Chapter 19
Robina went downstairs, believing she had acquitted herself well regarding the jar of coins. Dev knew about it now, and they might learn more soon.
“You lied to your husband. He won’t react well to that, Beany.”
Nearly jumping out of her skin, she whirled on the stair, because Rab’s voice had sounded right behind her. He was not there, not in body at least.
She muttered, “If you mean what I said about Rosalie, I didn’t lie. I could hardly tell him that you said not to tell anyone else. Where have you been?”
“With you, lass, always with you.”
“Mercy! I hope not,” she said, remembering the previous night with Dev.
He chuckled, and the sound faded to silence when two servants hurried out onto the hall landing and down the stairs ahead of her to the kitchen level.
She went outside and saw Benjy below in the courtyard, holding the reins of Lady Meg’s cream-colored palfrey.
Other lads a short distance away held Janet’s dun, Wat’s bay horse, and another, smaller bay that Robina knew must be Bella’s. Lady Rosalie’s gray palfrey stood near the stable with Ned Graham.
Benjy watched Robina’s approach as if he expected a scolding.
She smiled, although she noted that he’d torn his shirt. “I’m glad to see you, laddie. I had a foolish fear you might forget that Buccleuch and his family will soon be departing.”
“Aye, but he sent his Geordie to gather his lads and their ponies outside the gate whilst I were a-helping them pack,” Benjy said.
“Then Sym said I could hold Lady Meg’s palfrey whilst he went inside to speed folks along.
They’ll take their midday dinner wi’ them to eat along the way, so I expect they’ll be coming out anon. ”
“For Sym to trust you with her ladyship’s horse should make you proud,” Robina said. “He is gey particular when it comes to Lady Meg.”
“Aye, he calls her ‘Herself,’ just as our people were used to call our da ‘Himself,’ ” Benjy said. “Someday, mayhap they’ll call me so, too.”
“I think they will,” Robina said. Seeing Janet and Bella emerge from the tower with Fiona Ormiston, she excused herself and hurried to meet them.
“You’re not leaving already, too, are you, Fiona? I’ve never had a sister before. I was hoping you’d stay longer.”
Fiona grinned. “Father had expected to stay through Beltane. Then, when he learned you were to be married, he said we might stay only until Monday. However, since you and Davy are staying here instead of riding off to an estate of his own, as most bridal couples do, Lady Meg reminded us that you’d be obliged to entertain me and that Davy would have to spend much of his time with Father. ”
“We would never view such visits as a penance,” Robina said sincerely.
“Nay, but we agreed—Father and I—that you should have this time together. So, we are going to Scott’s Hall, instead. That way, we’ll be near enough for you to visit if you miss us but far enough away, Lady Meg said, to give you and Davy a good excuse to stay away if you’d liefer be alone.”
“We’ll have to see what Davy has to say about that,” Robina said.
“You usually call him Dev, I know,” Fiona said. “Has he been such a devil to you? Before you married him, I mean,” she added hastily.
Robina was shaking her head. “Rab and most of Dev’s men called him ‘Dev,’ ” she said. “So, Benjy and I always did, too. I’ve seen his devilish side, though, and I’ll confess that I’d liefer never see it again.”
“ ’Tis likely you’re safe,” Janet said. “He rarely shows it to women, I think.”
“Or to lassocks like me,” Bella said cheerfully. “When I have a husband, I hope he is just like Sir Davy.”
Robina’s startled gaze met Fiona’s dancing one as Janet said with her warm chuckle, “You must tell him so, Bella.”
Robina smiled at the remark, and Fiona laughed.
Bella’s face flushed fiery red, though, and Benjy said, “I dinna think ye should tease her. She doesna like it, and I dinna think Dev would, neither.”
Robina looked at her little brother in astonishment, but Benjy was sternly watching Janet, who said promptly, “You are right to object, sir, and it is kind of you to speak up for Bella. I am ashamed to say that I would be the first to condemn such behavior in anyone else.” Turning to her little sister, she said, “I’m truly sorry, Bella. I won’t do that again.”
“I forgive you,” Bella said. “Likely I should not have said what I did, either.”
Janet hugged her. “You were merely speaking your thoughts, love. You may always do that to me and to our good friends Fiona and Robby. I was the one in the wrong, for teasing you, just as Benjy had the good sense and the courage to say.”
Robina noted that Benjy stood a little straighter. If he was aware that he’d lost a piece of his new shirt, he gave no sign of it.
Dev and Wat came outside then with the ladies Meg and Rosalie. Ormiston followed them with Sym Elliot. Wat’s dogs, hitherto curled in the shade by the stable, leaped up and dashed with wagging tails to meet their master.
The riders mounted and, amid farewells, bridal wishes, and promises to meet again soon, Buccleuch’s and Ormiston’s parties departed together.
Robina watched them go, feeling strangely bereft. She had enjoyed having the other women there and would have liked them to stay longer.
Watching her, Dev sensed her mood and silently put an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close. When she leaned closer, he kissed the top of her head and wished he could scoop her up and carry her upstairs to their bedchamber.
“D’ye think ye should be a-hugging ’n a-kissing our Beany out here?” Benjy asked, startling him.
Recovering swiftly, Dev said, “ ’Tis a husband’s privilege to hug his wife and kiss her whenever he likes, within reason. Did you enjoy your ramble earlier?”
“Ramble?”
“As I recall, you dashed out of the hall in a fury and appeared again only as our guests were preparing to leave. I assumed you’d gone walking outside the wall.”
“Och, aye,” Benjy said. “I did ramble a bit, and then I went round to watch Buccleuch’s men pack their gear onto their ponies. I helped one o’ them. Then I helped Sandy and them till Sym said I could hold Lady Meg’s horse.”
“Mayhap you can find Ash now and think of something to do with him,” Dev said. “I want to talk with Robby.”
Grimacing, Benjy said, “Talk, aye. I warrant ye’ll just be a-hugging and such, then. If I dinna find Ash, I’ll help Sandy and them, so ye can do as ye will.”
Robina stifled a laugh, and Dev gave her a quelling look. But when Benjy ran off, he said, “Did you detect mockery in that scamp’s tone?”
“Perhaps,” she agreed. “I also detected some glibness when he described his earlier activities, and that he’d torn his shirt. I wonder what mischief he got up to out there.”
“We’re not going to think about that now. We are going to find Greenlaw.”
“Should we show him the jar?”
“Not yet. I looked more closely at the coins before I came downstairs. Some are ancient, some more recent, but I found none from his grace’s reign or from those of the fifth or sixth Henrys of England.”
“His grace returned from England only four years ago,” Robina said.
“Aye, but his reign began in 1406, when his father died soon after the English captured Jamie. The Governor, Albany, issued Jamie’s first coins soon afterward. Therefore, I suspect that whoever buried the jar did so before 1406. What’s more, there seem to be many more English coins than Scottish.”
She frowned thoughtfully, and he waited for her to demand an explanation.
Instead, she said, “You suspect they have some connection to the siege.”
“ ’Tis a possibility, aye,” he said, pleased that she had so quickly followed his thinking.
“So much silver amounts to a lordly sum, so I doubt it belonged to a tenant here or in England. Nor would any other lord in the area have reason to bury his money at Coklaw. And, as you pointed out before, for the Laird of Coklaw to bury such a sum outside the wall is too unlikely to warrant further consideration.”
“So we approach Greenlaw,” Robina said. “He may know naught of the silver, but he will know all about the siege.”
They found Coklaw’s steward in the housekeeper’s room with his wife.
When Dev said they would like to talk privily with Greenlaw, Robina said hastily, “Mistress Greenlaw must stay, too, sir. She was here during the siege, and we have rarely kept secrets from either of them… not successfully, at all events.”
“Ada is fully in my confidence, Sir David, and ye can trust her, too,” Greenlaw said. “She’s as close as an oyster, is Ada.”
Ada knitted silently, and Robina knew that everything was in train for their midday meal, or she would not be knitting. She also knew that whatever Ada was doing, she would not miss a word of what the others said.
Looking at Dev, Robina wondered if he wanted to do the talking. When he gazed steadily back, she said, “We’d like to ask you both about the siege that took place here twenty-five years ago.”
“In June of 1403, that was,” Greenlaw said, nodding. “Northumberland’s army besieged our tower for fifteen days. But they didna breach our wall.”
“Northumberland directed the siege himself, aye?” Robina said.
“The first earl, aye, with his son, Hotspur,” Greenlaw said. “They tried to persuade me to cede this tower to them. Then, after a sennight, they demanded it.”
Ada said quietly, “John told them he’d defend it as long as he had one man to stand by him. They couldna get in, so they dwelt in tents beyond range of arrows from our wall.”
“How many were in their army?” Dev asked.
“I canna tell ye that, sir,” Greenlaw said.
“There was dunamany, though. The laird then—her ladyship’s granddad, that be—he were at Gledstanes wi’ the family.
When he heard o’ the siege, he hied him to the Governor at Stirling, and Albany gathered an army.
Just afore they arrived, the Percys up and fled in the middle of the night.
We learned later that they hied theirselves to Wales and got mixed up in the rebellion there. ”