James dark green and brown kilt drooped between his legs, and he leaned his elbows on his knees. He was on alert, and not for the first time, Robert fidgeted under James’s steely gaze.
“’Tis no’ a letter from a clan laird or chieftain. ‘Tis from a woman who was the mistress to Simon Fraser.”
James started slightly, sat back, and folded his arms over his wall-like chest. His rogue eyebrow rose higher.
“I knew the man had a wandering eye, but he must have hid it well. I have no’ heard of any mistress.”
“Then prepare yourself for this news,” Robert continued.
“What does this have to do with me?” The suspicion in James’s voice dripped from his lips.
Robert cleared his throat and gripped the edge of his desk, preparing himself for James’s reaction.
“Ye may have heard that Simon Fraser was put to death by the English late last year, his head on a pike right next to the great Wallace himself. His family’s line will continue to flourish on the Fraser lands in a free Scotland, but Simon left something else behind that few knew about. I dinna believe he was aware thatIknew about it.”
Robert extracted a curled parchment from his stack and placed it on the opposite side of the desk for James to review.
“Maggie Fraser was a woman with whom Fraser spent much time. He was away from his wife and family for a long while as he worked with the other lairds and Wallace. Fraser spent so much time with this woman that he sired two children by her. A lad, now a young man, and a lass, a woman. For the past twenty years, he provided coin, paid their rents, provided food and other necessaries for the woman and her children.”
James’s eyes never left Robert’s face. He didn’t even try to read the parchment. Robert sighed. This conversation was about to become difficult.
“The money he’d secretly provided the woman has run out —”
“And now she seeks recourse from ye?” James interrupted.
Robert shook his head and inhaled again.
“Nay. No’ quite that. She wants no handouts because she is not for long in this world. She has the coughing disease and would see her daughter and son set before she expires.”
Robert dropped his gaze. That was half the truth.
“But there’s something more.”
“Your king has a commandfor ye, James. Ye may no’ think ‘tis important, and ye might think me a bit foolish, but ‘tis for the good of ye, of myself, of the Douglas’s, and of Scotland as a whole. I have most of the details worked out. All ye have to do to please your king is say aye.”
James’s already hard, silvery gaze narrowed. He waited several heartbeats before dipping his head at his king.
“What is your request, King Robert?”
His words were harder than the black stones of the mountains. Robert cleared this throat to continue.
“Ye are the finest warrior the Scots have. Your mind is brilliant when it comes to military success. However, most of your strategies, your applications, come with a sharp edge. One that is harrowing and burdens your soul. If your soul is burdened, then so is mine, so is that of your men. But I have a solution to help lighten that burden and resolve a commitment to one of my fine commanders who has fallen under the iron fist of the English.”
James’s expression never wavered.
“And?”
James’s expression might have remained unmoved, but the man leaned forward, resting his well-muscled arms on his knees again. His eyes burned into Robert like a branding iron.
“She wants ye to have them established?”
“Especially in this dangerous time. Her son has seventeen years, so he can become a squire to any of the knights here, including ye if ye so choose. Truthfully, ‘tis what I prefer.”
James’s jaw clenched, twitching under the force of the movement. Robert tried not to react — how could even a king stay calm and collected under James’s stony glare?
“And what of the lass?”
Robert worked to frame his words in the best light possible. James prided himself on his severe nature, his warrior status, his ability with a sword. Marriage, or love, was not something James was searching for.
