Love's Ransom (3 page)

‘You will help me?’ Henry whispered desperately

‘I don’t see how. But I’ll try…’

‘Well Henry?’ His father demanded impatiently. ‘Zander cannot come to your rescue over this. It is time you proved yourself a man! Will you make Isabella Ellwood your wife in a few hours’ time? Or will you put the noose around her brother’s neck?’

‘I will m-marry Isabella,’ Henry said. Isabella thought he looked very unhappy and she was sure there was panic in his blue eyes. She felt like comforting him with a hug as she did her sisters. His reluctance to take her as his bride was not very flattering but she was sure he would not be brutal or unkind to her as Neb Truddle would have been. He looked more nervous than she felt herself. Then, with a yearning she didn’t understand, she glanced towards his cousin. Zander was watching her intently. Was there a wistful look in his eyes, or had she imagined it? After all he did not know her and he was handsome enough to take his pick of all the girls. She raised her head proudly.

‘Jamie, it will be better for me to marry Henry than end my life, or yours, hanging from a tree,’ she said firmly. ‘I shall be safe from Neb Truddle here. We shall have thwarted him completely. He will not be expecting you to return to continue as Master of Braidlands and chief of the Ellwood Clan. Neither can he molest me every time I walk alone.’

‘That’s true,’ Jamie said slowly, ‘but I don’t want to leave you here, Belle. We shall all miss you dreadfully, dearest sister.’

‘As I shall miss all of you,’ Isabella said, her voice trembling at the thought of never seeing her mother and sisters again.

***

There was a great deal to do in a very short a time. Isabella found her head in a whirl as she was whisked away. Anna Douglas was as kind as Isabella had guessed she would be. She was also very generous and brought out her own finest gown of cream silk. Isabella was puzzled by her remarks regarding Henry and her earnest plea that she would be kind to him and try to understand and forgive his problems and fears.

‘This dress is beautiful,’ Isabella said, stroking the fine material. ‘My mother has one like it. My father brought back the silk after one of his journeys to buy salt. One of the French ships sailed up the Solway Firth bringing brandy and silks and satins.’ She sighed wistfully. ‘I can’t take your dress, Anna. It seemed a waste to wear my own best dress of fine wool to hang from a tree.’

‘You really did mean to take your brother’s place?’ Anna asked.

‘Of course. My mother and sisters need Jamie more than me. But I would rather be alive.’

‘I knew Jamie was not a thief. Zander believes he was wounded by one of your own men. The men here enjoy the sight of a hanging but Zander has always believed in justice.’

‘Then I am grateful to him for keeping Jamie safe. Why do you call him Zander?’

‘He is twenty two, three years older than I am,’ Anna chuckled. ‘I could not say Alexander at first so he became Zander to everyone here.’

‘Has he always lived at Moyenstane Castle with you?’

‘As long as I can remember. Our mothers were twin sisters but Zander’s mother died when he was born. My mother became the only mother he knew, and Lizzie, our old nurse. When my father was a young man he enjoyed the thrill of reiving over the English Border. He got caught and taken prisoner. He would have been hung if his men had not broken him free. He had to flee for his life so he travelled across the sea to a country called Holland. My aunt, Zander’s mother, married Edward Latimer. He was a very sick man and only lived a few weeks after their marriage. A month later Zander was born and my aunt died. Henry and I never knew her of course but Lizzie loved her and our mother and still tells us about them. When father returned he married my mother. Zander was two years old so he has always been here. Lizzie and Maggie were distant cousins of my mother so they came here with her and Lizzie looked after Zander. Maggie is a seamstress. They are both here still. This is their home. Lizzie regards herself as a servant but she has been like a mother to Henry and me, as well as Zander, though she says he was born proud and independent. Zander would do anything to protect Henry. He would help me too if I needed him but I am to marry Walter, Zander’s best friend. He will look after me.’

‘Why does Henry need protecting? He is older than Jamie.’

‘He is – he is different. You must not be hurt if he does not treat you as – as a husband treats a wife.’ The colour rose in Anna’s cheeks. ‘I-I mean in bed. It is not because he does not like you. He –he has wanted to be a monk for a long time. Father Oliver used to stay here to teach us how to read and write. My father blames him for influencing Henry, but we all liked Father Oliver and Zander and I were not changed by his teaching. Henry was always different. He was not rough or wanting to fight and wrestle as the other boys did. Lizzie believes he was born different because he was a twin and his sister died, but our father will not accept that. He wants to be proud of Henry as a man and as a leader.’

‘I see,’ Isabella murmured. She didn’t really understand what Anna was trying to tell her. She wished her mother was here to tell her what she was supposed to do, what would be expected of her when she was a wife. She didn’t know what a man was supposed to do when he shared a bed with a wife either. She only knew she would have hated to lie close to Neb Truddle with his slobbering mouth and his hands squeezing her breasts until she cried out in pain as he had when he had caught her alone. Already she felt a tenderness towards Henry. She felt he needed her protection, as well as Zander’s. She was sure he would never hurt her.

‘Do you understand, Isabella?’ Anna asked ‘Truly?’ Her blue eyes were as anxious and troubled, as Henry’s had been earlier.

‘I-I don’t know what I’m expected to do as a wife…’

‘I don’t know exactly myself,’ Anna said slowly, but I know we are expected to produce babies. My father wants you for Henry’s wife because he thinks your children will inherit your courage. You will share Henry’s room at the top of the tower instead of sleeping on this floor where the rest of us sleep.’ She waved a hand around the third floor of Moyenstane Tower. There were several alcoves or cubicles, some of them screened by a curtain from the view of other occupants. ‘Henry has slept up there since he was twelve. He will share his room with you.’

‘I am grateful for that.’ She would not like strangers peeping around the curtain or listening to her conversations with her new husband.

‘Lizzie was our old nurse. She will place a white linen sheet over the bed where you will sleep,’ Anna said slowly, as though repeating a lesson. ‘In the morning my father will send her to inspect the sheet to see if there is blood on it…’

‘Blood?’ Isabella echoed. ‘Why should there be blood…?’ Anna bit her lip.

‘I think it is a sign the bride is a virgin and her husband has – has entered into her. Y-you must have seen the animals mating sometimes, Isabella?’ she asked, willing her to understand things she scarcely understood herself.

‘B-but I didn’t know a man… I mean, I had not considered.’ She longed for her mother.

‘Lizzie does not think Henry will do what a husband ought to do. If there is no blood Lizzie says father will blame Henry. He’ll be very angry. Lizzie says he might even insist on staying in the room with you the next night to make sure Henry does what he is supposed to do. Zander has always helped Henry when he is in trouble with father, but I do not think he can help him over this.’

‘I should not like anyone in my bedchamber,’ Isabella said, her face flaming at the prospect.

‘Can you keep a secret? Lizzie has a plan to prevent Father getting angry.’

‘Then I will keep a secret.’ Isabella was beginning to feel bewildered and nervous. Anna smiled in relief. She hated when her father raged at Henry, as he had done often recently. ‘The women are preparing fowls for a feast. Lizzie will save a small cup of blood. I am to hide it in Henry’s bedroom. In the morning you must spill the blood on the linen sheet before you leave the room. Lizzie will show the sheet to my father as proof that Henry has - has done as a husband should. Everyone will believe he has acted as a proper man. Maybe in time, when he knows you better, he may act as a real man,’ she added doubtfully. ‘Will you do this, Isabella? Do you promise not to tell anyone? If my father found out we had deceived him he would whip both of us, and Henry too. He might even put us in the dungeons.’ She shuddered. ‘He is ruthless when people cheat him.’

‘I will do as you say. The secret will be ours.’ Isabella felt closer to Anna then. ‘You love your brother very much, don’t you, Anna?’

‘Yes, as I believe you must love Jamie. Henry never knew our mother. She died soon after he and his twin sister were born. He is very gentle for a boy but everyone loves him. It is since he wanted to become a monk that he makes our father so angry.’

‘Then I shall do my best to protect him from his father’s anger. He reminds me of my young sisters. I think it will not be hard to love him as another brother.’ Anna gave a sigh of relief.

‘The past two days, since Zander carried Jamie to me to nurse and heal his wound, they have been the strangest I can remember,’ she said. ‘Now this is your wedding and we must dress you in the finest clothes I can find. You are as tall as I am but you are more slender.’ She lifted the lid of a second clothes chest and lifted out a beautiful dress in crimson velvet with wide sleeves and a split skirt, held in place by tiny bows. The front panel had been richly embroidered. Please try this one, Isabella and I will call for Maggie to help me take in the seams.’

Isabella gasped. She had never seen such a beautiful dress, even though her mother was an expert with her needle. But her mother tended to favour plainer garments, possibly due to the influence of the nuns who had reared her. Would she have been more lavish if she had been preparing for a daughter’s wedding, Isabella wondered. She glanced up and saw the wistful look on Anna’s face. In that moment she knew Anna had sewn the dress for her own wedding.

‘It is truly beautiful Anna but I fear it would bring me bad luck if I wore the dress which has been so lovingly made in preparation for your own wedding. I am right, am I not?’

‘We-ell yes, but I must dress you in something lovely for this special time, even though it is a marriage neither of you want.’

‘You have a kind and generous heart, Anna, but any other dress will do so long as it is clean.’ Anna thought for a moment then her blue eyes lit up.

‘I have one with laces. It is a little tight for me but it should fit you perfectly if I tie the laces tightly. I will bring it. It will save time too when all the women are so busy preparing food.’

‘I don’t want to cause any trouble.’

‘It is no trouble,’ Anna smiled. ‘I think I shall enjoy having a sister and we must sew together to make you a chest full of clothes when you have none of your own here.’

‘I left everything behind,’ Isabella said tremulously and her eyes filled with tears. ‘When I was ten my father brought me a shiny copper needle case with needles in many sizes. I treasured it. My mother learned to sew at the convent so she is very good. I must tell Jamie to give my small treasures to Marjorie. She is twelve now. If my father had been alive he would have brought back a needle case and some silk for her too.’

‘It is very sad. I love my father,’ Anna said, ‘Lizzie tried so hard but sometimes I longed for a mother to love us and comfort us when we felt sad or lonely. It will be lovely if we are friends, Isabella. When I marry Walter in the spring you must come to visit.’

‘Will you not live here?’ Isabella asked with disappointment.

‘No, but I shall not be far away. The Watchtower was built on the land belonging to Walter’s family so he is building a new stone house close by. If there is any danger from reivers we can move to the top floor of the Watchtower for safety until they have gone.’

‘Do reivers still come here often? Our mother hated the raids and she dreaded when my father had to lead a return raid into England. She prays King James will make peace for everyone, but I fear some men may never want to live in peace whether they live in Scotland or in England.’

‘We don’t have raids as often as we did when our reivers went over the border and stole English cattle and plundered homes and used their women.’ Anna shuddered. ‘The English reivers came back with even more men then. Sometimes all the women and children had to crowd into the Henry’s room at the top and the men with bows and arrows climbed the ladder to hide behind the turrets on the roof and shoot at the enemy below. That is why all the stairs are narrow and twisting to make it easier to defend each floor. Father still insists a guard must be on duty at the top of each flight of stairs at nights. He distrusts some of the neighbouring clans even more than the English. That is why he couldn’t let your brother escape without a penalty. He is afraid he will get a reputation for getting too lenient.’

‘I see,’ Isabella said thoughtfully. ‘I must tell Jamie about the guards on each floor. We too have narrow winding stairs but we have not had any raids from the English since the year before my father’s death so Jamie has never had guards. I think he will have enemies enough with the Truddles and their relatives when they know he is still alive, but he knows now they cannot be trusted.’

‘I wish all the raids and thieving would stop and let us live in peace,’ Anna said with a sigh, ‘but my father says it has gone on for four hundred years and it will take at least two generations or more before men can live without the thrill of the chase.’