Page 72 of The Daughters of Avalon
Her father brought Malcom to Aldergh? At six? Why? And why hadn’t Malcom told her?
Cora grinned. “His Da came riding up to these gates, bold as you please, demanding the return of his boy.”
Elspeth fiddled with the sleeve of the gown, pressing out a wrinkle. “But… Henry must have intended him to be his cherished ward?”
“Pah!” said the maid. “He meant to use that boy to bend the father to his will. But you see how that turned out.” She gave Elspeth a vengeful nod. “Little wonder he met his end the way he did—and no wonder at all my darling Page had no love for the house she was born in.” Reliving the memory perhaps, Cora brushed a finger under one eye.
Only now Elspeth remembered another conversation…Aldergh belonged to my grandsire,Malcom had said.It passed to me after he died.
Elspeth had been so focused on the grievous injustice that a woman should be passed over for a man—yet again—that she’d not even considered asking why.
How did he die?she’d asked.
How do most dishonorable men meet their end?
Elspeth folded the sapphire blue gown, setting it aside. “And how, precisely, did the old lord meet his end?”
The woman was busy refolding gowns and putting them into piles—some to be laundered, some to be fitted, and some to put back in storage. “Ah, well, ye know, I wasn’t there. But I did hear the tale. My lord slew him, put a sword through his cauld heart.”
Elspeth screwed her face. “Malcom?”
“Yes, m’lady. He did.”
Stunned. Elspeth sat back.
Malcom murdered his grandsire?
I am quite certain you won your title by honorable means,she’d said so sourly. Only now she understood why he’d been so furious with her, and her heart despaired for him.
No wonder he now supported Stephen and forswore her father! She loathed to think what he must have endured—with the death of his birth mother, and his abduction by her father—but as much as the discovery aggrieved her, she was glad, at least, to know and understand his past, and she vowed again to be the best wife she could be—no matter hispolitikalaffiliations. If her father’s widow, Adeliza of Louvain, who’d wed Stephen’s ally, could love two men, both with differentpolitiks, so could Elspeth.
Only now, for the first time in her life Elspeth understood how it might be possible for different minds to ally. Insofar as Elspeth was concerned, it didn’t matter to her who Malcomserved. She would find a way to treat him with honor and still find a way to serve her sister as well.
Sensingthe importance of his war council—for what else could it be called?—Elspeth had deferred the evening’s festivities for tomorrow, sending the kitchen’s efforts into Malcom’s council room instead.
That he wasn’t with her on their first evening returned to Aldergh sorely aggrieved him, but there was little doubt; his heart wasn’t in the mood for a celebration tonight.
As Rhiannon had claimed, war was, indeed, nigh. It came to him from all sides now, and no doubt there would be hell to pay for absconding with and marrying Elspeth.
Only now, that was the least of his troubles; as he’d long suspected, the summons north was but a ruse to get him to the table and David of Scotia was now mounting a campaign from Carlisle. He’d sent Malcom’s cousin Cameron along with Caden Mac Swein to persuade Malcom to join his fight.
It was his intention to bring the entirety of the kingdom of Northumbria under his dominion, and at the instant, he had his sights set on York. Like so many, he feared Stephen meant to abdicate his throne in favor of his son, and he’d made himself clear: He would never ally with Eustace.
If the father was ineffectual, the son was a miscreant.
Malcom raked a hand wearily through his hair, because, in truth, though he could be right, so long as Stephen wore the English crown, Malcom swore him an oath of fealty. “So my father is with David at Carlisle?”
Cameron nodded.
“Why did he not come himself?”
Cameron lifted a shoulder. “He’s proud, Mal. As he must see it, ’tis your duty as his firstborn to come to heel.”
Malcom lifted a brow. “Come to heel?”
“Tis a matter of speech, Mal. You know what I mean.”
“Nay. Ido notknow what you mean,” snapped Malcom. “And it angers me that he had so little compunction over allowing his name to be used to summon me north.” Malcom slammed his fist against the table, and the sound of it reverberated through the hall, like thunder. “How dare he leave me to believe he could be dying!”
