Kate Sedley - The Green Man

‘Sheepskin?’ I queried, puzzled.

‘Marriage charters, written agreements with their neighbours. The only way the MacGregors settle a dispute is with cold steel.’

Needless to say, after this introduction, I gave the elder squire as wide a berth as possible, and, as I have already mentioned, he didn’t seek me out. That isn’t to say that I didn’t notice him watching me very closely on occasions. All of which explains my misery. I was lonely, homesick and ill at ease.

At the beginning of June, our great sprawling cavalcade of lords and their levies, with the king at its head, set off northwards from London for Northamptonshire where, at Fotheringay Castle, we were to rendezvous with the Duke of Gloucester and the Earl of Northumberland, travelling south. Before we reached our destination, news came of a successful foray into Scotland by Duke Richard and his forces, during which Dumfries had been taken and burned. His Grace had then coolly retired before an army could be raised against him and set out to meet his brother.

‘This doesn’t bother you?’ I had the temerity to ask Albany, lying by his side in bed at some inn where we were billeted for the night. It was blowing a gale and pouring with rain, and I could not help thinking of the poor foot soldiers and archers trying to sleep in some sodden field.

To my surprise, my royal bedfellow, sharing my company in the fire-studded dark, failed to snub me. He merely hunched his shoulders under the quilt and answered laconically, ‘You can’t make a cake without breaking eggs.’

I couldn’t let it go. ‘But these are your people being burned out of their homes. Aren’t you afraid such actions by your allies will turn them against you?’

There was a another shrug. ‘It’s more likely to turn them against my dear brother for not retaliating. They don’t like him, anyway.’

‘Why not?’ I asked. A log on the hearth crackled and fell, spangling the room with fire. Outside the door, I heard someone stir. One of the squires was sleeping across the threshold.

Albany, who had been half turned away from me, rolled on to his back and stared up at the bed canopy overhead. He had pulled back the curtain on his side to give himself more air.

‘Well, for a start,’ he said, ‘they don’t like the way he stays cooped up in Edinburgh instead of travelling around the country, showing himself to his loving subjects. Then those same loving subjects don’t like the way he’s forced the price of everything up by issuing copper coinage — ‘black’ money the people call it — while at the same time he’s enriching all his low-born favourites.’

‘Ah, favourites,’ I echoed. ‘They’re always a problem.’

‘Especially when they’re as disreputable as James’s,’ Albany added viciously.

‘Such as?’ I murmured, intrigued.

‘Such as William Scheves, who was a shirt-maker for the court and is now Archbishop of St Andrews. Such as Thomas Cochrane, who is reported to have started life as a stonemason and is now one of my brother’s chief advisers. Such as William Rogers, musician, James Hommyl, tailor, Torpichen a fencing master and Leonard somebody, or somebody Leonard, a shoemaker; upstarts the lot of them. Bloody little nobodies, whose farty arses the old lords have to lick before they can get anywhere near the king.’

I digested this. ‘Not a very lovable man, King James,’ I ventured at last.

My companion gave a snort of laughter and turned his head on the pillow to look at me.

‘No, not a very lovable man, as you so rightly remark. But perhaps I should warn you, Roger, not many of us Stewarts are. My grandfather, the first James, was murdered by his own nobles when my father, the second James, was seven years old. And we’re unlucky, too. My father had a huge birthmark which earned him the nickname “Fiery Face” and he was killed when a cannon exploded while he was inspecting it. My brother James was eight when he succeeded to the throne, John and I a few years younger.’

I was silent for a moment or two, contemplating the often unhappy lives of our rulers; but not for long. At least they could be unhappy in comfort, which was never the lot of the poor.

‘Do you really believe that your brother, the Earl of Mar, was murdered?’ I asked.

‘I know he was,’ Albany rapped back. ‘He was imprisoned in Craigmillar Castle and Murdo and the others have told me that, shortly after they were all withdrawn from his service he was reported to have died. A chill was the official version.’

‘And the unofficial?’

‘One of his gaolers told the groom, Tullo, that John was held down in a tub of hot water while his wrists were slashed.’ Albany gave a harsh laugh. ‘There’s some dignity in a Roman death, I suppose.’

‘What was he accused of?’

‘Treason and witchcraft.’

‘Witchcraft? Was that true?’

‘Of course not!’ The reply came a little too swiftly and positively, but I let it pass.

‘Why do you suspect one his servants of being in the pay of King James?’ I wanted to know.

I had been itching to ask this question ever since our first meeting in London, but somehow had been unable to do so until this moment. It had proved difficult to get Albany to myself, and until tonight, he had fallen into bed and gone straight to sleep. But because of the bad weather, and on account of King Edward’s failing health, the march had been shorter than on previous days and, as a consequence, all of us were less tired. Albany certainly seemed livelier than usual and therefore willing to talk.

But his answer when it finally came was unsatisfactory.

‘I don’t know anything for certain. It’s just a feeling I have.’

Dear God in Heaven! I hated feelings. I wanted facts.

‘There must be some reason why you feel this way,’ I persisted.

The duke remained vague, muttering that it would be just like the king to suborn one of the earl’s retainers, offering the man unlimited bribes in order to persuade him to betray his trust.

‘James is a cunning bastard,’ Albany continued with a sudden spurt of merriment. ‘He’s far shrewder than is generally thought. People — all his advisers and the population at large — thought he was mad to insist on marrying a Danish princess. I mean, it was a well-known fact that King Christian was practically penniless at the time and couldn’t pay more than a fraction of Margarethe’s dowry. But James simply said he’d take the Danish islands of Orkney and Shetland as a pledge of Denmark’s good faith until the rest of the money could be handed over.’ Again, my companion laughed.

‘And King Christian agreed?’

‘Of course! It seemed an easy way out of his difficulties. But on each occasion that he’s offered to pay the remainder of the dowry, James has refused it, saying he’d rather keep the islands. You mark my words, Shetland and Orkney will never be returned to Denmark. They’ll belong to Scotland now for the rest of time.’

‘Even if … I mean, even when you become king?’ But I could guess his answer. Politics is an unpleasant game.

‘Naturally. Scotland’s boundaries have been considerably increased. However, I don’t expect to have the same success in the matter of the other dowry. King Edward’s a bird of a different feather.’

I frowned into the darkness. The flames of the fire had by now almost turned to ashes.

‘What dowry’s that?’ I asked.

Albany sniggered. ‘You should keep your ear to the ground more, Roger. Eight years ago, when my eldest nephew, the Duke of Rothesay was barely one, he was betrothed to your little Princess Cicely. A formal betrothal ceremony was held at the Blackfriars, in Edinburgh. I was there. Pomp, ceremony, great solemnity! And Princess Cicely’s dowry was set at twenty thousand English marks, of which five thousand marks were paid over the next three years with — I must admit it — great promptitude. But now that the marriage has fallen through, King Edward wants his money back. And so far, he hasn’t received it.’