Epilogue
Coklaw, a fortnight later
The moon was new, and outside their bedchamber windows, the sky was black, although millions of stars blazed in it.
The landscape was a sea of dark shadows, but the hawthorn bushes had bloomed.
Even in the darkness, Robina could see their white blossoms by starlight as she cleansed herself after coupling with Dev.
“It occurs to me, Robby,” he said from the bed, where he lay awaiting her return, “that if Chukk Jamieson and his men took your kine at Easter, the Turnbulls were innocent of any wrongdoing.”
She winced but rallied gamely. “If they didn’t take the last lot, they likely took others,” she said. Then she added flatly, “We’re keeping the cows and sheep.”
He chuckled, and someone rapped on their door.
Snatching up her shift from the pile of their clothing on the floor, she pulled it on over her head as Benjy spoke from the landing: “I could hear ye talking. Can I come in?”
Scrambling back over Dev into bed, she said, “Aye, sure, lovey.” When he opened the door, she raised up on her elbows, adding, “What are you doing up so late?”
“I couldna sleep,” he said. “I did summat ye willna like, Dev. I ken fine that ye’ll find out, so I thought I’d best tell ye m’self.”
Sitting up straighter beside her in the bed, Dev reached back to pull pillows higher for both of them. “That was a wise decision,” he said. “What did you do?”
Benjy glanced up at the shelf that held Rab’s carved box. “I took the jar, and I buried it,” he said solemnly.
Robina’s breath caught in her throat.
Dev said, “How did you know where it was?”
“I’d wager he overheard us the day we talked about it under my tree,” Robina said. “When I thought I’d heard a squirrel and later found that scrap from his shirt.”
Benjy nodded and then kept still, attempting no explanation.
“Where did you bury it?” Dev asked sternly. When the boy didn’t answer, he added, “If Chukk tells Northumberland about it, we must be able to give it back to him.”
“Chukk willna tell him, though. He’s a-going home to his Shetland.”
Robina gasped. “Benjy, you didn’t give Jamieson that money, did you?”
“Not all of it,” Benjy said, looking at his feet. Drawing a breath, he looked up again and met her gaze. “I did give him some of it.”
“How much?” Dev asked grimly.
“Just a handful and a bit,” Benjy said. “It were a compromise, like what ye did, and what Cousin Wat’s a-going to do wi’ the Douglas.
Chukk wants to go home to Shetland, because he promised his da he would when his da were dying, just like ye promised our Rab that ye’d look after us.
Also, I promised I’d help him, so I told him to come back today and I met him.
I didna ken how much he’d need to go so far, but I kent fine that I couldna give him more than just to set him on his way, so… ” He shrugged.
“Then why did you bury the jar?” Dev asked him. “If you’d put it back, we might never have known that some of the gelt was gone.”
“I just decided to bury it. Then I told Chukk that I had, so he’d ken fine that nae one here would ken where it was if he threatened to harm me again.”
“You should never have met him alone,” Robina said flatly.
“Ash were nearby,” Benjy assured her. “He had his bow and arrows.”
“I’ll have something to say to Ash about that,” Dev said.
“Nay, ye won’t, neither,” Benjy said. “Coll told Ash that ye’d said Ash wasna to share aught that I confided to him with anyone else, so I kent fine that Ash wouldna tell ye. Ye canna tell a man he must not do summat—like ye did—and then punish him for not doing it, can he, Robby… I mean Beany?”
“No, Benjy, he can’t, and you may call me Robby if you like. I don’t mind.”
“Aye, then, I will, unless our Rab tells me I should call ye Beany like he did.”
Swallowing the sudden obstacle in her throat, Robina looked at Dev.
He was watching Benjy, and she couldn’t tell if he was angry or not. Then, in measured tones, he said, “Where did you bury that jar?”
“I think it should stay buried yet awhile,” Benjy said, meeting his gaze. “Ye did say that the jar and its contents belong to me unless Northumberland claims it. So, since it isna ours to use, I think it should stay hid unless Coklaw be in such trouble that nobbut them coins can save it.”
When Dev did not reply, and Robina dared not speak, Benjy added quietly, “I think ye should do as I say, Dev. I ken fine that ye’ll likely skelp me blue for this, and ’tis likely I deserve it, but I’ll still think the same as what I think now.”
Dev said more gently than before, “We’ll talk more in the morning, laddie.
You go on to bed now, and don’t fret about what I might do.
You do deserve something for sneaking into this room and taking the jar from it, but all in all, I think you have acted with more wisdom than many who are much older than you are. ”
“Good, then I’ll bid ye goodnight, Dev. Goodnight, Robby.” Then, with as much dignity as he had shown throughout the discussion, Benjy went off to bed.
Robina could think of nothing to say, and Rab had not said a word.
Aware of Robby’s silence and his own sense of unease because of it, Dev shifted slightly to study her expression. “What is it, sweetheart? I’m not going to skelp him blue, if that’s what has put that worried frown on your face. Sometimes that laddie makes me feel younger than he is.”
A weak smile curved her inviting lips. He eyed her more closely, and a memory struck him of something Benjy had said. “Is it that he’s calling you Robby now?” he asked. “Do you fear that he’s still waiting for Rab to talk to him?”
Bleakly, she murmured, “Do you think you can ever bring yourself to believe that I do hear Rab speak to me?”
He nearly reminded her that Rab was dead but decided to be tactful. “I’m willing to let Rab persuade me, sweetheart. Ask him what the last thing he said to me was.”
“I know what it was. He made you promise to look after us.”
“He said one thing more, after that. If he is watching us, he’ll remember.”
Silence greeted her, and Robina realized that she’d heard only a few comments from Rab since her marriage. Closing her eyes, she willed him to answer.
Still silence. Mayhap he no longer wanted to talk to her.
Dev was silent, too, waiting.
“It’s none of your damned business what I said to the man, Beany.”
Exhaling in relief, she said, “He refuses to tell me.”
“You see,” Dev said. “I was right.”
She shook her head. “No, Rab said it’s none of my business, so I know what it is now. There is only one thing that Rab would never admit to me.”
“What, then?”
“He told you he was afraid to die.”
Stunned, Dev growled, “I can’t say that I like the thought that he may be watching us all the time. Do you think he will always be with us?”
“No, my love. I don’t need him as much as I did and never when I’m with you.”