Amanda Scott - [Border Trilogy 2] (35 page)

“You saw that?”

“Aye, for I’d come up them stairs we just used. I heard a man say he were dead. Then another man said, ‘Odds sakes, then we’ll ha’ to find the lassie ourselves.’ I kent fine they meant me, so I hied me back downstairs to hide in the black room.”

“Did you stay by the door the whole time?”

Kit sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve as she muttered, “Aye, sure. Sithee, I couldna feel the back wall, and did I keep seeking it, I feared I’d no find my way back to the door. I feared nae one would find me, and I were gey hungry.”

“Did you know the men who hurt Dand?”

“They were the ones from that day at the river. The one wha’ threw him downstairs said it served Dand right for no telling them where to find the lassie—me! They said summat more, too, m’lady, afore I shut the door.”

“What was that?”

“They said they had enough wi’ just the bairns—Dand and me—being here to make the laird see sense. Did he no see it, they said, they’d fix him for good.”

A chill swept over Sibylla. Grasping the little girl gently by the shoulders, she peered into her eyes as she said, “Kit, your Sunday name
is
Catherine, is it not?”

Kit shrugged. “Everyone just calls me Kit.”

“But you are the lady Catherine Gordon of Huntly, are you not?”

“Nay, mistress.”

“Don’t lie to me, Kit. This is very important.”

Kit burst into tears.

Certain that she was Catherine, frightened witless and grieving for Dand—whatever their relationship might have been—Sibylla exerted herself to console her.

When only sobs remained, Sibylla said, “I shall ask you no more questions now, but heed me well, Kit. The laird is my husband now, and I must find him, because if those bad men mean him harm, I must do what I can to stop them.”

“Ye’ll leave me here again?”

“Aye, but I know you’ll keep safe this time. You’re to stay with Cook or with Tetsy until I get back. If those bad men should return without the laird or me, you do as you did before and hide in the black room. Can you do that?”

“Aye, if Cook and Tetsy will let me.”

“Don’t ask them. Just take care that nobody sees you go in and then no one will seek you there. But I’ll know just where to find you when we return.”

“Prithee, dinna be all night about it,” Kit said gloomily. “I’ll try, but if aught frightens you, you go there and stay till I come for you.”

Chapter 19

H
aving seen Kit safely into the care of the cook and Tetsy, Sibylla found Jed Hay in the bailey, drew him aside, and said, “I want messengers sent to the Douglas at Hermitage, Jed, and to Buccleuch’s people at Scott’s Hall, too.”

“Aye, sure, m’lady. Will ye tell me what sort o’ messages we’d be sending?”

“I’ve evidence that the laird is riding into a well-laid trap,” she explained. “All these incidents occurring at a time when Douglas and the Percys are trying to maintain the truce between our two countries seems suspicious to me.”

“Sakes, m’lady, if that be the case, we should prepare for siege here and no be sending more o’ my men from the castle. The laird would say—”

“Jed,
after
you send the messages to Douglas and to Scott’s Hall, you may do as you see fit to protect Elishaw. But, prithee, answer me this. If a troop of men should arrive here flying the royal banner, would you refuse them entry?”

He frowned. “Me orders are to do nowt to endanger the castle’s neutral position, m’lady, so I canna deny entry to men flying the royal banner. Why, it would ha’ to be a troop led by the King or the Governor, would it no?”

“Aye, sure,” Sibylla said, stifling a sigh. “But that is what I fear may happen. If it does, it means the Governor may try to seize Elishaw. And
that
we must not allow, certainly not without the laird’s knowledge and agreement.”

“Nay, but how—?”

“I am the laird’s lady now,” she interjected before he could protest further. “I must take responsibility for what happens in his absence, just as his lady mother would if she were here in my stead. So you
must
send those messengers, so Douglas and Buccleuch’s people will send men to aid us.”

“But the Douglas may already have left Hermitage for Galloway,” Jed said.

“I know he did not mean to stay long and that Buccleuch is with him,” she said. “ ’Tis why I’m sending to the Hall, too. But are you sure they’ve already gone?”

“The Douglas meant to stay but a night or two,” he said. “If Buccleuch is with him, he’ll have some of his own men, too. As for sending to Scott’s Hall, ’twould be two days afore they could get to us even if I was to send a man straightaway, and they’ll likely have gey few to send. To raise more will take even—”

“We need more men here, Jed, and Elishaw’s own ladies Meg and Amalie are at the Hall. If our man does not find them at home, tell him he must relay my message to Dod Elliot, Buccleuch’s captain of the guard.”

“I dinna ken that I should—”

“You will send men to both places,” she said firmly. “The Douglas is my godfather, Jed, and Buccleuch is good-brother to the laird and sworn to aid him in such a case. His people know that and will come if they can. Meantime, the laird is riding into deadly peril. I mean to go after him, but first I must know that you will do all you can to keep anyone from entering Elishaw without his leave.”

When he hesitated, she looked him in the eyes and said with all the authority she could muster, “I
am
mistress here, Jed. I cannot take time to explain everything I have learned to you, or how I’ve learned it, but I am as certain as I can be that this castle is in danger and that your master’s life is threatened, too.”

Jed licked his lips. “I’ve seen, aye, that ye ken things others do not, m’lady.”

“Good,” Sibylla said, grateful for once that her long habit of acquiring facts wherever she could often stirred rumors that she was a witch. “I want two men to ride with me—good men. Indeed, if Hodge Law did not go with the laird, I want him with me. He is a good man for tracking the others, is he not?”

“The best I have wi’ Jock the Nose gone wi’ the laird. And Hodge do be here.”

“I shall leave the choice of the second man to you and Hodge. But I want them ready to depart as soon as possible,” Sibylla added. “Don’t fail me, Jed.”

“I’ll send Willy the Horn,” Jed said. “If ye find the laird, ’twould be best an ye can let him know straightaway that ye be friendly.” He hesitated.

“What is it?” Sibylla asked. “If it is aught I should know . . .”

“Aye, well, I were just thinking on the laird, mistress, and what he’ll likely say about this decision o’ yours to ride after him.”

“I know what he’ll say,” she said. “But to send someone who does not think this matter is urgent will just persuade him that it is not. I can make him see it as I do.”

“Aye, perhaps, mistress.
If
he will listen to ye.”

Sibylla smiled grimly. “I’ll make him listen, Jed. I must. But I must also know I can rely on you to keep all visitors at bay. Will you promise me?”

“I’ll do what I can, mistress. But ye should ken that if the Governor demands entrance or his grace the King does, I canna deny either man.”

“Then for mercy’s sake, say the gate is stuck!” Sibylla exclaimed, knowing that the King of Scots was nowhere near Elishaw, but fearing that Fife might already be near and awaiting his chance. “I do not care how you do it, Jed, but you must not let the Earl of Fife inside our wall with a force of his own men.”

He looked doubtful, but she could spare no more time for him or conceive of any argument that could make him hold firm against Fife.

She could only hope that Fife’s practice of keeping his own hands clean of any mischief he stirred would keep him in Edinburgh, and that anyone else he might send to seize Elishaw for the Crown would fail to make Jed open the gate.

Twenty minutes later she found her two escorts waiting in the bailey with their own horses and a fresh one for her. When she greeted them, big shaggy-haired Hodge Law firmed his lips into a stern, disapproving line and nodded.

But the lanky, towheaded man known as Willy the Horn grinned at her, revealing a mouthful of crooked teeth and a light of eagerness in his brown eyes as he said, “Jed said we’ll ride after the others, me lady. I been fair fidgeting for that!”

“Good lad, Willy,” she said as she mounted. “Hodge, I want to go as fast as we can, so I’ll rely on you to see that we don’t lose their trail.”

“Aye, mistress,” the big man replied.

As they rode out through the gateway, she signed to Willy to fall in behind and drew her mount close to Hodge’s.

“I suspect you think this poor payment for dragging wee Kit and me out of the river, Hodge,” she said quietly. “But I am glad to have you with me.”

“Sakes, mistress, ye could ask aught o’ me and I’d do it. But if ye’re thinking the laird will thank us for this, ye’re nobbut seeking your sorrows
and
mine own.”

“I know, but his life is at risk, Hodge, and he does not know it,” Sibylla said. “I cannot just sit at Elishaw and pray for him. That is not my nature.”

“Nay, mistress, I ken that fine, and so does he. Sakes, he said as much to me. Still, he’ll be gey fierce when he sees us, and I’m thinking ye’ve never seen him in full fury, or ye’d take the greatest care no to light that fire.”

Sibylla assured him she would do all she could to prevent setting the laird’s temper alight, but she knew as well as Hodge did that her likelihood of success was small. Simon was already irritated that she had refused to agree with him about Kit. He was also sure he could protect himself
and
manage the unpredictable Fife.

He would not thank her for following him. Most men, in her experience, were loath to accept even much-needed help from the women in their lives. And despite her confidence that Fife meant to seize Elishaw, she might easily be wrong.

That Fife had arranged all that had happened since the day she’d met Simon was impossible. That he had arranged for a man to pose as Cecil Percy at Elishaw after Percy had applied to visit was possible, though, however unlikely.

The Murrays had made no secret of the expected Percy visit. She had heard Rosalie speak of it at court and knew Lady Murray might have done so as well. And Fife was wholly capable of using such knowledge to gain entry to Elishaw.

But could he have acted quickly enough to be threatening Simon now?

Whether he had or not, the fact remained that Hodge Law was right about Simon’s likely reaction to their riding after him. Remembering comments Amalie had made about Simon at Sweethope Hill, she was wondering if he might do more than scold her when Hodge’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Sakes, Willy,” he exclaimed. “A bairn could follow these tracks!”

Looking from one to the other, Sibylla said, “Why should the laird and his men be hard to follow when they’d have no cause to cover their tracks?”

“ ’Tis no
their
marks that set me to wonderin’, mistress,” Hodge said. “Sithee, I were with Jock the Nose when the laird said to see if them Englishmen would be hard to track. We saw straightaway that one o’ their ponies had an odd front hoof, so Jock were right gleeful, and me, too.”

“Aye, sure, for it would make tracking them much easier.”

“It does, aye, but now I’m thinkin’ ye may be right in suspectin’ mischief. These tracks ha’ turned eastward, sithee, and south toward the line. If them Percys was ridin’ toward Edinburgh, why be they a-headin’ back toward England now?”

“Because they are not going to Edinburgh,” she said. “Aye, they’re devious, is what,” Hodge said. “But dinna tell me the man ridin’ that pony doesna ken the beast be easy to track. Nor his master neither.”

“They intended to let someone follow them,” Sibylla said.

“Aye, that’s what I’m fearing,” Hodge said with a grimace.

“Then I’m right, lads, and we must ride faster.”

Simon, too, had wondered about the shift in his quarry’s direction. For a time, the visitors’ tracks had led them northwest toward Hobkirk, just as he’d expected.

The shifts eastward and then south had come after they were beyond sight from Elishaw’s ramparts and before they’d left the forest for more populated areas where they’d have drawn notice. They were heading toward Carter Bar crossing and Redesdale, and had been for some time. The borderline lay less than a mile ahead.

He sent two lads on ahead to see what they might see on the other side.

From the outset, he and his men had asked the few folks they’d met if they had seen other riders, and if so, whether they had a child with them.

Most had seen the riders, but none had seen Kit, making Simon sure that he had been right and Sibylla wrong to think the visitors had abducted Kit.

He smiled at the thought. He was fond of her and hoped she was safe, but no matter what Sibylla had said, the wee lassock was
not
the heiress Catherine Gordon.

Whoever the lass was, the men he was following had behaved oddly.

He cast his mind back to the message from Cecil Percy, trying to remember if the messenger had said anything about his master being in a hurry or having in mind a more distant destination than Elishaw.

“He did not,” Simon muttered to himself, recalling that his mother had written later, telling Percy to bring his daughters and perhaps his sons with him.

Lady Murray would not have told Percy to bring his daughters if she’d had any hint that he was doing more than paying a family visit. Amusement stirred as he imagined how Cecil would react to meeting Sibylla after receiving what amounted to an invitation to present his two daughters as potential wives for Simon.

In any event, whoever Elishaw’s visitors had been, he doubted now that Cecil was their leader. Unless, his inner voice instantly suggested, Cecil and other Percy chieftains
had
been responsible all along for the raids into Scotland.

He rejected the thought at once. Northumberland, the Percys’ leader, was getting on in years and supported the truce. Moreover, his son Hotspur, the Percys’ finest warrior, had left England for adventure elsewhere. Without Hotspur to lead them, Simon doubted the Percys
could
have organized so many successful raids.