“Then you could ne’er wreak harm on her brother. They are a close family.”
He pressed his lips together, keeping words and emotions inside. “I did not lay so much as a finger upon him.”
“’Tis all because of the position of my cottage.” Alys spoke in little more than a whisper. “We are right close to the border, but few people ever find me unless they know where to look. I amaway from the road, hidden amongst the trees. You will see for yourself when you leave.”
Callum gave a little shake of his head. “I do not understand.”
“Tristan himself came to see me more than two summers since. He was dressed in disguise. I thought him a beggar at first.” She smiled at the memory. “But Gil trusted him, and that was enough for me. I allowed him inside and gave him a cup of ale. ’Twas then he removed his hood and I saw that thick golden hair of the de Nevilles. He told me he needed somewhere close to the border. A bolthole, he said. Somewhere he could hide, if needed. He said it would be dangerous and I did not have to help him.”
“Then why did you?” Callum’s voice was gritty. Despite himself, he could well imagine the conversation. His mind’s eye saw Tristan, mayhap sitting on this very settle, charming Alys into following his plan.
“Because there will be no peace for this land until England and Scotland lay down their weapons. If I can do even a little to achieve that, then I will die a contented woman.”
Callum frowned. “And you truly believe that Tristan shares this goal?” Tristan himself had admitted to going into Scottish lands as an English warlord, baying for blood.
Yet now he examined that more closely, the picture did not ring true.
Tristan is a man of honour, Alys said.
That sounded more like the kind and upstanding youth which Callum had once known.
“I know it.” She leaned closer towards him. “This summer last, Tristan went into Fort Dunkeld itself.”
“Fort Dunkeld?” Callum raised his eyebrows, thinking of the mighty Scottish stronghold in the foot of the highlands, kept by the Bruce’s kinsmen. “Why would he do that? Surely he would be torn limb from limb.”
“Aye.” Alys nodded sagely again. “That is what I said. But Tristan knew that some of the family shared his vision of peace. And he thought that if they worked together, they might achieve it.”
Callum sat silently, digesting this.
Tristan de Neville, perchance the most well-recognised of all English knights, venturing deep into Scottish territory in a bid for peace.
“Did he take an army with him?”
“Of course not. How would that have worked to build trust? He went alone.”
Alone.
“That is brave indeed,” he muttered, unable to deny it.
Alys nodded emphatically. “Wait there.” She got to her feet with surprising grace for a woman of her years and disappeared into the bed chamber. Callum heard a scuffing sound, as if something was being dragged along the floor. When Alys reappeared, she held a gleaming sword in one hand and a fearful-looking dagger in the other.
Callum could not help jumping up from the settle in shock. “What are those?”
Alys shrugged. “Proof, for I can see that you doubt my tale.” She swung the sword with apparent nonchalance. “Tristan leaves them here. In part for my protection. In part in case he needs them himself. See?” She held the hilt out towards Callum so he could see the emblem of the de Neville family inscribed into the metal.
He nodded, unable to formulate any response.
“Tristan is working for peace with Scotland,” she insisted. “He did not order the destruction of your family home. He returned to me just as the leaves were turning and spoke with hope that his mission had been a success.”
Callum sank back down, his knees weak. Slowly, Alys’s story was beginning to make sense. Tristan de Neville had always been a man of honour. The idea that he had been responsible for the devastation of Kielder Castle had been put in Callum’s head by Jonah’s throwaway comment that his brother had been in Scotland this summer.
Working for peace, at Fort Dunkeld.
Callum’s heart beat hollowly in his chest.
Then why would Tristan have claimed he was present for the siege at Kielder?
He did not, a voice spoke in his head.He merely did not deny it.
