“Let one go after him,” she answered, “to say I am arrived—is my cousin, Colin, here?”
“Yea, my lady; and all the other gentlemen.”
She flung off her damp coat and ascended the great, bare unfurnished stairs.
On the first landing she came into a glare of light that fell through an open door; servants were passing to and fro, and there was the sound of many voices.
She entered; stood in the doorway looking down the room.
It had been the dining-hall of the old castle; it was a large room with tapestry on the walls and a huge log fire burning on the hearth.
Round the black oak table a party of gentlemen were dining by the light of a hundred candles. At sight of the woman in the doorway they all rose with one exclamation:
“The Countess Peggy!”
She came down the room smiling.
“Ye did expect I had fed the eagles by now?” she asked. “Weel, I’ll no be saying but I was fearfu’ of it mysel’—welcome to Kilchurn, gentlemen—gude even to ye, Colin.”