Jack Whyte - Order in Chaos

“Someone you trust, and have them do it where no one can see. Be careful, Jessie. A sudden flurry of making leather bags— small leather bags—will draw attention, for there’s naught you can do with such things but use them for holding coin.”

“Hector will do it.”

“You trust him that far?”

“And further. How do you think the chest ended up where it is? Hector helped me move it and conceal it there.”

“Good. So be it.” He stood up suddenly and began to pace the room, rubbing his hands together, then stopped and stood with his back to the fire, facing her. “About this marriage thing. Your mind is set?”

“Completely.”

“Hmm.” His lips quirked. “And if I were to ask you for advice on that, which I do not, you would advise me to proceed with it?”

She smiled. “I would.”

“Aye, well, I will think on it, although I think you mad. But I will think on it. I have a condition, though, to be agreed to here and now. The boy cannot travel yet. We are agreed on that. But he was the sole reason for my returning here this day, to pick him up and take him back. How much longer, think you, before he can return to Arran?”

“A month at least, three at the most.”

“Three is too long, too long and too dangerous. I will send for you in two months’ time, in the third week of September—you, the boy, and your two women, and whomever else you wish to bring with you.”

“What about Marjorie?”

He looked at her in surprise. “Your ward is the King’s niece, Jessie.”

“But she is illegitimate.”

“Legitimate or no’, her name is Bruce and she was sired by Robert’s favorite brother. You canna simply whisk her off without the King’s permission. That would be abduction. And a king’s niece has no will of her own in such matters. She belongs to the kingdom, a chattel to be married off, if need be, for the good of the realm. That is beyond my ability or yours to influence.”

Jessie wasted no time in protest. She knew he was right, and merely nodded. “Then I must seek out the King himself, between now and then, and obtain his blessing.”

“To take the child away, perhaps to die, in some unknown land? He will never agree to such a thing.”

“Perhaps not. But I must try.”

“Fine. But you’ll be ready to embark for Arran by September?”

“I will be ready, and more ready still to embark for Merica. Send out your traders to buy cloth.”

“Cloth? What kind of cloth?”

“Any kind, and as much as they can buy. There will be no clothiers in Merica, but all who go there will need covering against the weather.”

He stood blinking at her. “I will see to it. Is there anything else you can think of?”

“No, but I might as time goes by. Wait! Spinning wheels and looms. How many women will go with us?”

“I have no idea.”

“Then you had best find out and let me know as soon as you can. We will need to plan for them, and if I know the numbers, I can be ready to start organizing them by the time I come to Arran.”

“You are very sure I’ll wed you, woman.” His smile was small but ungrudging. “But I have not yet agreed.”

She gazed at him and met him smile for smile. “You will. Now, when will you leave here?”

He shrugged. “The day after tomorrow. One of our galleys will be waiting off the Galloway coast. I have no time to waste.”

“Then you had better get some sleep, for we have talked the day and half the night away. Go you upstairs, then, and get you to bed. I’ll put out these candles and bank the fire before I go to mine.”

“Aye …” He stood for a moment, nibbling at his upper lip. “This has been a strange and wondrous day, Jessie, filled with things I could not have imagined when I left here last week to ride to Arbroath. We have achieved much, between the two of us … Are you sure we are in agreement on it all?”

She stepped quickly towards him and lifted up her hand, laying her palm along his cheek, touching him openly for the first time, and he raised his own to hold it there, cradling it. “I am sure, Will, even if you are not.”

He swayed towards her, his lips slightly parted, and she knew what would happen if he kissed her here, so she drew a deep, swift breath and patted him firmly on the cheek.

“Now go to bed,” she told him softly. “You have much to do tomorrow.”

FOUR

He came awake slowly and with great reluctance, loath to quit the voluptuous enjoyment of the dream that had been enfolding him and the dream woman whose mouth had covered his own, drawing the soul from him with an agonizing pleasure. But when he opened his eyes at last and found the mouth still there, still kissing him, and raised a hand to touch bare, warm skin, he started awake, jerking upright, and would have shouted had not a hand clamped firmly over his mouth and a voice hissed sharply in his ear, “Shush, Will, shush! Be still. You’ll wake the house and betray us both.”

He froze, half raised on his elbows, blinking wildly in the pitch darkness and aware of the other body leaning over him on the narrow cot, and his skin rose up in superstitious terror, until he heard her giggle and felt her breath against his ear.

“It’s me, it’s me, and I didna mean to startle you. I only came to kiss you goodnight. Hutch you over and let me in.”

Still befuddled, but beginning now to grasp something of what was happening, he pushed himself higher up. “Jessie? What is it? Is something wrong?”

She giggled again, quietly and close to his ear, bringing him out in renewed gooseflesh. “Of course there’s something wrong, you great, dense lump. It’s freezing cold and your bed’s already warm. Lift up the clothes and let me in. Move! Move over!”

He did as he was bidden, shifting his weight onto one elbow and raising the covers, and he felt the smooth, warm rush of her climbing in beside him and then hugging him close, pulling him to her soft nakedness as her fingers twined in the hair at his nape and pulled his face down to her own. And for a long time after that, he lived in a maelstrom of taste and touch and smells the like of which he had never known, until he froze again, finding himself somehow leaning on straight arms and aware of the forked shape of her beneath him, her fingers clutching him.

“Do you not want me, Will Sinclair? Come, man, and be my husband.”

The fingers tugged at him, insistent, guiding, and Will closed his eyes and sighed, shuddering, and entered his new world.

FROM DEATH INTO DEATH

ONE

It seemed to Jessie Randolph that all the world was coming to Arran that first week of May in the year of our Lord 1314. The northwestern harbor of Lochranza was crowded with so many galleys that the unthinkable had occurred and the harbor had been closed, incapable of accommodating a single vessel more. Four of the eight remaining Temple galleys were moored there, but they were invisible among the others, visiting craft from the isles and sea lochs to the north, many of which had borne the MacDonald blazon of the new Lordship of the Isles on their sails as they approached the anchorage beneath the cliff. There were more than MacDonald vessels down there, though; she had seen the emblems of Campbells, MacRuaries, and MacNeils as well, along with several others unknown to her that Will told her had come from the isles far to the north. They had filled the harbor, which had never seemed small before, occupying every foot of the wharves that lined the water, and in places so many of them were lashed together side by side that they appeared to form a series of floating bridges across the waters directly below where Jessie stood looking down from the castle walls.