The pounding in her head and chest grew insufferably worse. Why did her mother have a letter from the king? Tosia cut her mother a skeptical gaze — who was this woman she thought she knew?
Maggie took a moment to cough tiredly into a rag, and Tosia tried not to notice the heavy red streaks left behind. Then Maggie opened the letter and let her eyes peruse the words before she spoke again.
Chapter Five: To Strike a Bargain
Dumfries, Summer, 1307
The air at Dumfries was stifling, not from the weather and heat of the day, but from the smug feeling of victory.
Robert the Bruce inhaled deeply, taking in that aura of conceit, of victory, and breathing out the past ten years of heartache, oppression, and strife.
He wasn’t done. He wasn’t close to being done. Scotland was still hindered by the English yoke. He was still separated from his wife and daughter who were yet imprisoned by the king of England. Would Robert see them again in this lifetime? Only God knew the answer to that question. But for now, larger issues for Scotland loomed.
And smaller ones as well.
For the larger issues, the Scots military accomplishment had truly been unprecedented. After years of the English quashing the Scots attempts at independence, even under the staunch leadership of Sir William Wallace, the changes as of late had been unparalleled.
And Robert had Black Douglas to thank for it.
The man had a bleak and terrifying way of looking at the world, of seeing a harrowing strategy when none could be found, implementing those strategies in the most vicious way, leading to a successful outcome.
Robert’s soul might be forever cursed in following Douglas’s advice and recommendations against the English, but he’d smile the entire way to Hell. So far, having the fiend James Douglas as a commander and tactician in his army had been the best decision he’d made.
Black Douglas fought as though he had nothing to lose. And therein laid the problem.
He didn’t.
The man’s family was slain, his clan dispersed to the ends of Scotland, and he gutted, poisoned, and burned his own stronghold to the ground to prevent any further occupation of Douglasdale by the English.
If Robert didn’t know any better, he’d think Black Douglas was well and truly mad.
Mayhap he was. His actions bore that out.
Regardless, the man had well earned the title of Black Douglas. And Robert had benefited.
A man like that, while so very, very valuable in war, could yet be a liability. Unlike James, other men, men such as Robert the Bruce, did have something left to lose.
