Chapter 18 #2
Dev said, “We had many visitors, Benjy, and most of them stayed till dark. The culprit might have been someone just acting daft after too much drink.”
Benjy shook his head, and Robina saw Ash shaking his, too. “Why do you disagree,” she asked the older boy.
“Yon hole be too deep, m’lady,” Ash said. “Sandy said it looks as if someone sought summat else in that hole ’sides a wee tree.”
Knowing that if she looked at Dev, her guilty knowledge of the jar would reveal itself, she returned her gaze to Benjy, instead.
To her dismay, he frowned at her and said angrily, “Ye said it were a good place. Ye didna say nowt about some… some culprit digging it up.”
Tears streaming again, he turned and ran from the hall.
“I’ll fetch ’im, mistress,” Ash said as he started to follow.
Robina stopped him. “Let him go, Ash. He’ll not go far, and I think he’d liefer be alone. If he hasn’t tidied his room yet, you might see to that for him. It will likely lift his spirits more than anyone’s company would right now.”
“Aye, then, mistress, I’ll do that,” Ash said and hurried away.
Glancing at Dev, she noticed at once that his eyes had narrowed.
Something deep within her quivered at the sight, reminding her of what Janet had said about facing Wat’s anger and her own reply, that Dev’s could be more dangerous. He was going to be annoyed that she had kept something from him, especially something as valuable as a jarful of silver.
She dared not put off telling him about it any longer.
Robby had the same speculative look on her face that Rab had always had when he’d done something he knew Dev would dislike or consider reckless. Whatever she had done, he’d soon have it out of her, but he decided they should see their guests off before he confronted her.
She straightened then and said abruptly, “I have something to show you, but I must fetch it, and I cannot show it to you here or discuss it inside the tower.”
Dev frowned. “You cannot tell me anything more?”
“I’d liefer show you than tell you,” she said.
Then, biting her lower lip, she added, “I can think of nowhere inside the keep where the Greenlaws, a household servant, or one of our guests might not intrude. But people are still wandering about here and in the yard, and Wat’s men are outside the wall, too, are they not? ”
“Aye, they are packing up now, but they set their tents north and northeast of the wall. We must stay nearby, in any event, since the Scotts will depart soon, and we must bid them farewell. If you can safely take your treasure outside, we’ll find a place to talk—mayhap at your favorite tree?”
She hesitated. Her expression still revealed her wariness… of him.
Unable to think of a better place in a household or yard teeming with people, Robina said at last, “Very well, I’ll meet you at the tree. But we must be certain that no one can get close enough to see us or hear what I say to you.”
He nodded. “I’ll tell Jock we want privacy. He can keep watch himself, and I’ll have him send two lads to check those woods and keep others away.”
“Not Jem Keith,” Robina said hastily, thinking of Corinne and unwilling to trust Jem, because he seemed too quick to share what he knew with her.
“I’ll speak to Jock,” Dev said. “But if you fear that one of my men may creep close enough to hear aught I say in a private conversation, be easy, lass. They are all brave men, but not one of them is brave enough for that.”
His very tone sent a chill up her spine, and she believed him. Even so, they would have to take care.
“I’ll meet you at the tree, then,” she said. “I must fetch my cloak.”
Dev found Jock in the stable and said, “I’m going to meet the lady Robina by that great oak tree a short way inside the woods west of the gate.
We don’t want interruption, so find Coll and Eckie and tell them to see that no one in those woods disturbs us.
They must keep their distance, too. Send them now, and tell them to let me know when they’re in place.
If either of them can hear us talking, he is to whistle a warning and move back. ”
“I’ll see to it, sir,” Jock said. “Coll is helping Eckie and his lordship’s lads wi’ their horses, so they’re both in the stable. I’ll keep watch, too, from the wall walk.”
Nodding, then deciding that he and Robby should walk outside the wall together, Dev turned toward the keep to watch for her. Eckie and Coll emerged from the stable shortly thereafter, and he walked to the gate with them.
“Our usual signals, sir?” Coll asked.
“Aye,” Dev said. “Just make sure those woods west of here are clear.”
He watched them go and stood by the gateway, open now so that Wat’s men could come and go. Even so, Shag stood nearby, keeping watch.
Dev beckoned to him. “If you see people heading toward those west woods, discourage them, Shag. Her ladyship and I want to be alone there for a time.”
“Aye, sir, I’ll see to it,” Shag said.
Robby came down the steps then, wearing a cloak that he thought looked too heavy for the day. But it would be cooler and perhaps still damp in the woods. She walked toward him, holding her cloak closed, and he could tell—although most people would not—that she concealed something under the cloak.
“This way, lass,” he said when she drew near and he knew that Shag could still hear them. “We’ll walk yonder. Shag will shout when Wat comes down.”
Robby obeyed silently but looked around as if she expected an enemy to pop up from the shrubbery. He scanned the area, too. Scattered clouds drifted eastward, and a ghostly pale oval moon had risen above the horizon, but no one heeded the two of them.
“We’ll be safe here,” he said as they entered the woodland and walked to her tree. “My lads will see that we’re left in peace.”
“I hope so,” she said. Eyeing him warily again, she began to open her cloak.
“Wait one more moment,” he said, listening for Coll and Eckie to signal him.
She nodded, and seconds later an owl hooted some distance southwest of them. Another echoed it from the north.
“Owls at midday?” she said, raising her eyebrows.
“My lads,” Dev said. “Now, let’s see this treasure of yours.”
She opened her cloak and produced a crockery jar wrapped in a towel. “This is the secret you once asked me about,” she said, handing it to him. “Open it, and please don’t be too angry with me.”
She watched as Dev dealt easily with the wired-on cap. He handed it to her to hold while he peered into the jar. Then, glancing at her with a frown, he poured several coins into his free hand.
“Where the devil did you get this?” he muttered.
“I scraped it with a shovel the day you returned from Scott’s Hall.”
His expression showed his quick understanding. “In the hole you’d begun to dig for Benjy’s tree?”
“Aye, but I don’t know how it got there or where the coins came from. My father would surely have told Rab had he buried it there. That’s a lot of gelt, is it not?”
“It is more than a lot,” Dev said. “The silver is tarnished black, so it’s been there for some time. Mayhap Greenlaw knows about it.”
“I never thought of Greenlaw,” she admitted. “I cannot imagine anyone at Coklaw burying it outside the wall, though. Would it not have been more sensible to hide it inside the keep, or to have buried it under a stone in the yard?”
“It would, aye,” he said. “What do you expect me to do with it?”
“I don’t know, but I knew I had to tell you about it,” Robina said. “Sithee, I had it hidden in a blanket kist in my bedchamber. When the Scotts surprised us, I had no time to find another hiding place, so I’ve lived in terror that someone would need more blankets.”
“I’ll keep it now,” he said. “And we’ll keep this between us, Robby, until we learn more about it.
Anything buried on Coklaw land belongs legally to Coklaw, so until we learn otherwise, this is rightfully Benjy’s property.
I agree with you, though, that Rab knew naught of this. If he had, I think he’d have told me.”
“Or me,” she said with a nod. “He doesn’t… didn’t know about it.”
“We cannot be sure of that,” Dev said gently. “It is, however, unlikely that he’d neglect to mention such a fortune to me before he died. At the end, his purpose in exerting himself to talk at all was to see you, Benjy, and Coklaw well protected.”
A slight scraping sound above them drew Robina’s attention upward. A density of oak leaves on one of the higher branches was trembling.
“What is it?” Dev said.
“A squirrel, I expect,” she replied. “But we should go in, and I must keep the jar under my cloak until we are safely in our chamber. I was afraid that if we tried to discuss it there, Coll might interrupt us. But there is a carved box of Rab’s on a high shelf there that the jar should fit into. I think it will be safest there.”
“Aye, I ken the box you mean,” Dev said. Carefully returning the coins to the jar, he replaced its lid and wired it back in place. Then, rewrapping the jar in the towel, he handed it to her.
When he put an arm around her shoulders, she smiled up at him. “Art showing them all that I belong to you now, sir?”
“I’m showing them that I protect my own, Robby.”
She had not changed her mind about one person possessing another, even when the other was his wife. But Dev’s arm felt natural and right there.
In the oak tree, high above them, Benjy remained motionless on his branch, praying that if he could not see them, they would not see him.
Happy as he was that Dev had married Beany, he felt sad about it, too.
In time, Dev would take her away to live with him, and he would lose the last member of his family.
When he’d run from the dreadful hole the culprit had left after ripping out Rab’s tree, he had headed for Sunnyside Hill.
But, recalling that Buccleuch and his family would soon depart, and knowing that Dev and Beany would take a dim view of his not being there to bid them farewell, he’d circled westward through the woods to Beany’s tree.
Shortly afterward, when he saw Dev’s men, Coll and Eckie, heading toward him, he’d climbed higher so they wouldn’t see him and tell him to hie himself back inside the wall. He needed to think.
He’d never meant to listen to Dev and Beany talking, but neither had he wanted to shout down that he was in the tree.
Beany would say that he’d climbed too high, and Dev might declare that he ought not to have come outside the wall at all.
It seemed simpler then to keep still and wait for them to leave.
Besides, he’d torn the new tan shirt that Beany’s seamstress had made for him.
He knew now that he’d been wrong to keep quiet, and he winced inside at the thought that Tig might have come looking for him and stopped under the tree to bark. Then Dev or even Beany might have climbed up to see why Tig barked, and he would never have heard their so-interesting conversation.
For the further sake of his own skin, Benjy waited until Coll and Eckie had followed them through the gateway.
Then, climbing down from the tree, he made his way casually to the north side of the wall.
There, he helped one of Wat’s men tie a rolled tent to his pony’s saddle and then walked with him around to the gate and into the yard.
No one heeded him, so he was safe unless he slipped and mentioned what he’d overheard. Benjy hoped he was wise enough not to do such a daft thing.
He was wise enough to know what Dev would do if he did.
Dev followed Robby upstairs to the master’s bedchamber and looked inside before they entered to be sure Corinne was not there. Finding the way clear, they entered and he shut the door behind them. Taking the towel-wrapped jar from Robby, he said, “I hope you know you can trust me with this.”
Meeting his gaze solemnly, she said just as quietly, “I’ve entrusted you with myself, sir. There’s Rab’s box, yonder,” she added, pointing to the carved box on its high shelf. “I should have told you about the jar at once, but…”
She hesitated as if she was uncomfortable explaining herself to him. Then, in a rush, she said, “I kept it to myself because Rab”—she shook her head—“that is, because Rosalie shares any news or idle talk she hears too easily. I wanted to keep it from her.”
“I am not angry, sweetheart, but honored that you did tell me,” Dev said as he reached up to take the box from its shelf and opened it. “We will take good care of this until we learn more about it and decide what to do next.”
“I should see if Benjy has come in yet,” she said after he’d put the unwrapped jar in the box and gently returned the box to its shelf. “The Scotts must be ready to leave, and he should be here to make his farewells.”
“Go find him then,” Dev said. “I’ll be along shortly.”
He watched her go, listened for her footsteps heading downstairs, and then bolted the door quietly and took the box down from the shelf again.
Then, bolting the door to the service stairs that connected the chamber with the lower levels, he took out the jar, removed its cap, and poured a handful of the coins into his hand.
Laying them out on the table near the west window, he found that they were a mix of English and Scottish coins predating the current kings of both countries.
The mixture looked like the sort that Border nobles used to pay their warriors.
He recognized marks of Alexander III and Robert I on a few Scottish ones, making some more than a century old.
He also found some bearing the mark of Scotland’s Robert III but none showing King Jamie’s mark, so whoever had buried the jar had likely done so before Robert III’s death in 1406.
It was common enough to find English and Scottish coins on both sides of the line, though.
People accepted any such as payment, and silver lasted a long while.
Certain that Coll would take no immediate interest in the carved box, Dev carefully returned the coins to the jar, the jar to the box, and the box to its place on the shelf.
Then, unbolting both doors, he went in search of Wat, aware that he had neglected his primary, soon departing guest much longer than good manners allowed.