Amanda Scott - [Border Trilogy 2]

by Border Moonlight

  “I did not. I cannot deny that I’d readily accept an invitation, but I’d sent no messenger, so . . . Sithee, I did wonder if Annabel had perhaps imagined I had.”

  Sibylla put a hand to her mouth, but seeing Simon stiffen, she reached it out to touch his arm as she said, “Pray, sir, is that all you wondered about her?”

  Percy had a charmingly rueful smile, and he flashed it as he replied, “In troth, my lady, one does not like to suggest . . . I have long admired the way Elishaw has maintained its neutrality in hard times. Indeed, I had the greatest respect for Cousin Annabel, because knowing Sir Iagan, too, one saw clearly that . . . well, that she . . .”

  “. . . that she ruled the roost,” Douglas said bluntly. “Just so,” Percy agreed. “So you see, to receive such an odd message, one suggesting possible marriages betwixt our families, I desired to . . . uh . . . be sure that Annabel had not gone . . . that is to say, that she was still in full possession of . . .”

  A shout of laughter erupted from Buccleuch. “Save us!” he exclaimed. “You wanted to be sure before engaging in talks of marrying your offspring to a Murray, that she had not gone mad and might thus pass her madness to the Percy line!”

  “Just so, my lord,” Percy said with a distinct note of relief in his voice.

  As Buccleuch, Westruther, and Douglas roared with laughter, Percy added hastily to Simon, “As you might understand, cousin, I knew that such an inquiry would require a personal visit and . . . and much tact. I dared not entrust it to another.”

  Simon was struggling visibly with his own emotion, but Sibylla was not sure if it was anger or amusement until he caught his lower lip between his teeth.

  He gave up the struggle then and joined the others in their whoops.

  Shaking his head, Simon said when he found his voice again, “I promise you, sir, my lady mother is in full possession of her senses. She can be a little trying at times, due to her habit of seeking to manage everything in her orbit. But that habit has served us well today, I think.”

  “Aye, it has that,” Douglas agreed, still chortling. “For, sithee, in a more roundabout way, her meddling likewise brought me here.”

  “I did wonder about your presence, my lord,” Cecil admitted.

  “Aye, well, the Governor of our Realm taught me the value of efficient watchers. Thanks to mine, I got word yestereve of a large English band of Percys moving toward the border. Your men, in fact, sir,” he said. “My lads kept track of you, and I set out early this morning to intercept you. When I saw Simon with you, and the Murray and Percy banners cheek by jowl, I feared he had decided against neutrality at last and had thrown his lot in with the wrong side.”

  “I am a Scotsman first, my lord,” Simon said. “But I believe in peace and want us to do all we can to keep the present truce as long as it will hold.”

  “I agree,” Cecil said firmly.

  “Then we’re of one mind, the five of us,” Douglas said, including Buccleuch and Westruther with a gesture. “I’m thinking we need to do summat, though, to make it easier to stop mischief makers like this lot we’ve taken today.”

  “I’m agreeable, sir,” Cecil said. “And I’d surmise that Northumberland would likewise agree. Have you aught in mind to accomplish that?”

  “I do,” the Douglas said. “I’ve thought on it for a time now. But I’m thinking we should discuss it more together. All of us,” he added with a look at Cecil.

  “We’re together now,” Simon said. “And Elishaw is nobbut an hour or so away. I suggest that we go there and talk more.”

  This being agreed to by everyone, the leaders collected their men and their prisoners and set out together without delay.

  Although Sibylla doubted that Simon would fly into her amid such a host of men-at-arms, she remained wary as the long train of riders followed the river Rede through the hills toward Scotland. She and Simon led the cavalcade with Archie, Buccleuch, Percy, and Westruther. The others all followed them.

  She wanted to talk with Simon, even to argue with him, but he rode silently, looking straight ahead. Douglas rode at his right, the other three lairds behind them, leaving the captains of their fighting tails to keep order among their men.

  They were nearing the Carter Bar crossing when Garth eased his big bay next to hers, smiled, and said quietly, “Tired, my lady?”

  “Not yet,” she said, almost as wary of him as she was of Simon. “If you have aught to say to me, sir, just say it,” she said, wishing she could say the same thing to Simon, albeit not in present company.

  “Nay, I’ve no cause to take you through the boughs,” Garth said in his normal tone. “Had you not meddled today, the Colvilles would doubtless have stirred more strife. To my mind, you did well . . . for a lass.”

  Shooting him a sour look, she said, “Do you say such things to Amalie, sir?”

  Grinning, he said, “I wanted to see how tired you really are. Tell me more about this bairn at Elishaw. Might she be the lady Catherine?”

  She glanced at Simon, sure he must be listening. But he continued to look straight ahead, his jaw set hard enough to reveal the dimple near his mouth.

  Turning back to Garth, she said, “I think she may be

  Catherine Gordon, but she will not admit it.” Glancing at Simon again, she saw his jaw relax.

  “I see,” Garth said. “She might be keeping silent to protect herself. I’d wager that, with all the fuss and to-do, she must be terrified. But at least she won’t have to worry any longer about marrying Thomas Colville.”

  “Don’t depend on that,” Sibylla warned, wishing she could be as sure that Alice need not marry Edward. “Fife will still have much to say about all this, and I have seen him at work, sir. So, too, have you.”

  “Aye, but if you think Archie will forgive the murder and attempted murder of two bairns, whoever they may be, you are mistaken. And now that the Percys are involved, Fife may find it impossible to protect the Colvilles.”

  At that, Simon said curtly, “If the Douglas does not hang them, I’ll do it myself, Fife or no Fife.”

  “They are mine,” Archie said flatly, showing that he, too, had been listening. “But you’re in the right of it, Garth, lad,” he added. “If Sibylla’s young witness can say the Colvilles put them in that river and caused that lad’s death, I’ll hang them.”

  “She did say that,” Sibylla assured him.

  Simon remained silent, and when Westruther dropped back to ride again with Percy and Buccleuch, Sibylla had all she could do not to look at her husband again, to try to judge what he was thinking.

  Simon could not decide what to say to her. One minute he wanted to shout at her for risking her life, the next he marveled at how self-possessed she was.

  Even now, she rode with her head up, looking as regal as the princess Isabel ever had and as if she had not a care in the world, although she certainly knew he was furious with her. Considering how angry she had made him, she ought to be trembling, but he was strangely pleased that she was not.

  He wished he had not invited all the others to Elishaw. They would be damnably in the way there.

  As he imagined sundry unlikely methods for disposing of them, a rider appeared in the distance, approaching fast.

  Simon recognized him as one of his lads from Elishaw and told the Douglas, who signaled a halt.

  “Laird, the Governor has come,” the rider said as they met. “We did see him coming, and Jed Hay said I should hie m’self off and tell ye, ’cause her ladyship did say we ought no to let him inside. But Jed said he dared not keep him out.”

  “How many are with the Governor?” Simon asked. “Dunamany, laird. I dinna ken how many, but it did look as if they would fill the bailey and more.”

  “How did you find us?” Douglas asked.

  “I were on the Pike earlier, m’lord. We saw ye crossing into Redesdale, and we saw the laird head that way, too. So when I come down just as the Governor had come and Jed said I should find ye and tell ye, I rid here to
find ye.”

  “Can you tell us aught else?” Simon asked.

  “Nay, that be all Jed said to tell ye, save it looks as if he means to stay—the Governor. He told Jed to shut the gate and stand down as soon as his own lot was inside. Jed signed to me to take off then, so I did.”

  “Good lad,” Simon said. He turned to see Douglas frowning heavily.

  “How many men did you leave behind?” Archie asked.

  “Not enough to prevent Fife from doing as he pleases, whatever it may be.”

  “Aye, well, I warrant we’ve enough here together to change his mind if he plans mischief,” Douglas said, still frowning. “It may lead to trouble, though.”

  Glancing at Sibylla, Simon drew a breath and let it out. “With respect, my lord,” he said. “I’m thinking we’d be wiser not to corner Fife inside Elishaw. He looks on you as a friend and ally, which is gey useful to us here in the Borders.”

  “You speaking as a Borderer, lad, or as a Murray?” “Both, my lord. I’ll admit that I’d liefer Elishaw not find itself under siege. For one thing, that bairn is in there with Fife and his men, and my people are, too.”

  He saw Sibylla open her mouth and shut it. “What is it, lass?” he asked.

  She looked at the others, still hesitating, until the Douglas said, “Don’t be shy now, Sibylla. I’ll listen to anyone with something to say.”

  “In troth, my lord, I believe the Governor’s intent in all of this has been to seize Elishaw,” she said. “Simon angered him months ago, when he refused to let Fife arrange Rosalie’s marriage to his own man, and Fife has not forgotten. Nor does he ever forgive an injury.” Her gaze met Simon’s and held it. He knew she was reminding him that he and Fife had once shared that trait.

  “So you believe he means to declare Elishaw forfeit to the Crown,” Douglas said thoughtfully. “What grounds can he offer to accomplish that legally? Thanks to Colville, we ken fine what grounds he meant to offer—that Simon was threatening the truce by leading the raids—but that is now provably false.”

  “Fife does not know that yet,” Simon said. “I would suggest a more subtle method of relaying that information to him if you will agree to it.”

  “Spit it out, lad. I cannot agree or disagree until I ken your reasoning.”

  “I think we should sit down with the man and seek his advice,” Simon said. “I suggest we walk into the hall as if we’d been inside the wall all along. We’ll tell him we’ve learned who is behind all the raids, that we have the villains by the heels, and that we’ve done it all with the Percys’ aid—as a matter of strengthening the truce. I think he’ll have to accept that appearance of things.”

  Archie grimaced. “That might work, aye. But if the gates are shut and the devious bastard has seized the castle, how do you propose we stroll in to see him?”

  “There is a way, my lord.” Simon turned to Sibylla, looked her in the eyes, and said, “Is there not, sweetheart?”

  She gazed steadily back at him and said, “Perhaps so, my lord.”

  Turning back to Douglas, who looked bewildered—as well he might, Simon thought—he said quietly, “I mean to ride ahead with Sibylla for a time, my lord, and talk. But I swear, before we reach Elishaw, all will be in train to surprise Fife.”

  Chapter 21

  As Sibylla reined her horse around to go with Simon, her gaze met Garth’s. Noting the twinkle in his eyes, she deduced that he thought she was in for it, believed she deserved it, and found amusement in those thoughts.

  She raised her chin higher, but the truth was, she wondered what exactly Simon had decided to do.

  “If you don’t lower your chin, madam wife,” he said without looking at her, “you are likely to let your beast walk into a bog or trip over a boulder.”

  Her lips twitched, but she quickly controlled them. She had not minded Garth’s silent enjoyment of what he believed would be well-merited rebuke from her husband, but she was not daft enough to let Simon think she laughed at him.

  Hoping to divert his attention and even disarm him a little, she said, “Under like circumstances, I’d do it all again, you know. I know that I’ve vexed you, and that you are unlikely to forget or forgive me quickly. But will you tell me what you mean to do—and perhaps be kind enough to tell me just how angry you are?”

  He flicked her one of the cool glances that she had come to realize he used to conceal his deeper feelings. Then he said, “You should thank the Fates that an army surrounded us when I caught up with you. Come to that, you should thank them for protecting you from Archie’s wrath.”

  “I trust you will not be the sort of husband who rants at his wife or beats her whenever she makes a decision without first consulting him,” she said.

  “For some time today, I contemplated just such a future for myself,” he admitted. “But we have a more important matter now to discuss.”

  “In your opinion, perhaps. But, in mine—”

  “We can parley as much as you like when this is over,” Simon said. “You won’t persuade me that you mean to issue threats or ultimatums now, however.”

  “I won’t?”

  “No.”

  The flat, uncompromising reply did draw a smile from her. “Thank you,” she said, satisfied that his anger was under control, at least for the moment. “I rarely do threaten people or issue ultimatums. But I do want to know more about this plan of yours, because I doubt it can be what it seems to be.”

  “What does it seem to be?”

  “To enter the castle secretly and confront Fife. But surely, the two of us would have no effect on him other than to make him shut us up in your dungeon.”

  “I had not considered any such thing. In troth, I had no—” Breaking off, he pressed his lips together as if he were annoyed with himself, and she knew why.

  “You did not mean for me to go in with you,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “Of course not. Don’t be daft.”

  “How will you stop me?”

  “I’ll leave a man to guard you if I must.”

  “Just one?”

  A hint of a smile touched his lips as he said, “Two or three, if necessary.”

  “Where will you leave me?”

  He looked at her then. “I see your point,” he said. “As I don’t want to reveal the tunnel’s existence, let alone its entrance, to any of the men-at-arms, I’d have to trust you to stay by the pond or wait whilst one of the others takes you back to our men.”

  “So you do know about the tunnel,” she said. “Sithee, I had decided that you did not. But if you do, why do you need me?”

  “Because I don’t know where the entrance at this end is, only that it must be near the pond,” he said. “You wore soft shoes that night, so I doubt you’d walked far, and from just one brief visit you could not have known about the pond to stroll to it from anywhere else in the woods. As soon as I learned about the tunnel—”

  “You knew naught of it that night then.”

  “Nay, it was only afterward that I discovered there’d been rumors of one. But I could scarcely quiz everyone at Elishaw. So I asked my mother if she knew a way out besides the gate. She told me where it starts, but we all left for Edinburgh the next day. As I’ve had no opportunity to explore it, I must rely on you.”

  “But you cannot want to take the others with you, and you cannot go alone.”

  “I’ll take Douglas, Percy, Buccleuch, and Westruther with me.”

  “Mercy, how secret will it be then?”

  “Sibylla, I want peace, so our people can plant crops and expect to harvest them without watching them trampled to dust by raiders first. Douglas wants to improve the way we redress grievances across the line, and Northumberland will listen to Cecil Percy, who supports that notion. What better way to show them we mean to cooperate than to let them know of our siege tunnel?”

  “Aye, sure, until the plan fails and the English besiege us.”

  “Sakes, I mean to destroy that tunnel. It seems a daft i
dea anyway, providing a way in as well as out. But enough of this. We’re already within view of the Pike, and they’ll soon see us from the ramparts. I mean to leave the men with their captains just up ahead and take those I named in with me. You’ll wait for us well away from—”

  “No,” she said.

  “By heaven—!”

  “Elishaw is your home, sir, and your plan may succeed, but there is every chance that Kit is in that tunnel now. I won’t let you terrify her, which you would certainly do if you all crept up on her in the dark. I’m going with you.”

  His jaw tightened until she heard his teeth grating, but he reined in and motioned the other lairds to rejoin them. It was growing darker.

  “You’ve answered only one of my questions,” she said as she watched the four urge their mounts toward them. “But I suspect you’re even angrier now.”

  “We’ll find out when this is over,” he said curtly.

  A tingling thrill shot through her, making her wonder what manner of fool she was that such a statement could make her look forward to that discussion.

  Simon stopped the cavalcade in dusky shadows before anyone on Elishaw’s ramparts could catch sight of them. Leaving their men and the prisoners to wait with their captains, the five leaders and Sibylla walked with him toward the forest pond.

  He led the way with Sibylla a pace behind him. As they went, he discussed his plan quietly with the other men, aware that she listened and wondering at his complaisance to her presence. When he realized he was accepting her silence as approval, he wondered even more at himself.

  He knew her well enough to be sure that although she might exercise tact in such company, she would speak up at once if anything they said struck her amiss. The thought was more reassuring than annoying, which told him he had come to believe in her good sense—more often than not—and truly to respect her opinions.

  The other men seemed to approve his plan.

  Douglas said only, “We’re putting a lot of faith in just letting the man know that his plot to provide legal grounds for seizing Elishaw failed.”