Amanda Scott (21 page)

“I trust you will find the courage to deny them if they come again.”

“Aye, sir, I will.”

“Good. I shall want the place cleaned up before I return. You may hire as many men as you need and more men-at-arms to safeguard the castle, as well. If you cannot see to it quickly, I expect I shall have to look for a new constable.”

“Mayhap hiring a housekeeper would be wise, sir,” Adela said. “It does not appear as if one has tended the place for some time.”

“I warrant you can see to that as well, can you not?” he said to Geddes.

“Aye, sir. I’ll do what I can, but it’ll take a good bit o’ gelt, that will.”

Henry said with the bland disinterest he had shown earlier, “If you require funds, sirrah, send those you hire to Sinclair House in the Canongate, where Sir Robert presently resides. He will attend to their recompense there.”

“Aye, my lord,” Geddes said, turning back to Rob. “I’ll do as ye bid, sir.”

Rob said lightly, “I shall rely upon you, Tam Geddes.”

“But must I send the lads into town to get their gelt? Ye could let me attend to it for ye,” he suggested. “’Twould be more convenient for the lads, ye ken.”

With effort, Rob avoided looking at Henry as he said with every affectation in play, “But ’tis more convenient for
me
to do it at Sinclair House.”

“Sakes, I guess it
will
be more convenient,” he said afterward as he and Henry followed the women down the slope toward the woods at its base. “What the devil was that about, Henry? I didn’t think about the money, but if you can tell me how I’m to pay all those men before I know what rents Lestalric collects and—”

“I’ll pay them,” Henry said, cutting in without apology. “And before I leave for the north, I’ll arrange for you to draw on my funds here if you need them. Don’t stiffen up like that, Rob. You were wise back there not to set Geddes on his guard. But if you cannot see by the state of the lands we’ve ridden through to get here and all we see right now that your rents here must be enormous, I certainly can.”

Rob frowned. “You know that I’ve had training in managing what finances come my way. We all did, because a man cannot plan for battle without knowing how to assess his resources and pay for his men’s needs. But I ken little of rents. I can see that the land is in better trim than the castle, but I assumed that Geddes had passed the rents on to my father or Will and that they’d spent it all on finery.”

“That may well be the case,” Henry acknowledged. “But you’d have to be a fool not to inspect his accounts. I’d remind you that someone has already stuck a finger in your affairs. And that means your father and brother may not have been the only ones to whom Geddes paid the rents. If I may presume a step more …”

“As many as you like,” Rob said as they entered the shady woodland. “Much as I’d prefer not to be beholden to you in such an enormous way—”

“I’ll get it all back,” Henry said. “But you’d do well to let me set my man of affairs onto Geddes with a few of my men-at-arms to back his efforts. You’ll know then that you’re getting a full accounting. If you can be content to trust my chap as much as I do, I think you’ll find him sat-is factory.”

“Sakes, Henry, I’d have to be daft to refuse such an offer,” Rob said sincerely. “Will he mind trying to impart some of his knowledge to me?”

“Not a bit,” Henry said with a reminiscent smile. “Only think what it must have been like for him to try to train a thirteen-year-old who was angry at the Fates for taking his father and cocksure of himself and his rank besides.”

“Were you ever like that?” Rob asked innocently. “I don’t recall it.”

“Wise of you to forget,” Henry said with a grin.

Rob was laughing aloud when the arrow struck.

Chapter 11

H
aving fallen back to let Isabella and Lady Clendenen ride two abreast ahead of her on the narrow track, Adela heard a sudden shout and gasped when she turned to see Lestalric pitching headfirst from his saddle.

Only Henry’s swift action saved him from falling between their horses, into the path of the horses and men behind them.

“Two of you lads, to the countess!” Henry shouted.

Somehow, one-handed, he caught Lestalric’s doublet shoulder. But Adela saw that he’d grabbed only cloth. And as Henry fought to control two unsettled horses and assist a struggling Lestalric trying to right himself, the cloth began to rip where the arrow had pierced it. Seeing this all in a blink, she wheeled the gray and kicked it hard, forcing it nearer until she could catch the cheek-piece of the bay’s bridle.

Holding it firmly, praying the animal would not panic, she spoke soothingly, steadying it effectively until Lestalric suddenly jerked himself away from Henry.

“Don’t fight him, you fool!” she snapped. When his horse tried to rear again, she added hastily but in the soothing tone she had used before, “I can see the arrow-head and it looks to be sharply barbed, my lord. Be still, or you may injure yourself more. Good laddie,” she murmured to the horse as it calmed.

“I know I hurt you then, Rob, but the lass is right,” Henry said. “I’ll take more care, but we must get you off your horse to have a good look at that wound.”

“Get the women to safety first,” Lestalric growled as he let Henry help him ease back onto his saddle properly. He sounded angry but whether at himself for revealing his pain or at the archer, Adela did not know.

“We’re not going anywhere,” she told him. “As you can see, two of Henry’s men-at-arms are already protecting the countess and Lady Clendenen, and have moved them out of the line of fire. Surely, we’re safer here with Henry’s men than if we tried to ride on without them.”

“Aye, she’s right again, Rob,” Henry said with a sweeping look around. “Your brain is muddled, lad. So listen to her unless you want a good clout.”

“Spare me, Henry. This damn thing hurts like fire.”

“I see that,” Henry said, gesturing for one of his men to dismount and help him.

“He’s bleeding badly, sir,” Adela said. “We need to get that arrow out and the wound bound up as quickly as we can.”

“Aye, but I’m thinking I might send a couple of my lads—”

“Listen,” Adela said sharply. “Riders!”

Exchanging a glance with Lestalric, Henry signed to two other men. One turned his horse deeper into the woods. The other rode toward the newcomers.

A moment later, a shout came from the latter. “A score or more, m’lord, bearing a royal banner and that o’ the Earl o’ Fife!”

Henry frowned, but Adela said, “Thank heaven! Now all will be well.”

Rob said quickly, “How badly am I bleeding, Henry? I can’t see the wound.”

“Badly enough to ruin your pretty doublet,” Henry said. “But at least that dark velvet will prevent anyone’s noticing from a distance.”

“Please, sir, get him off his horse,” Adela pleaded. “We must tend his wound.”

“It may be more important to hide it,” Rob said. “Are you wearing a cambric underskirt or shift, lass?”

She frowned, making him wonder if she would object. But to his relief, she caught his meaning quickly and began tearing strips of cambric from her underskirt.

“Use those to bind me up,” he said. “Henry, my doublet may be dark, but the bandage will show. I’ll need that splendid cape you’re wearing.”

“Sakes, you insolent pup, you’ll be like to leak all over it,” Henry said as he whisked off the cape and laid it ready across his saddlebow.

“Never mind that,” Rob said, reaching into his left sleeve and extracting the narrow roll of vellum. “Take this, lass, and shove it inside your bodice for me.”

“Men,” Adela muttered as she held her strips, steadied her horse, and awkwardly slipped the vellum through the lacing of her tunic without asking what it was. “You know I cannot just wrap a bandage round it. That arrow must come out.”

“Henry, see if you can do it without rendering me unconscious,” Rob said.

“Sakes, sir,” she protested. “He cannot pull it out from where he is!”

“He must,” Rob said. “I’d as lief they not know I’m injured until we know why they’re here. Let them believe the arrow missed me.”

“I doubt the person who shot it will believe that,” Adela said.

Henry did not waste time arguing but said, “Shut your eyes and try to relax, Rob. I’ve got to push the damned barb through to cut it off.”

“Don’t worry about neatness,” Rob said. “Just break it off when you can get a grip and try not to leave any splinters in me. And for the love of God, Henry, do it fast. Their hoofbeats have slowed. They’re nearing the woods.”

He noted that Lady Clendenen and Isabella had ridden back onto the path. Like Adela, they believed all was safe with a royal party approaching. At least neither was a prattler. They would take their cues from him or from Henry.

He was not at all sure they were safe. And he knew that Henry—who understood much more than he did about the politics and intrigue rife within the royal circle—found no reassurance in knowing Fife was there.

Adela saw that Henry knew what he was doing when he pushed the shaft of the arrow through the wound until the barb was well past the exit area. But the speed with which he did it astonished her.

Calling to the man who had dismounted to help him, he held the long shaft firmly as the other gripped the barb end in one gloved fist and snapped it off.

She heard Lestalric gasp, but he remained conscious without visible effort.

Dexterously, Henry extracted the shaft and reached for one of the wide strips of cambric Adela held out. By the time he had deftly bound it around Lestalric’s shoulder and upper arm, she had realized something else from the way the arrow had pierced his left shoulder and emerged through the back of his upper left arm.

“It came from above,” she said. “Back there, from those trees.”

“Aye,” Henry said. “Tie that knot tight. I’ll throw my cape over his shoulders as you do. We’ve time for no more, so don’t get blood on your sleeve.”

His voice was calm, as was Lestalric’s. “Get rid of that thing,” the latter said to the man who held the barb. “Stow the shaft, too, but shove it into the ground under a bush if you can. And make haste, man. They’re upon us.”

A moment later, they were. But before Adela recognized anyone in the royal party, Isabella said in a clear voice, “Why, Ealga, look. ’Tis your charming cousin, the chevalier de Gredin, and the Earl of Fife.”

Adela was further amazed then to see Henry take from one of his men an arrow that looked like the one they had just broken. He held it and was still gazing raptly at it when the first riders in the royal party joined them.

“Your skirt, lass,” Lestalric said urgently.

With as casual a gesture as she could quickly manage, she smoothed the overskirt off her knee, where she had gathered it to tear strips from her underskirt. Then she turned the gray to face the newcomers but kept it near Lestalric’s horse.

Lestalric looked pale, she thought, but he was otherwise in full command of himself. He had looped his reins loosely around his left hand and chose that moment to pluck a bit of leaf off the borrowed cape with his right.

“We are glad to see you, my lord,” Isabella said as the Earl of Fife approached her without bothering to doff his plumed hat.

He nodded, saying, “Good day, madam. Did you meet with trouble here?”

“How astute you are, my lord!” Lady Clendenen exclaimed, clutching a hand to her breast. “I vow, I have never been so glad to see anyone. My poor heart is still pounding. Someone was shooting arrows at us!”

“How dreadful,” Fife said, shifting his haughty gaze to Lestalric. “I hope no one suffered injury.”

Raising the arrow he held so the others could see it, Henry said, “We are glad to reassure you, sir. The archer’s aim most fortunately went amiss. I trust, though, that such mischief does not occur often hereabouts.”

“Not often,” Fife said, turning back to Lestalric. “I was told you had not yet visited these estates. Had you mentioned your intent to come today, I’d have warned you we’d had reports of trouble here.”

“Sakes, then I wish I’d announced it to the whole court,” Lestalric said in the disingenuous manner he had employed the previous evening and with Geddes.

Adela noted, however, that his absurd accent was less obvious with Fife.

Fife replied, “’Tis fortunate that I asked de Gredin here to meet with me this morning to discuss his recent visit to France. We are looking to seek aid from the Auld Alliance if the English continue to provoke us.”

“An excellent notion,” Lestalric said. “One heartily commends it.”

“At all events,” Fife said with a cynical look, “when de Gredin said he was to join your expedition, I suggested we come along lest you encounter such rogues. He did not know your party had increased its numbers so.”

“Doubtless I ought to have discussed our plan with you first, my lord,” Lestalric said. “I fear I am not well versed yet in all my duties.”

Adela detected a satirical note in his voice and feared Fife would hear it too, so she was almost glad to hear a shout from the woods behind them.

Henry and his men all stiffened as one and looked that way, but Fife said smoothly, “I took the liberty of sending a few of my lads to search for those rogues I mentioned. I’ll wager they’ve treed your murderous archer for you.”

Believing as Adela did that the archer had shot from a treetop and must have fled at once, and recalling that one of Henry’s men had slipped in amidst the trees earlier, she hoped he was not the one they had found. She dared not glance at Henry though, lest Fife and the others suspect she knew more than they did. She sensed intense awareness in Lestalric, too, more than he had displayed before.

They heard approaching riders, and a moment later, two emerged from the woods. “We got him, me lord,” one announced to Fife. “He jumped from his tree and were fleeing wi’ his bow, but we took him down.”

“What have you done with the fellow?” Henry asked mildly. “I own, I should like to ask him what the devil he meant by shooting at us.”

The henchman glanced at his master before he said, “He’ll tell ye nowt, me lord. The devil hisself ha’ got his hooves in him now, and I warrant auld Clootie willna send him to trouble ye again.”