“Lor, ye and Sir Clegg have been good tae me,” he said. “I have every intention of fulfilling my oath, but I will not swear an oath tae a woman who simply wants tae buy a stallion tae service her. That’s no honorable life for a warrior.”
“I know,” Lor said quietly, extending a small leather pouch to him. “Issie and I have been talking and we’re going tae give ye the two pounds. Ye should take it, pay off her debt, and run. No one would blame ye, Bane. This is an impossible situation for everyone.”
Bane looked at him in shock as he reached out to take the pouch, which jingled with coinage. “Ye…ye would give me the money?”
“Aye.”
Bane looked back and forth between Isabail and Lor, stunned by their offer. He peered into the pouch to see that there were, indeed, several silver coins presumably amounting to two pounds.
He finally had the money he’d set out to earn for Lucia’s freedom. Not by earning it, or stealing it, or begging or borrowing it…but by friendship.
By people wanting to help him.
“I dunna know what tae say,” he said. Then he sat back down on the rock where he’d left his gladius. “Ye have tae understand… I’ve spent so much time accepting the guilt and responsibility of the men I killed all those years ago, of disobeying my da’s command, that the day I met Lucia was the day my life unexpectedly turned around. She was kind and generous tae me and I fell in love with her. She means more tae me than ye’ll ever know. And now the two of ye…offering tae help me. I suppose I still have trouble thinking I deserve any help from anyone. Ye canna know what it means tae me. I’ll pay it back, I swear it.”
Lor didn’t have time to respond. As he opened his mouth, a voice came out of the shadows.
“Ye’ll have tae take yer lass and hide her, Bane.” Magnus abruptly appeared, coming out from between two cottages and heading toward them. When he saw their puzzled and perhaps indignant expressions, he held up a hand to ease them. “Sorry, but I was walking on the other side of these cottages and heard everything. I canna remain silent on this because I’ve seen similar situations at the Ludus Antonine. Rich women hounding men who dunna want their money, for whatever reason. Bane, I’ve been seeing Lady Currie since I’ve been at the Cal and she has purchased herself some studly companionship, but with ye…it seems she wants all of ye, not just a piece of ye.”
Bane cocked an eyebrow. “Then ye know?”
“I think everyone does,” Magnus said. “There’s a certain gate guard tae Clegg’s box who has made sure tae spread the tale of Lady Currie and her demands for ye.”
Bane’s face darkened. “Damn the man.”
Magnus nodded, but he didn’t want to get off the subject, so he lifted his hand to beg for patience while he finished. “If the lady has come tae buy ye as easily as if she would buy a prize stallion, then ye need tae run,” he said. “Forget about yer oath tae the Cal if that means ye have tae accept a lady’s dishonorable offer. Take yer woman and run. Hide until this passes.”
Bane glanced at Lor and Isabail, uncertainty in his expression, before returning his focus to Magnus. “I have nowhere tae hide,” he said. “I suppose I could take her back tae my clan in the Highlands, but I havena been home in a long time. I’m not sure I’m welcome there any longer.”
Magnus folded his big arms across his chest; he had a very regal appearance, a man who had fine bloodlines. Bane remembered what Lor had said about him: he’s a royal bastard. Bane could see it. There was something about him that was refined and noble, and his suggestions were surprisingly realistic.
Take yer woman and run.
Perhaps that statement emphasized just how serious the situation was.
“Is that what ye would do?” Bane asked. “Knowing what ye know now, ye’d still run away?”
Magnus nodded faintly. “Ye’ve only been here a short while, but I’ve seen enough,” he said. “Ye never needed tae be trained as a warrior, Bane. Ye already knew how tae fight. Ye said yerself ye only came tae make money. ’Tis true ye gave yer oath, but Lady Currie doesna have honorable intentions when it comes tae buying yer services. She wants a stud, not a warrior.”
“Let her buy ye and then run off afterward,” Isabail said quietly, watching the men turn to her. “It would serve her right. Let her pay sixty pounds for a man who’s going tae run off. Clegg would have her money and she’d be out not only the sterling, but the man she bought in the first place.”
Lor looked at his wife, puzzled. “What are ye saying, Is?”
Isabail looked straight at Bane. “If yer lady serves Lady Currie, then ye’ll have tae go tae Lady Currie’s home tae get her,” she said. “Why not make it easy and let Lady Currie buy ye? It’ll put ye intae her house and hold, right where ye need tae be tae take yer lady and leave.”
“I have a better idea.”
The four of them turned to see Clegg approaching with Axel behind him, emerging from between a pair of cottages much as Magnus had done. Since the cottages were so closely packed, it was an easy thing to overhear a conversation, even one as clandestine as this. Clegg and Axel walked up to the quartet, but Clegg’s attention was on Bane.
“M’laird?” Bane asked, somewhat warily. “I’m sorry if ye thought we were being subversive. We were simply discussing the situation with Lady Currie.”
Clegg was wrapped up in his usual fine robes, looking somewhat out of place in the dirt and filth of the warrior village. But his gaze was intense.
“I know,” he said, glancing at the group. “I heard what you were speaking of, and I think it is an excellent idea.”
“Which idea, m’laird?” Bane asked. “We’ve been discussing several.”
Clegg shook his head. “The only idea as far as I am concerned,” he said. “Letting Lady Currie buy you and then going to Meadowbank to collect your young lady who serves there. Lor told me that your young woman serves Lady Currie.”
“She does, m’laird.”
Clegg’s intense gaze lingered on Bane. “Lady Currie did, indeed, come to the Cal to buy you,” he said quietly. “Sixty pounds sterling, which is an enormous sum for a warrior. You understand that I could not refuse that, Bane, but it was with a purpose in mind. It wasn’t strictly business.”
Bane looked at him, torn between outrage and curiosity. “Then ye accepted her offer?”
“I did. But I have a reason.”
“What is the reason?”
Clegg turned to Axel and extended his hand. Axel produced two large leather pouches, jingling with coins, and heaved them both into Clegg’s arms.
“This is what she paid me,” Clegg said. “Or, I should say, what her husband paid me. You see, I know Greer Hume-Currie. I have for years, since before he ever married Blanche Ireby. That’s Lady Currie’s real name, you know. Greer deals in fine goods and I have purchased many things for my collection from him—Roman coins, vases, rings. Greer is a very nice man who married a viper. I do not like Lady Currie. I never have. She shames her husband daily with her ventures here to the Cal to fornicate with my warriors. But I took her money because I want you to do something for me.”
Bane was quite intrigued. “If I can, m’laird.”
“You can and you will,” Clegg said, handing the heavy leather pouches of coinage that amounted to sixty pounds sterling to Bane. “You will return with Lady Currie to her home of Meadowbank. You will return Greer’s money to him, and then you will take your lady and flee. Go wherever you wish, but just go. That way, Greer gets his money back, you have your freedom, and Lady Currie gets nothing. And that’s the way I want it.”
Bane stared at him in shock when he realized that Clegg agreed with Isabail’s suggestion. “Ye want me tae run?”
“I do. Do you have any money of your own, Bane?”
“The purse from my bout with the Thistle.”
“Good. It should be enough. But there is
one more thing.”
“Anything, m’laird.”
“Stay away for a while, just long enough so that thoughts of you will cool in Lady Currie’s mind,” he said. “Then I want you to return here to fulfill your oath to me.”
Bane would do anything for Clegg. He’d just made it so Bane could keep his honor, marry Lucia, and punish Lady Currie all at the same time. What wouldn’t he do for the man?
“I’d be happy tae return if ye truly want me, m’laird,” he said. “It would be an honor tae continue as a warrior.”
But Clegg shook his head. “Nay,” he said. “Not as a warrior. As a trainer. There is nothing more we can teach you, Bane. But I think there is a good deal you can teach our new recruits. It is a position I am offering you, and you will, of course, bring your wife with you. Will you do it?”
Bane was stunned. He looked around, to Magnus and Lor and Isabail and even Axel. They were all looking back at him in varied degrees of warmth and approval. This little family at the Ludus Caledonia that had somehow adopted him, too.
They wanted him.
Bane could hardly believe it.
“Ye…ye want me tae train men?” he managed to ask.
“I do,” Clegg said. “Will you come?”
Bane was truly overwhelmed. “Two months ago, I was living in the gutters of Edinburgh,” he said, feeling a lump in his throat. “I had no hope, no future. Then I met Lucia. She gave me hope again. I came here because of that hope, because I wanted tae earn money tae buy her freedom. But never did I imagine I would find friends here, people willing tae help a man they dunna even know very well. But ye’ve given me a gift I never expected tae receive—a gift of friendship. Will I return here tae teach? I canna imagine a greater honor, m’laird. I’ll return, and gladly.”
Clegg smiled at him. “Then it shall be done,” he said. “Now I must return to Lady Currie and tell her we have struck a bargain. And, Bane…when you return that money to Laird Currie, make sure you tell him it is with my compliments.”
“I will indeed, m’laird.”
“Above all, remember our motto—Hominibus Gloria. In men, there is honor. And there is honor in you.”
With that, Clegg turned away and headed back to Caelian Hill with Axel on his heels, leaving Bane standing there with the others, stunned by what had just happened. He was still trying to take it all in. Bane finally turned to Lor.
“It looks as if I am going tae Meadowbank tonight,” he said.
Lor nodded. “We’ll miss ye, but we’ll look forward tae yer return.”
Bane smiled weakly, looking between Lor and Isabail and even Magnus. “I came here tae make money,” he said. “I found much more than that. I’ll be back, ye can believe it.”
“Good,” Lor said. “If we dunna see ye before ye leave, then Godspeed tae ye, wherever ye may go. But should ye need anything…ye know where tae find us.”
Bane reached out a hand, taking Lor’s and squeezing it strongly. “Ye have my thanks, Lor,” he said, looking to Isabail and smiling at her. “Both of ye have my thanks. I promise I’ll pay ye back for the money ye’ve given me for Lucia. I’ll pay ye back every pence.”
Lor squeezed his hand in return, taking his wife and child and heading back toward the small cottage they shared. Magnus was left standing there, watching everyone walk away. But he lingered.
“If ye find ye are not welcome when ye return tae the Highlands, then go to a place called Blackwood House in Stirling,” he said. “My mother lives there. Tell her I sent ye and she’ll give ye shelter.”
Bane looked at him seriously. “That is very generous,” he said. “Given that I’ve nearly killed ye twice, that’s a very gracious thing tae do.”
Magnus chuckled. “Is that how ye remember our battles?”
“Dunna ye?”
Magnus’s laughter grew. “I think I kicked ye in the head harder than I thought.”
“Ye dinna kick hard enough tae knock over a pile of sand.”
Magnus crowed. “Keep telling yerself that, Bane,” he said. “I canna wait for ye tae return so we can kick each other again.”
He walked away, chortling, leaving Bane standing there with a grin on his face and a warmth in his heart that he couldn’t begin to describe. In what should have been one of the most terrible moments of his life, all he could feel were hope, friendship, and anticipation for what the future would bring.
But first, he had to survive his round with Lady Currie.
Not only did he intend to survive, he intended to win.
Part Three
Highland Defender
Chapter Twenty-Two
Meadowbank
Meet our new warrior.
That’s what Lady Currie had proudly exclaimed to Colly and the rest of the house and hold of Meadowbank on a crisp, cold morning. All except for Laird Currie. He wasn’t anywhere to be found, but the other inhabitants of Meadowbank found themselves looking over a very big man dressed in leather and mail. He was big and rough-looking, with a bushy beard and hair that needed to be groomed.
But Colly knew she’d seen him before.
There was something about him that seemed familiar, though she couldn’t put her finger on it. She watched the man stand like a stone as Lady Currie pawed all over him, finally leading him away so the drunk sergeant in charge of Meadowbank could show the man around. The last Colly saw, Lady Currie was following from behind as the old sergeant took Bane on his rounds.
So that’s the warrior from the Cal, Colly thought. Lady Currie finally had what she wanted.
But Colly couldn’t shake the notion that she’d seen him before. She returned to the house, to Lady Currie’s chamber, and snapped at the maids who were cleaning the room. No one ever cleaned to Colly’s satisfaction. Lady Currie had spent the night at the Ludus Caledonia, finding lodgings in cottages reserved for special guests, before returning the next morning with Lucia and the enormous warrior, and Laird Currie had yet to show his face.
The man was a ghost in his own home.
But that was of no concern to Colly. In her opinion, the old man was useless and would hopefully die soon, leaving the entire estate to his beautiful, young wife. All of that lovely money would go right to sweet Blanche and, consequently, to Colly as well.
Life would be much easier when that blessed event happened.
Meanwhile, Colly sat at Lady Currie’s dressing table, drinking what was left of the woman’s wine and stuffing herself on the sausages that had been brought for Lady Currie’s morning meal. She would eat them all and then blame it on the servants, which she had often done.
As Lucia entered the room with a fresh dress for Lady Currie to change into once she returned to her chamber, Colly thought she might even blame the missing sausages on Lucia. After all, the girl had claimed to have lost sausages once before, but the truth was that she had probably eaten them and blamed robbers.
Sausages…
Colly suddenly sat up straight, setting aside the cup of wine. It occurred to her now just where she’d seen the warrior. He was the same man Lucia said had saved her from the sausage thieves, the one she’d brought back to Meadowbank to work in the stables. That man had been clean-shaven, however, and the truth was that Colly hadn’t gotten a good look at him. Still…it was possible that Lady Currie’s new warrior and Lucia’s protector were one and the same.
That made for a very interesting situation.
Colly watched Lucia as the woman cleaned Lady Currie’s day dress, brushing at it with a fine horsehair brush. Little Lucia had been much better behaved since their encounter in the kitchens when Colly had brained her and locked her up for a day to teach her a lesson. It had been a show of force and it had worked. The lesson had been learned because Lucia had been much better mannered since then.
Even so, Colly just wanted the girl gone.
La
dy Currie listened to Lucia and valued her opinion, and Colly was threatened by that relationship. She wanted to be the only one Lady Currie valued. Perhaps the arrival of Bane Morgan was just the excuse Colly needed to get rid of Lucia once and for all. She knew that Lady Currie would not want Bane’s attention diverted from her, and if she knew the man had an eye for Lucia, or at least a history with her, she would surely send the young woman away.
Colly rather liked that plan.
Finally, she could be rid of the Symington wench.
Farewell, Lucia…
* * *
“What do you think of my humble home, Bane?” Lady Currie asked, her hands looped through Bane’s elbow. “We can certainly use your expertise on our safety. I think we are too relaxed, while my husband does not seem to share that opinion.”
Bane’s face was like stone as he and Lady Currie departed the gatehouse of Meadowbank, crossing the small bailey as they headed for the house. When he’d worked here before, he’d made it up into the bailey a few times, but not enough to really study it.
Now he could. It was a busy place, with trade stalls to the east along with a small troop house for the soldiers. It wasn’t a military fortress by any means, as he’d already known, and the massive stone walls were perhaps its greatest protection.
But he didn’t much care.
He wouldn’t be here long enough to.
“This is yer husband’s house, m’lady,” he said after a moment. “I should like tae meet Laird Currie and discuss it with him.”
“Discuss it with me.”
“He is yer husband, m’lady, and laird of the home. That is men’s business.”
Lady Currie was trying very hard not to become angry with him. He’d been like this since she purchased his contract from Clegg—stiff, unfeeling, unemotional. The man had ice water running through his veins, but she was determined to warm him.
She didn’t give up easily.
“I suppose you are correct,” she said. “It is men’s business, but I am interested in men’s business. Don’t you think that ladies should be curious about a man’s business?”
Highland Defender Page 19
