A Cruel Courtship (42 page)

She stepped out of James’s arms and took one of Aylmer’s hands in both of hers. ‘God go with you, Aylmer. Thank you.’

He bowed to her and withdrew. When he’d disappeared down the wynd, James said, ‘He’s a good man.’

Margaret nodded. ‘You will fight together.’

‘What?’ James looked baffled.

She had not intended to tell him so soon, but her heart was so full she had no room for lies.

‘The moment you said he was a good man, I saw you with him. As if I’d moved forward in time. You will fight alongside him.’

James glanced back to the wynd, then stepped closer to Margaret, putting a hand on each shoulder and looking into her eyes. ‘You have the Sight.’

‘I do.’

‘How long have you known?’ His tone was almost accusing.

‘I’m not sure – I did not want it. But I saw Roger’s death long before you told me of it.’

James shook his head as he stepped back. ‘God’s
blood, Maggie.’ He sank down on one of the benches beneath the eaves and put his head in his hands.

Margaret remembered Hal and looked around, but he had vanished. She sat down beside James.

‘Murray is badly wounded,’ said James, lifting his head. ‘Things will fall heavily on William’s shoulders now. But Lennox and Stewart hid in the woods near the pows and followed the English as they retreated. So the nobles are openly supporting William now.’

‘Then there is hope.’

James nodded. ‘And much to do. Are you– Will you still work with me?’

‘When I am ready, I will, Jamie.’ Margaret turned to look at him. ‘This is a power that must be guided. I must learn how to do that.’

‘Your mother never did.’

‘No. But I shall. I’ll seek out Great-Aunt Euphemia. Ma fought learning from her, but I intend to learn. I’ll not let it ruin my life, make me a shade of what I might be, a pawn for someone to manipulate.’

‘You’ll go off to the west? Now?’

‘When Fergus is recovered.’

‘I must stay with William,’ James said.

‘I know, Jamie.’

‘What of Dame Katherine, Roger’s Ma? Will you not go to her?’

‘Yes, Celia and I will go there together, and then I’ll leave Celia with her.’

‘You’ll go alone to – where is Euphemia?’

‘Kilmartin.’

‘You can’t go alone!’

‘I won’t. I’ll find an escort.’

James rose. ‘We’ll talk of this later.’ He leaned down, tilted her chin and kissed her. ‘I love you, Maggie. We’ll find a way through all this.’

‘I pray that we do.’

He sighed. ‘But there is work to be done. I understand Andrew is at the kirk. I want to know what he’s seen.’

‘Go. I’ll sit here a while longer.’

He drew her up to him and held her tightly. ‘We
will
find a way to be together, Maggie.’

For the first time, Margaret believed that might be true. ‘God watch over you, my Jamie,’ she whispered.

When he was gone, Margaret sat down, leaning her head against the wall of the house and closed her eyes, waiting for her head to stop spinning.

Someone sat down beside her and took her hand.

‘Oh, Hal, it’s all a muddle,’ she moaned, falling into her old easiness with him. ‘Did I ever tell you that my ma has the Sight?’

‘Murdoch talked of it. He thought she was mad.’

‘I wonder what he’d say if he heard I have it?’

‘He’d tell you to make use of it.’

‘You’re right. That’s just what he’d say.’

They sat quietly for a while, hand in hand.

‘I mean to go to my great-aunt in the west and learn about the Sight.’

‘You cannot go alone.’

‘I know.’

‘Would you let me escort you?’

It was a possibility. And yet his declaration had changed things between them. ‘I could use a good friend and companion. We’ll talk when Fergus is better.’

She rose, and so did Hal. Without a word, he gently kissed her on the cheek, and then retreated to the kitchen. Margaret stepped into the hall, uncertain whether she should sleep or watch over her brother.

Dame Bridget sat snoring in a chair near him.

‘She says he’ll make it through the night, you can be sure of it.’ said Celia as she rose from her stool beside Fergus.

‘God be thanked,’ said Margaret, crouching down to kiss her brother’s forehead. She needed help rising.

‘It’s bed for you, Mistress,’ said Celia, holding her firmly. ‘You’re worn to the bone.’

‘Bless you, Celia, you are a blessing to me.’

My novels and lectures are often inspired by tantalising pieces of the past. In this series set in Scotland the pieces are often small fragments, or mere wisps of memory.

A braw wind blows across Soutra summit, and the view is spectacular. At the top is a small car park abutting a farmer’s field. From there it’s a short walk to a small stone building no larger than a garage. Called Soutra Aisle, it is believed to have been cobbled together with the remaining stones of the great Hospital of the Trinity at Soutra, an Augustinian establishment that once straddled the highway leading from the border north into Lothian and then west to Edinburgh. Beside it is an area posted with biological hazard warnings where a great drain was excavated packed with biological waste centuries old; it’s possible that it was the
sewer carrying waste from the infirmary. It provided the seed idea for Father Andrew’s plan for escape from Soutra.

There is nothing left of the small, narrow bridge that crossed the Forth River below the town and castle of Stirling in 1297; archaeologists and historians are not even certain of its location. But the boggy ground is easily imagined along the old river as it almost curves back upon itself. When my husband was working on the maps for this book he commented that the pows and the carse were as good as siege engines for the Scots. This wasn’t the only battle in which the wet lowlands just south of the Forth River benefited the Scots – Bannockburn was also won with help from this geographical phenomenon.

Standing atop Kinnoull Hill one can see a faint square scar in a farmer’s field if one knows where to look – that’s what is left of Elcho Nunnery. But the ruins of the Cistercian nunnery on Iona, hints from various archaeological digs, and educated guesses formulated with the assistance of my friend Kimm Perkins helped me recreate the small but lovely nunnery on the Tay. Stirling Castle and town are also mostly conjured from maps, contemporary accounts, and geological aspects that remain beneath newer buildings.

There are also people whose names and positions we know but who are never fleshed out in the narratives – I’ve included a few here: Abbot Adam,
Sir Simon Montagu, Master Thomas of Soutra, Sir Marmaduke Twenge, and prioress Agnes de Arroch.

Even the phenomenon of Second Sight has proved tantalisingly elusive. I’ve listed Michael Hunter’s book below, but even in that one book the record of Second Sight is contradictory. We have far better records of the Church mystics than we do of the lay seers. I’ve depicted them as parallel points on a continuum, not so different from one another.

We know more about the Battle of Stirling Bridge than the bridge itself. With their victory at Stirling Bridge the Scots proved themselves a force to be reckoned with, proving to King Edward that his progress around the country the previous summer had not subdued the resistance. Warenne, his lieutenant and thus chief commander in Scotland, and his treasurer, Cressingham, also underestimated the determination of the Scots. The treasurer had sent reinforcements back to England claiming they were too expensive. Andrew Murray and William Wallace had won back many of the northern castles and towns taken by the English, and in early September had gathered an army to the north of the River Forth; the English seemed confident that they could win by virtue of their greater numbers alone. The following description is taken from Barrow (see Further Reading).

When Warenne reached Stirling he granted James Stewart and Earl Malcolm of Lennox a week
to try to pacify the Scots. They returned on schedule to admit failure, but promised to appear with forty barded, or caparisoned, horses the following day – if they couldn’t provide more men, they’d at least help equip the English. But as they rode off one of Lennox’s men killed an English soldier. Warenne had difficulty calming his army. What I find amazing is that he overslept the next morning. Someone had already sent many of the infantry across the bridge over the Forth River, which was the only route across from where they had encamped, but they were recalled. Once Warenne rose, he sent them across again, but again they were recalled when Stewart and Lennox appeared. The two Scots nobles claimed they’d been unable to detach any of their own troops from Wallace and Murray. Warenne postponed the charge yet again to allow two Dominican friars to ask Wallace if he would yield. Wallace reportedly responded, ‘Tell your commander that we are not here to make peace but to do battle to defend ourselves and liberate our kingdom. Let them come on, and we shall prove this in their very beards.’

When the Dominicans reported Wallace’s reply, Cressingham rejected a knight’s proposal to go with a detachment of horse upriver to the wide Fords of Drip where sixty men might cross the river at once and take up a position behind the Scots. Instead, Warenne gave the order to cross Stirling Bridge. Wallace and Murray swooped down on them when
half of the English army had crossed, surrounding them while the other half were unable to cross the river to their aid. On the north side the carse was too soft on either side of the causeway for heavy horse. The result was a slaughter. Warenne, who had not crossed, escaped south; but Cressingham had ridden across and was torn to pieces by the Scots. The Scots army also suffered casualties, including the mortal wounding of Murray, who never fully recovered and died that winter. (A more detailed description of the Battle is available on the website:
www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/independence/trails_independence_stirlingbridge.shtml
)

Geoffrey W. S. Barrow,
Robert Bruce and the
Community of the Realm of Scotland
. (Edinburgh University Press, 1988)

Elizabeth Ewan,
Townlife in Fourteenth-Century
Scotland
(Edinburgh University Press, 1990)

Andrew Fisher,
William Wallace
(John Donald Publishers Ltd, 1986)

Michael Hunter,
The Occult Laboratory: Magic, Science
and Second Sight in Late 17th-Century Scotland. A
New Edition of Robert Kirk’s The Secret
Commonwealth and Other Texts
(The Boydell Press,2001)

Perthshire Society of Natural Science,
Pitmiddle
Village and Elcho Nunnery: Research and Excavation
on Tayside
, undated

Fiona Watson,
Under the Hammer: Edward I and
Scotland 1286–1307
(Tuckwell Press, 1998)

An expanded list for the Margaret Kerr and Owen Archer mysteries is available on my website:
www.candacerobb.com

To find out more about my novels read the Candace Robb Newsletter. For your free copy, write to The Marketing Department, William Heinemann, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA. Please mark your envelope Candace Robb Newsletter.

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