Page 63 of The Scottish Bride
“Then I need the truth from you now, because it seems to me all you want is this book—and now, the castle you could gain through me. In that way, you are no different than Sir Malise. Though I began to hope you were.”
Frowning at that, he raised the wooden cup and swallowed the rest of the lukewarm herb water, wishing for something stronger. “I am nothing like Malise.”
“But you came looking for me at Lochmaben before he ever did. You wanted something. And then I find out Edward sent you for a book that I do not even have!”
“But you will get it in Selkirk, which I did not fully realize until this evening. You have been secretive about this book.”
“With reason. Those parchments,” she said, “are just verses that he wrote that I put together for binding. There is no book by his own hand. And those pages will not save Scotland, I assure you.”
“Edward seems to expect some collection of predictions.”
“It is not that.” She drank from her cup and set it on the table.
“Not prophecies? Nothing to save Scotland, or give England the advantage?”
“What would do that? He wrote an epic poem.” She sounded defiant. “That is all.”
“Then if Edward is wrong, then all this fuss is for naught.”
“Who dares tell him? Take me to Selkirk and I will get the bound pages and show you how wrong it is. And I will go to Kincraig and you need not worry about me again. So we need not marry or betroth,” she said, “or try to please your king.”
“You,” he said, “are the most stubborn woman I have ever known.”
“Then I wonder how many you know, sir, for we are all stubborn and strong by nature. So many men prefer women to be meek that I sometimes wonder if we did not learn, as a breed of womanhood, to curve to a whim that Nature never intended for us. Birth, healing, making a home, feeding and caring for others—these take strength, body and soul. We are not biddable.”
“I know. My mother was strong, my older sister as well.”
“You have not said much of your sister.”
“Dame Agatha,” he said.
“Oh! The abbess at Lincluden?”
“The youngest they have ever had—a smart, spirited, beautiful lady. But she has her cross to bear, as they say. That life seems to suit her. You are thoughtful as well as stubborn,” he added, glancing up. “I will say that.”
“I am only stubborn when I must defend myself.”
“Which you do well. And you seem to distrust me, no matter what I do.”
“Because you are a threat to me. More than you know.”
“You may be the greater threat to me,” he murmured. “But I owe you the truth.”
“You do—Sir Harper Knight, who does for one king and runs with the rebels of another. Among your many guises, which is the real man?”
He shifted on the uncomfortable bed, a leg stretched out, a knee bent tight, and set the cup on the floor. Leaning forward, fingers steepled, he looked up at her.
“I am,” he said, “a knight who pledged to Edward and was betrayed. I am a baron who lost lands to confiscation, lost a near-wife, lost a castle to fire, and friends to bad deaths.” He paused, throat tight, truth beating its way out.
“And a harper? Is that true?” She spoke softly.
“A harper, aye, who follows Bruce by choice.” He looked up. “I am the forfeited laird of Dalrinnie.”
“You.” She stared at him. The candle flame flickered, snapped. Outside, wind whipped past the window and creaked against the door. “You were at Dalrinnie before I came there, then,” she said, more quietly than he expected. Deserved. “Four years ago?”
“Three.” He waited. Had she thrown something at him, cursed him, he would have deserved it. Her pondering calm surprised him. He almost preferred a kettle or cup aimed at his head. He had betrayed her by withholding the truth she valued above all.
“I was outlawed. Gilchrist was riding for Edward by then, Gideon too. I did not adhere—I ran with William Wallace, believing in his conviction, his bare honesty and fearlessness. I was away when they came to Dalrinnie. They burned the place to send most out, though it killed others. Including my betrothed, Lady Beatrix,” he said. “The magistrate’s daughter. He was not inclined to help an outlawed baron when I needed it.”
