regshoe

Broster is going for one of her "conflicts of loyalties" themes, with Alison being torn between going to her ill father and staying to marry Ewen.

Oh yes, that's a good point! But, as you say, we don't get to see much of the conflict, and it doesn't make for such compelling tension as other conflicts of loyalty will later on.

I can imagine Alison thinking of the happy, normal, peaceful wedding she thought she was going to have at the start of the book, before BPC turned up, and desperately wanting to believe that it's still possible for her and Ewen to have that, later on when all this is over and they're all fine—whereas marrying in a hurry now is, as you say, tantamount to acknowledging the likelihood that Ewen will be killed and that future will never exist. Fate has overtaken them all, or something...

Aww, yes, Lochiel quietly caring for heartbroken Ewen by 'giving him as much to do as possible', that's lovely.

Good point about Broster's disagreements with Duffy! Although she does at least present the argument against the alternative battlefield across the Nairn. Doubtless the history is complicated and contentious. I suppose Broster's low opinion of the Franco-Irish officers reflects the fact that she's writing from the perspective of Scottish Jacobites who are opposed to them—some of the worst things said about them are in Ewen and Lochiel's dialogue.