“Were there any dignitaries from other countries at the coronation?” Adair asked.
“If there were I would not have known them,” Conal replied, “but it was a hurried and a very shabby affair to my eye. While Scone is the traditional place of crowning for Scottish kings, nothing had been prepared, and there had been two weeks between the battle at Sauchieburn and the coronation. A slightly moth-eaten gold canopy was found in the palace attics. It was held over the king’s head.
“When it was time for the king to be anointed he would permit only his two brothers and the clergy in the chapel with him. The rest of us stood in the doorway attempting to see something. As I was at the back I sawvirtually nothing. The Hepburn managed to make his way to the front of the pack. He is no great lord, but few would deny him, for he is the king’s closest friend. He told me the king was crowned kneeling, and that his diadem of gold and jewels kept slipping forward on his head because he had such a distaste for it that he had not allowed a fitting the previous day for the velvet lining it needed. They had had to measure from his caps, and it was not right.
“Later in the great hall of Scone Palace I stood in a long line with all of those who had come to see the fourth James crowned. The walls of the chamber were hung with banners belonging to all the clans represented there that day. I saw our Bruce banner in a prominent place, for our ancestor had once reigned as Scotland’s king. Home told me that the crown the king wore had been the Bruce’s, and because his head was so large all the other kings after him had had to line the crown with velvet to prevent it from falling from their heads. I waited with all the others to pledge my fealty as laird of the Bruces of Cleit. And Duncan pledged for the Armstrongs of Duffdour.”
“The king offered me his condolences,” Duncan said,“and told me he would pray for my brother. It was a great kindness.”
“And afterward?” Adair asked them.
“There was a less than lavish banquet,” Conal said. “I have eaten better of my own food in my own hall.”
Duncan and Murdoc nodded in agreement.
“There was no dancing? No entertainment?” Adair was surprised.
“It was poorly done,” Conal said, “but how could it have been otherwise? The king’s father murdered after a battle in which his son took his throne. A court in mourning cannot celebrate the rise of a new king with joy. We are fortunate that no further bloodshed erupted.
There are those who are unhappy with the outcome ofSauchieburn, but they will learn that this James means to rule as his father did not.”
“The king sent you a message, Adair,” young Murdoc said excitedly. “Tell her, Conal. Tell her what he said.”
Adair cocked her head and looked at her husband.
“What did he say?” she asked.
“He asked to be remembered to you,” Conal answered a bit sourly.
“He said,” Murdoc told Adair, “ ‘My lord of Cleit, please be certain to remember us to our fair English cousin. And tell her that we hope to see her at court eventually.’ ”
“He did? Why, how kind of the king to remember me,” Adair murmured in bland tones, but her eyes were twinkling. Conal was jealous. The look upon his face told her that he was jealous. And the fact that he could hardly bear to mention the king’s greeting at all told her that he was jealous. Very jealous. Then she arose from her place. “Good night, brothers.” She held out her hand to her husband. “Will you come now, my lord, or later?”
And she smiled at him.
“Later,” he growled.
Adair curtsied and left the hall.
“I would have gone with her,” Duncan said with a small smile.
“We’ll see how you behave when you have your own wife, and her behavior tries your patience,” the laird replied.
“What has she done?” Murdoc asked. “Adair seems most amenable to me.”
“She’ll want to go to court,” Conal Bruce said. “Did you see how her eyes lit up when you prated the king’s words verbatim at her? She was raised in a court. It is a familiar place to her. I couldn’t wait to leave Scone, and they say Stirling, where the king will hold his court, is very grand. I am not a grand man. I am a simple border lord.”
“Whether or not you are right I do not know,” Duncan consoled his brother. “Get her with child now that you are home. A child will settle her down, and she will be content to bide at Cleit.”
“Aye,” Conal agreed absently as he sat staring into the fire.
“You’ll not do it here, laddie,” his elder brother remarked. “Go to her!”
The laird jumped up, and without another word hurried from the hall upstairs to the bedchamber he shared with Adair, slamming the door open and then shutting it with a very loud bang that rattled its hinges.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” Adair said, flinging off her chamber robe to reveal her nakedness. She began tearing at his garments. “I don’t care if you stink of your horse, and Sauchieburn, and two weeks without bathing, I want you, my lord! And I am not of a mind to wait, Conal.”
“Jesu, woman,” he gasped, surprised, feeling his manhood beginning to swell in his breeks. “I want you too!”
