Blythe Gifford - His Border Bride

Alain was right. The wound did not look serious. ‘Come. I’ll clean and bandage it for you.’

She revelled in the words. They sounded like something a wife might say.

He gently put her hand aside, holding her fingers no longer than propriety dictated. ‘You are kind.’

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Murine pull her father towards the tower. ‘Food first,’ she said, laughing, removing his hand from her breast.

Clare knew what would happen next. After the midday meal, she would not see them for hours.

Embarrassed, she turned back to Alain. ‘I’m glad you are safe. Tell me of your battles.’

‘Battles? Ah, I wish we had seen battles! Edward is a monster, but Douglas is a coward.’

‘A coward?’ No Scot would call Lord Douglas a coward. Not if he wanted to live.

‘Instead of forcing a fight, Douglas kept us always away from the English. Then, by God’s mercy, Edward’s ships were destroyed.’ He crossed himself with muttered thanks to the Blessed Virgin. ‘He had no supplies. He had to retreat. But still Lord Douglas would not fight, only chased him, like a dog after the deer, instead of confronting him on an open field of battle. We could have delivered the coup de grâce.’

She murmured a supportive sound. Douglas would take the field with the bravest, but when a Scot waged war, he thought only of the end, not of the proper way to reach it. ‘So they are gone now, the Inglis?’

He nodded. ‘And left the land laid waste, just as they did in France. Burning, looting, even during the holy day of Candlemas. And it was not just the rabble. The worst was the King’s bastard nephew. He burned the monastery church in Haddington to the ground, full of innocents who had sought sanctuary.’

Stunned, she crossed herself. ‘I did not think the Inglis so devoid of honour.’ Murder. Sacrilege. No knight would commit such acts.

Alain offered his arm as they walked towards the keep. ‘Alas, it is so. I was told the man who held the torch was the son of John of Eltham, who did the very same twenty years ago. And the Edward who rules today was so angry when he heard of it that he killed him. His own brother.’ He shook his head. ‘Such murderous blood, the English. This Edward must kill for pleasure alone if he would murder a man and then encourage his son to commit the same sacrilege.’

She glanced across the yard to find Fitzjohn’s eyes on them. We don’t see much chivalry in war, he had said. As if he had seen such acts.

As if he could have committed them.

She stepped closer to Alain. Her men were home and safe. Fitzjohn could answer to her father now.

After he had eaten his fill, her father spent the afternoon in Murine’s cottage. Clare closed her eyes to what the two of them did there.

Late in the day, he emerged to sit with her by the fire in the Hall, his third cup of brogat cradled in his palms, asking of all that had happened while he was gone.

He said little of the campaign. Edward had retreated, yes, but he had burned everything in his path. In the end, it seemed, both sides had lost.

‘I saw a strange face on the barmkin,’ he said, finally. ‘Who is he?’

‘A knight separated from his fellows.’ Did she sound unconcerned? ‘I gave him a meal and a roof and work to do. He wants to stay on, but I told him you would have to decide.’

Her father’s eyes narrowed. ‘We lost James in a skirmish last month. I could use a new man.’

‘He’s said little of himself. I’m not sure of the nobility of his line.’

‘That’s nae something to bother a Scot.’

She wondered why she was holding her breath. ‘And he hasn’t the comte’s sense of chivalry.’

Her father’s lips twisted into something between a scowl and a laugh. ‘Few do. I’ll judge him meself, daughter. What’s his name?’

‘Fitzjohn.’ She said the name as if unsure of it.

Her father sat bolt upright, nearly dropping his cup. ‘What did you say?’

‘Fitzjohn.’ She wondered at his response. ‘Gavin, I think.’

Her father rose from his chair, towering over her. ‘What have ye done, girl?’

Why had she ignored her misgivings about this man? Her mother would never have made that mistake. ‘Tell me. What have I done besides get a clean mews and a dirty banker?’

‘Ye’ve brought the murdering fire-raiser who torched half of Lothian into our hall.’ His bluster flagged, replaced by the same haunted look she’d seen in Fitzjohn’s eyes. ‘We called it Burnt Candlemas. And he carried the torch.’

She cursed herself with words a lady should not know. If they woke with the roof in flames over their heads it would be her fault. ‘Forgive me. I didn’t know.’

He reached for his sword and started to buckle it on. ‘I’ll deal with him.’

‘Wait.’ She rose and touched his shoulder, moving him gently back in the chair. ‘I was the one who let him in. I’ll go.’ Did she hope somehow he would deny what she’d suspected all along? ‘Let me be sure he is the same man.’

‘Not alone, daughter.’

‘I won’t be alone.’ She patted the sheath holding her dagger. Since that day in the hills, it had never left her side, another reluctant concession to this lawless land. ‘Not as long as I have this.’

‘Ah, daughter. I wish ye were as determined to give me grandsons as ye are to do things your own way.’

She shook her head. Not her way, but the right way, something her father neither appreciated nor understood. ‘Give me just a little time. Then, come and do with him what you will.’

She swung out of the hall and up the stairs, skirt swishing between her legs, uncertain whether anger, fear, or shame drove her. She found him on the tower’s wall walk, staring towards the snow-covered mountains, stark against the sunset-yellow sky.

‘Fitzjohn!’ she called, her dagger at the ready.

He turned, slowly, his face shadowed by the light of the fading sun. ‘That’s what I’m called. Why the blade?’

‘You’re also called a fire-raiser.’

Pain and anger mixed in his gaze. Did she even see a pleading look there? No mind. This man had shown no mercy. Neither would she.

‘I’m called many things.’ The words came slowly, as if by speaking he had been forced to crack a stone.

‘That’s no answer.’

‘What kind of answer would you like, Mistress Clare?’

‘One that’s true.’

‘Ah, then you’re bound to be disappointed in life. People will say what they will, true or false.’

Always, he turned aside a question instead of answering it. ‘They say you burned a church full of innocent people.’

He turned his head, quick and sharp as a falcon spotting its prey. ‘Is that the tale now?’ The words carved deep lines around his lips, yet unhurried they came as if he truly did not care what was said of him.

‘Is it true?’

‘What do you think?’

His shadowed eyes had witnessed acts no man should know and no knight should commit. But had he done them, too?

She didn’t believe it. Or didn’t want to.

She dropped her weapon and shook her head.

‘I thank you, then, for that.’ His voice held an echo of soft gratitude. ‘May I stay, then?’

‘My Da is coming. The decision will be his.’

‘I understand.’

She struggled to join her father’s words and the comte’ s story. ‘Does that mean your father was the son of a king?’

He nodded.

‘And brother to another?’

His sideways smile showed no pride, yet she felt her knees begin to dip, as if to make her curtsy before him.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Royal blood in his veins, even though Inglis, yet she had suggested he was no better than a peasant. He must think her a barbarian.