The Border Lord's Bride (48 page)

Duncan reached up to fondle her round breasts as Ellen rode him hard. Leaning forward, she kissed him a fiery kiss; then she licked his face and nipped at his ears. Faster and faster she moved upon him, and he howled as he reached his peak, but though he flooded her with his love juices he remained hard within her. Opening his eyes, he let his gaze meet hers.

"You, husband, are the only man whose cock I have entertained," she told him. "If you ever suggest otherwise again I shall leave you, Duncan. Do you understand me?"

In response he rolled her over and began fucking her deep and hard. She had not lost her equilibrium when he first had, but now he made certain that she did. "I understand, wife!" he told her as he reamed her fiercely. And Ellen felt herself soaring in a heaven of pleasure as her brought them both to sweet fulfillment. And afterward they slept entwined in each other‘s arms.

They were sated, and if either of them had any fears, those fears had been calmed, at least for the interim.

When the winter morning came, Duncan Armstrong arose and prepared to leave Sterling for Duffdour. He left two of his men with Ellen for her personal protection, but the rest of his clansmen would ride home with him. An hour after sunrise he bade his wife, their bairn, and their servants farewell. Then, kissing Ellen and swearing his love a final time, he rode out from Sterling Castle, south and west for Duffdour.

After the Mass that morning Ellen spoke with the king in his privy chamber, asking that he forgive the laird for departing without giving his lord a formal farewell.

"Nay, my bonny, I expected last night that he would go quickly. We cannot trust the weather at this time of year, and he has a two-day or longer ride home, and much to do when he gets there.

How high are your walls?"

"Ten feet, my lord," Ellen said, "but Duncan says he will raise them to fifteen or more during the winter. There was some stone left over, and the quarry is nearby. The cold will not deter them.

Only the snows."

"I am sorry, my bonny, that you could not leave with your man, but as you said last night, Colby is not yet caught," James Stewart replied.

"He will go to ground for a short while, I think," Ellen told the king. "He has lost his ally in their failed attempt to poison you. He is a clever man, and will consider carefully before trying again.

But try he will, I fear."

"I know," James Stewart said. "And King Henry will wait to see if his man is successful before he brings his armies into play against us. He would have come last autumn following our debacle into England had not some of his own subjects objected." He chuckled. "It would seem that we kings are much alike, and our subjects too."

"What happened?" Ellen asked.

"The Cornish objected to being taxed to pay for a war on England‘s northern frontier. You see, they are at the farthest southern end of England. A rather large group of Cornishmen marched all the way up to London, forcing Henry Tudor to do battle with his own subjects instead of mine. I lit many candles to Saint Ninian in thanks, my bonny," the king told her with another chuckle.

"But the English king would have a truce of me. He would have me turn over King Richard the Fourth to him, but I have refused. As much as I would enjoy ridding myself of my guest, it would be dishonorable to do such a thing. Now it is suggested that I go to London to negotiate personally with Henry Tudor. I shall not, however, for sooner or later any visit I make to London will be called an act of homage, and I shall be called a vassal of the English. I will not meet any king of England except on our common border, but what am I to do with Katherine Gordon and her husband?"

"Why not offer him an earldom here?" Ellen suggested to the king. "You know what Adair Radcliffe has told you, and you know she does not lie. You have had your use of this Yorkist pretender, whoever he is, my lord. And he has cost you a pretty penny, I have not a doubt. He will never be king of England, whatever he may believe, and we both know it. Give him a Scots title. It would make the Gordons of Huntley happy, for it would mean their daughter would remain in Scotland."

"And I should have to spend the rest of my days listening to her natter about all of her Richard‘s virtues," the king said with a small smile. "But ‘tis a clever solution to a thorny problem, my bonny. You are wise, my little Highland lass. How did you become so skilled as to offer such a good answer to my difficulties? My advisers are not so useful in the matter as you have been."

"You forget, my good lord, that I have lived at court on and off for the last few years. I do not concern myself with gossip, lovers, or fashion, but I do listen. And few, if any, pay attention to me, for most men do not believe women can understand the difficult tasks of politics and government," Ellen told James Stewart, "but I do. And of course, common sense, of which women have far more than men, plays a part in it too."

He laughed. "I do not think Duncan Armstrong knows the wife he has been fortunate enough to gain, my bonny. I think he owes me a great debt for matching you with him." Then the king grew serious. "Did Johnston‘s words distress him? I saw how pale you grew with them, and how disturbed he became when he heard them."

"Aye, he was harmed by them, to be sure," Ellen admitted. "But he also knows I do not lie.

Roger Colby did not rape me, my lord. He kissed me. He fondled me, and indeed he had every intention of having me as his mistress, but he failed in that, because he allowed his pride to get the better of him."

"And you escaped," the king said. "It was said you crossed the mudflats of the Solway when the tide was out."

"I did, but not because I was clever, and I was almost drowned in the attempt," Ellen admitted to him. "I tricked Colby into releasing me in order to hunt me down like some animal. He was so certain he could that he escorted me outside of his castle himself and let me go. What he was not cognizant of was that I hunted with my grandsire as a girl in the Highlands. I knew enough to take to the water so his dogs could not track me. And his sergeant had told me the castle sat not quite on the Irish Sea, but on the Solway. And to my good fortune it was at the far end of the firth. What I did not know was that the tide was about to reenter the firth. Actually, having been raised in the Highlands, I knew nothing about tidal rivers. I reached the narrowest part of it, no more than a mile wide in distance, and, seeing Scotland across the mudflats, I ran across as fast as I could. I was almost to the other side when I heard this mighty roar and saw the waters spilling forth from the sea. A group of monks on the shore observed me, and one of them came to help me. We swam the last yards to the beach, and without Brother Griogair I should have drowned. ‘Twas God‘s own luck, my lord, that I escaped unscathed."

"Amazing!" James Stewart said to her. "I had not heard the entire tale, just that you had managed to get away. I believe it is fate that put you in my hands, Ellen MacArthur. You know I have the eye and often see things others do not. I now think you were meant to be captured by Sir Roger so that when the day came you would be able to identify him and save my life. You saved it last night when you recognized Ian Johnston beneath that walnut stain he used to impersonate a Moorish slave."

"If it please you, my lord, I should rather Roger Colby never existed at all," Ellen told the king,

"but I will stay with you until he can be caught and executed. You saved me from a horrid fate, Jamie Stewart, and I owe you a debt. But after this we are quits, my lord. Can you understand that?" She looked directly at him.

The king smiled at her. "Aye," he said, "I can, and I agree, my bonny. After this your debt to me is indeed paid in full, for you will have saved my life twice."

"Good!" Ellen told him. "For I cannot be the kind of wife that Duncan Armstrong deserves if I cannot be at Duffdour. And our son needs to be there, as it will one day be his to care for and protect."

"You love him very much, don‘t you, my bonny?" James Stewart said.

Ellen nodded. "Aye, my lord, I do."

At the end of January they departed Sterling Castle for Linlithgow, where they would remain the rest of the winter. Although Ellen found the king‘s mistress, Meg Drummond, charming, she preferred the company of the king‘s aunt. And then too there was her son, wee Willie, who now, to her delight, knew his mother well. His little face would light up as she came into his view, and he would hold his arms out to her to be picked up, which Ellen always did. He was looking more like his father with each passing day, and Ellen missed her husband greatly. Although she wrote to him, he had not the time to write to her.

But the only thing Duncan Armstrong wanted to hear was that his wife was coming home soon.

Had he not been busy adding to the walls of Duffdour, he might have gone hunting for Sir Roger Colby himself. And then in late winter the laird of Duffdour learned that someone had been living at Devil‘s Glen in the past few weeks. He sent to Linlithgow to inform the king. James Stewart came with all possible haste, and to the laird‘s delight he brought Ellen with him.

Ellen flew into her husband‘s arms, kissing him, receiving his kisses, and the king laughed heartily. "What, Duffdour, have you missed the wench?" he teased the laird.

His arm about his wife‘s supple waist, Duncan Armstrong admitted, "Well, perhaps a wee bit, my lord."

"She‘s a good lass," the king replied. "I hope we‘ll be able to end this problem so she will not have to return with me to Linlithgow."

"Aye," the laird said. "I would like that. Duffdour is not quite the same without its mistress." He nodded almost imperceptibly to Sim, and the servants brought wine to the king and his small party. And while they were thus diverted Duncan Armstrong turned to his wife. "The bairn?" he asked her.

"At Linlithgow, husband," Ellen told him. "I did not want to take the chance of bringing him, only to have to go back. Machara and Laria will take good care of him. I brought Gunna home with me. If we kill Colby I can send for them. If we don‘t, and I must return with the king, it is easier on the bairn. Besides, we traveled quickly, and the pace would have been too difficult for him and his nurses."

"I‘ve missed you both," the laird said.

"And I you," Ellen returned. "You should see our son, Duncan! He looks just like you, but he does indeed have my red hair, and a temper to match it." She laughed. "But, oh, he can be so charming when he is getting his own way. Even the princess adores him, as do all the ladies at court. She says he will one day break many hearts. With all his admirers he has become quite spoiled, I fear."

"Coming home to Duffdour will be quite a change for him then," the laird said.

"He‘ll adjust," Ellen assured her husband. "He is, after all, quite wee, and is actually very good-natured. There will be other things here that will catch his attention, like the dogs in the hall, the cats in the barns, the horses, the sheep and cattle. Willie is a very bright little fellow, husband.

He doesn‘t just look like you. I can see he has your intelligence when he grows quiet, and you can see he is considering something."

"You put a great deal on a young bairn, wife," the laird said. "He will not be a year until the end of this month."

"You do not know him!" Ellen defended her child.

"Nay, I do not, for my wife has been at court these past months, and my son with her," Duncan Armstrong replied tartly.

There it was again, Ellen thought. That suspicious tone in his voice.

"May I remind you that I have not been at court by choice," Ellen answered him spiritedly in equally low tones. "I am not a great name, nor the wife of a man with a great name. I have no wealth. I must live at the mercy of the powerful, little better than a servant, husband. "I am barely noticed or even spoken to by the women of important families. Only my small connection with the king and his aunt prevents me from being entirely ignored. Do you think I prefer such a life to being in my own home, where I am mistress of all? Where I am respected?" There were tears in her eyes. Ellen stamped her foot at him angrily, causing the others in the hall to turn curiously.

"What is this, my bonny," the king wanted to know. "You are scarce home, and you are

quarreling with the man?"

"My foot fell asleep, my lord," Ellen said. "I was merely stamping it to waken it."

"I see," James Stewart said, and his eyes were twinkling. He turned to the laird. "Now, my lord, tell me when we will ride out to run this English fox to ground."

"As the day is almost done, my lord, and ‘tis moon-dark tonight, I thought we might go foxhunting on the morrow," Duncan Armstrong said.

"Excellent!" the king responded enthusiastically. "I long to meet this man who would kill me in order to regain the favor of his king. Not that Henry Tudor would admit to even suggesting such a thing. Nor would I, were our positions reversed."

While the men spoke Ellen had slipped from the hall and gone down into the kitchens to make certain the meal about to be served would suffice. The king had sent a messenger ahead of them who had arrived several hours before the royal party to warn the laird of their arrival, and how many would need to be fed. Ellen found her kitchen bustling, with fires roaring in the two hearths, pots steaming, and the smell of bread baking. The cook, a tall, thin woman, hurried to greet her mistress, curtsying.

"I can see you have everything well in hand, Lizzie," Ellen said, smiling.

"Welcome home, my lady!" the cook greeted her. "Aye, I think we will manage, though it be early spring and the larder scant. You‘ll not be shamed at the high board, I promise you, and below the board there will be plenty of good venison stew, bread, cheese, and ale for all. How long will we need to feed this lot?"

"Probably several days," Ellen replied. "Perhaps we can send some of the men fishing to help add to our supplies. And rabbits are always in good supply."

"Aye," the cook agreed. "We will manage, my lady."

"I know I can depend upon you, Lizzie," Ellen told the cook. She looked about the kitchen. "And the rest of you as well. I tell you that at court the servants cannot hold a candle to those of you at Duffdour. Thank you." Then Ellen left the kitchens to return upstairs to the hall and her guests.