The Enchantress (36 page)

Laura stood with her back to the closed shutter. She held a blanket around her, and her violet eyes gazed affectionately across the room at him.

William let out a long breath. A breath that he’d been holding for an eternity. He slowly stepped into the chamber and closed the door.

She smiled. A loving smile, a forgiving smile. She let go of the blanket, and it pooled around her feet. Her ivory skin, free of any encumbering clothing, glowed in the dim light of the chamber. Her eyes shone with love.

“I believe,” she said, gliding across the floor, “I now have your attention.”

Only two days before the welcoming in of the new year at Hogmanay with its traditional feasting and gift giving, Laura was surprised when a breathless young Robbie ran to her in the kitchens, interrupting her discussion with Chonny.

“The provost needs to see ye, mistress. He says ‘tis very important.”

Having just returned from a successful trip into the village, she had a great deal to attend to, but the boy’s face clearly conveyed the importance of thesummons.

“Thank you, Robbie. Tell him I’ll be there shortly.”

Stopping by the laird’s chamber first, Laura hid away the little surprise she had for William and then passed into the work room to meet with Gilbert.

As she entered, she noticed the shuttered window and the serious look on her new in-law’s face before spotting the small wooden chest--banded in iron and sporting a large lock--set beside a lit candle on William’s worktable.

A feeling of uneasiness prickled her. Laura had a good idea of what lay in the chest before the provost even opened his mouth to speak.

After offering her a seat, Gilbert leaned against the desk and began without ceremony. “Laura, when you and I first met at St. Duthac’s, you asked to see the correspondence my predecessor and your mother, the Lady Nichola, had exchanged before your arrival.”

“And you showed me the letters.”

He paused and then shook his head. “I only showed you what my instructions from your mother allowed me to show you.”

Her eyes moved to the ornately carved chest.

“Lady Nichola’s instructions were direct. Father Jerome was to hide this casket away. He was to protect it as if the key to the very gates of Heaven lay within its confines.” The priest’s hand rested lightly on the wooden chest. “And we were to continue our watch over it until such time as you were perfectly secure in your place of safety.”

Laura met the man’s steady blue-eyed gaze. “But did not my arrival at St. Duthac’s meet that requirement, Gilbert?”

He shook his head again, frowning. “I could not, in good conscience, guarantee your safety there. It was clear to me--after hearing of the incident at the Convent of St. Agnes--that the men who went after you there could just as easily try to take you from St. Duthac’s. So I...”

Gilbert stopped, straightening up and beginning to pace before the small fire in the hearth. Laura waited expectantly, watching him as he considered his next words carefully. His eyes darted to her a number of times. Finally, he faced her.

“Laura, in your mother’s instructions...there was a reference to marriage.”

“Marriage?”

Gilbert nodded. “Though ‘twas not a requirement in her letter of directions, she clearly stated that if you were to find a suitable husband, we should consider your situation secure.”

A frown creased Laura’s brow. “And that was the reason for your discussion of marriage with me?”

“Aye, for the most part.”

A somewhat guilty look imprinted itself on the provost’s face, and Laura suddenly realized that he had been working quite carefully to "secure" her future with his brother.

“You took a great risk, Gilbert.”

“Aye,” he admitted. “But I have a question for you. Did you...or your parents ever meet William before coming to Scotland?”

The provost’s words surprised her. “I cannot speak for my parents, but I can tell you that I never did.” She felt herself relax at the very thought of William. “I can assure you, Gilbert, your brother is not a man easily forgotten. But why do you ask?”

Gilbert Ross leaned on the table again, drawing the casket closer. “There was just...well, a hint of something in your mother’s letter. It made me think she somehow knew William, that perhaps she had met him when he was attending the queen mother while she was in exile in York. I thought, well, I thought she may even have sent you here with the hopes that you and William...”

He shrugged and looked at her hopefully.

Laura nodded and smiled in return. “‘Tis possible, brother of mine. Perhaps if I could see the letter…”

“Aye, of course. I sent word for Father Francis to bring it with him when he comes to Blackfearn tomorrow.” Reaching into his sleeve, Gilbert withdrew a key. He turned it in the lock of the chest.

“You should know, though...my new sister...that I will never admit any of this to your husband.”

She smiled in agreement. Her mother the matchmaker, Laura thought. The incomparable planner.

At the time when Laura had left England--so long ago now, it seemed--long before having met William and fallen in love with him, she might had taken exception to her mother’s secret plans for her. But now she could have no objection. Though Gilbert had certainly worked hard to see Laura married to his brother, she herself and William had made the choice.

And now she was married. Happily, rapturously married. All was well. First, John Stewart, the earl of Athol, with her sister Catherine. Now William of Blackfearn, laird of Ross, with Laura herself.

A thought flitted through her mind. Whom did her mother have in mind for Adrianne, tucked away in Barra?

Gilbert raised the lid of the casket and took a parchment, rolled and tied with a ribbon, from the inside. There was surprise in his face as he handed it to her.

“But...that is all the chest contains, Laura!”

She nodded, accepted the offering from his hand.

“I know.” She knew it would come. But her hands still shook as she broke open the seal on the ribbon and unrolled the parchment. Inside, she found short note from her mother...and a carefully drawn section of map. She had been told that one day she’d be sent one portion of the entire map. She held it now in her hands.

The provost peered down at the marks and symbols on the sheet. “‘Tis a map. She sent you a map.”

“Only one piece of a larger one,” Laura whispered. “‘Tis one key only to the hiding place of the Treasure of Tiberius. To find it you must have all three.”

“Treasure. So ‘tis not only your family’s politics that have chased you all into hiding. The greed of men pursues you as well, I take it.”

She continued to stare down at the map. “If I were certain that this treasure consisted of gold alone, then I would agree, Gilbert. But somehow I have always known that there is something more at the heart of this map. Much more.”

Gilbert moved beside her and gazed down at the figures on the map. “What do you know of it?”

“Nothing, really. Only that ‘tis very valuable. That it has been in the safekeeping of my family for a long time.” She looked at the symbols and words. There were no names written in to identify anything. “I also know that a number of different groups of men know of it and seek it.”

Laura looked up at the cleric. His brow was furrowed with concentration.

“Though I’ve never seen the treasure, Gilbert, I know this is only one of three portions of the map that will lead us to it. I am certain Catherine must by now have her portion. ‘Tis possible that Adrianne has already received hers as well.”

“And what are you three to do?”

“Protect our portions of the map and leave the treasure where ‘tis until such time as we hear from our mother. But,” Laura stopped and drew in a deep breath. “If something was to happen and our mother does not survive this terrible time, then the three of us are to act together and move the treasure to another place of safety of our choosing. My mother said that we would know where that was when the time came.”

“Move it? Protect it? But you cannot use it for your own living?” At the sounds of arriving horses and shouting in the courtyard, Gilbert moved to the window but did not open the shutter. He turned back to Laura. “I do not understand this at all.”

She smiled gently. “I don’t understand all of it, either. But I do know this. The Treasure of Tiberius is not the property of my family. ‘Tis not ours, except to protect.”

Gilbert shook his head.

We can trust no one, for there are others who--as you say--are driven by greed in the pursuit of the treasure.”

Gilbert’s face was grave as he came back and leaned against the table. “It all sounds complicated, Laura. And dangerous.”

“As it must be. Those who pursue us are not fools. The plan was to make finding the treasure impossible, or nearly so.” She reached out and touched the priest’s arm. “But harbor no fears about my welfare. You have served me well, for now I have William. As Catherine has John Stewart.”

Gilbert and Laura both turned their gazes to the door as William strode in. She was no mind reader, but it was clear from his face that something was terribly wrong. He closed the door behind him and met her gaze.

Dropping the map on the table, she was across the floor and in William’s arms in an instant. He held her fiercely to his chest.

“‘Tis not--not Miriam?” she whispered anxiously, drawing back and looking into his face.

“Nay, Laura. The lassie is fine. A messenger has just brought word from the south...from the Borders.”

“My mother!” she gasped, tears suddenly pooling in her eyes.

“Aye. She has been captured by servants of the English king.”

“It cannot be!” Laura’s breath caught in her throat as panic took hold. The tears were coursing freely down her face. “Please, Lord, not again! Not as my father...” The pain crushed her words within her.

William drew her to him--holding her, placing kisses in her hair, letting her pour out the hurt she felt inside. It was some time before she quieted down enough for him to speak.

“There is a way to save her. There is an offer of exchange.”

“Exchange for what?” Gilbert asked from across the room.

“Treasure in exchange for the life of your mother. Before they light the fires of Midsummer’s Eve, you and your sisters must produce a certain treasure.”

Her voice was barely a whisper.

“Aye. Tiberius.”

******

In just a few minutes Laura explained it all to William. All that she’d already told Gilbert about the treasure. In the end, she showed him the portion of map that Gilbert had just given her. As she spoke, she forced herself to become calm.

Good planning, she knew, required cool thinking.

“We must send word that we agree to the exchange,” she said when William knew everything.

The provost’s head whipped around. “Give the treasure you were entrusted with to the English king?”

“By the Virgin, we will never give it to him,” she swore aloud. “But we would be fools not to buy time for my mother while we are devising an alternative plan.”

William gazed at his wife and nodded agreement. “The rider said you were the only one sent this message.”

Laura placed her hand in William’s and felt his strength. “It could be that they do not know the location of my sisters. But if my mother sent them to me, ‘twas because she knew I would try to think of a way out. She always said, of her three daughters, I was the planner.”

The provost spoke up from the window. “Between the earl of Athol and William, an army could be raised, large enough to...”

“To march into London and take her from the Tower?” Laura interrupted, shaking her head in disagreement. “We don’t even know where she is. She may very well be on the way to the Tower now.”

“Aye,” Gilbert admitted. “Very likely, she is at least in some fortress in England, I should think.”

“On the other hand,” William said thoughtfully, “if you were to gather all three sections of the map and find the treasure...”

She looked at him lovingly. “You have started planning, husband.”

“Aye, you are a bad influence,” he replied, pulling her to his side and growing serious again. “You say you do not know what the treasure is. If the three of you took possession of it, though, perhaps then something could be worked out.”

“I agree,” Laura murmured, knowing that their directions had always been to move the treasure if their mother was caught. Nichola knew the whereabouts of Tiberius, and she did not want her captors to be able to force the information from her.

“But you have only one piece of the map.” Gilbert’s concern was a valid one.

“Your sister Catherine is expecting.” William met his wife’s gaze. “So ‘twould be best if we were to go to Balvenie Castle and take her the news.”

“Very well.”

“But what about your younger sister, Adrianne? Do you have any idea about where she is?”

“Aye,” she said hesitantly. “In the Western Isles,”

Gilbert shook his head. “That’s a ten-year search.”

“Barra.” Laura whispered with assurance. “She is on the Isle of Barra.”

As the castle’s inhabitants were readying themselves for another late night of revelry following the Hogmanay celebration the day before, Laura gazed thoughtfully at the gifts lying on the bed. Gifts for her new family.

Thoughts of her mother brought a stinging tear to her eye. She quickly dashed it away. In less than a week, shortly after Twelfth Night, she and William and Miriam would be leaving for Balvenie Castle, the new home of her sister Catherine. What did she have to cry about? she chided herself. Their plans were in motion. It was time to concentrate--for now, at least--on the life of her new and immediate family.

The first hours after hearing the news of her mother’s capture had been difficult. But then, soon after, with the strength and support of her husband beside her, she’d been able to push aside--for the most part--all morbid thoughts of what she could not control, focusing instead on what she could control.

They had the map. As far as they knew, the treasure was still safe. And they were facing an enemy blinded by both greed and hatred.