Lady Macbeth

Gruadh begins her life story at age nine, when she is briefly kidnapped while riding a horse with her father, Bodhe, and older brother, Farquhar. Violently resisting capture, she grabs the man’s dagger—which he snatches back—and then his brooch, which she stabs through his cheek, causing him to release her.

Gruadh falls to the ground and watches Bodhe and Farquhar fight off her attackers. This is the first fight she’s ever seen, and the first time she’s ever watched men die. Her memory of the day is spotty, but she remembers seeing Farquhar die, and her and Bodhe’s grief.

Gruadh keeps the brooch she used to stab her attacker, although she doesn’t wear it. She explains that it “reminds me to stay strong and wary.”

The attacking men belonged to Crinan, mormaer of Atholl. In King Malcolm’s judgment court, Bodhe accuses Crinan of killing Farquhar and kidnapping Gruadh to marry his own son, but the king rules in Crinan’s favor, and Bodhe must pay Crinan for the men Bodhe killed in self-defense. Bodhe will remember this injustice, as will Gruadh.

After Farquhar’s death, Gruadh becomes Bodhe’s only heir. As a result, her life and blood right becomes even more important. She is descended from generations of kings, and can trace her ancestors back to the Picts and Scotti. She understands that by marrying her, any man could claim the Scottish throne, which puts her in danger.

Gruadh is abducted again four years later, at thirteen. She goes out with Bethoc and Aella to look for herbs, but does not have anyone give a sian, or protective oath, for them that day. A group of Norsemen kill her guard and carry her away (leaving her friends behind). After a day of travel, she is brought to a long great hall, where men and women are sleeping and eating. Gruadh is tied up and left on a bed in a curtained room to the side of the hall.

An old woman comes to give Gruadh food and ale and a bucket to pee in. When she hears footsteps again Gruadh assumes the old woman has returned, but instead she is confronted by a large man who tries to rape her. She cries out, but no one comes to help her. She manages to grab the large man’s dagger and stab him through the stomach. Finally, other men come in and wrestle the assailant away. Gruadh is left alone with another man, Thorfin Sigurdsson, the jarl of the Orkney Islands and Caithness. She asks him what he wants from her, but he does not answer. She criticizes him for leaving her unprotected. He does not respond, but leaves and sends in Ketill Brusisson, a young warrior who will serve as her guard.

Ketill tells Gruadh that the man who tried to rape her was Harald Silkhair, a widower who was “overwhelmed” by “the temptation of getting a son by a princess.” Ketill also explains that Thorfin kidnapped her after he asked Bodhe for Gruadh’s hand in marriage, and was rejected. He has kidnapped her to teach Bodhe a lesson and to use her to bargain for land or power. However, later that night, before Thorfin can complete his plan, Bodhe and his men invade the compound, steal Gruadh back, and slaughter many of the Norsemen.

Back in Fife, Bodhe has hired an Anglo-Saxon priest, Father Anselm. Gruadh suspects that Bodhe has begun to think “more closely about souls and their fates, and perhaps about my education.” Father Anselm has difficulty saying Gruadh’s name, and so calls her Hreowe, which sounds like rue, meaning sorrow. Soon everyone knows Gruadh as “Rue of the Sorrows.”

Bodhe rushes to arrange a marriage for Gruadh. He seeks “both a protector” and an “unbreakable alliance” for his lineage. Gruadh is unimpressed by the warriors he presents to her, most of whom are older widowers. Bodhe explains that most younger men are already married and not powerful enough to defend Gruadh and protect her heritage. Gruadh decides she will have to find a way to “ensure my own safety.”