Chapter 2 #3
Forcing calm into his voice, he said, “I doubt that you need to worry about losing Coklaw to the Percys or other English ruffians, my lord. Recall that when Northumberland besieged the castle twenty-five years ago, he failed to breach its walls.”
“Aye, but that was then. The Percy cannon are more effective now.”
“John Greenlaw is as skilled a constable as I know,” Dev said.
“He held Coklaw then, and he says the castle is still impregnable. I believe him. Moreover, although the English still intrude on our lands, we’re keeping closer watch than ever.
We’d hear of any large party, let alone cannon, heading toward Carter’s Bar or Carlisle, and they’d never dare try to approach the area through Liddesdale. ”
Douglas was silent for a time before he said, “I’ll think more on the matter, but I cannot say that I agree with you. Perhaps you’d like to take your men and have another look at our defenses throughout the Middle March.”
“I am at your disposal, my lord, although I’ve had word from my father, desiring me to visit Ormiston. He said only that it had been long since I was home, but such a summons from him is unusual. It should take only a day or two of my time.”
“Certes, you may have leave to see if aught is amiss. Look in at Scott’s Hall on your way back, though, and see if Wat Scott can spare men for Hermitage. If he does not want to lead them himself, he can appoint you to do so.”
“Aye, sure, I’ll talk to him,” Dev said. He knew that Walter Scott, Lord of Buccleuch and Rankilburn, just two years older than himself, would likely agree and have men to spare. However, he also knew better than to say so before discussing it with Wat.
Taking the earl’s nod as dismissal, Dev left the chamber.
When he spied his squire at a nearby table with some of his other lads, he nodded toward the door and kept walking.
Coll and the others quickly followed. They had already taken the gear and weapons to the yard, and their horses were ready and waiting.
Mounting Auld Nick, Dev set a fast pace, and an hour and a half later, Jedburgh’s six bastille towers loomed into view.
The towers had taken the place of Jedburgh Castle two decades ago, after the Scots had routed the castle’s English occupants and razed the fortress to prevent further English occupation.
Skirting the town and heading toward Jedburgh Abbey, Dev and his men forded Jed Water in the shadow of the abbey’s arches to the accompaniment of its hundred-foot clock-tower bells, pealing the midday hour of None.
Continuing northeastward along the Teviot, they reached the village of Eckford an hour later and forded the Teviot before its confluence with Kale Water, which flowed into the river from the south.
A short time later, the Teviot curved sharply northward toward its own convergence with the river Tweed.
Ormiston Mains lay straight ahead. Its tall peel tower perched atop a grassy knoll overlooking the Teviot to the east and south. In the distance behind them, the riders could still see the village of Eckford edging the Teviot’s south bank.
At Ormiston, they dismounted in the yard. Leaving Ormiston’s grooms and his own men to attend to their horses, Dev headed for the tower entrance. Before he reached it, his sister Fiona, her long dark hair flying loose in tangles, ran from the nearby kitchen annex and flung her arms around him.
“I feared you were never coming home again, Davy!” she exclaimed, hugging him.
Nine years his junior, thoughtful, often still childlike but with a mind of her own, she was his favorite of his two sisters. Gellis was three years older than he was and had always been too bossy and self-absorbed to please him. But Fiona was sweet and generous.
“You look like a shaggy bairn,” he said, holding her away to look at her. “How are you going to attract a husband if you don’t keep yourself tidy?”
“Faith, sir, if you came home only to scold me, you may take yourself off again,” she said.
“I heard naught save criticism from Kenneth and Lucas when they were last here, although they, like you, are too lazy to present eligible men to me. I don’t want to hear the same song from you, Sir Knight. As for Father—”
“David, come in,” his father called from the doorstep, interrupting her. “It is time to dine. One of the lads told us you were coming, so we have waited for you.”
Setting Fiona aside, Dev strode to meet him. Shaking hands, he said, “ ’Tis good to see you, sir. I hope your summons doesn’t mean that aught is amiss here.”
“Nay, nay,” Ormiston said, urging him toward the stairs. “We’ve seen you too rarely of late, that’s all. Moreover, my son, I’ve decided it’s time that you married.”
The English Borders, Near Alnwick
Old man Jamieson coughed and coughed, gasping after each bout until Chukk thought he’d cough his innards out. When he lay back at last, Chukk mopped his brow with a wet cloth.
“Can I fetch ye summat else, Da?”
The only reply being a slight shake of the gray head, Chukk shut his eyes, wondering if God had time to listen to prayers from the likes of him. After all, God had said, “Thou shalt not kill,” and he had killed so many times he’d long since lost count.
“Lad.” The word wafted to him as no more than a breath through the stillness.
Opening his eyes, Chukk saw that the rheumy gray eyes had opened, too, showing more awareness than they had for two days or more.
“Aye, Da, I’m here.”
“Ye… mun get home… to Hjaltland.”
“Northumberland’s been our home for most o’ me life,” Chukk reminded him.
“I put by some… gelt for ye.” The gasping voice grew stronger. “I’m spent, lad. I’ll niver see Lerwick again. But ye’ll find our kin and tell them wha’ happened. Tell them… we didna drown. That we niver… made Bergen.”
“I dinna ken how to get there,” Chukk protested. “Nor do I speak the Norn.”
“Wi’ gelt, ye can do as ye please.”
“Aye, but we ha’ nary a farthing to spit on.”
“I do… nae farthings, b—” The word caught in the old man’s throat, making him cough again. The bout was shorter. Chukk wrung out the cloth and laid it gently on the old man’s clammy brow.
“Da, rest now. There’d be nowt for me in Lerwick even an I could get there.”
“ ’Tis Percy gelt… good silver. I’ll tell ye where it be. But ye mun promise me… here at me deathbed… ye’ll go… home.”
As sure as he could be that the old man had lost his senses, Chukk promised anyway. He spoke the words that would bind him before Shetland Jamie said what he needed to say and exhaled his final breath.