Page 111 of Laird of Smoke
There was a long silence before the second man admitted in a very quiet voice, “Some are sayin’ Fergus has been drinkin’ mead and sharin’ a table with the English.”
“Which proves my point.Fergus doesn’t mean to stop with clan land.He’s formin’ an alliance with our enemy.He’s got his eye set on rulin’ the whole west o’ Scotland.”
“Aye?So?What’s wrong with that?With the English fightin’ beside us…”
“Ye trust the English?Once they’ve got their claws into Fergus land, ye think they’ll hand it o’er to the laird with a wink and a smile?”
The other man sighed.
“And then where will we be?”He didn’t wait for an answer.“Trapped between the Scottish king and the bloody English with nowhere to go.”
“Hell.”
“Right.We’re already losin’ too many.And Malcolm’s troops aren’t only attackin’ the men-at-arms.He’s goin’ after the villages.Our women.And children.”
“So what do we do?”
“God knows.”
They suddenly noticed Adam and started.
“Shite!How long have ye been there?”
Adam shrugged.
They frowned at him, but must have decided he looked too simple to understand what they were discussing.
“Come on,” one of them said to the other, nodding toward the door.“The walls have ears.”
They left while Adam appeared to continue obliviously polishing his sword.
Mad thoughts, however, churned through his brain.
Could what they said be true?
The king had been less than forthcoming about his advances.
Was it as the men claimed?Had Malcolm attacked Fergus women and children?Burned crops?Decimated villages?
The thought left a sour taste in his mouth.While the Rivenlochs had always been loyal to the king, they had never condoned unchivalrous warfare.And Adam knew they wouldn’t condone it now.
He was torn.
He couldn’t live with himself if those villages had been destroyed because of information he’d shared with Malcolm.
And yet he couldn’t commit treason against the Crown by withholding information from the king that might get his troops killed.
He needed to talk to Malcolm, face to face.Get him to disclose his next plan of attack.And report back to Fergus with an early alert.
With forewarning, at least someone would be there for defense.There might be a brief skirmish, but fewer casualties, and there would time to evacuate innocents.
Adam hoped the two sides could ultimately settle things without a battle.The Rivenloch clan was always happy to defend Scotland against foreign invaders.But they hated to get involved in clan wars.
Unfortunately, it sounded as if Fergus’s commanders had had no success in curbing their laird’s appetite for land.
Perhaps Adam could convince the king it was a mistake to make an enemy of England, particularly in light of his recent friendship with King Henry.And then he might be able to persuade Fergus to relinquish the idea of expanding his holdings and instead be grateful for the full return of his ancestral clan lands.
The negotiation would be a complex undertaking.But Adam was sure he was the best Rivenloch for the task.
