AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 10
After a bit more than a month's absence, the laird of Loch Brae returned to the court in the last days of October, having escorted the queen's young cousin from York. They had traveled slowly, for Mistress Williams was a delicate creature and could bear the shaking of her transport cart only a few hours a day. Although she rode, she rode badly and preferred not to mount the gentle palfrey that was hers. They did not leave each day until midmorning. They ceased their travels in midafternoon. It made for a tiresome journey, and Angus Gordon was happy to be back at Scone. In the morning, he determined, he would depart for Brae, and his brazen wench. He loved Fiona. He was going to tell her so. The sooner their marriage was celebrated, the happier he would be.
The royal household steward greeted their party as they dismounted in the courtyard. “I will escort Mistress Williams to her majesty,” he said. “The king has asked to see ye as soon as ye arrive, my lord. Here is his personal page, who will escort ye to his presence.”
Angus bid a polite farewell to the young girl who had been his companion for the past few weeks. “I hope ye will be content with the queen, yer cousin, Mistress Beth,” he told her.
“Thank ye, my lord.Yemade the trip a pleasant and easy one for me. I do not like traveling particularly. Will I see ye again?”
“It is unlikely, Mistress Beth. I am for Brae in the morning.” He kissed her hand.
Elizabeth Williams followed the royal household steward. “Farewell, then, my lord,” she replied.
“Lead on, laddie,” the laird said to the page. Angus followed the boy, who brought him to the king's privy chamber, ushering him inside and closing the door behind Angus Gordon. “My lord!” Angus said, bowing to James Stewart, who sat before the fire.
“Pour yerself some wine, Angus,” the king said jovially, “and then come and tell me about the trip.”
The laird followed his instructions, and when he had settled himself opposite the king he said, “Twas an uneventful journey, my liege. The lass was waiting at the Convent of Saint Frideswide in York. The only difficulty was that she is not a good traveler, and it was necessary that we proceed slowly. She's with the queen now.”
“Good, good,” the king said. “I knew her dislike of travel, which is why I sent ye, Angus. I knew ye would not be impatient with Beth. She's a sweet lass, is she not?”
“Aye,” the laird answered shortly.
“She'll make a man a good wife,” the king persisted.
“Aye,” came the dutiful response. Then the laird smiled at the king. “Now, my liege, I have done yer bidding, and on the morrow I will depart for Brae. My lass will be waiting. I plan to fetch the priest from Glenkirk Abbey, and marry her. A wedding feast will be set. I'll not admit it to my sister Jan, for ‘twould give her too much power over me, but she was right in that I should have wed my lass when we first came together instead of waiting these two years.”
A moment of guilt overwhelmed the king, but hemanfully swallowed it back. “Angus, my old friend,” he began, “there has been a terrible happening. Fiona has been abducted on her way home to Brae. We can find no trace of her. We don't even know who took her.” He went on to explain to the stunned laird. When he had finished he said, his voice rich with sympathy, “I am so sorry, Angus Gordon, but I will give ye the queen's cousin to wife if ye will have her. I know first ye will want time to recover from this tragedy.”
Angus Gordon was numb with shock, but not so numb that he did not quickly refuse the king's apparently generous offer. “My liege, if the truth be known, Mistress Williams is pretty, and she is certainly sweet-natured and obedient, but as God is my witness, my liege, she is the dullest female I have ever met. I thank ye, but I will not wed her. I must go home to Brae, and I must search for my lass, for if I can't have her to wife, I will have no woman to wife. ‘Twas not to be a marriage of convenience or one in which lands were exchanged. I love my lass. There is no other for me.” He quaffed down the rest of his wine, then arose.
The king stood, too. He put a hand on the laird's shoulder. “Go and take yer rest, Angus. My page will take ye to a comfortable chamber, for the apartment ye shared with Fiona is stripped bare. Come to me in the morning before ye depart.”
When the laird had departed, the king poured himself another goblet of red wine and sat down again before the fire. Slowly he rotated the goblet back and forth between his palms. Angus Gordon must absolutely not mount a search for Fiona Hay. There was always the danger he might stumble upon something. There was also a chance that he might remember The MacDonald of Nairn's interest in Fiona and then go to Nairn, whereshe was undoubtedly now in residence. There would certainly be an altercation. No matter who won it, James Stewart would lose. No. Angus Gordon could not look for his beloved. She was proving invaluable, as he had thought she would. Only the day before he had received her first communication, reassuring him that the Lord of the Isles did not mean to pledge him fealty yet, but neither would he provoke a confrontation. There would be peace in the winter months. James Stewart would have to find another mission for Angus Gordon in order to keep him from the highlands, if he wastokeep Fiona Hay there, too. The king put his mind to the problem.
In the morning, after Prime, the laird of Loch Brae returned to the king's privy chamber to bid him farewell, but the king said, “I can't let ye go yet, Angus. I need someone I can absolutely trust to go to England to see that the hostages are being treated well. I am sending Atholl, and he wants ye with him. Ye will also arrange for the English to wait a wee bit longer for their first payment for my maintenance.”
“My lord! I have been away from home for too long. My lass is missing, and I must find her! I have done yer bidding, and in doing so Fiona has been lost to me. Don't ask anything else of me, I beg ye!” He had not slept the whole night through thinking of Fiona. Who had taken her and why? Was she yet alive?He had to know!
“Angus, I need ye,”the king said again. “I will mount another search for Mistress Hay, I swear it! But if ye don't go with Atholl, I will not get the truth. One of his sons volunteered to go as a hostage. ‘Twas done, I know, to prove his family's loyalty to me. Atholl willsurely return and complain to me in order to get better treatment for the hostages, whom I know from my own experience sire being well treated by the English. If ye are there to testify to this, then I will not have to bother them about Atholl's complaints. It is also important that the English wait for their payment. It is proving difficult to collect the moneys needed and to maintain my government. If ye do this for me, I will create ye Earl of Brae,” the king said slyly.
“I must find my lass,” the laird said stubbornly.
“We'll find her, Angus,” the king said soothingly, “but are ye truly certain ye'll want her back? She was taken over a month ago, and if she is alive, who knows what may have befallen her, poor lass. Her captors were obviously the worst of highland bandits and may not have treated her gently. It is a harsh world, I fear”
“I want my lass back,”the laird said once again, “and I will find her, my liege. Somewhere, someone saw something.”
“Angus, Angus, don't make me do this,” the king said. “If ye will not go to England willingly, then I must command ye to go.”
The laird was surprised. “Ye would do that?”
“Aye,” the king told him. “I must rule all of Scotland, or I canna rule at all, Angus. We will seek for Fiona Hay again, but while we do, ye will go to England in my service. Atholl leaves in a week. That will give ye time to go home to Brae and tell yer family of what has transpired. Then ye must return, Angus. If ye attempt to defy me I will put ye and yer whole family to the horn. Even my cousin, Hamish Stewart. While ye were gone, I executed Duke Murdoch and his ilk. They were my own kin, but a danger to Scotland for their unbridled ambition. They lie in their graves now, AngusGordon, because I will be king in fact and not just in title. Can ye understand?”
The laird nodded. Strangely he did understand, but it did not make it any easier to accept the disappearance of his Fiona. “I'll leave for Brae now,” he said, “and be back in five days’ time, my liege. I will accept yer pledge to seek after Fiona Hay, for if she is not dead, then whatever has happened, she will be my wife. I love my lass.” Standing, he bowed, and departed the king's privy chamber.
James Stewart felt his shoulders beginning to relax even as the door closed behind the laird of Loch Brae. It had been a near thing. He hadn't been certain that his friend would not defy him, risking a charge of treason for the love of Fiona Hay. The king was glad he had not.
The laird of Loch Brae sensed he was being spied upon, but he did not look up. Instead he mounted his horse and rode through the gates of the palace at Scone onto the road that would eventually lead him to Brae. Fiona would have taken this very road a little over a month ago. Who had taken his brazen wench and why? He had no enemies that he could recall who would do such a thing. Perhaps it had just been, as everyone seemed to think, a crime of opportunity, but if it was, why had no trace of Fiona, Nelly, and the baggage cart been found?
