“We have been looking for you ever since, Adair. Ittook us some time to find this Douglas fellow. At first he claimed to know nothing of Stanton, but in time he finally admitted that it was indeed he who had raided it.
He remembered you quite well, for he said you were a difficult captive, and he was fortunate to sell you to the laird of Cleit, who had purchased your Elsbeth. Elsbeth, he told me, was as troublesome as you were, for she refused to leave your side unless this laird bought you too, and so he did. Then I had to find out where Cleit was located, and damn me if you are not even more isolated here than at Stanton.” Robert drank down his wine eagerly now.
“Why have you come, Robert?” Adair asked himquietly.
“Why, to rescue you,” he said as if he thought her simple. “I shall pay your master twice what he obtained for you. And I will pay for Elsbeth’s release as well.”
“Surely you did not spend years seeking me out just tofreeme,” Adair said. “Surely you have come with another purpose, Robert. Yet if the truth be known, I do not choose to return to England. My home now is here at Cleit.”
“But Adair,” Robert Lynbridge said, “the king has restored your lands to you. I read the message that was sent. It came from the king’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, who persuaded her son to have mercy upon you. He will not return your title, and he wants to choose a husband for you to defend Stanton, but your lands are yours again.”
Her head spun with his words.Stanton!Stanton was hers again! And then she looked up into the eyes of Conal Bruce. The pain she saw in them was like a physical assault upon her person. He loved her. And she loved him. She would not desert him, now or ever. Even for Stanton. “I cannot go back, Robert,”she told him.
“But why?” he asked her. “I know that Stanton means more to you than life itself, Adair. And the kingis certain to choose you a wealthy husband so the hall may be rebuilt once again. Stanton can regain its small glory. Lord John would want it.”
“Rob, I have a husband. A Scots husband who is laird of Cleit. I cannot go back. I do not want to go back. And my father would want my happiness, which is here.”
He misunderstood her. “A handfast union is no real marriage, Adair,” Robert Lynbridge explained. “Of course you can go back.”
“Nay, Rob, I cannot. And I truly do not want to go back. I was married in a most legal union by a priest of our most Holy Mother Church, in the presence of the Earl of Bothwell and the new king himself. Elsbeth was with me, and my lord’s two brothers, the laird of Duffdour, and Murdoc Bruce. I am happy here. I am content with my husband and the life that we have together.”
“But what is to happen to Stanton?” Robert Lynbridge wanted to know.
“King Henry took it, and it is his to dispose of as he chooses. There is little left of it, save for some empty cottages. What it once was exists no longer. I will write him a message, which I hope you will carry back to England for me and see delivered. If you would like the Stanton lands, I will ask the king to give them to you, although there is no guarantee that he will. Still, as the Lynbridges and the Radcliffes are related by blood, perhaps he will be generous, and it would, of course, please me to know that Andrew’s brother now possessed what was once Stanton. And your grandsire would have been delighted. And I will write to Lady Margaret as well, thanking her for interceding for me.”
“I would have never believed that you could release Stanton so easily,” Robert Lynbridge said in a surprised tone.
“Easily? Nay, not easily, Rob, but I have been gone for over two years from Stanton. The hall is destroyed The Stanton folk are scattered or dead. The only thing that remains of the Stanton that I once knew and lovedare my memories. They will reside with me here in Scotland for as long as I live.”
He shook his head. “You surprise me, Adair. You have changed greatly from the girl who was Andrew’s wife, and whose devotion to Stanton was even greater than any love she might have felt for my brother, God assoil his good soul.”
The barb hurt. What right had Robert Lynbridge to criticize her? Would he have come looking for her if the king’s messenger had not come to Hillview seeking his aid? She seriously doubted it, even if he had been her husband’s elder brother. He had his own lands to attend to, and she had not wanted his help anyway where Stanton was concerned. “Aye, God assoil Andrew’s good soul,” she said. “He died with honor, and I was proud of him, Rob. But much has changed for me since that day he marched off to join my uncle in his final battle for England’s throne.”
“Has it changed so much that you would wed aScot?” Rob asked her bluntly. “This union can be annulled so you may have a good English husband, and your own family’s lands back. Once the Radcliffe name meant everything to you, Adair. So much so that my brother must take it for his own if he was to be your husband.”
“But for all of Lord John’s loving kindness I was never really a Radcliffe, was I, Rob?” Adair answered him. “I was a king’s brat, a royal bastard. Naught else.
Conal Bruce and I share far more than I ever shared with Andrew. We shared a child.”
“You have a child?” He was surprised. She had shown no signs of children with his brother. “Where is this child?”
“Buried on the hillside,” Adair said quietly. “Our daughter, Jane, was born late last winter, and lived less than a day. So you see, Rob, my good lord and I are bound together for life. And with God’s blessing we will have other children.”
Robert Lynbridge turned to the laird. “Forgive my candid speech, my lord,” he said. “When a man and a woman have shared a child I know that everything changes. I meant you no offense, and ask your pardon. I did not want my brother’s wife to remain here with you if she were not really content and happy. And I am frankly surprised that she would give up her lands for a Scots husband.”
“You mean no offense,” Conal Bruce said in a hard voice, “and yet you continue to give it. If Adair were unhappy and leaving me would bring her happiness again, I should let her go. A caged bird pining for its freedom does not survive. Does my wife look miserable to you?
Or discontent in any manner? Have I stopped her from speaking the truth? Shall I leave you alone in my hall to plead your case again? Nothing will change if I do. Of that I am certain, for Adair loves me, even as I love her.”
She almost wept at his words. He had now publicly declared his love for her. She rose to stand next to her husband, and felt his arm slip about her waist. “We would be pleased if you would tarry the night with us, Rob. And Elsbeth will be delighted to see you again. I will make certain that your men are fed and housed, your horses cared for in our stables. And after the meal you will tell me how Allis is, and your bairns.”
She had ended the discussion, Robert Lynbridge understood, and so he bowed politely. “I am grateful for your hospitality, my lord, Adair.”
Conal Bruce remained relatively taciturn the rest of the evening. He had considered himself and his brothers Adair’s family. Robert Lynbridge’s visit had disturbed him deeply. He didn’t want his wife to have any links left in England. He had never put a great deal of concern into the fact that she had been the possessor of lands herself. He had not known that Adair. The woman he had known had been his servant, his mistress, not a noblewoman who owned lands in her own right. The appearance of Robert Lynbridge had forced him to facethe fact that his wife had indeed been the daughter of an English king. She was indeed the half sister of England’s queen. This reality made him suddenly uncomfortable, and he did not like it.
He had forced Adair into marriage. Oh, he had been clever—or rather his brother Duncan had been clever.
It had all been done in a legal and lawful fashion. Which brought him to another discomfiting point. His beautiful wife was also a very distant cousin to his own king.
