A Year & a Day (19 page)
Authors: Virginia Henley
If you do not fall in battle, she thought wildly. She lowered her eyes. He must never suspect her thoughts, for that would
make him think she had no confidence in his fighting skills. He was the powerful Lynx; he would triumph.
When she saw that he was asleep, Jane took the leather thong from about her neck and carefully slipped it over his tawny head. The spirit of the lynx would protect him.
******************
Lynx de Warenne reported to King Edward before speaking with his Welsh archers, although at least a dozen of his knights had approached him with what sounded like valid complaints against Fitz-Waren.
"I had hoped to keep you in Annandale to watch the Bruce's activities, but the fighting men you left behind are so undisciplined, they are a threat to our campaign." Edward's blue eyes blazed fiercely. "Get them under control, de Warenne, or heads will roll!"
"Aye, Your Majesty," Lynx said grimly, then rode immediately to where his men were camped.
His bowmen eyed him warily and he knew he should never have left. The Welsh were a reticent, closemouthed people, to outsiders at least, and he did not expect them to rush forward with complaints.
He spoke with the Welsh lieutenants, knowing they would take his words to the men-at-arms.
"You have sustained heavy losses and I shoulder my share of the blame for it. I should never have put you under another's command and pledge I will not do so again. I am returned to stay. My squire is setting up my campaign tent now. I will hear any man who wishes to speak."
Not many Welsh entered his tent, but every English knight came forward and said his piece.
Fitz-Waren had ordered whole villages burned and pillaged, the peasants slaughtered wholesale, including children. Women had been used unmercifully for sport to quench the bloodlust that ran rampant among Fitz-Waren's own men. The Scots had retaliated in night raids, setting ablaze the tents of his bowmen. Lynx de Warenne's anger grew hotter by
the minute, until he became so saturated by the tales of horror that his rage turned to ice in his veins.
The light was fading from the sky when Fitz-Waren rode into camp, accompanied by his light cavalry officers. "Well, well, Cousin, I heard you were back. Apparently you could not bear to forgo the glory of battle, nor share in its rewards."
Lynx walked toward him, slowly unfastening his breastplate and sword. When he'd removed them, he handed them to Thomas and waited calmly until Fitz-Waren dismounted. The moment Fitz's feet touched the ground, Lynx's powerful fist shot out and smashed into his jaw, knocking him from his feet.
Fitz was up in a flash, fighting back with black fury. Lynx knocked him to the ground again, then coldly, calmly, waited for him to get back up. Fitz drew his knife and lunged wildly at his attacker. The pain shot up through his shoulder as Lynx deliberately broke his knife arm.
Fitz looked about for aid from his officers, but they dared not help him with the malevolent faces of the Welsh bowmen glaring as they gathered in a wide circle. Maddened with pain, Fitz-Waren attacked like a raging bull. Lynx de Warenne's implacable fists pounded his face to a pulp. Only when he lay in a heap, unable to rise, did Lynx walk away.
Thomas looked down at the bloodied man with contempt, then he reached into his chausses and deliberately pissed on the ground where Fitz-Waren lay, making sure his humiliation was complete.
******************
opposite coast, John de Warenne's forces took Dumbarton, a few miles from Glasgow, then the two armies converged on Edinburgh from opposite directions. The great city was able to hold out for only a few days before yielding to the onslaught of Edward Plantagenet.
All during May, Lynx de Warenne and Fitz-Waren avoided
each other as much as possible; neither wanted to stir the ire of the king. When Lynx met his uncle John again, he made no mention of the bad blood that had been stirred up between himself and Fitz-Waren; the commander of the armies had quite enough on his plate at the moment.
From Edinburgh, the army moved north to the city of Stirling, but found the castle had been abandoned by its Scots garrison when they arrived. Every last one of Baliol's advisers distanced themselves from him now that all hope was gone that he could hold on to the throne. Then, early in July, at Brechin, Baliol renounced his kingdom to Edward Plantagenet's representative, Anthony Bek, the Bishop of Durham. He appeared before Bek wearing the plain white robe of a penitent. He placed his staff of office in Bek's hands and formally renounced all claim to the kingdom of Scotland.
Well satisfied, Edward Plantagenet acted leniently, sending Baliol to Hertford, only technically a prisoner. He was restricted to a twenty-mile area near London where he was even allowed to hunt in the king's forests south of the Trent.
Now King Edward Plantagenet planned a triumphant progress through Aberdeen and Banff, as far as Elgin. Lynx de Warenne curbed his impatience to return to Dumfries. The fighting seemed to be over, but King Edward wanted a show of force as he rode north receiving the oath of allegiance from the Scottish nobles.
******************
departure, because her courses stopped immediately. She told no one in her family, but kept the knowledge to herself. It was a secret she would have to share with one other when the time came, but it was bound to make Lord de Warenne happy, for that was the sole reason he had handfasted her.
Her first reaction was one of sadness. Discovering that she
was carrying Lynx de Warenne's child meant she would be forever bound to a man who did not love her. He had vowed to wed her and make her his countess if she conceived, but that was the last thing she wanted. She would never be able to live her life freely again. Jane eventually resigned herself to her pregnancy because she would never hurt anything, especially not her own child. Then gradually, Jane became secretly happy about the new life she carried. Though she had no wish to be a wife or a countess, she was now looking forward to becoming a mother.
After the lord had departed, Jane returned to healing the animals for her brothers, while her sisters treated her much as they always had. When they ordered her about, however, and tried to take advantage of her because she was the youngest, she soon put them in their place. Jane was still generous with them though, occasionally letting them borrow a new gown the needlewomen had sewn for her, and allowed them to come and go in her tower rooms.
Jane greatly enjoyed the riding lessons that Taffy gave her. She had ridden ponies since she was a child, but she had never had the luxury of her own horse before. Lord de Warenne had leftinstructions with his squire to provide Jane with a well-bred mare suitable for a lady. Jane fell in love with the beautiful white horse immediately and took Taffy's suggestion of the name Blan-chette, which was Norman for white.
Keith looked after the lovely white horse for her and also accompanied her on long rides, but he was the first one to suspect she was carrying Lynx de Warenne's child and advised Jane to curtail her riding. "The lord would run mad if you lost his child through negligence."
"You are right, Keith, but please don't tell the others about my baby. They would be at me night and day with their superior advice."
"I won't say anything, Jane, but when the dough begins to rise, they'll know ye have a loaf in the oven. Perhaps Lord de Warenne will return soon. Baliol has been deposed and every
noble across Scotland is scurrying to Edward Plantagenet to swear allegiance."
"I am so relieved the fighting is finished. I prayed to the great goddesses every night to keep the Lynx safe."
"Jane, the fighting is
not
finished. There will be a lull until the Scots regroup. There is a young leader who has already lifted his head and will rouse the Scots people to fight again."
"No!" Jane cried. "I don't want our people to be enemies."
Keith laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, realizing he should not worry her in her delicate condition. "Jane, do not fear. Lord de Warenne will return and all will be well for a good while."
******************
Celtic king had been crowned and sent it to Westminster Abbey in London. Back in Edinburgh he did likewise with the Holy Rood along with the Scottish regalia and official documentation. Edward Plantagenet wanted to drive home the fact that Scotland was now subordinate to England. He called a parliament at Berwick for the twenty-eighth day of August 1296 and ordered every landholder in Scotland to appear there to reaffirm his allegiance to England.
Robert Bruce planned to attend. He wanted signed and sealed documents that stated officially the Annandale lands were taken back from Comyn and returned to the Braces.
******************
Brace the elder, was ailing and she made the decision to take him back to their English estates in Essex before winter set in.
She gathered the ladies in her solar and explained her decision to them. "Will you return to England with us, Jory, Alicia?"
Jory spoke up immediately. "Oh no, Lady Bruce. Everyone
who is anyone, either in England or Scotland, will be at Berwick at the end of the month. I wouldn't miss it for the crown jewels! It took King Edward only five months to accomplish what he set out to do and there will be celebrations like we have seldom seen before."
"Onlyfive months?" Alicia Bolton said with asperity. "It felt like a lifetime!"
Young Elizabeth de Burgh entreated, "Oh, Lady Bruce, may I go with Lady Marjory to Berwick?"
"But, my dear, your father entrusted you to my care. The Earl of Ulster is a man I shouldn't care to vex."
"Oh, please, Lady Bruce? The fighting is over and I long to see my father again." She dared not add that seeing Robert Bruce was an even greater longing in her breast.
Jory added her persuasion. "I shall take Elizabeth under my wing, Godmother, aye and appease Edward de Burgh if he cavils."
"And what about Lynx de Warenne?" asked Lady Marjory Bruce with raised eyebrows. "He's the one most likely to send you all packing."
"Ah, that is where dearest Alicia comes in. She shall be our secret weapon," Jory declared, carefully keeping sarcasm from her voice. "How could Lynx possibly resist her?"
Though Alicia liked to be flattered, it in no way lessened her anger toward Lynx. He had tricked her into accompanying him north then blithely ridden away without looking back over his shoulder. The faithless cur was off taking his pleasure wherever he found it, month after endless month, while she dried up at Carlisle. To pay him back she would have been unfaithful to him, but the problem was that the Bruce brothers had ignored her, refusing to poach on Lynx deWarenne's property, then even they had gone north to their Scottish castles. Alicia damned Scotland and everyone in it!
In the months they had been separated, she didn't believe for a moment that Lynx de Warenne had been faithful to her.
Women everywhere followed him with their eyes, casting blatant invitations his way. She would tolerate his making an occasional visit to a whore, but if any other had dared to set her sights on him, Alicia decided she would take a terrible revenge. Any such female would wish she were dead, rather than tangle with her!
Thirteen
Serwick Castle began to bulge at the seams from the horde of Scottish nobles pouring in with claims for their land. After the castle filled, the city of Berwick itself became clogged with wealthy men and women vying for elbowroom with the thieves, beggars, and whores.
Edward Plantagenet arrived at Berwick with days to spare, leaving his armies behind him to march south with all speed. John de Warenne accompanied the king, knowing that Percy, Clifford, Ulster, and the rest of his generals would see to their own men.
Lynx de Warenne set an easy pace for his bowmen; a two-hundred-mile trek on foot was no small undertaking. Fitz-Waren, on the other hand, spurred on his light cavalry, arriving in good time to secure rooms in Berwick Castle. Fitz hoped against hope that Jory de Warenne would show up, and if she did, he had a chamber next to his own to offer her.
The lust he felt toward Jory had grown since his fight with her brother, and if she came, he had made up his mind to fuck her. His beautiful cousin was a cock-teasing little bitch who begged for it, so this time he would give it to her. He stretched out on the bed in his chamber, imagining her beneath him.
The corner of his mouth lifted; Jory would come, all right. She loved being on the front row of any important gathering.
When Jory arrived at Berwick Castle, her first order of business was locating Edward de Burgh, Earl of Ulster. Although Elizabeth adored her powerful father, she was still young enough to be terrified of his disapproval.
"Elizabeth, darling, do stop trembling; I'll make sure his wrath does not descend upon you."
"You don't know him," Elizabeth said faintly.
"He's a man, that's all I need to know," Jory assured her with a wink.
Alice Bolton followed them into the bowels of the castle, hoping they would soon be rid of the fourteen-year-old.
Jory's quick eyes soon picked out a man wearing Ulster's badge on his sleeve who gave them directions to de Burgh's chambers.