“Do you know where they are being held?” the marquis asked.
“Well, I believe there are some at Inverness, and others at Nairn, and I had heard of some being held at Loch Lomond, my lord.”
“You will write it all down, and give us directions,” the marquis of Hartsfield said. “We will stay the night and start off again in the morning.” Piers St.Denis was too excited to contemplate Adali’s cooperation, but Kipp St.Denis was not.
“What are you up to?” he asked the castle steward when they were finally alone in the Great Hall, the marquis having been shown to a guest chamber.
Adali turned a bland face to him. “Master St.Denis?” he said.
“You know what I mean,” Kipp said. “Why are you being so helpful to my brother? Your loyalty to your mistress is legendary.”
Adali smiled a small smile. “Why, sir, your master carries a royal warrant from the king. For me to disobey would be treason, wouldn’t it now? As my mistress respects the divine right of kings, so do I also. I cannot disobey King James, even for my mistress.”
Kipp was not content with the answer. “You are up tosomething,”he said suspiciously. “You would not betray your mistress, I know it!”
Again Adali smiled. “If, sir, I believed your brother had any chance of catching up with my lord, and my lady …” He allowed the rest of the sentence to hang.
“They knew he was coming!”Kipp gasped.
“They knew he was in Edinburgh all winter long,” Adali replied. “It would seem that Scotland is a very small country, sir, and once more I remind you that the earl of Glenkirk is related to many people throughout it. We had word before Christmas, but immediately the first storm of the season came, and the roads were to be blocked for the next few months. We were told, however, that when the roads were open again, the marquis of Hartsfield would be paying us a visit. Unfortunately, the earl and his wife could not wait, for they have many visits themselves to make this summer.”
“He will hunt them into hell and back,” Kipp said despairingly.
“By the time he catches up with them,if he can catch up with them,”Adali told his companion, “there will no longer be any danger for my master and my mistress, sir, but I fear there may be great danger for your half brother.”
“They have sent to the king!”Kipp whispered.
“The king is an honorable man,” Adali told him. “He would not take back his word to the earl and countess of Glenkirk.”
“I warned him,” Kipp almost whispered to himself.“I warned him!”
“Then you are surely wiser than your brother,” Adali told him. Then he said, softly, “There is yet time for you to save yourself, sir.”
“I swore to our father on his deathbed that I would watch over Piers,” Kipp said, his defenses down, his mood desperate.
“You have tried to prevent your brother from his folly, have you not?” Adali asked him softly. “I have seen it myself.”
“For many years,” Kipp confided in Adali, “I have followed along in my brother’s wake. He was simply ambitious, and I saw no harm in his actions when he caught the king’s attention. And over the years I kept him from much wickedness, although I have not always been successful in my attempts; but the women he so enjoyed abusing, I made certain they were, for the most part, experienced in the amatory arts. Only three or four times did he misuse an innocent; but they were girls of no import, and afterward I was kind to them and paid them not to complain to the authorities.”
“You joined him in his deviant practices, I am told,” Adali said quietly, not willing to let Kipp escape his censure.
“I did,” Kipp admitted, “but by doing so I kept many women from greater harm at my brother’s hand. I accept my shame, Adali. Our father encouraged us as young men to such wickedness, for as he grew older it seemed more difficult for him to enjoy a woman without hurting her. I remember telling my mother. It was she who warned me for my own sake I must play my part or risk losing my father’s favor.”
“But your father is long dead,” Adali reminded him. “Your brother has now strayed completely into evil’s dominion. There is no going back for him, Kipp St.Denis, but you have not yet crossed completely over into the darkness. You have a conscience, and you now have the chance to save yourself as you will not be able to save your brother. Would your father want to losebothof his sons, if he were here to make the decision? Would he want to see his proud old name wiped from the face of the earth?”
“I am his bastard,” Kipp said simply.
“But he gave you his name,and he raised you in his house, and favored you as well as he did his legitimate heir,” Adali argued. “I believe your father loved you, too.”
“If I do not stay with Piers,” Kipp said, “he will continue on to worse mischief, Adali.”
“He will continue on anyway,” Adali replied. “You are not responsible for his behavior.Save yourself while you have the opportunity!You have lived your whole life through Piers St.Denis. Now live your life for yourself. If you asked the king for his mercy, I know he would give it to you. King James has a large and a kind heart. He might even reward your timely behavior.”
An accident of birth.It was only an accident of birth that had kept him from being the marquis of Hartsfield, Kipp thought silently. Did he dare to hope he might change that? Was it possible? Could he betray Piers? Was it really a betrayal? Aye, he had promised their father he would look after his younger half brother; but Piers no longer wanted looking after.He has never really listened to my good counsel,Kipp said silently to himself,and by following him, I have been dragged down in the gutter with him. He will be caught in this attempt to revenge himself upon the Leslies and in his endeavor to steal the fortunes belonging to them.
And whatever made Piers believe that the king would give him custody of all those children? The queen despised him so openly she could not even bring herself to pick a wife for him! She would hardly allow her only grandson or the other children to come under Piers St.Denis’s control. Indeed Kipp believed the queen would kill him herself before she would see those children in Hartsfield House.
And what of the Leslies of Glenkirk? And the old and powerful countess of Lundy? Would they allow their children to be put into the hands of a man like Piers St.Denis? It was madness even to consider it, and yet his brother had not onlyconsidered it, he assumed it would be because he wanted it to be.But it wouldn’t.Suddenly Kipp St.Denis realized that if he did not act now to save himself, he would be as doomed as his brother, and he didn’t want to be. Why should he share Piers’s fate? How many beatings had he taken for Piers when they were children, and Piers had found it so amusing, but it had not been amusing. Sometimes Piers even did bad things just so he could see his brother punished.
