Tamed by a Laird

by Amanda Scott

  Jenny, Fiona, and Peg returned to where Jenny had left her escort as quickly as they could without being rude to any of the folks who wanted to welcome her. But when they reached the edge of the woods, the two men-at-arms were not there.

  Seeing Cuddy practicing his flute under a tree near the place she had left their escort, Jenny asked if he had seen where the two men went.

  “Aye, sure,” he said. “Another o’ their sort did come and fetch them away. He said they needed all their men on the field to keep order, because the lads practicing for Saturday be a-breaking up now to ha’ their supper. And all o’ them ha’ weapons.”

  Jenny frowned, wondering if she ought to ask two of the minstrels to escort them back. She did not want to ask Cuddy. Deciding then that such an escort would likely draw more attention than she wanted at the castle gate, she hesitated.

  “What is it?” Fiona asked her.

  “Perhaps we ought to have men with us as we cross that field again.”

  “Sakes, there are three of us,” Fiona said. “With so many people around, no one would dare to interfere with us.”

  Peg agreed with her, and Jenny did, too, albeit without saying so, because she knew that Hugh would vehemently disagree.

  Remembering how easily he had carried her away in the crowd at Dumfries market square, she hoped she was not making another mistake.

  Still, Fiona was right. There were three of them.

  Hugh awoke from deep sleep to the sound of a fierce if low-voiced debate between two men outside his door.

  Recognizing Lucas’s muttering, he began to sit, only to wince at the pounding in his head and lie back again. He waited briefly for Jenny to intervene, realized that she was not in the room, sat up too fast, and roared, “Lucas!”

  The door opened, and Lucas put his head in. “Nah then, sir, I been a-warnin’ t’ lad to cease ’is yammerin’, but he—”

  Reid, failing to push past Lucas, said urgently from behind him, “Hugh, I must see you!”

  “One moment,” Hugh said. Then, to Lucas, “Where is her ladyship?”

  Lucas looked swiftly around the chamber. “By, I thought she were with ye!”

  “I am trying to tell you where she is,” Reid said.

  “Come in then,” Hugh said. “You, too, Lucas, and shut that door.”

  With a wary look at Hugh, Lucas made way for Reid and shut the door.

  Forgetting his aching head, Hugh focused on his brother. “Now, what do you want to tell me?”

  “I saw Jenny go outside the gate with Fiona,” Reid said. “Look, Hugh, I—”

  “How the devil did they get outside?” Hugh demanded as he shoved aside the blankets. Grabbing his netherstocks and breeks, he began to pull them on.

  Reid said, “They stopped at the gate. Jenny must have persuaded the guard captain there to provide them with an escort.”

  “There now, ye see,” Lucas muttered. “Her ladyship be nae such a fool as—”

  “You be silent,” Hugh said. “I’ll have something to say to you later. Did you see where they headed, Reid?”

  As Lucas moved swiftly to get Hugh’s shirt and jack for him, and Hugh tugged on his boots, Reid said, “They went across the fields and into the woods beyond. Hugh, the whole area is alive with men-at-arms practicing for the tourneys. Jenny and Fiona should never—”

  “How far did you follow them?” Hugh demanded, accepting his dirk from Lucas and shoving it into a boot.

  “To the woods,” Reid said. “I think they went into the minstrel camp. But that’s not all. I think Jenny must have dismissed her escort there.”

  Hugh frowned. “Did you see her dismiss them?”

  “Nay, but I did see the two men that the guard captain had provided for them walking back to the castle.”

  “Let’s go,” Hugh said, snatching up his sword and sword belt as he headed for the door.

  Reid and Lucas hurried after him.

  The field was much more crowded than it had been a half hour earlier, and thinking she caught a glimpse of Reid again, Jenny grabbed Fiona by an arm and pulled her off at an angle. She did not want to run into him.

  Peg scrambled to follow them, catching up as Jenny was explaining to Fiona why she had grabbed her.

  Fiona laughed, saying, “It is just good you took hold of my arm, because when you pulled, I nearly slipped in this horrid mud. My shoes are ruined in any event, so I can just imagine what my lady mother will say.”

  They walked on but it was slow going. The cook fires and enticing aromas of hot food had apparently drawn people from across the river, as well.

  Jenny was growing more concerned about what Hugh would say. The crowd was nearly all male, and the men nearest them seemed closer than they needed to be. At least she could see the castle and know she was going the right way.

  Turning to make sure Peg had not fallen behind, Jenny saw a man right behind the maidservant reach out for her in a purposeful, ominous way.

  “Peg, look out!” Jenny shouted.

  As she did, she heard a man behind her yell, “Beware yonder, lads. Let be!”

  “Sorry, lass,” the one who had reached for Peg muttered as he stepped quickly past them. “I didna mean to startle ye.”

  Peg stared at him.

  Jenny could not see the man’s face, because he wore a helmet as most of the men on the field did, and kept his head down. As he hurried off, others followed him, considerably thinning the crowd that had seemed to close in around them.

  “Mercy,” Fiona exclaimed. “What was that about? Were they trying to frighten us?”

  “I dinna ken,” Peg said. “Ay de mi, though, look yonder, mistress.”

  Turning, Jenny had a clear view of an angry Hugh striding toward them.

  Chapter 19

  Hugh did not realize how terrified he was for Jenny until relief flooded through him when he saw her emerge from the crowd ahead. Then anger surged, and he quickened his pace toward her, his two satellites hurrying in his wake.

  He paid no heed to the crowd on the field, no heed to Fiona or Peg. He had eyes only for his disobedient wife. That she had dared to sneak out and—

  She smiled, lifted her skirt a little higher, and ran toward him, heedless of the mucky ground. “I am so glad to see you,” she said as soon as she was near enough not to shout. “Someone called our escort away. Then a man tried—”

  “Enough, lass,” he said, becoming aware again of the teeming throng on the field and unable to tell how far her words might carry. “We’ll talk more inside.”

  Putting an arm around her and thus unable to resist giving her a little hug, he said for her ears alone, “I doubt you will want to hear all I have to say to you.”

  “I am sure I won’t,” she agreed, looking up at him. “But it can be no worse than what I have already said to myself.”

  “Sakes, Hugh, I hope you mean to do more than just talk to her?” Reid said. “If she were my wife, as she may still be—”

  “Nah then, cease thy daftish jubber,” Lucas muttered. “Tha art worse nor a clackin’ hen!”

  “Lucas,” Hugh said warningly, although he’d have said much the same.

  “T’ silly gobbins be a-jubberin’ that he’d leather her ladyship! But he’s no—”

  “Enough,” Hugh said, quelling him with a look and putting a hand under Jenny’s elbow as they led the others onto the narrow timber bridge. Looking back, he saw Lucas gesture to Peg and Fiona to go ahead of him and Reid.

  Just then, Jenny raised her voice to say, “Reid, I saw your friend.”

  “Which friend?”

  Noting wariness in his response, Hugh’s interest quickened and he kept silent.

  “The man you rode with for a time on the way here,” Jenny replied. “The two of you forded the river to Threave’s islet together.”

  “How can he concern you?”

  “I thought he looked familiar and wondered where I’d met him,” she said.

  Hugh said to Reid, “I recall
the man she means. Who is he, lad?”

  Reid said dismissively, “Just a chap I know.”

  “Then you know his name,” Hugh said, keeping tight rein on his patience.

  “Sir Alard Bowyer,” Reid said. “He’s a knight from Roxburgh, I think. I met him at our feast, so I warrant he’s a friend of Dunwythie’s.”

  “I’ve never heard of anyone called Bowyer,” Fiona said. “But I do not know many of my father’s friends. Also, I did not see him riding with you, Uncle Reid.”

  “How could you?” he said testily. “You traveled to Threave by boat.”

  They were nearing the gate, and Hugh saw Jenny look back and put a finger to her lips. An acknowledging nod told him Fiona understood and would keep silent.

  Catching Tam Inglis’s eye as they passed through the gate, Hugh motioned the guard captain over and said, “My lady tells me you recalled the escort you’d sent with her, Tam. That crowd out yonder nearly swallowed her up as she and these other two lasses were returning.”

  Tam’s face paled. “I vow, Sir Hugh, I never recalled those men. I saw they’d returned, but I’d stepped away, so I assumed your lady had returned with them.”

  “Where are they now?” Hugh asked.

  “Yonder,” Tam said. He sent a lad to fetch them, and the two men came running. “Why did you two return without her ladyship?” Tam demanded.

  “Why, her brother told us we’d no longer be needed, sir,” one said, glancing anxiously at his companion for corroboration.

  “Aye, sir, that be the truth,” the second man agreed.

  Hearing a muttered epithet from Reid, Hugh said, “Her ladyship has no brother. What did this fellow look like?”

  The spokesman of the two frowned thoughtfully, looked Hugh up and down, and said, “He’d be a nobleman an inch or so shorter than what ye are, me lord. He’s none so broad across the shoulders but muscular withal. I’d warrant he’d be one taking part in the tourneys, and mayhap some o’ his lads wi’ him.”

  “He was with a party of men, then?”

  “Aye, we saw four others awaiting him whilst he spoke to us, mayhap more.”

  “Are you sure he was a nobleman?”

  “Seemed like,” the second man said. “He wore a short blue-velvet cloak, a cap wi’ a fine plume, and leather boots that looked costly despite being all mucky.”

  Thanking the guardsmen, wondering what sort of nobleman would play such a trick but unwilling to discuss it there, Hugh urged his party toward the keep.

  When they were beyond earshot of the guards, Jenny said, “Prithee, sir, I’d like Reid and Peg to discuss the incident with us after we see Fiona to her chamber.”

  Hugh looked at her, wondering what she was up to now and meaning to tell her in no uncertain terms that he and she would talk first, privately. But she gazed back at him, her expression so speaking that he glanced involuntarily at Reid.

  His brother looked stunned, his face drained of color.

  “You’ll come with us then, lad,” Hugh said to him. “You, too, Peg.”

  Surprising him, Reid said, “Aye, I think I must.”

  Peg said nothing.

  Neither did Lucas, but Lucas would follow them with or without an invitation.

  As they crossed the great hall toward the stairway, Jenny glanced at Peg. But Peg’s brow was furrowed and she stared at the floor, apparently lost in thought.

  Hugh’s hand remained firm on Jenny’s elbow until they reached the spiral stairway, when he urged her and Fiona to precede him. She was conscious of his presence behind her all the way upstairs but for once drew little comfort from it.

  She could not blame him for being angry with her. She knew he fumed as much because she had left him sleeping while she went to the minstrel camp as from any fear that she might have met with danger.

  He was unlikely to accept her need to find Peg as an excuse. Moreover, she admitted to herself that fortuitously meeting Fiona and her own impatience to see Peg and the others, rather than any need, had spurred her outside to the camp.

  She was glad on two counts that he was letting Reid and Peg come with them. Not only did she hope they could help her explain what she suspected had happened but their presence might also shield her for a time from his anger.

  That she and Hugh were again to take supper at the high table should shield her for an hour or two, as well. But she would have to face him alone eventually. And heaven knew what he would do or say then.

  They came to Fiona and Mairi’s chamber, one landing before their own, then went on as soon as Fiona had stepped inside. Peg, Reid, and Lucas followed them.

  At their own landing, Hugh reached past Jenny to push open the door and entered ahead of her to hold it. When they were all inside, he shut it with a snap.

  Jenny realized she was holding her breath, waiting for him to speak. Forcing herself to breathe slowly and deeply to calm her nerves, she wondered if he was doing likewise as he stood silently and looked at each of them in turn.

  When his gaze met hers, he said, “Well, lass, what have you to say?”

  She looked at Reid and said, “I mentioned your friend earlier because I thought the description the guardsmen gave us…” She paused, hoping Reid would feel obliged to supply the rest himself. But he just looked steadily back at her until she added, “I think the man you call Sir Alard Bowyer sent them away.”

  “I call him! Sakes, do you think that is not his name?”

  Hugh said grimly, “Does the description fit him, Reid?”

  “Aye, it does,” Reid said. “Just as it fits half the other noblemen here.”

  “Then, why did you say you thought you should come up here when Jenny asked for you do so?”

  “Because I’d feared…” He paused then until Jenny wondered why Hugh just seemed to hold his gaze and did not urge him to get on with it. But at last, Reid said, “He does fit their description. At least, he is wearing a short blue cloak, a plumed cap, and Spanish leather boots. So I did think I should tell you more about him.”

  “I think you must,” Hugh agreed.

  “At our feast, he introduced himself by asking me what I thought of the minstrels. He was looking to hire some to entertain at his place and had not done so before. I said I thought they were some of the best I’d seen. Then he wondered if I’d heard of a rash of thefts occurring at other houses where minstrels had performed.”

  “Thefts, eh?” Hugh said. “That is interesting.”

  “Aye, but I hadn’t heard of any thefts then, and he did not suggest that the minstrels at our feast were responsible. In fact, he said he knew nowt of them. I knew little myself, but I said I’d heard that such folk were usually honest.”

  Jenny said, “When you left the table at the feast, you said you had to talk with a chap. Was that when you met Sir Alard Bowyer?”

  He gave her a look. “I said that because I was tired of sitting there, ignored by the lass I was supposed to be marrying. I did meet him soon after that, though.”

  “Did he ask you anything else?” Jenny asked.

  “Only if we’d taken precautions. I told him that Dunwythie, being a cautious man, had given orders to search anyone lacking first-head privileges or personally unknown to our guards. Bowyer agreed such precaution was wise and might avert trouble. That is all I knew of him till I met him again at Castle Mains.”

  Hugh thought he had heard more than enough about Bowyer until Reid added, “I did think it odd when he turned up at Castle Mains.”

  “Why?” Hugh asked.

  “I don’t know,” Reid said. Faced with Hugh’s skepticism, he added with a grimace, “It just seemed odd that he would be so delighted to see me on such a brief acquaintance, especially as I knew I’d been gey drunk when we met. But the reason I knew I must talk to you now is that I was sure Jenny had seen me with him.”

  “She said she had,” Hugh reminded him.

  Jenny said, “I think he means today, sir, out in that field.”

  “Is that it?”
he asked Reid.

  “Aye, I saw him at the same time I saw Jenny, before I came looking for you. But I swear I thought nowt of his being there until those guardsmen described the clothes he was wearing. If he told them he was her brother to deprive her of their protection… But why he would, I swear to you, Hugh, I cannot imagine.”

  Hugh saw Jenny catch her lower lip between her teeth and give Peg a long look. And Peg, who had remained silently thoughtful for some time, looked even more so as she met Jenny’s gaze.

  “I wondered why anyone would send that escort away,” he said.

  “Aye, but there’s more,” Reid said. “When you and I were looking for her, and that crowd around her suddenly thinned so we could see her, I saw him. He was hurrying away from her with a number of others.”

  Hugh said, “Did you see him, Jenny?”

  “Nay, but…” Looking as she did at Peg then, and back at Reid, she might as well have voiced aloud her desire to speak privately with Hugh.

  He said, “Reid, you and I must talk more later. We all need to change for supper, and I have much yet to say to these two. But you and I will put our heads together on this. Whatever comes of it, I thank you for coming to fetch me.”

  Reid glanced at Jenny as if he would say more but left without doing so.

  “D’ye want me to go, too, mistress?” Lucas asked with unnatural diffidence when the door had shut with Reid on the other side of it.

  Jenny hesitated, glancing at Peg. Hugh was about to tell Lucas they could do without him when she said, “Nay, Lucas. I doubt I’ll keep many secrets from you.”

  “Is it a secret, lass?” Hugh asked.

  “I doubt I’ll keep any at all from you, sir,” she said with a little smile. “If I’m right, I have already told you about the incident in question, but I’d liefer not tell Reid.” She turned to Peg. “What did you see after that man grabbed you out there?”

  “Grabbed!” Hugh exclaimed.

  Without taking her eyes from Peg, Jenny held up a hand to him. “What, Peg?”