Tavish took a step toward Harriet. “Mam, please. Wait until you’re called upon.”
“It’s nae hearsay! I was there—”
Harriet’s words were cut off by a loud pounding on the hall doors, and then a woman’s voice was heard crying out for assistance.
The king stood and motioned the soldiers to the doors. When they opened them, Anne fell through into a guard’s arms.
“Mistress, mistress!” she gasped. “Miss Glenna! Quickly, the laird!”
The other soldiers had dashed into the corridor, and there was a shuffling commotion. Tavish was already striding up the aisle, pushing people aside. Anne broke free and ran to Glenna, falling to her knees at her feet.
“Forgive me, forgive me,” she sobbed. “He said you wanted him. He said he was needed. He was so kind. But then he just left him in the corridor and ran away.”
Glenna crouched down. “Anne, what are you talking about? Who left—?” The crowd’s gasp drew Glenna’s attention.
Tavish was walking back toward her, his arms cradling the body of Iain Douglas, his form no bigger than that of a child’s outside of his mountain of covers.
“Da,” Glenna breathed and left Anne on the floor.
“Bring some benches,” Tavish ordered. “Set them before the king’s table.”
Two benches were pushed together and Glenna sat on one end while Tavish laid her father’s head on her lap and then stood to address the king.
“My liege, Iain Douglas of Roscraig.”
Vaughn Hargrave shot to his feet again. “I demand he be taken away, at once. He’s a commoner, and nearly dead, besides. What good is a silent testimony?”
“Not silent!” Harriet shouted and strode forward, her hand sliding into her double-fronted apron, from which she produced a sheaf of pages, rattling audibly with her trembling. “It’s here! In his own hand.” She held the pages toward the king, who only stared at her, then to the crier, who did much the same; and then back to the king. She was panting with nerves. “It’s all here,” she said again. “What I was tryin’ to tell you, Your Majesty.”
James motioned to the crier after what seemed like eternity. “Let it be read,” he said at last.
Harriet backed up several paces and sank to the bench at Iain Douglas’s feet. Tavish stood behind her.
The crier shook the wrinkled pages smooth and then cleared his throat again with a frown for them all.
* * * *
“I was a servant in the house of Lady Myra Annesley, given to the family by my parents when I was six years in order to escape the feuding of Carson Town. My duty was as a page until I reached my majority at nine, and Lord Tenred decided that I was to be educated in order to be a companion protector to his only son, young Thomas, four years my junior. I made my home in Roscraig village while the family was away, and in the Tower when they were in residence.
“After the lord and lady died, Thomas did not return to Roscraig until the spring of the year 1427, when I was a score and two. He told me his betrothed had been killed by her father, and the woman he traveled with was escaping that same man, by name, Lord Vaughn Hargrave.
“He bade me grant Meg sanctuary, and oversee the Tower until he returned with proof of his innocence. I agreed. I did not expect that a fine, educated lady such as was Margaret could ever love the likes of me. But we married, and she gave birth to a daughter, our own Glenna.
“Vaughn Hargrave arrived at Roscraig when our bairn was only a fortnight old. He claimed Margaret was his runaway servant, and that if she did not return to her position in his house, he would have her and our bairn jailed. If she went with him willingly, and if I never told, he would leave the gel with me and would let us be as long as Thomas Annesley did not return. I begged Meg to refuse—she had warned me that if Hargrave ever found her, he would kill her. But now that she was a mother, her only thoughts were for keeping our daughter safe. And so she left with him. I never saw Meg again.
“A terrible illness took over the village upon their leaving; nearly half the villagers died, and so I said that their lady had also succumbed. I was called laird from that time forward—the Annesleys were by then forgotten, by all save for me. I never forgot my friend Thomas, who had delivered to me the love of my life.
“I know Vaughn Hargrave killed my wife, Margaret Douglas. He is a monster. But the Tower belongs to and always has belonged to Thomas Annesley, and now his son. I beg mercy for my daughter, Glenna; and also forgiveness from her. Her mother was the greatest lady I have ever known.
“I swear it on my deathbed before God and Harriet Cameron.
“Iain Douglas
“Tower Roscraig
“June, 1458.”
The hall was silent for several moments until the king said, “Iain Douglas, is this the whole of your testimony?”
