Jessamy Beech Ch. 02: Oban

Ewan shook his head and blew out his breath, "Ten out of ten for stating the fucking obvious island girl. We need to be quick. There'll be nowhere to hole up on the railway line so we need to be at the other end of the loch by daybreak."

. . .

Clambering up the muddy embankment onto the main Glasgow to Oban line, Jessamy, Merida and Ewan had to negotiate the charred wreckage of a ScotRail train that appeared to have been derailed. Jessamy deliberately averted her eyes as they passed one of the carriages lying on its side below them, supported by the broken stumps of ancient oak trees which were all that prevented it from sliding down into the loch.

A furtive rustling in the trees above them made Jessamy start, "What was that?"

"Probably a squirrel," Merida suggested, "believe it or not there's still a few around."

"We don't have squirrels on Mull," said Jessamy, then bit her tongue as she noticed Ewan glowering at her to be quiet. Stepping from sleeper to sleeper, they started along the weed choked railway line.

The going was easy, until they reached the tiny railway station at Falls of Cruachan. Or at least where it had been. Situated between the reservoir high on the mountainside above it and the hydro electric plant on the A85 below, it had taken the full force of the deluge when the dam burst. Steel rails were twisted into grotesque shapes like cooked spaghetti and water still trickled down through a great gouge in the earth towards the loch on their right.

Picking their way carefully through the debris of uprooted trees and shattered rock, Jessamy and the others made their way to the other side, their progress painfully slow. Ewan nodded grimly at the horizon to the east, beginning to glow a murky orange, "Let's get a move on."

. . .

It was fully daylight by the time they forced the back door of a bungalow on the outskirts of Dalmally and stumbled inside, exhausted. From their vantage point, they could see that the rest of the village below their position lay in several feet of floodwater. The ruined tourist attraction of Kilchurn Castle on its promontory out in Loch Awe was now only accessible by boat.

"We'll stop here and move on to Tyndrum this evening," said Ewan, "if Dalmally's flooded there shouldn't be anyone here to bother us. I should be able to plan a route using the map."

"How will you know what's flooded and what isn't?" asked Merida.

"Contour lines. Water always finds the lowest point. We can see how far up the water goes and assume it's that deep all over."

"Clever," muttered Jessamy.

"What did you say?" snapped Ewan.

"I was just saying that's clever," Jessamy replied.

"Well don't. Just keep your opinions to yourself."

"Ew ... give her a break," interrupted Merida, "we're all tired, we've had a long night."

"And I don't need you to tell me when I'm ..." Ewan clutched at the side of his head, grimacing in pain.

Merida slipped an arm around his shoulders, "What is it Ew? Another headache?"

Ewan nodded.

"We'll take the big bedroom Jess," said Merida, "you take the smaller one. Keep the curtains shut and get some sleep."

Jessamy nodded and quickly dragged her rucksack through into the bungalow's second bedroom, leaving Merida to look after her boyfriend.

She was relieved that she'd been spared another dressing down by Ewan. She couldn't understand why he hated her so much. It wasn't her fault that Merida had seen fit to rescue her. It couldn't be a jealousy thing because she certainly didn't have any designs on Merida. Unless ...

Perhaps Ewan knew that Merida liked girls as well and felt threatened by that? Perhaps he was afraid his beautiful red-headed girlfriend would run off with her?

Jessamy slumped onto the bare mattress that was the only item of furniture left in the shabby little bedroom. Life had been hard on Mull working on the crofts but it had certainly been a lot simpler. With survival being uppermost in everyone's mind, there had been little time or energy left to worry about nonsense like relationships.

Jessamy nibbled an energy bar then rolled onto her side, still fully clothed, to try to snatch a few hours sleep.

. . .

From the position of the weak sun behind the threadbare curtains, Jessamy estimated that it was late afternoon when she awoke. She'd heard something. She lay on her back half awake trying to decide if what she'd heard was real or just part of a dream.

There it was again. A soft moan from the next room.

She wasn't completely naive and had heard similar sounds many times back at the distillery in Tobermory. She knew what they meant.

"Top teasing Ew. I want you inside me," whispered Merida's voice. Jessamy realised she'd left the bedroom door wide open and when she'd walked past earlier, she noticed the other bedroom didn't even have one.

She swigged water from the spare Nalgene that Merida had given her and rose quietly from the mattress. Apart from the singing of a few birds that had somehow survived the terrible ash winters following the first strikes, there was silence.

A creak from the other bedroom.

It wasn't simply curiosity that made Jessamy tiptoe to the door, she wanted to pee and the most suitable place would be somewhere outside.

"Uuh ..."

Jessamy cautiously peered around the doorframe into the main bedroom as once again she heard Merida's voice.

Merida was lying on her side facing the door with her eyes tightly closed. She was still fully clothed but her trousers had been pushed down to her knees. Ewan was spooned against her back with his strong arms hugging her to him. The mattress squeaked as he thrust his hips forward.

"Stop it Ew, just ... fuck me," Merida reached a hand down into the shadow between her bare thighs.

But Ewan squirmed his own hand down beside it, "Here, let me."

Jessamy was fascinated. Were they really doing what she thought they were doing? Was this what Butcher Beaconsfield had wanted to do to her? Her fingertips crept inside her softshell, teasing her nipple through the material of her sports bra.

"Ohmygod. Do it to me Ew ..."

Gently pushing Merida onto her front, Ewan rolled on top of her, supporting his weight with his arms. His buttocks too were bare and his flesh slap slapped against Merida's as his thrusts gradually became quicker.

Jessamy hadn't intended to stop and watch but she found the sight before her hypnotic and very arousing. She slipped a hand inside her bra, cupping her breast, wanting desperately to feel the touch of someone else's hand on her but she didn't yet know who. In that moment, part of her wished that she could be Merida, experiencing what she was currently experiencing.

Another part however, wished that she could be Ewan, giving pleasure to the lovely redhead beneath him.

She squeezed her thighs together as Merida's cries rose in pitch and volume, no longer caring who overheard, "Aah, aah, aah fuckme fuckme ..."

"Ssh," whispered Ewan through clenched teeth, "you'll wake the girl."

As if on cue, Ewan chose that moment to turn his head and glance towards the doorway. His eyes met Jessamy's in the semi-darkness and his face instantly transformed from a look of blissful concentration to one of rage, "WHAT THE FUCK?"

He pulled out of Merida, his shining cock pointing up at an angle as he struggled to pull his trousers up, "What d'you think you're doing? Just because you're not getting any you thought you'd watch us? Is that how you get yourself off is it island girl?"

Jessamy ran. She skidded on the cracked laminated floor of the hallway and without bothering to check outside first, burst through the back door they'd forced earlier. Her shaking hands scrabbled for a moment with the unfamiliar latch on the garden gate, then she was through, sprinting up the deserted lane outside while behind her Ewan roared, "FUCKING COME BACK HERE!"

Jessamy scrambled over a drystone wall into a rutted meadow that sloped steeply upwards and continued running.

"EWAN! LEAVE HER BE, SHE DIDN'T MEAN ANY HARM!"

Risking a look back, Jessamy spotted Merida emerging from the bungalow, struggling to pull her trousers up. Only yards behind her Ewan had vaulted the drystone wall and was toiling up the slope, weaving around boulders and snow covered clumps of heather.

The crest of the hill was just ahead. If she could only make it that far she was sure she'd be able to outrun Ewan over level ground.

Then she tripped ...

Her knees and elbows exploded with pain as she slammed into the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of her lungs. Desperately she scrambled forward on all fours as she heard Ewan's laboured breathing behind her.

Jessamy was slight, malnourished and already extremely tired from their night's march. She knew that she didn't have a hope of defending herself against Ewan, bigger, stronger and apparently fitter, especially when she spotted his face contorted by murderous rage as he slowly advanced towards her.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered, "I d-didn't mean to w-watch."

"Save it. Just fuck off! Find your own way south ... or I'll snap your fucking neck!"

He was still advancing. There was only one thing for it. Jessamy reached into the inside map pocket of her jacket and drew out the Glock.

Ewan laughed, "Put it down you stupid girl."

Visions of Butcher Beaconsfield ran through Jessamy's mind. Her hand shook as she aimed the handgun at Ewan so she used her other to steady it, "Please. I'll go, just leave me alone."

"If you're going to shoot me you might want to take the safety off first. Left hand side?"

Safety? There was a safety? Jessamy glanced at the back end of the Glock. Sure enough there was one tiny little lever that rotated. She pushed it until it clicked.

Ewan shook his head, "You ... don't have the balls to shoot anyone in cold blood, little girl."

She was pointing a gun at him and he wasn't even scared! Jessamy faintly heard a voice calling from back down the hill that could have been Merida, but with the blood pounding in her ears she could've been mistaken, "Please Ewan, I don't want to shoot you. I just w-want to get home to m-my family in Cornwall."

Ewan hesitated, staring down at her with a frown forming ...

Then all at once, a monstrous shape appeared, striding boldly up the slope from the lane. A tattooed nightmare that looked like a man, but far bigger than any man Jessamy had ever laid eyes on. He was clothed in filthy animal skins and pieces of armour that looked handmade from bits of car. With an evil leer he raised an enormous rusty axe above his head, preparing to bury it in Ewan's back ...

Jessamy squinted and squeezed the Glock's trigger. Twice.

BLAM-BLAM!

The first shot went wide, the second missed Ewan by an inch and took the top of the stranger's head off in a spray of red. The lifeless body fell back and somersaulted down the slope.

Ewan spun around, agape and clearly shaken, "F-fuck!"

Jessamy dropped the Glock in the mud beside her and wept. When she'd fended off Beaconsfield, she'd left him wounded. She hadn't actually seen him die. This was different. She'd deliberately taken another life. She'd been close enough to almost smell the man and with a twitch of her finger had blown his head off. She felt sick.

"C'mere," said a quiet voice at her side. Jessamy looked up through a blurry film of tears, to see Ewan with a hand outstretched to help her up. She allowed herself to be aided to her feet whereupon Ewan immediately wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight.

"Thank you," he said, then stroked her hair as she sobbed quietly into his shoulder.

"ARE YOU BOTH OKAY?" shouted Merida, charging breathlessly up the hill behind them.

"Thanks to Jess here!" Ewan called, "I didn't even notice the Reiver was behind me."

After retrieving Jessamy's Glock, they led her back down the hill to the bungalow. While Merida prepared some hot food, Ewan went to examine the body. He returned just as Merida was sharing steaming chicken & mushroom noodles into three mugs.

"Definitely a Reiver," he announced, "tribal tats, necklace of human teeth, the lot. Here ..."

He handed Jessamy a long, pointed black dagger, "Souvenir for you. It's a Royal Marines Commando knife. Our friend must've killed a Preen to get hold of it."

Jessamy wordlessly took the knife and watched Ewan warily as he sat on the floor opposite her, leaning back against his rucksack. He looked embarrassed as he spoke, "Jess ... I'm sorry. I thought it was just going to be me and Meri heading south, so you ... sort of fucked up my plans a bit. But everyone has a right to survive and ... if we can help each other do that ..."

"What he means is, we still want you with us," interrupted Merida, "it looks as though we're heading into Reiver territory and we'll be safer sticking together. Okay?"

Jessamy nodded and managed a weak smile, "Okay."

. . .

They rested for the remainder of the afternoon, then shouldered their bags and set off as the sun began to set, turning Loch Awe a fiery orange.

"We don't know if the Reivers have set up base around here or are just passing through," said Ewan as they trudged eastward through grey hills, "the guy at Dalmally may have been a scout. But whichever it is we need to find weapons. We're not going to be able to defend ourselves with just one bullet."

Merida spoke up, "I think if the Reivers catch any of us, one bullet is all we'll need ..."

She didn't have to explain herself further. On the outskirts of Tyndrum they passed the remains of a campfire beside the road, with what looked like human bones scattered around it. Confirming the rumours that the Reivers were most definitely cannibals.

Whatever feelings the sight of Merida and Ewan having sex had stirred up in Jessamy, they would have to wait until they were safely through the Reivers' territory ...

THE END OF CHAPTER TWO

Four miles south of Grantown On Spey, Jessamy finished applying Hamnavoe's fresh dressing and pulled his trouser leg back down, "You'll live."

"Will I now?" Hamnavoe raised an eyebrow, "if you get me to Kirkwall to stand trial I wouldnae bet on that JB."

Jessamy started repacking the first aid and stuffing it back into her rucksack, "You'll get what you deserve. You tortured two families in their own homes, then raped and crucified their daughters. You're going to fucking burn for that Hamnavoe."

"And you're gonna be so much richer when you claim the bounty."

"I'm not doing this for the bounty."

"Ha' you ever had an innocent man executed?" he asked suddenly.

Jessamy looked at him, "Whaddaya mean?"

"I meant have you ever taken a man in, seen him executed then later found out he was innocent?"

Jessamy stood and shrugged into her rucksack, fastening the padded waist strap so it didn't interfere with her thigh holsters, "What are you getting at, shit for brains?"

"I'm innocent," said Hamnavoe, "and I can prove it ..."

COMING SOON - CHAPTER THREE: WEST HIGHLAND WAY