He had certainly felt mad when he was lighting his stronghold on fire.
Yet, the idea of a wife sucked the air from his lungs. He was not a husband. He didn’t know how to be a husband. Any woman stuck with him would surely be cheerless and cursed for the rest of her days.
But the king believed James needed something to ground him. And if the king commanded that he marry, then what other choice did he have?
None.
James lifted his brooding eyes to his king. With a sour taste in the back of his throat, James grasped the king’s hand and kissed his large signet ring.
“Your wish is my command,” James said, rolling his eyes before spinning on his booted toe and departing.
Chapter Six: Letters
Tosia’s mind spun,as did the room. She placed her hand on her forehead and grabbed the rough edge of the table with the other.
Suddenly, everything she thought she knew about her mother, their life in this small croft, herself in this world, was called into question, and her view of her mother was clouded when she lifted her eyes.
“I had written a letter over a fortnight ago, and the Good King Robert the Bruce took time from his busy command and graced me with a response. I wrote him when the funds from your father began to run low. And he has offered a solution.”
Tosia and Tavish stared at their mother with hanging mouths and stunned silence. Their mother had a relationship with the great Simon Fraser? She wrote to the king? Better yet, he wrote her back?
A spike of fear shot over Tosia’s back at that thought. The King wroteback. By God, what solution could a man focused on war offer? She gulped the lump in her throat back down and focused on her mother’s words.
“Tavish,” their mother’s gaze crested past Tosia to her brother. His wide-eyed face blanched to a pasty white. Tosia reached out a hand to help steady him as their mother continued. “The king has offered to take you into his household to be employed as a squire. This is a noble calling. One day, by the grace of God and our king, ye might be a formidable knight in the Bruce’s army.”
Tavish shuddered under Tosia’s palm. If becoming a squire in the king’s army was her brother’s fate, what could hers be? The king’s wife was held prisoner, did he have a court for ladies’ maids? What other option did the king have for her? Or was she to remain here with her mother?
Her mother coughed into a rag and wiped her face which was nearly as pasty as Tavish. Nay, staying with her mother was not an option — even a great fool could see the woman was not for long in this world.
Tosia’s lips quivered, and she bit her lip, willing herself not to cry.
“Tosia, the king has quite a different solution for ye. Please keep an open mind and know that neither your mother nor the good king, for whom your father was a staunch supporter, would steer ye wrong.”
At her mother’s words, Tosia couldn’t stop the tears. Full, warm drops rimmed her eyelashes and dropped to her cheeks. Her fate was worse.
“Dinna weep, Tosia, for many a lass would give everything they have to be in your position. The king has decided that ye are to be wed to one of his closest advisers, one of his most powerful knights, the very man who is helping to turn the tide on the English.”
