The Border Lord's Bride (44 page)

"He was right, wife," Duncan said softly. "Did he hurt you, Ellen?"

She knew what he was asking, and, looking up into his face, she answered him. "Nay. He did not harm me," she said as softly. And to her surprise the lie did not trouble her. "I was brought to Colby Castle, and imprisoned in a dungeon cell. There I languished for well over a month. I saw no one. Spoke to no one. What little food I was given was brought to me by a taciturn jailer who rarely spoke. I was so lonely for the sound of a human voice that I talked aloud to myself. And I made friends with a young rat. I would speak with him. He listened politely, for he knew I would share a bit of my food with him," she told Duncan with a mischievous smile.

They had greeted each other outside. Now together they walked hand in hand back into the hall at Cleit, where Conal and Adair waited to welcome the laird of Duffdour. And when they had they discreetly absented themselves so the reunited couple might speak together. Ellen took up her story again.

"I thought surely you would find me, husband. I waited and I waited, but you never came. I know now it is because no one realized that Sir Roger had this home. His family must have once been of importance, for Colby Castle is sturdily built, and obviously in a place of strategic import, for it has fine views of the Solway and the sea. That first day I was housed in the tower I thought it was the sea itself," she told him.

"And Sir Roger conducted himself as a gentleman at all times?" he pressed again.

"Husband, say what it is you wish to say. Did he mount and fuck me? Nay, he did not," Ellen said testily, and it was the truth, she reasoned with herself. "But he did fondle and kiss me several times in preparation for doing so. He was quite plain in his intent, but he has a vile opinion of women. He calls us all whores and sluts. He thought I could be seduced if he isolated me from the world without the comforts of company, and when he saw that I couldn‘t he

determined he would force me to his will. Almost a week ago he brought me into his hall and told me so.

"And it was then that I learned that Ian Johnston was also in Sir Roger‘s clutches. He had been languishing in the castle dungeons for almost five months. My host had him brought up from that foul place. I was shocked by what I saw. The creature was bearded, with long hair, and he stank to high heaven. Sir Roger told him he might regain his good graces if he aided him in an endeavor he was about to undertake. Of course, Johnston immediately agreed, as would any if it meant escaping those dungeons."

"What new mischief is that English devil up to now?" Duncan asked his wife.

"Sir Roger had been briefly visited by someone from King Henry himself. He brought Colby a message. It was a riddle. The king sent to say to Sir Roger that there was a thorn in the paw of the lion, and he wished it removed."

"The lion is England, the thorn James Stewart," the laird of Duffdour said. Ellen nodded.

"Precisely. When Colby told me this riddle he was confused, and I foolishly burst forth that the lion was Henry Tudor. Sir Roger figured out the rest, and plans to attempt to assassinate our king in order to regain his king‘s approval."

Duncan nodded. "Go on, wife. Tell me of your escape."

"That morning in the hall after the castle sergeant had taken Johnston off to be cleaned up, Sir Roger told me that that night he would have me in his bed. Since I had always been confined closely, I knew there was no way I could escape if I were put back in my tower to await this fate.

Oh, I might have jumped from the windows, but frankly I am a coward, husband. Besides, as I stood there in the hall I realized I had but once chance to evade Sir Roger‘s lustful intentions.

And so I taunted him."

"You what?" Duncan looked puzzled.

"I taunted him and cut at his pride. I told him he was a coward to force me to his will when I did not want such a thing. He mocked me, saying as he so often did that all women were whores and sluts, and that I would give in to him. I continued to deride him, saying he had not the courage to let me loose to run. I challenged him to give me an hour, and then come after me like a hunter hunting a roe deer. He was fully aware that I was baiting him, and yet his pride could not withstand my ridicule. He agreed on the condition that when I was caught I would become his willing mistress, and remain with him until he tired of me. And he further insisted that I run barefoot and in my chemise."

"The swine!" the laird burst forth, his outrage jostling the settle where they sat.

The outburst made Ellen laugh. "Nay, Duncan, it was actually better. I had no heavy skirts to weigh me down, and I spent most of my life in the Highlands barefoot. He did me a favor, although he knew it not."

"You took a terrible chance, sweeting," her husband said. "He should have caught you. What miracle prevented him from doing so?"

Ellen then told him the story of her grandfather and the great buck. She explained how she had followed the wisdom of the noble creature by taking to the water. He was amazed that she had had the knowledge to back across the narrow beach, sweeping her footsteps away so no trace of her could be easily found.

"I did think I heard the dogs briefly, but then I did not," Ellen said. "When I thought it safe I left the water and ran along the sand until I came to its end. The waters were gone in that area of the firth, and Scotland was just a little distance away. I began to pick my way as quickly as possible across the mudflats. I was almost to the other side when I saw a group of men gesturing to me. I was near enough to see that they were monks. At that moment I heard a mighty roar and, turning my head, saw a wall of water rushing up the firth toward me. One of the men broke from the others, pulled up his robes, and, running out to meet me, grabbed my hand and told me to hurry.

"We ran but the waters finally overcame us. Brother Griogair began to swim, pulling me along as he did, and I swam with him, for I learned to swim as a child. It was but a moment, although it felt longer; then our feet touched the bottom again. The monks took me to the monastery, and the next morning Brother Griogair took me to his cousin, Robert Ferguson, the laird of Aldclune.

Robert Ferguson took me to his cousin David, and together they brought me to safety at Cleit."

"I owe the Fergusons more than I can ever repay them," Duncan Armstrong said, and he pulled her into his lap, his arms tightening about her.

"Conal has promised them that they may ride with us when we kill Colby," Ellen said. "And I would make a small gift of some sort to St. Andrews. Perhaps one of the gold coins from my dower? They did save my life, and then saw that I was brought back to you, husband. I think that is worth a gold coin, even though we have not many." She laid her head on his shoulder.

"I agree," the laird said, turning his own head to give her a quick kiss. Then he grew serious.

"But what of this plot against the king?"

"I only know that Sir Roger will make an attempt on the king‘s life. I know nothing more, and I did not think it behooved me to wait about, given Sir Roger‘s plans for me, husband," Ellen said with some small humor. "We have the advantage of knowing that he plans such an attempt, and that Ian Johnston will be somehow involved in it. That I have this knowledge will not deter him, for he thinks little of the female intellect or honor. And more than likely he will think me dead, as he could not find me. It would never occur to him that I actually could have outwitted him and escaped him. Such a thought would be too painful to his great pride."

"You seem to know your captor well," Duncan said, his tone sharp.

Ellen heard it, but she never moved in his arms, saying instead, "He was not a particularly complex man, husband. It was apparent from the moment he stole me away that his pride rules him in every decision he makes. Having lived at court, I am capable of taking the measure of a man very quickly, for the wrong friend can cost you more than royal favor. To survive at court you must live on instinct and your wits."

"Sometimes you amaze me," the laird told her candidly. "I keep thinking you are this innocent little Highland girl, but you are not, are you, wife?"

"Not since my first week in Lady Margaret‘s household," Ellen replied with a chuckle. "I quickly learned to blend in lest I be singled out, and to keep my thoughts to myself, and never to share my private thoughts with anyone. At court, when you have no great family name or powerful protector, it is best to be discreet," she told him.

Now it was he who chuckled. "You are a wise woman, Ellen, my wife," he told her. "A very wise woman."

"How is the bairn?" she asked him now that she had told him her tale and he had seemed to accept it. "Is my son well?"

"Peigi, bless her, found a wet nurse that same day you disappeared," Duncan told her. "There were several nursing mothers in the village, including Machara. Peigi found her the healthiest, saw how her infant was thriving and that she had very big breasts laden with milk. Her own bairn could not take it all. It allowed me to move her and her bairns into the house. Her oldest boy was apprenticing with his father, who was my fletcher. Now that task is his. The arrows he makes are sturdy and fly true. I put Farlan, for that is his name, with the man who was Duffdour‘s fletcher before his father. The old man was recently widowed, and, while frail, he is still capable of overseeing a young fletcher. Farlan gets on well with him. Evina proved difficult. I found her one night naked in my bed awaiting me. Artair told me she had been causing difficulties among the men, who were stealing from one another in order to pay to fuck her."

"What?" Ellen stiffened in his arms.

He heard the jealousy in her voice, and grinned. "I took her back to her Machara, who beat her soundly. The next day I sent her to Maggie‘s convent with instructions for Mother Mary Andrew to teach Evina how to be respectable so we could marry her off. She ran away after a week, and hasn‘t been heard from since. She‘s undoubtedly found her way to some brothel, where she can ply her trade with impunity."

"Good riddance!" Ellen snapped. "Now you have told me everything except how our wee Willie is. You say he is well? Laria, the nursemaid Peigi chose, does well with him? He thrives?"

"Laria was at first jealous of Machara, but when she saw that the woman‘s only function was to feed the bairn she grew content. And aye, Willie thrives. He knows us all when he sees us, and his bright eyes light up."

"He does not know me," Ellen said sadly.

"Ahh, sweeting, he will after a few days, and he‘ll never know that you were gone from him these months," Duncan comforted her. "While he has my eyes, the hair he had at birth, the little of it there was, has fallen out, and ‘tis growing back as red as yours again."

"Oh, dear!" Ellen said nervously. "Red-haired men are troublesome, I fear. My grandsire had red hair in his youth, although I certainly never knew him then, but he always said redheaded men were difficult, and he certainly proved it himself."

Duncan Armstrong chuckled. "Willie will have two strong parents to raise him and teach him what is right," he said. "Are you well enough for us to go home tomorrow?" he wondered solicitously.

"Aye, I want to go home," Ellen told him. "When will we take our revenge upon Roger Colby? I am going with you, for I wish to see him die."

The laird of Duffdour was surprised by his wife‘s declaration. I am going with you, she had said.

Not I want to go with you, or, Will you take me with you?; nay, she had said she was going with him. "I cannot forbid you," he heard himself saying. Now, why the hell would he want to put her in danger from the English again?

"Thank you, husband," Ellen replied. "I am grateful you understand my desire to see punished this man who has robbed us of precious time and each other‘s company."

"I cannot help but feel your passion for revenge is fierce, wife," Duncan noted. "I would have thought you would never want to see him again." Was she hiding something, he wondered

silently?

"Do you not understand the cruelty I suffered at the hands of this man?" Ellen cried softly. "For weeks I lived in a damp, dark cell with no human company! I would still be there had my jailer not noticed that I was ill, and feared for his own safety should I die in his custody. Taken from all I loved, I was forced to watch my milk dry up while I lived with the knowledge that my son might die without me. I lived with the stink of my own milk souring and drying on my only garments. I was flea-bitten. My breasts ached.

"And then I lived in a tower where, while I had light and sun and watched the phases of the moon, I was again left to myself but for the sergeant and the old servant who brought me food each day. But no one spoke to me, or with me. It was if I were invisible. Then one day Roger Colby came to my tower. We played chess. Then he touched me, and I resisted his touches. To my relief I did not see him for many days. But then he would have me brought to the hall, where we would eat at the high board as if naught were amiss. And he would force his kisses and his touches upon me while I lived in fear of being so eager for human companionship that I would begin to like his kisses, his touches. Have you any idea, husband, how guilty I felt about thoughts like those?

"But I forced back my own needs because I knew that you would come to rescue me. But you did not come, Duncan. Oh, you rode the border on both sides, I know. But did you never think to seek beyond the border? Did you question every man who had ridden with Sir Roger Colby?

Certainly one of them had to know about Colby Castle. If I had not managed to escape, husband, what would you have done? Would you have given me up for lost? Left me to an undeserved fate?"

"We sought high and low for you," he protested.

"You did not seek far enough!" Ellen snapped. "And now you are surprised that I would see the man who stole my life from me, and would have violated me had fate not reached out to help me, dead with my own eyes?"

"I said you could go," he answered her helplessly.

"Aye, and in your mind you questioned why I felt so strongly about it," Ellen shot back and, seeing him flush guiltily, felt pleased.