“Ay, sure. What could you do, Ian-mhic-Ian? At the worst, you could do no more than kill James Achanna. What then? I too would die. You cannot separate us. I would not marry you, now, though you were the last man on the world and I the last woman.”
“You’re a fool, Katreen Macarthur. Your father has promised you to me, and I tell you this: if you love Achanna you’ll save his life only by letting him go away from here. I promise you he will not be here long.”
“Ay, you promise me; but you will not say that thing to James Achanna’s face. You are a coward.”
With a muttered oath the man turned on his heel.
“Let him beware o’ me, and you, too, Katreen-mo-nighean-donn. I swear it by my mother’s grave and by St Martin’s Cross that you will be mine by hook or by crook.”
The girl smiled scornfully. Slowly she lifted a milk-pail.
“It would be a pity to waste the good milk, Ian-gòrach; but if you don’t go it is I that will be emptying the pail on you, and then you’ll be as white without as your heart is within.”
“So, you call me witless, do you? Ian-gòrach! Well, we shall be seeing as to that; and as for the milk, there will be more than milk spilt because of you, Katreen-donn.”
From that day, though neither Sheumais nor Katreen knew of it, a watch was set upon Achanna.