Highland Lover: Book 3 Scottish Knights Trilogy (31 page)

“Aye, well, I’m a-going then,” Will said, getting up. “But only ’cause I think ye’re a man o’ your word.”

“I am, aye,” Jake said. “And I give you my word that
I’ll put you over my knee if I hear more of your back-chat tonight.”

Will glanced back at him, just as Jake exchanged a grin with Mace.

The boy relaxed, and Jake said, “Lead on, lad.”

Father Matthias sat by the door into the bishop’s privy chamber. When he saw them crossing the hall, he stood and beckoned them forward. “His reverence is alone now, Sir Jacob. He said to go right in, ye and the lad.”

“Thank you, Father,” Jake said. He rapped twice. Hearing Wardlaw’s command to enter, he opened the door and gestured for Will to precede him.

The lad squared his shoulders as if he expected to meet trouble. Then he strode into the chamber, bobbed a slight bow, and said, “Ye sent for us, sir.”

“I did, Will. I want you to tell me what you saw aboard the
Maryenknyght
when the pirates boarded her. I’ve seen in the past that you have a noticing eye, so I expect you noted details that may help us understand all that happened.”

“What happened were that them devils stole our Jamie,” Will said.

“A dreadful thing, aye. So take that stool, laddie, and tell me all you saw.”

As Will obeyed, Jake drew another stool up behind the boy and sat down to listen. As far as he could tell, Will described events for the bishop just as he’d described them before. Jake realized he should have asked Mace if he and Will had talked about the pirates after seeing Lizzie Thornwick to her kinsmen. But a second thought assured him that Mace would have reported anything new he’d heard.

Will also described the attack of the three pirates after Jake and Mace had found him and Alyson. Enjoying Wardlaw’s barely concealed amusement at the boy’s assurances that Jake and Mace had “finished them villains off in a trice,” Jake did not amend or correct anything the boy said.

When Will finished, Wardlaw asked him a few questions, then dismissed him, saying, “You were a brave lad to rescue Lady Alyson, Will. I’m proud of you.”

“Aye, good, then. I thought ye might be vexed that I let them get our Jamie.”

“It was beyond your power to prevent that, Will. Moreover, I’ll wager that he feared for your safety as much as you do for his. You were right to obey him when he told you to help her ladyship. You’d have been right to do that in any event.”

“What d’ye mean?”

Wardlaw glanced at Jake with a slightly raised eyebrow.

Understanding that he was loath to tell Will the truth if Jake thought it would distress the lad, Jake said, “Do you recall what the pirates did to men who could not fetch a great ransom and to those who did not quickly obey them, Will?”

“Aye, sure,” Will said. “We
saw
what they did.” He looked at the bishop. “I’d fetch nae ransom at all. Be ye thinking they’d ha’ done that tae me?”

Wardlaw said, “If Jamie saw them throw men overboard, I’m thinking that he feared such a thing might happen to you, aye.”

“Coo,” Will said. “But mayhap Jamie saw the
Sea Wolf
a-coming. He might ha’ done, whilst I watched for Lady
Alyson or after I slipped away. Sithee, I dinna think he’d ha’ left me tae drown.”

“I’m just glad you slipped away,” Jake said. “Had you not, Lady Alyson would certainly have drowned. You saved her life, Will.”

“Aye, well, ye helped some.”

“Only after you freed her from that kist,” Jake said. “Had I not seen her at the rail, we’d have turned away when we saw how badly the ship was listing.”

“Aye, well, ye might ha’ seen them other louts,” Will said.

“Perhaps, but I’d have seen three men with a coble on deck. I’d have expected them to launch it and would not have risked boarding the ship.”

“You did well, lad,” Bishop Wardlaw said. “Do you mean to stay with us here at St. Andrews, or have you another plan?”

With an audible sigh of relief, Will said, “I mean tae stay wi’ Cap’n Jake, sir. I take better tae the freedom o’ the sea than tae reading and such.”

Exchanging another look with Jake, who nodded, Wardlaw said, “Then I wish you well. You will always have a home here if you need one, Will, and will ever be a welcome visitor whilst I remain Bishop of St. Andrews.”

Flushing deeply, Will thanked him and made good his escape.

“Draw that stool closer, Jake,” Wardlaw said when the boy had shut the door. Reaching for a pitcher, the bishop filled two goblets with what looked like good claret and handed one to Jake.

“We’ll drink to your safe return, lad. Traill warned me that, having spent much time with Giff MacLennan, you
had a tendency to share his love of risk-taking. I’ll admit that concerned me.”

“I don’t mind taking a risk when it might lead to success, sir,” Jake said. “But I’m no fool.”

“No, you’re not. But you may have landed in the suds, nonetheless.”

The internal tickle of warning that had followed Father Antonio’s concern for Alyson’s reputation stirred again but included a deeper, warmer sensation that Jake could not interpret.

He managed to say calmly, “How so?”

“Lady Alyson has powerful kinsmen, many of whom I know,” Wardlaw said. “I met her father years ago in Glasgow, and I assure you that if Lord Farigaig were the same man today, he would demand the honorable course.”

“Truly, sir, there can be nowt to demand. I merely rescued her. As the lad’s tale surely made clear, she came to no harm.”

“Her uncle Shaw is the war leader of Clan Chattan, Jake. His good-father is the Mackintosh himself, Captain of that powerful confederation. The last thing you’d want is to draw
their
ire. But it gets worse, because Shaw’s daughter married Sir Finlagh Cameron, whose brother is a chieftain in the great Cameron confederation of Lochaber. Sithee, lad, Father Antonio likely speaks for the MacGillivrays and Camerons when he says you must marry her.”

Chapter 15

M
istress Hyde having no objection to Alyson’s suggestion that they retire at once, Alyson now lay awake. She listened to the waves crashing below her window and watched as moonlight peeked through spaces between the shutters.

Had she been alone, she would have opened those shutters to admit the moonlight. But when she had opened one earlier to look outside, Mistress Hyde had earnestly exclaimed that the night air might make them ill, so she’d shut it again.

Rising over the sea, the moon was nearly full and had been low enough to be huge and to cast a wide silvery path across the water. The frothy sea surged around two sides of the point from which the castle overlooked the mouth of St. Andrews Bay. The view had been splendid. She would have enjoyed savoring it longer.

Instead, she lay and thought about Jake and what might be happening downstairs in the bishop’s chamber. Wardlaw had seemed to be a sensible man and had behaved so while she was in the room, giving her cause to hope that her instinctive impression of him was the correct one.

Remembering the odd hallucination that she had
endured earlier, she decided that it might have been a spell of dizziness. She had not liked to admit it, but her legs had felt strange to her. After being so long on the ship, she had felt as if the land now rolled and tilted just as the ship had.

The feeling had passed before she came upstairs. However, she was not sure of exactly when it had faded. It might still have been in effect when she’d imagined seeing Jamie change from a boy to a young man. She had been worrying about him, after all, wondering how long it would take to bring him home. Most likely, that worry had led her mind to mislead her.

Mistress Hyde began to snore. First, she snuffled gently, almost a kitten’s purr. But the noise soon altered to a rumbly sound. Then it was as if the woman stopped breathing. Just as Alyson had been about to leap up to see if something had gone amiss, Mistress Hyde erupted into sound again with a raucous snort.

After that, it settled into the kitten’s purr again. Alyson was wondering curiously what would come next when sleep overcame her.

After Wardlaw’s observation that the Papal Legate had said Jake must marry Alyson and that the MacGillivray family would agree with him, a speechless Jake had stared in shock at the bishop, wondering if his ears had deceived him.

“
Must
marry her? Is that what he said, my lord? Because if he did, he
and
you have forgotten one important detail. Her ladyship
has
married. Although we do believe that her husband is dead, we have no proof of it.
So a chance does exist, however unlikely, that he may
not
be dead.”

“And so I told Father Antonio, aye,” Wardlaw said. “Her ladyship may well be a widow, but at present she is ineligible to remarry. Moreover, her kinsmen are unlikely to approve of any hasty marriage. Give the good father credit, though. He seeks to protect her from unkind—even vicious—gossip that would, of a necessity, include your actions as well as hers, Jake. ’Tis an unfortunate situation.”

“It will become more than that,” Jake muttered. “What a hell she will live in, sir. As a widow without proof of her husband’s death, she’ll have no rights over her own estates unless her father can alter her marriage settlements without her husband’s signature. Moreover, if by some miracle of God, Clyne does still live and is captive in England, he could remain there for decades. At least, when we do hear from Orkney, we may learn something about Clyne’s fate.”

“It may be some time though before Orkney can send us a message, especially if he can arrange in London to pay his own ransom.”

“Aye,
and
if English Harry tells him he’s already sent to inform Albany or his grace, or both, of James’s capture,” Jake said.

“ ’Tis plain that you care deeply about this matter, my son.”

“I do, sir, aye. Anyone would. Jamie is but a lad, yet he is a pawn in a gey dangerous game of ‘who shall be King of Scots?’ The lady Alyson is in a similar position, trapped by her marriage into a life that no woman should endure.”

“Trapped?”

“In widowhood, aye,” Jake said. “And, in her case, ’tis doubly bad, because her marriage was—” He broke off, realizing that he had already said too much, that the rest was Alyson’s business and no one else’s.

“There was something amiss with her marriage?”

Meeting the bishop’s expectant gaze and wishing that he had caught himself sooner, Jake said, “I should not have said that. The tale is not mine to tell.”

“Is it Lady Alyson’s tale, then?”

“Aye, for it concerns her and her alone.”

“Art sure, lad?” Wardlaw paused thoughtfully. “Will she tell me her tale?”

Jake shook his head. “Nay, I am sure she would not, which is why I
should
not. In troth, sir, I doubt that she completely understands her situation.”

“Then I think you must tell me. You may be doing her more harm than good if you do not. Mayhap the telling will flow more easily if you think of it in terms of confession. I’d wager that it has been some time since your last one.”

Jake was trying to collect his wits and finding it strangely hard to do so. Somehow, Father Antonio had got the notion that he, Jake, ought to marry Alyson. And the fact that a priest thought for even a moment that it
might
be possible was stirring feelings, even thoughts, in him that he had not expected to feel or think.

He had not expected the thought of marrying
any
one to stir them at all.

The possibility that he might
have
to marry was terrifying. How could he feel good about a possible marriage to her when he knew that he would fight buckle and
thong to retain the freedom he loved so fiercely? Even if he could marry her—

Sakes, just thinking the half-thought had sent enough fire through his loins to stiffen his cock and make him hope that the sharp-eyed Wardlaw would not notice.

Aye, well, that part of him sought attention wherever it might find it. But what a devilish husband he would make for Alyson! She had already suffered a bad one and did not need another. Clyne had been off and about more than he had been in her bed. The only thing Jake knew that
he
could promise was that if he was ever
in
her bed, he would make good use of his time there!