by Amanda Scott
But he was just a friend. A too-domineering friend.
In truth, though, no one was scouring the countryside to shepherd eligible suitors to Coklaw. Nor was anyone likely to, except perhaps Wat or Dev.
“Are you listening to me, Robina?”
Starting guiltily at Rosalie’s indignant tone, she fought to recall enough to nod and then said with a smile, “I believe you were describing Jannie’s new maidservant, cousin. I hope she finds the woman more acceptable than you do.”
“At least Hilda does not flirt with every man at the Hall,” Rosalie replied.
Looking directly at her then, Robina said, “I hope you do not tell others that you hold such an opinion of Corinne, madam. That would displease me. Corinne is a good-hearted person who cares deeply about us and is practically a member of our family. She does enjoy flirting, but that is all she does.”
“Mercy, dearling, I never meant to distress you,” Rosalie said, lowering her voice as she flicked a glance past Robina toward Dev and Benjy. “You must admit, though, that the way she goes on about Sir David’s man, Jem Keith…”
When she paused, Robina said lightly, “Corinne went on in much the same way about Rab’s equerry, and about Shag’s Hobby. She lost interest in Hob only after she clapped eyes on Jem. I’ve seen them together,” she added. “Jem is respectful of her without encouraging her, and she does naught but flirt.”
“And kiss,” Rosalie said, raising an eyebrow. “I saw that myself.”
“Aye, and kiss,” Robina admitted. “Corinne says kissing is part of flirting and she enjoys kissing handsome men. She wants to learn how to tell good kissing from bad, so she can avoid marrying a man who can’t do it well.”
Rosalie glanced toward Dev again and murmured with a dawning twinkle, “Do you discuss such things with your maidservant? My dear—What?”
Robina had raised a hand to stop her and was choking back laughter. “Prithee, cousin, who else would you have had me ask? Mistress Greenlaw or one of our tenants’ wives? Perhaps if I knew Molly Scott better, or even Lady Meg…”
She blinked, trying to imagine asking the formidable Meg such questions.
Rosalie chuckled, but Robina was undeterred. “Believe me when I say that Corinne is a better source of such information than anyone else I know, cousin.”
“Do you mean to tell me that she is not a maiden?”
“Well, of course, she is a maiden,” Robina said, although she was not sure about that, thanks to Corinne’s comments about Rab. “See you,” she went on, “her grandmother was a tavern wench who married one of those French soldiers who came here years ago. Corinne declares that flirting is therefore in her blood.”
“I see,” Rosalie said. “I also see that I spent too much time in England, and the English ways must have affected me, because when I was young, if I’d had a maidservant like your Corinne, I would have known much more than I did when I married. Not that my mother—a formidable woman and an English Percy, herself—would have allowed a girl like Corinne to cross our threshold.”
“How sad for you,” Robina said. “She is the merriest creature.”
“Aye, very likely, but you have finished eating, dearling. I expect it is time we excused ourselves to the solar.”
Dev, apparently overhearing that remark and thus making Robina wonder what else he’d heard, turned and said, “I mean to take Robina for a walk outside the gates, my lady. As you noted earlier, we have matters to discuss, and we can do so privily there, whilst remaining in view of men on the wall walk.”
“Very well, sir,” Rosalie said. “Prithee, bring her back in before dark, though. I shudder to think what Meg will say if she learns I’ve been lax about such matters.”
“We won’t linger,” Dev said, standing. “Do you need your cloak, lass?”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “The evenings have grown warmer.”
“They have, aye,” he agreed, giving her a look that warmed her to her toes.
Chapter 14
Chukk, having returned to the hillside southwest of Coklaw’s gate, was slowly, carefully creeping down its slope, hoping no one would see him. He wanted to reach the rise this time and find what his father had buried there.
The weather had been uncooperative since last week’s rain, with ground fog from dark till dawn each night. It was, he thought, as if sunny skies in daytime sucked water out of the ground and the ground were trying to soak it back in again.
Before dark, men on the wall walk would see anything that moved if they happened to look that way. After dark, a man might get lost or make too much noise in the dense, nearby woodland, or in the fog. His goal now was to get close enough to see the center of the rise, so that later he could locate it, even in foggy darkness. He carried a sharp spade in a sling on his belt, so he was prepared.
The new moon had not begun to show itself until today, when a scant, pale crescent appeared briefly by daylight. The guards would soon light torches, but even so, the dense fog might conceal him. Whether he could dig up his treasure unheard was another matter.
That morning, he had divided his men into pairs and told them to scout the area for herds and other potential targets for their raids. Two men on horseback would draw little interest. Six or the full dozen would draw much more.
Cottages littered the Hawick area, many containing loud, curious dogs that ran loose at night. But dogs liked him and none had troubled him.
Although he was a raider, he did not think he was a brutal man by nature. Nor had his father been. They had come from what Shetland Jamie called a gentle island, the largest of the isles that, together, Scots called Shetland. Not that they had always been peaceful.
Naught that the Vikings touched remained peaceful long.
But their own people, according to Jamie, were peace-loving sailors, who wanted only to transport their salted fish, wool, and butter to the Norse town of Bergen, a Hanseatic port, and bring back salt, cloth, beef, and more interesting goods shipped to Bergen from other such ports.
It had been on such a voyage that Jamie’s ship had sunk. Jamie, Chukk’s mother, and four-year-old Chukk had escaped the sinking vessel in a towboat that washed ashore on the north English coast. Captured by Percys, Jamie had soon realized that they would never get themselves home without help.
Therefore, he had agreed to serve the first Earl of Northumberland, lord of the land. The next thing he knew, he was taking part in the siege of Coklaw and, weeks later, in Northumberland’s dreadful losses in the battle at Shrewsbury.
Surviving both events, Jamie returned to his small family near Alnwick.
Now, Chukk lay in shadowed shrubbery beneath scattered beech and birch trees, halfway down the hill’s east-facing slope, watching men on the tower wall walk to and fro. Each time the nearest one walked eastward, Chukk moved closer.
The sun had dropped behind his hill but still cast golden rays on the tower ramparts. If darkness came before the fog, he might creep near enough to get a close look at that rise and judge better the chances of digging up his treasure.
Dev had sharp ears and the ability to listen to more than one conversation at a time, both gifts having proved useful during his years of service to Douglas.
They had also made it possible for him to overhear the exchange between Robina and Rosalie about Corinne. He had ignored Rosalie’s idle chatter until Robina spoke, but her defense of Corinne had piqued his interest.
He’d nearly laughed aloud at hearing what Robby had learned from the saucy lass.
In truth, though, he’d paid little heed to the maidservant until the night Robby had flung the wooden box and inkpot at him and accused him of encouraging Corinne to flirt with him. He’d never flirted with her but he suspected that Rab had. Corinne was an uncommon name, but thanks to their French visitors a few decades past, it was not rare.
Now, though, he was certain that she was one and the same. Robby had described Corinne as “merry,” just as Rab had. Rab had also said that his Cor
inne was free with her favors, although he had not troubled to tell Dev that she was his twin’s maid.
As Dev bade Rosalie goodnight and left the hall with Robby, Benjy, and the dog, Tig, following them, he wondered how he and Robby might arrange to talk privately.
He was about to suggest that Benjy should be thinking about bed when he saw that the stable lads had gathered in the courtyard again, this time with a ball.
“There is Ash Nixon now,” Robina said when Ash tossed the ball to one of the older lads. Over her shoulder, she said, “Benjy, you like Ash, don’t you?”
“Aye, sure, he tells me good stories, ones his da told him when he was my age. I was helping him wi’ the horses earlier, but Dev’s Coll needed him, so…” He shrugged.
To Dev’s surprise, Robby looked at him when Benjy paused, and raised her eyebrows. He’d expected her to tell the boy that they had decided to give him a personal servant but realized she was asking if he thought they should tell him now.
Dev nodded, and she said, “How would you like to have Ash help you look after yourself? He could help see that you get your soiled clothes and bedclothes into the laundry and wake you in the morning, and—”
“I’d like that fine!” Benjy exclaimed. “I told ye I’m too old for women to always be a-coddling me.”
“Well, Dev thinks it is a good idea, too,” Robina said, smiling. “Perhaps we can all speak to Ash, and Ash can begin tomorrow.”
“Sakes, if he’ll bring my hot water up tonight, he can start then. I dinna need Corinne leaning over me, asking did I say my prayers.”
Her eyes alight with laughter, Robina turned to Dev, “What do you think, sir? You and I do have much to discuss, but arranging something like this for Benjy has been on my mind, and on Benjy’s, too, as you see.”
“I should talk to Ash first,” Dev said mildly. “Just to be sure the new post will please him. If we all descend on him at once, he may feel obliged to say aye and fear to say nae.”
“Sakes,” Benjy said indignantly, “why would he say nae?”
“I don’t know,” Dev said. “Do you think we should just order him to do it?”
He saw Robina open her mouth, but with a look at him, she shut it again.
Benjy frowned and said, “Ye’d better ask him, else I’ll be asking him about it m’self after a day or two o’ wondering if he might liefer ha’ said nae.”
“If you’ll stay here with Robina and try to look as if you’re unaware of what I’m doing, I’ll see what Ash has to say right now.”
Glancing at Robby, and seeing a speculative look in her eyes as she watched him, Dev made his escape and went to tell Ash that he had a new position.
“D’ye think Ash willna want to do it, Beany?” Benjy asked.
“I think he will be delighted to aid you,” she said, trying to watch Dev and Ash without looking right at them. “You are the new laird, Benjy. Ash’s position here will also be elevated if he serves you.”
“Does that mean that nae one else can tell him what to do?”
“Don’t forget that Dev rules over all of us, my laddie,” she warned. “Also, Greenlaw has charge of all the menservants.”
His lips twisted wryly, but then he grinned. “I dinna think Dev, nor Greenlaw, will let us forget that, will they?”
Suppressing laughter, she said, “No, Benjy, they won’t.”
His eyes began to sparkle, and she saw that Dev and Ash were walking toward them. Their conversation, she thought, had been shorter than she had expected.
Ash was grinning. He was a handsome lad with brown eyes, dark curly hair, and long arms and legs, who would likely grow to be as tall as his lanky father was.
“Ash will be pleased to serve you, and he thought you might like to join the other lads in their ball game, Benjy,” Dev said. “I explained that he is not responsible for your behavior, so you must remember that. He is only to help you look after your things and yourself. He’ll wake you in the mornings and help you prepare for bed… shortly, I think. You are still not completely over your cold.”
Benjy nodded, still grinning, and said, “Aye, sir.” Then he turned and ran off with Ash to join the others.
“You had already spoken to Ash about this, I think,” Robina said lightly.
“I had,” Dev admitted. “I thought from the outset that Benjy should have someone besides women looking after him. It is also true, though, that I’d suggested that Coll train Ash for higher service. I like the cut of that lad.”
He touched her shoulder then, urging her toward the gate, and nodded at Shag to open it for them.
The sun had dropped behind the western ridge of low hills, but plenty of daylight remained. Robina turned toward the rise, but Dev said, “Let us walk eastward tonight, Robby. Is there not a path through those woods yonder?”
“There is,” she said. “I’ve likely created it myself over the years since I was small. My favorite tree is there, and I visit it often. I’ll show you.”
“Can they see us there from the wall?” he asked.
She gave him a searching look. “Aye, a bit. Do you not want them to?”
“On the contrary,” he said with a wry smile. “I want to know that they can.”
In shrubbery near the southwest end of the clearing but too far away to hear their murmurs, Chukk had stopped breathing. What were the two of them doing? Had someone seen him on the hillside or creeping down its slope?
He could do nowt about it now, whatever the man and woman did. They had vanished into the woods, too near him for comfort. And the gate had shut.
Two guards were on the wall at its southwest and southeast corners. With the man and woman outside the wall, the other two corners likely had watchers now, too.
His right cheek lay against the ground, and he was too far from the rise to see it clearly. Nor could he simply pop his head up to see what was what. He’d had to make do by peeking through leaves.
At least, he told himself, they had not brought dogs out with them.
Keeping his eyes on the guards above, he crept forward only when the two he could see looked away from him. His progress was slow, but he was due for some luck. If he could just find the right spot and mark it…
“As I see it,” Dev said when they reached the huge, ancient oak that Robby admired, “we have but two choices, to marry or not marry. What we need to discuss is why we might do so and why, perhaps, we should not.”
“Faith,” she said when he paused expectantly, “do you expect me to start?”
“I’ll wager you were thinking it over at supper whilst Rosalie blethered on and on.”
She looked up with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “What makes you so sure I was not heeding every word she said?”
“You lack the patience, and you jumped nearly out of your skin when she asked if you were listening. The woman clatters like a beggar’s claptrap.”
“That is a mean thing to say. She is generous and kind.”
“Aye, but her blunder landed us in this plight. And her love of clish-maclaver, which you encouraged, will likely make it worse for us.”
“I don’t deny that I encouraged her to share any new rumors she had heard, but I did it to keep her from plaguing me to tell her what decision we’d made.”
“At least, she accepts that it is our decision,” he said, leaning back against the wide, rough trunk of the oak. “This is a splendid old tree.”
“I came here as a child when I was upset or wanted to be left alone. It is easy to climb, and I’d sit in the crook of that big branch up there to think.”
“Did no one ever prevent your coming out by yourself?”
“Aye, sure, Father did whenever there was trouble in the area. He knew I did not roam far, though. I could nearly always hear when someone called.”
“Nearly always?”
Instead of rising to what was admittedly bait, she gave him a serious look and said, “Why do you think we should marry?”
“I did not say we sh
ould, only that we ought to discuss whether we should.”
“Then you don’t think so. Tell me why not?”
“Robby, don’t…” He hesitated, aware that he, not she, was quibbling.
When he paused, she cocked her head in the familiar birdlike way that told him she might keep pressing him to say yea or nae until he lost his temper and either told her what he thought or walked away.
Accordingly, he said with careful calm, “I have not decided anything, lass. I spoke the truth when I said I’d given no thought to marriage because of my obligations to Archie Douglas. However, that was before he sent me here.”
“What else do you think?”
“That although Archie did not say how long I’m to remain warden here, he knows Wat wants me to stay. So, unless something changes, I expect I’ll be here for some time.”
“What else?”
“I told you some of it earlier. I do care about you. I enjoy talking with you—”
“Nearly always,” she said, and he was glad to see the twinkle again.
“True,” he said, smiling. “But, even when we disagree, you make me think. You see many things the way I do, but you surprise me, too, with thoughts and ideas that have never entered my mind. I welcome that.”
“Nearly always.”
He straightened then and caught her by her shoulders, giving her a shake. “You can also infuriate me. I’ll admit that, too. Will you admit the same thing about me?”
“Aye, sure,” she said. “You infuriate me every time you dismiss what I say or prevent me from doing as I please.”
“I’ll tell you one thing,” he said evenly, holding her gaze. “Rab was more likely to understand that I meant well when I disagreed with him and to accept that I knew more about some things than he did.”
“Aye, he accepted you as his superior because you trained him, so he turned you into something almost godlike, Rab did. Do you want me to idolize you, too?”
