The Border Trilogy (30 page)

Dropping a hasty curtsy to his lordship, who still waited at the bottom of the steps for his orders to be obeyed, she turned and fled gratefully up the stairs. As she neared the top, she heard Douglas begin to speak, his voice carrying easily up the stairwell—as easily, she realized now, as hers had carried down to him the day before.

“Father…my lord, forgive me. I was in a temper. I—”

“Your emotions are of no interest whatever to me, sir,” Strachan interrupted, still speaking in that chilling tone. “I have much to say to you, but we will speak in my bookroom.”

With that unencouraging statement ringing in her ears, Mary Kate reached the window hall, but before she had taken two steps toward the sitting room, she realized that she could not meet Lady Strachan and no doubt Lady Somerville, too, with her skirts crushed beneath her safeguard, her hair in a tangle, and her face undoubtedly filthy. So, hurrying to her bedchamber instead, she sent for Annie Jardine.

Annie was delighted to see her safe, and full of curiosity, as well, but she had thought to bring a manchet loaf, a wedge of soft cheese, and a mug of ale, so Mary Kate willingly obliged her with a brief tale while devouring the welcome food. When she had washed her face and hands and changed her gown, Annie would have continued the conversation while brushing her hair, but Mary Kate cut her short.

“I am safe home now,” she said, “and I do not wish to speak further of the incident.”

Annie took the mild reproof without offense and fell silent. If she wondered where Douglas was now or how her mistress had come to be riding out alone of a Sunday and at the dinner hour, at that, she wisely kept such questions to herself.

For Mary Kate to see her domineering husband reduced to the status of a naughty schoolboy had been a unique experience, but she wondered now how the scene she had just witnessed, augmented by whatever was taking place this very moment in his lordship’s bookroom, would affect Douglas’s temper. She doubted it would be improved.

Lady Strachan was occupied with her endless needlework and Megan was reading to her from one of Lord Strachan’s books when Mary Kate entered the sitting room a quarter-hour later. She curtsied to the older woman, avoiding Megan’s curious gaze.

“Welcome home, my dear,” Lady Strachan said with her quiet dignity. “We are grateful to have you safely restored to us.”

“Thank you, my lady. I apologize if I gave you cause for distress.”

“It would be odd indeed if you had not, Mary Kate,” Megan interjected sweetly. “Whatever possessed you to run away like you did?”

“I did not run away,” Mary Kate began hotly, promptly forgetting all the resolutions she had made regarding Douglas’s cousin. “I only went for a ride to blow away my headache. I could scarcely help being abducted.”

Megan looked only too ready to debate the matter, but Lady Strachan intervened smoothly. “I knew it must have been some such thing, my dear, though surely you know better than to ride out alone in these days of unrest, without a proper armed escort. However, I’ll warrant my son has said all there is to say on that subject, so I shall not belabor it.”

“Thank you,” Mary Kate replied sincerely. Douglas had not mentioned that particular point yet, but she had no doubt that he would say a great deal about it soon enough.

“Do you take up your embroidery, my dear,” suggested Lady Strachan. “’Tis there upon the chest behind you. Stitching will make things feel normal again if you sit here quietly with us for a time. Megan does not like doing needlework, you know, but she has a beautiful voice for reading aloud, and I know you will enjoy Mr. Chaucer’s tales, though there are many who disapprove of them. Continue, Megan dear.”

Megan picked up her book and Mary Kate her workbasket, and except for the melodic cadence of the older girl’s voice, there was no other sound until the door from the window hall opened and a gillie stepped into the room.

“If it please your ladyship,” he said respectfully, bowing to Lady Strachan, “his lordship would speak wi’ Lady Douglas in his bookroom.”

Mary Kate tensed involuntarily at his words but laid her needlework aside and excused herself. Lady Strachan nodded, smiling encouragement, but her kindness didn’t help, nor did Megan’s feline smirk, fleeting though it was. Having seen Douglas’s reaction to his father’s displeasure, she could not wonder at the fact that her heart was pounding in her chest by the time she reached the bookroom. The door stood ajar.

“Come you in, child, and shut that door.” Strachan was alone, and he did not appear to be angry. When she had closed the door, he bade her be seated and sat himself in a chair nearby. The room was full of light from the inner courtyard that glinted upon the delicate manuscript chains and the gold tooling of the leatherbound tomes. There was a brief silence while his lordship gazed searchingly at her, as though he wondered how to begin, but at last he cleared his throat with a great “harrumph” and said, “You have no cause to fear me, lass.”

She lifted her gaze from her lap, looked at him, and smiled. “I do not fear you, my lord.” It was true. Now that she was face to face with him, she was no longer afraid. The bone-chilling note she had heard in his voice earlier was gone, and there was nothing in his expression now but kindly compassion.

“I wanted to speak with you, Mary Kate, because much though it mislikes me to have done so, I have involved myself in your affairs. I have a need to explain my actions to you.”

“What have you done, my lord?”

“I have forbidden him to beat you,” he replied bluntly.

Stunned by his words, she was silent, thinking it would not become her to express her extreme gratitude for such timely intervention. It was as though he read her mind.

“You have no cause to thank me, lassie.”

“Have I not, sir?”

“No, for he is all the angrier at being frustrated. One way or another you will suffer more for my interference than if I had left well enough alone, but I did not consider your welfare.”

“No?” She was puzzled now.

“My lady sets great store by you, lass,” he explained, “and we leave for the capital in less than two days’ time. At best, even at the slow pace we shall maintain, she will tire easily, and I do not want anything else to distress her in the meantime. Her contentment is of paramount importance to me.”

“As it must be to us all, sir,” Mary Kate assured him. “Whatever happens next between Adam and me shall not be laid at your door.”

“Bless you, lassie, but I fear you will have your work cut out to make your peace with him.”

She smiled ruefully, agreeing with him.

“Tell me why you left,” he said abruptly. When she opened her eyes in dismay, he added, “I will not usurp his authority further, but I do want to know what caused you to run away as you did from the safety of my house.”

The rapid change of subject had caught her by surprise, but she made a heroic effort to cover her confusion. “I…I only went for a ride, my lord, and was taken unaware by the reivers.”

“Cut me no whids, lass, else I will become angry. I want the short tale, if you please.” His voice was gentle, but there was a stern note in it now, and her cheeks warmed in response.

She saw no point in persisting to refute the theory that she had been running away, but although she had no wish to reveal her jealousy or the pettier difficulties between herself and Megan, he would not be gainsaid. He encouraged her with a tact of which she had not known him capable, and little by little, falteringly, and not without a few tears, a good part of the tale was told.

When she had finished, he sat for a moment, elbows on the arms of his chair, silently regarding the tips of his fingers where they formed a tent before him. Then he looked up, and for a brief moment she was chilled by the icy glint in his eyes. It vanished when he caught her gaze upon him.

“You explain much,” he said slowly. “I had seen some of the pliskie nonsense for myself, but I had no conception of its scope. Now that I do, I can promise you that you need distress yourself no longer.” He stood up and moved to open the door for her. “I think it best that you return to your bedchamber for a time, lassie. It might appease my son somewhat to find you there should he return before supper is served. However,” he added, giving her a direct look, “since you have already missed your dinner, you are to come down to sup whether he returns or no.”

“Where has he gone?”

“I have no notion,” Strachan replied with a twinkle. “He has been in a state of high emotion for some twenty-four hours now, and when I had done with him, he flung out of there in much the same resentful manner he was used to assume on such occasions when he was but a lad. In those days, depending upon what had transpired between us, he either took long walks through the woods, or wore some poor horse out, riding all out over the hills. Today I’ll warrant it would be the horse.” He grinned. “He has grown overlarge for skelping.”

If he expected her to smile, he missed his mark. The portrait he had drawn of Douglas’s probable state of mind overpowered any other thought she might have had, and she hoped her husband would choose to take a long ride, and particularly that he would remain away until after supper. “Regardless of his father’s instructions, she would not dare to defy him should he take it into his head to command that she keep to her bedchamber and miss the meal altogether, a command she knew him to be perfectly capable of issuing. And Strachan would not countermand such an order, for he had made it clear to her that he would usurp his son’s authority no further. Therefore, it was with dismay rather than pleasure that she met Ned Lumsden on his way down the great stair. He stood aside to let her pass.

“Ned, has Sir Adam returned, then?”

“Nay, my lady. Not to my knowledge.”

“You did not accompany him?” Somehow she had assumed without thinking about it that he had, merely because he had been with Douglas before.

Ned grinned. “Wouldn’t I have liked to do that very thing,” he said, “but Adam said this time was too dangerous and ordered me to remain behind. Threatened to flog me himself if I disobeyed him.” He shrugged. “What would you? He was in a rare kippage, and I believed him. So here I am.”

“But where did he go?”

Ned hesitated. “You must not trouble yourself about his safety, my lady, for he has his own men with him. He has ridden out to retrieve the ransom.”

Mary Kate stared at him. Douglas had been so grim and uncommunicative at the bourock that she hadn’t even thought to ask him about the ransom. It was enough that he had found her. But now it appeared that a ransom had been paid, and in an effort to retrieve it Douglas would take on the reivers with but twenty men at his back.

“Dear God in heaven.” The color drained from her face, and Ned reached out a steadying hand, as though he feared she might swoon. He assured her hastily that each of Douglas’s men was worth ten of the brigands and told her again not to worry. “Easy for you to say,” she retorted, “but this is my fault. If I had stayed here, he’d have had no reason to pay them at all.”

“Perhaps you are right,” Ned agreed gently, “but it isn’t only the ransom, you know. He made them certain promises.”

Her hand flew to her mouth. “He didn’t! Surely he never arranged for those dreadful men in Roxburgh to go free?” Douglas might have paid the money, but she found it difficult to believe that he would agree to their other demands.

Ned was grinning. “Perhaps I had better explain,” he said. “After the business in the window hall yesterday, he came down to dinner, saying you were ill. Megan had recovered her composure by then, so there was no reason for my aunt or uncle to disbelieve him. His lordship even mentioned noticing that you had been somewhat subdued in spirit on the walk back from the kirk. They had gone on out to the terrace immediately, you will remember, so they heard nothing of what transpired betwixt—Well, in any event, after dinner Adam took me aside and—” He broke off again, coloring.

“Oh Ned!” she cried, immediately contrite. “I am so sorry. He accused me of dousing Megan deliberately, and I didn’t even try to deny it. I think he suspected the truth all along.”

“Aye,” he agreed, pulling a face. “At the very least of it, he retained some suspicions, and he was not pleased that I had lied to protect you. But to pass over that part as quickly as possible,” he went on with a wry smile, “he dozed on the terrace after dinner, and when he awoke, Megan suggested a walk in the garden. Afterward she watched whilst we played tennis, and no one realized you were missing from the house until the ransom demand was delivered. Adam sent word immediately that his men would be wanted directly after supper. Then he and Willie Jardine went in search of your trail, so as to be ready to leave as soon as the others had supped.”

“He searched all night?”

“Aye, he thought the reivers would most likely leave you somewhere whilst they collected the ransom, but he wouldn’t take the chance of not finding you—especially since he couldn’t be certain that the men wouldn’t keep you with them—so he made arrangements with his lordship to meet the brigand chief at dawn in his place. As it happened, that was after you had been found,” he added, “but his lordship could not know the search had been a success, so he agreed to their demands. The ransom he paid was a large one, so when he promised that they would be reunited with their compatriots before two days were out, they didn’t think to study upon his words. They had refused to tell him where you were, but they did agree to release you. He promised upon the word of a Douglas, you see, and they knew to trust his pledge.”

“But then Adam must mean to set them free!”

“Think, my lady.”

“His lordship promised to reunite—oh!” She grinned at Ned as the meaning of the careful wording came to her. “Adam means to capture them all and reunite them in Roxburgh Tolbooth. But, how dangerous!”

“Not a bit. ’Tis meat and drink to him, my lady. Surely, you never thought yourself wedded to a carpet knight.”

“Of course not, but I don’t want him hurt, all the same. Especially since this was my fault.”

“He’s been searching for this band a long time,” Ned said gently.