The Border Lord's Bride (57 page)

"Are you mad?" Patrick Hepburn shouted at the king when he learned of the challenge. "Surrey is famed for his skill with the sword. No one has ever beaten him."

"I‘m younger, and even more skilled," the king defended his decision. "Besides, I sense that my luck is strong, and it tells me I will not be killed by this man."

"You‘ll not be killed because you can‘t do it," Lord Home said quietly.

"Aye, we‘ll not let you," the Earl of Angus said.

But James Stewart was so adamant that he would fight the Earl of Surrey in a single combat that his lords, not knowing what else to do, sent for the Spanish ambassador, who, learning of the king‘s proposal, came with all possible speed. Although many of the earls disliked Ayala and were jealous of his friendship and influence with their young king, they realized that if they could not convince James Stewart to withdraw the challenge, perhaps—just perhaps—Ayala could.

Pedro de Ayala had been horrified to learn of what the young king had done, but he also realized that a king‘s pride was involved. It would take the utmost skill and diplomacy to convince James Stewart to amend his plans.

The king was quite surprised to see his friend. He had left de Ayala behind this time because he did not want to divide his friend‘s loyalties. De Ayala would have reported the Scots battle plans to King Ferdinand, who would probably have sent the information to King Henry in an effort to show his friendship for England. But now here stood de Ayala before him in his tent.

"So, Pedro, they have sent for you in an attempt to dissuade me," the king said.

"Aye, they have," de Ayala said. "I think you are the noblest of kings to have suggested such a brave yet simple solution to the problem facing you. But one thing concerns me greatly, Jamie."

"And what is that?" the king wanted to know. He would listen to de Ayala because the man had always been candid with him.

"Suffolk has a wife, children, heirs. If you kill him his eldest son will step into his place, and there will be another Earl of Suffolk. But if by the merest chance your foot slips, or, flush with your success, you let your guard down and Suffolk kills you, what will happen to Scotland? It would have no king, for you have no legitimate heirs, no wife. Civil war would ensue in the battle to succeed you, Jamie. And while your clans battled against one another, the English would march into Scotland and annex it.

"I have traveled all over our world, and nowhere but here are the rights of the common man so protected. Not in England, nor my España, nor France, nor in the German or Italian states. Every king before you has built on those rights. You follow in their footsteps, and the common folk adore you. Your earls and the lords love you. You will marry one day, and when you do your son will follow in your path, and that of the kings of Scotland before him, because you will teach him to do so. But there will be no king of Scotland if the Earl of Surrey should have the luck to kill you.

"You cannot do this, Jamie. I understand the desire you have to stop all of this chaos in the borders. A desire so strong that you would risk your own life, and the future of your country. But you cannot allow yourself to do such a thing. First you and King Henry must establish a true rule of law in your borders. As it is now, the lairds rule, and while they are loyal to you, they think nothing on a fine summer‘s night with the moon high in the sky of raiding into England or settling a feud with one another. And the English are the same. But once you and King Henry bring your laws firmly into the borders and enforce them, disputes between the Scots and the English can be settled in the Warden‘s Court. But if you are to live to see that you must withdraw your challenge to the Earl of Surrey, Jamie. Your responsibilities are too great."

"I will be dishonored, and the laughingstock of Europe," James Stewart protested. "Besides, you know I have the eye, and it tells me I will not be killed."

Pedro de Ayala nodded. "I respect this strange instinct you seem to have, my friend, but you cannot allow it to lead you astray. What if this instinct is some small devil that wishes to bring chaos to Scotland by causing you to believe you are invincible?"

"I trust those instincts, Pedro. They have guided me my whole life," the king said.

"I will not argue their value to you, but you must still withdraw the challenge you made to the Earl of Surrey," the Spanish ambassador said quietly.

"How, without bringing shame on myself, on Scotland?" the king demanded.

"It will be difficult, ‘tis true," de Ayala conceded, "but it can be done. With your permission I will dictate the letter to the English. You will stand by my side and hear it as it is written. You may perchance wish to change a phrase or a word as you listen."

Reluctantly, but knowing that his friend was right, James Stewart called in his personal secretary.

"You will take down what the ambassador says," he told him.

De Ayala began: "To his gracious lordship, Edward, Earl of Surrey, greetings from His Majesty James Stewart, God‘s own anointed king of Scotland. It is with great reluctance that I now withdraw my honorable challenge to you for single combat. It has been pointed out to me that for a Scots king to do battle with an English earl would be considered an unequal combat. An earl may die and leave his master‘s kingdom little changed, for the monarch would still rule. But the death of this king would be a disaster to my kingdom, my lords, and especially to my people."

De Ayala looked to James.

The king nodded. "Go on," he said.

"I tender you my apologies for rescinding this challenge, which you have honorably accepted,"

de Ayala concluded. "Does it meet with Your Majesty‘s approval?"

"I wish to add something to it," the king said, and looked to his secretary. "I promise you, my lord, that upon another day, in a distant year, when I have sired a legitimate heir for my kingdom, I will, if you are agreeable, renew my challenge."

"Most gracious," de Ayala said, although he really thought the king‘s words quite unnecessary.

He realized, however, that James Stewart was merely soothing his pride, and the truth was that there was no real harm in it.

When the letter had been copied, signed, sealed, and sent off, the king asked to be alone. His earls and his lords were so relieved that they did not argue with him. De Ayala understood that James Stewart felt embarrassed, and depressed by what he had had to do. His instincts which had never failed him, had told him that he should have gone after Surrey on this day, for he would have slain him without a doubt. And having avoided the issue, James Stewart knew that one day he would have to deal with Surrey again, and the next time it would be to his detriment. The king dismissed his border lords and went back to Edinburgh with his earls and his small army.

Duncan Armstrong and his half brother Conal Bruce returned to Duffdour with their men, and their wives welcomed them warmly. The English did not come over the border after the Scots.

Winter was upon them, and Surrey had not provisioned his army well. They deserted in droves, returning to their own homes. Hercules Hepburn came to Duffdour to tell them that a truce with the English had been signed at Ayton Castle. It would last seven years. The king had not regained the disputed Berwick, but the treaty listed in most careful detail the functions to be held by the Warden‘s Court for both sides of the border. There were even rules regarding the surrender of wanted men by either side to the other. Both kings were going to try to bring order to the borders.

"And," Hercules Hepburn said, "the king has agreed to cease all activity on behalf of the pretender. From henceforth he will no longer be called King Richard the Fourth. But he will be addressed as the Duke of York. And we won‘t surrender him to King Henry or any other. That has made Huntley and his Gordons happy, I can tell you."

"My cousin does everything but admit his wrong," Adair said archly.

"Give over, woman," Conal Bruce told his wife.

"There is more, isn‘t there?" Ellen asked. She was sitting comfortably in her husband‘s lap.

"Aye," Hercules Hepburn said. "The king has offered the duke a Scots earldom, with some small lands and an income, if he will renounce his claim to England‘s throne and any English titles.

The fool, of course, is resisting such a solution with all his might, but the Gordons are attempting to convince him to accept for their daughter‘s sake. She is again with child by her husband, and the first bairn is not strong."

"Poor lass," Ellen said.

Adair arched an eyebrow. "You pity her after the way she‘s treated you?"

"Aye, I pity her," Ellen said. "She has nothing, and I have everything."

"She‘s an earl‘s daughter, and she can be an earl‘s wife if her husband is not a fool, which he is,"

Adair said. "You are but an unimportant little Highland lass married to an unimportant bonnet laird."

"And you are an unimportant king‘s brat married to an unimportant bonnet laird," Ellen countered wickedly with a grin. "But you are happy, and so am I. We love the men to whom we are wed. Our children are bonny. Katherine Gordon is married to a pompous fraud, and now, unless her husband accepts King James‘s offer, she is homeless. And her bairn is not well, and she is to have another. You can‘t possibly envy her, Adair. And if you do not envy her, then you must pity her."

"Your heart is too good," Adair said with a small smile. Duncan‘s wife was just perfect for him.

She had just enough backbone, and a warm nature.

The Bruces, along with Hercules Hepburn, departed Duffdour just before Twelfth Night, leaving Ellen and Duncan alone and to themselves. The winter set in, to be followed by the spring.

Ellen‘s second son, to be called Ewan, after her beloved grandfather, was born on the first day of June. Like his older sibling he was a sturdy bairn, but he had his father‘s dark hair, unlike the red-haired Willie.

The summer was a pleasant one, with no raids in their vicinity. The lairds were following the king‘s law, and the Warden‘s Court was operating smoothly. In October, when Hercules

Hepburn came to hunt grouse in the heather with Duncan Armstrong and Conal Bruce, he

brought with him news of what had happened to the Duke of York. Hercules told the tale that first evening in the hall after supper.

"No one could convince this fellow married to the Gordon lass to take a Scots title," Hercules related, "neither the king, nor his own wife, nor George Gordon himself. Poor Katherine gave birth this summer to another weak bairn. And then, leaving her children behind for their own safety, she set sail with her husband. They went to Ireland first, but even Kildare and Desmond would not help him this time. So they foolishly sailed for England, landing in Cornwall, where the duke raised a rebellion among those country folk who were still not happy with King Henry‘s latest taxes. He advanced as far as Exeter, but could not gain the town, and when royal troops approached he broke and ran, as we have seen him do before. He took refuge at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire, and it was there that he surrendered to King Henry. He‘s in the Tower."

"What happened to Katherine Gordon?" Ellen asked Hercules.

"They say the queen has taken her into her household, and treats her kindly," he answered Ellen.

Ellen nodded. "Poor lass," she said as she had said before, and she meant it. She wondered if Katherine Gordon would ever see her family or her bairns again. Even Adair would see the tragedy in that when she was told.

Ellen snuggled closer to her husband later that night as he lay snoring by her side. She was not a woman of any great worth, she considered. And Duncan was not a man of any significance. But they had a good home, beautiful bairns, and the favor of Scotland‘s king. Their granaries were full and their livestock fat. And I would change nothing, Ellen thought. She reminisced briefly in her memories of Lochearn, but as the years had passed the clarity of those memories had faded away. Duffdour was her home, and it suited her.

"You‘re awake." Her husband‘s voice interrupted her thoughts. "Of what are you thinking?" he asked, and he turned so they might face each other.

"That I love you, and that I could not be happier," Ellen answered him, smiling.

The laird kissed her a long, sweet, and lingering kiss. "Go to sleep, wife," he said softly, and he smiled back at her as he wrapped his arms about her.

"Yes, husband," Ellen answered him, and, safe in his embrace, she closed her eyes to dream of more sons, a red-haired daughter, and of even happier days to come.

Afterword

On the twenty-third of November in the year 1499, Perkin Warbeck was hanged on the charge of attempting to escape from the Tower of London with the last true Yorkist claimant to England‘s throne, the young Earl of Warwick, who had been imprisoned there for many years.

King James IV of Scotland married King Henry VII‘s daughter, Margaret Tudor, who gave him his heir. And the second sight he was known to possess, called in his time the eye, never failed him. He died in the summer of 1513 at the Battle of Flodden, perishing along with most of his nobility as they once more fought the English, again led by the Earl of Surrey.

Ninety years later, Scotland overcame its longtime rivals when Henry VII‘s granddaughter, Elizabeth Tudor, England‘s queen for over forty years, died, leaving England to James IV‘s great-grandson, James VI, who became James I of England. But even then there was no real peace in the borders.

About the Author

Bertrice Small is a New York Times bestselling author and the recipient of numerous awards including the 2006 Career Achievement Award for Historical Romance from Romantic Times magazine. In keeping with her profession, Bertrice Small lives in the oldest English-speaking town in the state of New York, founded in 1640. Her light-filled studio includes the paintings of her favorite cover artist, Elaine Duillo, and a large library. Because she believes in happy endings, Bertrice Small has been married to the same man, her hero, George, for forty-four years.

They have a son, Thomas; a daughter-in-law, Megan; and four wonderful grandchildren.