Chapter Thirteen
Breathe, man, breathe… and do not let Essien see how rattled you are!
“Where have you been?” Essien asked. “How is Lady de Grey?”
Addax ran into this brother in the foyer of the keep. He gestured back up the stairs in answer to his question.
“She is resting,” he said, still not recovered from his confession with Emmeline but trying to pretend everything was normal. “She is upset, naturally. Where are Max and the Scots?”
Essien pointed out to the bailey. “Talking to Adonis and his father,” he said.
“I could not get to them in time to tell them what had been said, Ad. They confirmed that some of the mines are flooded but have assured both Max and his father that production will continue. Max and Claudius are calling the lady hysterical in her reaction to the flooding, but have stopped short of calling her a liar. However, Max is furious with her. He thinks she is trying to keep him from the money he has a right to.”
Addax shook his head with regret. “It is my fault,” he said. “I told her not to sell to the Scots, so any untruth has come from me. I have put her in this position.”
Essien lifted an eyebrow. “Then you had better think of a way to smooth this over, because Max is speaking of punishment,” he said. “He has agreed to sell to the Scots for one hundred pounds a ton, and the Scots are prepared to pay him now for the ore.”
Addax couldn’t stop shaking his head at the irony of the situation.
“Damnation,” he muttered. “So the Scots get their ore and Alston loses money that would have kept their people going for God knows how long. Max is only seeing the immediate need—his—and he’s not thinking of the future of Alston. The lady tried to tell him.”
“What do we do?” Essien asked.
Addax thought a moment. “First and foremost, Cole needs to know that the sale of the ore will happen,” he said. “I do not dare send a missive to him, but you can. If I recall correctly, Fourstones Castle is about twenty miles to the north. That is a Burleson property.”
“And?”
“And he is an ally of de Velt,” he said. “If you can deliver a missive to Burleson and ask him to send it by messenger to Berwick, you can send that information to Cole. He needs it.”
“How can I do that if Bretherdale expects me to return to Raisbeck with him?” Essien asked. “The man thinks I am sworn to him now.”
“But he is not leaving for Raisbeck today or tonight,” Addax pointed out. “Leave now for Fourstones. You’ll be back by morning.”
Essien cast him a long look. “Very well,” he said. “That is a long ride in a short period of time.”
“You are young and strong. You can make it.”
Essien shook his head. “I am not young any longer,” he said. “I’m getting old, like you.”
Addax rolled his eyes at his complaining brother. “Go,” he said. “I will hold Claudius and the Scots here as long as I can.”
Essien nodded, but he again threw a thumb in the general direction of the bailey. “And you had better try to ease the situation, or Max will have the lady drawn and quartered.”
Not literally, but figuratively. Still, Addax knew that Maximilian was capable of cruelty when the situation called for it. He’d seen it quite a bit over the past six months. That man wasn’t someone he’d known all these years.
The man Maximilian had become was a stranger.
As Essien slipped out toward the stables, Addax headed out to the bailey, where he found Maximilian and Claudius and the Scots still in conversation with Adonis and Pierre. As he walked up on the group, Claudius caught sight of him and extended an arm to welcome him into their huddle.
“Ah,” he said. “Addax. I am glad you have returned.”
Addax dipped his head politely. “How may I serve you, my lord?”
Claudius gestured to Adonis and Pierre. “We were just speaking with the de Moras, and they tell us that although the mines are indeed flooded, they are still producing,” he said. “Surely Lady de Grey was simply being overly cautious?”
Addax shrugged. “I would not know, my lord,” he said.
“I am not involved in the business. But I would agree that Lady de Grey was simply being overly cautious. She has also mentioned that there are customers who are expecting ore shipments soon, so anything produced now must go to fill the existing requests.”
Maximilian was looking at Addax with a decidedly unhappy expression. “But those customers have not yet paid,” he said. He gestured to the Scots. “Lord Gavinton has brought money with him. It seems to me that we should take the money and give them the ore.”
Addax looked at Bretherdale, who seemed to be siding with his son. The Scots were ready to pay, and pay now.
Money talked.
The problem was that Addax shouldn’t be involved more than he already was. He had no right to give his opinion about anything, so he simply forced a smile as he looked at Bretherdale.
“You must do what you feel is right, of course,” he said. “I am simply a servant, my lord. This is Max’s decision, not mine.”
That had Maximilian smiling. “You see?” he said, looking to his father, to the Scots. “Addax agrees we must do what is right. That means the men with money can have their ore. Others who have not yet paid for it will have to wait.”
Addax didn’t correct him. More and more, he was starting to see what a petty fool Maximilian was.
He couldn’t believe he’d never seen it before.
With every day that passed, he was questioning how he’d ever become friends with a man like that in the first place, but the fact remained that he had.
And here he was, more entrenched in the situation than he wanted to be.
But linked to the situation by a beautiful young woman he couldn’t get out of his mind—or out of his heart.
He was in deep.
“Then it is done,” Bretherdale said. “Come; let us retire to the solar and discuss the details of the ore delivery. Adonis, can they use the wagons from the mines to bring their ore north?”
Adonis nodded. “Aye, my lord,” he said. “They may use the wagons. We have men who will transport the ore north, but the wagons must be returned.”
“Agreed,” Gavinton said. “We will be moving it tae Dumfries. It should only take a few weeks. May we discuss how ye usually deliver the ore?”
Adonis and Pierre, his white-haired father, went to speak with Gavinton and the Scots while Bretherdale stood aside and simply listened.
The deal was done. Everything had fallen into place in a situation that, early on, might have gone badly for him.
But it hadn’t. The Scots had only offered one hundred pounds per ton because another one hundred pounds, per ton, was going to Bretherdale as the broker of the deal.
That was all the money the Scots were willing to pay, but the lands that were to be given to Bretherdale were just west of Gretna Green.
The Douglas Clan had donated them for the cause, and Gavinton had brought a signed deed from the Lord of Douglas himself, William.
Everything had fallen into place.
Even if the deal would produce a war against England.
As Claudius contemplated his good fortune at England’s expense, Maximilian was contemplating quite another good fortune.
He was to receive fifteen hundred pounds for the ore, and receive it today, which solved his money problem.
He didn’t care what that bitch he’d married said.
In the end, he would have what he wanted, and there was nothing she could do about it.
But the fact that she had challenged him in front of his father and the Scots wouldn’t go unanswered.
She’d done things like that before, and fought with him every chance she got, but pregnant or not, he wasn’t going to tolerate it any longer.
She carries your son.
That was what his father had said to him, reminding him not to injure her in his anger.
Frankly, he didn’t care. The woman he’d been seeing in Penrith for the past six months was also pregnant with his child, and he liked her much better than his own wife.
She didn’t fight with him. She catered to his every whim.
She stole money from her own father to give to him.
That was exactly what he wanted in a wife.
Not a shrew who tried to hit him with shovels.
Maximilian could see, without a doubt, that Emmeline was the obstacle between him and the de Witt money. She was the obstacle between him and his mistress in Penrith. She was the obstacle between him and a very happy life.
And obstacles had to be removed.
The time had come.