Exiles in Time (The After Cilmeri Series) (17 page)

Callum had to suppress a laugh at the
surprised look on Bruce’s face.

“
You hadn’t heard those
rumors?” Cassie said.

What surprised Callum was that Cassie
hadn’t interjected herself into the conversation more. She wore a
dress, as a sop to Lord Patrick’s sensibilities, but that was about
as far as her patience with the role of women in the Middle Ages
went.

Meg, Anna, and Bronwen had worked hard
to fit into the Middle Ages. They’d compromised their independence
because the alternative was to call attention to themselves and the
way they had arrived here. David had done the same, so it wasn’t
just because they were women. As far as Callum could tell, Cassie
had bought into none of it.

Daddy Bruce peered at Cassie. “Who are
you?”

“
Her point is valid,”
Callum said, seeking to distract him. “Call off this fight with
Lord Patrick and seek the prisoners elsewhere.”

Daddy Bruce had been leaning on his
hands on the table and now straightened. “Are you giving me an
order?”

Callum didn’t back down. He’d had
enough of Daddy Bruce’s attitude. “I will if I have to. You may
view it as a suggestion if you prefer, if only because James
Stewart was alive this morning. King David would prefer he stay
that way.”

At least Daddy Bruce didn’t argue with
Callum’s ability to speak for King David. It was how things were
done here. It wasn’t like Callum could pick up his cell phone and
call him to confirm a given course of action.

Daddy Bruce took in a deep breath and
let it out. His brow furrowed as he gazed down at the table and
then he nodded. “I will put up the white flag and see if Lord
Patrick says the same as you.” Daddy Bruce glared past Callum to
the world outside the tent. “I’d prefer to know if Lord Stewart is
still alive before I burn either Mugdock or Dunstaffnage to the
ground. I wouldn’t want him killed by mistake.”

Callum nodded and stepped to one side
with Cassie to allow Daddy Bruce, Kirby, and Robbie to leave the
tent. As he passed Callum, Daddy Bruce didn’t look at him and his
color remained high. In the end, it had been Daddy Bruce who had
backed down a moment ago. Callum hoped he wouldn’t pay for it
later.

Daddy Bruce ducked through the doorway
and was immediately distracted by one of his men, who gave him a
rundown of the current state of the assault on Mugdock.

Callum took the opportunity to head
out of the tent and over to one side, out of the firelight. Cassie
came with him. “We have to get out of here,” she said.

“
I know.”

Side by side, they hustled back to the
healer’s tent. Not for the first time since he’d come to this
world, Callum was struck by the power a single man could wield.
Kirby’s influence arose from his status as a bishop and the leader
of the English delegation to Scotland. He answered only to King
David, and because the king was far away, effectively that meant
Kirby answered to no one. Daddy Bruce, as far as Callum could tell,
believed himself to be above the law and that he could do whatever
he wanted as long as he thought it was right. Callum, as David’s
representative, had power too, though without a company of soldiers
behind him, that meant considerably less than it had three days
ago. Still, he’d had enough to influence Daddy Bruce.

Liam had been sitting on a low stool
as they entered the tent, but at their approach, he
stood.

“
How are you?” Callum
said.

“
Well enough.” Liam nodded
at the other man in the tent, who was folding bandages into piles.
“He saw no reason to add to what Donella had already
done.”

Callum turned to the healer. “Excuse
us, please.”

The man looked from Liam to Callum,
bowed at the waist, and departed. Here, and everywhere, there were
worse things than being an earl. Liam had color in his face again
and seemed sturdier than before.

“
Can you walk?” Callum
said.

“
Are we going somewhere?”
Liam said.

“
Anywhere but here, I
think,” Cassie said.

Liam’s expression lightened. “I was
just trying to figure out how I was going to convince you that it
wasn’t safe to stay.”

“
I’m glad you agree,”
Callum said. “What made you decide we had to leave? Your uncle is
here—”

“
My uncle was singularly
unhappy to see me. I haven’t seen that look on his face since he
came to visit my mother, to offer to bring me up in his household.
He’d hoped that my father would be overcome by his
generosity.”

Cassie smiled. “I gather he
wasn’t?”

“
My father didn’t exactly
throw Kirby out of the house, but he did tell him that if he
crossed our threshold before ten years had passed, he would have
his head. It was only at that point that I would be old enough to
make my own decision about my future.”

“
And yet ten years later
you decided to go with Kirby,” Cassie said. “Why?”

Liam lifted one shoulder. “My father
had died, we’d had a few bad growing seasons, and my older brother
didn’t manage the lands as well as my father had. It seemed the
expedient thing to do.”

“
What I want to know is how
Kirby teamed up with Bruce,” Callum said.

“
How well do you know your
uncle, Liam?” Cassie said.

“
Obviously, not well
enough,” Liam said.

“
It’s odd, isn’t it?”
Callum said. “I don’t understand the play either side is making
here, not at all.”

“
Alexander MacDougall is a
hothead,” Cassie said. “When he gets fired up, his warriors will do
anything for him.”

“
That I understand,” Callum
said, “but is he really working for John Balliol?”

“
And if so, to what end?”
Cassie said. “Surely Balliol wouldn’t condone the capture, or
murder, of the King of England?”

“
It does seem to be a
mare’s nest of intrigue,” Callum said. “Balliol supporters think
King David has decided in Bruce’s favor, and Bruce seems to think
that King David had already decided in favor of Balliol. Neither
side is going to stand for losing. It’s as if they both
want
a war.”

“
We already know the real
fear is that King David wants the crown for himself,” Cassie said.
“That’s the information you need to include for this to add up.
Nobody truly believes the king means what he says.”

“
So each side is making a
preemptive strike for the throne?” Callum said.

“
My father thinks that
since MacDougall failed to capture or kill King David, he will use
James Stewart to negotiate himself out of punishment, or to put
Balliol on the throne.”

Cassie and Callum turned at the voice.
Robbie Bruce had ducked through a door in the rear corner of the
tent.

“
We think so too,” Callum
said, “but MacDougall has to know Scotland can’t choose a king this
way. There are more families in Scotland than the Bruces and the
Balliols. Fourteen men claim the throne.”

Robbie shrugged. “Either way, you need
to leave. Now.”

Cassie took a step closer to him. “So
we were just saying. What is it you fear?”

“
I don’t know. It’s just …”
Robbie shrugged again. “When my horse fled the battle, I went to my
father’s lands at Kilmarnock, south of Glasgow, for
help.”

“
I know of the place,”
Callum said.

Robbie’s voice dropped lower, as if he
was afraid to speak his next words out loud, even when nobody but
Cassie, Liam, and Callum were listening. “My father and his men
were already prepared for battle because Bishop Kirby had arrived
ahead of me.”

“
How is that possible?”
Callum said.

“
I-I-I don’t know,” Robbie
said.

“
Or maybe you don’t want to
know,” Callum said.

Cassie shot Callum a quelling look and
put a hand on Robbie’s arm. “You think Kirby knew about the ambush
in advance and left the company before the MacDougalls attacked?
That’s the only way he could have reached your father before you
did.”

Robbie swallowed hard.
“Maybe.”

Cassie moved with Callum to one side
and spoke in modern English. “What I don’t understand is if Kirby
knew about the ambush in advance—enough to arrange for a decoy for
the MacDougalls to murder instead of him—how could he not have
warned Robbie’s father that the king was absent and Robbie
present?”

“
He wanted Daddy Bruce
filled with righteous anger so that he would do exactly as he did,”
Callum said, “which was to go on the offensive.”

Cassie stared at Callum. “What did you
just call him?”

Callum tsked through his
teeth. “It was Bronwen’s way of keeping the three Bruces straight:
Grampa Bruce, who is striving for the throne; Daddy Bruce, his son
and Robbie’s father; and Baby Bruce—our Robbie—who becomes
the
Robert the Bruce later
in history.”

Cassie turned on her heel and spoke to
Robbie in Gaelic. “What about you? You’re your father’s heir and
yet in conspiring with Kirby, your father left your survival or
death at the hands of the MacDougalls up to fate?”

“
No! No!” Robbie said. “He
didn’t know that I was in the company, or about the ambush, until
Kirby told him of it. He mourned my death and his joy at my
resurrection was real.”

“
Unlike Kirby’s reaction to
seeing Liam alive,” Callum said.

Robbie nodded. “I know my
father well. He was
very
angry, first to have lost me, and then at how
close he’d come to losing me.”

“
No wonder he seeks
vengeance,” Liam said.

“
I need to tell you one
more thing so you understand how urgent it is that you leave,”
Robbie said. “My father hates the Black Comyn and was adamantly
opposed to him being appointed as one of Scotland’s
Guardians.”

“
So I gathered,” Callum
said.

Robbie looked down at his feet. “Kirby
told my father that he saw Andrew Moray and Red Comyn among the
raiders. Andrew Moray’s stepmother is the Black Comyn’s sister, and
of course, Red Comyn is the Black Comyn’s son.”

Cassie lifted her chin and gazed at a
point above Robbie’s right shoulder. She held that pose for ten
seconds and then shook her head.

“
You don’t remember seeing
either of them?” Callum said.

“
I’ve never encountered
Andrew Moray. I’ve seen Red Comyn only once, and not close up,” she
said. “I didn’t notice him among the assailants but that’s not to
say he wasn’t there. If what Kirby says is true, then the Guardians
are corrupted too.”

“
That’s what I’ve been
trying to tell you. That’s why you have to leave,” Robbie said.
“Because of Kirby’s information, my father’s forces attacked the
Comyns’ Castle at Kilbride before riding on Mugdock.”

This was getting worse and worse with
each minute that passed. “Another few days and all of Scotland will
be at war, and nobody will know the why of it,” Callum
said.

“
You are taking a great
risk telling us all this,” Cassie said, “especially if your father
is implicated in wrongdoing.”

“
James Stewart is my friend
and master,” Robbie said. “I would do anything for him.”

“
I didn’t know him long,
but I would call him a friend,” Callum said. “We need horses. And a
way out.”

Robbie nodded. “I can arrange for both
for you. That’s why I came to find you. Come with me.” It was only
then that Callum noticed that Robbie had a bag slung over his
shoulder. “I brought you some supplies.”

Cassie, Callum, and Liam hurried out
of the tent after Robbie. “Where is your father now?” Callum
said.

“
He is arranging to speak
with Lord Graham, as you suggested,” Robbie said.

“
Will he miss you?” Cassie
said.

“
No.”

The finality in his voice stopped
Callum from asking any more of him, or pressing as to why he was
helping them. Families were complicated at the best of times. It
could only be made worse when a kingdom was involved. “If anyone
asks, you didn’t see us,” Callum said.

“
You don’t need to worry
about me,” Robbie said.

From the healer’s tent, they scuttled
around the northern perimeter of the camp, heading east through the
no man’s land between the firelight and the men posted to watch
Daddy Bruce’s flank. The pickets surrounded the camp in a human
wall, but the space between the watchers allowed Callum and the
others to slip through without raising an alarm. The further they
went from the main activity centered on Daddy Bruce’s tent, the
more permeable the perimeter became. Daddy Bruce was giving lip
service to the idea that another enemy could come behind him, but
he wasn’t worried about it.

Robbie pulled up at the end of a long
fence that enclosed over a hundred horses, picketed in a field
adjacent to the camp.

“
Go,” Callum said to
Robbie. “Your father may not miss you, but one of his men might.
Kirby might.”