Sir Jasper Keane bowed ingratiatingly several times as he backed from the room, thinking that all was not lost, even if he was not yet Greyfaire’s legal lord.
When the door had closed behind him, the king turned to his secretary.“Find out!”was all he said.
“And if it is true?” his secretary asked. “Is it not your purpose in life to solve such problems for me?” the king said coldly. “You will take care of the matter for me, but I do not ever again want to have it mentioned in my presence.”
“Of course, your majesty,” the king’s secretary said tonelessly.
“It ismyson, Arthur, who will one day be England’s king,” Henry Tudor replied. “I will defeat these rebels and bring a lasting peace to England. There have been too many years of strife.”
“God is surely on your majesty’s side,” his secretary answered.
“Aye,” the king said with a smile. “I believe he truly is!” And all of Europe believed, when on the sixteenth day of June in that year of our Lord, 1487, Henry Tudor defeated the diehard Yorkists and the boy they called Edward, Earl of Warwick, but whom the king called Lambert Simnel. The boy, who was ten years of age, was taken into the royal household. Some of the rebels were punished and forfeited their lives. Others were forgiven and paid large fines. A three-year peace treaty was signed between Scotland and England, hopefully guaranteeing the safety of the north. It seemed that God did, indeed, approve of Henry Tudor and the dynasty he was founding.
Scotland, however, did not benefit from God’s goodwill in that same year. Plague had broken out throughout the countryside. It appeared that another bad harvest was fated, portending another hungry winter. The highland earls and chieftains fought with one another for lack of a common enemy, and grumbled incessantly about the many weaknesses of James III. The weather was horrendous, and the Countess of Dunmor was feuding publicly with the Earl of Dunmor.
“A month!” Arabella shouted at her husband. “You promised me that when Maggie was a month old you would go to your brother so that he might treat with his fellow king over my daughter’s rights to Greyfaire. She is nine and a half months old, Tavis, and you have not done it! You gave me your word and I accepted it, for you are an honorable man.”
“Damnit, Arabella,” he roared back at her, “hae ye no concept of anything but yer own desires? Ye know the difficulties that Jemmie faces right now.”
“They are difficulties of his own making this time, Tavis. You know it as well as I do. Seeking to divert the Earl of Home’s revenues from Coldingham Priory into his own pocket is certainly provocative, my lord, and your brother well knows it! The queen’s death has changed him, Tavis. He is not the man we once knew. In the first months after Queen Margaret’s death he cloistered himself within his own apartments, ignoring the business of his government. Now, suddenly, he has decided he needs another choir, but he does not want to pay for that choir out of his own pocket, so he has reached into Lord Home’s pocket in an act of petty revenge, for Lord Home has spoken out against an English match for Scotland’s royal house.”
“An English match?‘Tis nae one wedding Jemmie speaks of, Arabella. ‘Tis three! Himself, Jamie and Ormond, the other James. Three English women wi’ all their servants and personal attendants overrunning the Scots court. One we might accept, but three makes it seem like a conquering invasion of Scotland by England. Can ye nae see that?”
“All of which has nothing to do with our daughter’s rights to Greyfaire,” snapped Arabella.
“‘Tis nae a good time to reason wi’ Jemmie, lovey,” the earl said stubbornly.
“And when will be a good time, Tavis? All hell is about to break loose here in Scotland over your brother’s highhandedness. I know you love him. I do too, but as a king he is not well liked. There are many who would overthrow him given the provocation. His whole life Jemmie Stewart has been indecisive, yet suddenly he has roused himself from his languor and is inviting civil war in the process. Are you aware, my lord, that the king has petitioned Pope Innocent to close Coldingham and divert its revenues to the Chapel Royal at Stirling?”
“He is the king, Arabella. It is his right,” her husband replied.
“Lord Home does not think so. God’s foot, my lord, those members of the Home family with a bent to religious orders have always taken those orders at Coldingham Priory. They consider ittheirpriory. For how many generations has a Home sat in the prior’s chair in that religious house? Lord Home himself is the priory’s hereditary bailiff.”
“The Homes have always been the one great border family who hae given my brother trouble,” Tavis Stewart said. “He and Lord Home are mortal enemies. They always hae been.”
“And so the king has taken it upon himself to come out of his stupor and bait them? ‘Tis madness, and again I say it has nothing to do with our daughter’s rights over Greyfaire Keep. You must go to Jemmie and ask him to speak with King Henry. Perhaps this matter will divert him from his path of self-destruction.”
“It is nae the proper time, lovey.”
“It is nae the proper time, my lord? There will never be a better time than now for King James to ask King Henry. There is peace between our two countries at this moment. You know as well as I do that if a civil war breaks out, England is apt to break that peace even as Scotland would have broken it had the Yorkists prevailed at Stokefield last June and caused a civil war in England. You cannot be so blind that you do not see that!”
He was amazed by her grasp of the political situation. How his wee English wife had grown in intellect in the almost three years since he had stolen her from Greyfaire church and married her. It was, of course, his brother’s tutoring. Jemmie had opened the door to Arabella’s mind, and in doing so had lit a fire for learning in her that could not seem to be quenched. She read any and everything she could get her hands on, though God only knew his library was not a large one. While they had been in Edinburgh she had found a stall in the marketplace that sold volumes brought from France and Italy. She was correct in her assessment of the situation, and yet he believed that he was equally correct in his handling of the matter.
“I cannot go to Jemmie now, lovey,” he said in a tone he hoped conveyed to her that the matter was closed for the time being.
“If you will not protect our daughter’s rights, my lord, then I must, of necessity, do so myself,” Arabella told him in equally implacable tones.
The Earl of Dunmor departed his castle to hunt down a wolf that had been terrorizing his villages. He had learned that when his wife was in one of her moods it was best to allow her the space of several days’ time to calm her temper. When he returned home four days later with the wolfskin as a gift which she might use to trim a gown and a cloak, he discovered to his shock that his countess had set forth for Edinburgh almost immediately after he had left Dunmor. The message she had left him was curt and to the point.
I have gone to the king.
With a smothered curse the Earl of Dunmor threw the parchment into the fire and glowered at Flora, who had been his wife’s messenger. “Did she take the coach?” he demanded.
“She rode,” said Flora, “and she would nae hae gone had ye done yer duty by Lady Maggie, my lord.”
“‘Tis nae the time to approach Jemmie,” he roared at the serving woman, who was not in the least intimidated.
“There is nae a time that is quite right in this matter, my lord. The king is a good man, but ye’ve spent yer entire life worrying about his delicate sensibilities. If the king is as soft as they say he is, it is because everyone hae treated him so, yet he doesna treat others wi’ the same care. He hae always been like a great clumsy beastie where men were concerned, an ye know it. He offends those who could help him and favors those who but seek the advantage for themselves. He doesna hae any common sense. Yer lady was right to go to Edinburgh and seek yer child’s rights. In the spring the feuding will begin, and there will be nae time for the king to show kindness toward any.”
