that’s become a sweeping tide across the Highlands, and swore our allegiance to the bonny prince. 

© Angela MacRae Shanks

song : (Scots Jacobean Folksong recorded by The Corries and various artists including Ronan Keating, Ed Sheeran, The Chieftains, Van Morrison, Rod Stewart and Marianne Faithful


about the author

Angela MacRae Shanks was born in Garmouth, a village near the mouth of the river Spey in north-east Scotland. She still lives near here with her family and two cats. Her love of Scottish history began at an early age, perhaps piqued by an intriguing plaque on the adjoining cottage marking the spot where King Charles II signed the Solemn League and Covenant on his return from exile in 1650.
 A fascination with all things Celtic and Highland, added to her training in aromatherapy and complementary therapies, spawned a need to weave herbal lore into her tales. Those who healed using plants and the wisdom of nature, usually women, were often branded witches, and this added more rich fodder to the mix.
Belonging to Moray, malt whisky country, uisge-beatha, the water of life, and its illicit past has always interested her, and she thought it high time someone wove the history of the spirit into a work of fiction.


Her debut novel, The Blood & The Barley is the result of this mix.
reviewed by Discovering Diamonds
Note: There is copyright legislation for song lyrics but no copyright in names, titles or ideas
images via Pixabay accreditation not required




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The Full List of Authors


December
1st        Philip K. Allan     
 2nd      J J Toner         
 3rd       Catherine Kullman    
 4th       Helen Hollick              
 5th       Richard Tearle    
 6th       Barbara Gaskell Denvil
 7th       Nicky Galliers
 8th       Angela Macrae Shanks          
 9th       Katherine Pym  
10th      J G Harlond    
11th       Anna Belfrage
12th      Richard Dee
13th      Inge H. Borg
14th      Annie Whitehead
15th      Louise Adam
16th      Charlene Newcomb
17th      Alison Morton                         
18th      Kathryn Gauci
19th      Helen Hollick 
20th     M.J. Logue
21st       Helen Hollick 
22nd     Cryssa Bazos               
23rd      Jennifer Wilson                       
24th      Elizabeth St John  writing as Julia Darke                         
25th      MERRY CHRISTMAS 
26th      Helen Hollick
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19 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Angela MacRae Shanks8 December 2018 at 13:23

      Thank you Loretta, one of my all-time favourite songs.

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  2. Although English, I love all things Scotland, a most beautiful country. And this is what I felt reading your story, Angela - the clear, pure air of the Highlands, a sense of freedom, wind in the hair and all of that. Didn't know the song particularly, but I played it and went to the lyrics site and you've absolutely nailed it! Thank you for taking me back to the Campsies and the Trossachs and all the other wonderful places that I've visited

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  3. Angela MacRae Shanks8 December 2018 at 13:35

    Aww, thank you Richard, you are very kind. Yes, my heart will always be in the Highlands.

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  4. Angela, your description of those Highlands is, well, bewitching. Your readers will wander over those hills looking for Catriona, hoping to spy Andrew, and perhaps hum that soulful song. As a student (hitch-hiking from London), I got as far up as Inverness, down to Loch Lomond rising from the mist, and then dipped into an icy Loch Ness. I still remember the magic of it all.

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    Replies
    1. Angela MacRae Shanks8 December 2018 at 15:23

      Thank you so much Inge, I love both the Highlands and this song, especially The Corries' version. You probably got quite close to where I live Inge, when you were a student on your hike. I stay near Inverness. Beautiful, but wet and windy today!

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  5. What a lovely story! You have keft me hoping that Catriona and Andrew somehow survived the whole mess. Maybe they are still there, in their highland bower.

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    Replies
    1. Angela MacRae Shanks8 December 2018 at 15:28

      I like to think they are Anna, but then I'm a romantic! I might write them into something in the future. Thank you for your lovely comments.

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  6. Lovely. A piece of my heart is always in the Highlands, and your beautiful writing took me there this morning. And I shall be humming this lilting ballad all day. Thank you!

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  7. So enjoyed this story - I planted thyme in my garden last year, it isn't wild mountain thyme, but I can always pretend.

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    Replies
    1. Angela MacRae Shanks8 December 2018 at 16:15

      I have it in my garden too Helen, one of the few truly hardy plants that survives our frosts. Thank you.

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  8. Angela macrae Shanks8 December 2018 at 16:12

    Mine too Elizabeth, thank you. Not a bad thing to be doing all day (humming a haunting ballad) I can think of worse. Thank you so much.

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  9. Wonderfully lyrical. Thanks so much for sharing. Makes me want to fly over the treetops to the highlands and smell the heather and wild thyme.

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    1. Angela MacRae Shanks8 December 2018 at 19:31

      Thank you, I fancy doing that too!

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  10. A very evocative story. I hope they both survived.

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  11. Angela MacRae Shanks9 December 2018 at 12:07

    Me too Alison. Might follow up on them in the future. Thank you.

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  12. Beautiful in every respect - thank you.

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    Replies
    1. Angela MacRae Shanks10 December 2018 at 20:01

      Aww, thank you Jane. I just wanted to do the song justice. It gives me goose bumps and generally makes me cry. I didn't manage that, but I tried to catch a sense of other-worldliness.

      Delete

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