“Aye, sire, for when we returned to England we were married twice more. But, sire, if I may ask a question of you?”
“Aye, madame?” James replied.
“Why do you call Alex disobedient? He is your most loyal servant.”
“That, Lady Gordon, is a matter of opinion. Yer husband knows full well that Francis has been outlawed, and would even now be languishing in prison were we able to catch him. Yet knowing this, Lord Gordon still stopped atHermitage.I should like an explanation of yer behavior, Alex!”
“There is nothing complicated about it, Jamie,” Alex drawled, his very tone making the king feel foolish. “Velvet is but newly returned from India. It was a long voyage, but nonetheless her mother notified me immediately upon her return, and I hurried south to be reunited with my wife. Since we didna wish to stay in England under her entire family’s watchful eye, we left almost immediately for Scotland. Velvet isna used to riding cross-country after two years away, and by the time we had passed over the border she was exhausted. Ye know the quality of inns in the Border, Jamie. They’re full of petty thieves and whores. I couldna take my wife to one of them. There was no choice but to stop atHermitage.I made no secret of my visit, nor did Francis. Had he wanted to hide it, then yer spies wouldna hae already brought ye word that we were there. Francis sends ye his most loyal greetings and says he wishes to make peace wi’ ye.”
“Francis can go to hell!” snapped the king. “He already has my terms for peace between us, but he willna comply. He has but to gie me back what is mine.” Then the king, realizing that his wife was in the room, hurried on to say, “I’ll forgive ye, Alex, for I dinna really believe ye would join any rebellion. Come now and present yer wife to the queen.”
Alex hid a smile, for he had caught the king’s little slip although the queen apparently had not. “As always, Jamie, yer graciousness is welcome.” Then he turned his head to the queen, and, bowing, he lifted her hand to his lips. “Madame, it is good to see ye again. Ye’re fairer than ever.”
The queen dimpled prettily. “ ’Tis good to see you, Lord Gordon. Is this your bride then?”
“Aye, madame. May I present ye my wife, Velvet, the Countess of BrocCairn.”
Velvet curtsied low to the queen, but it was the king’s eyes that plunged to her décolletage, something that Alex did not miss.
“Welcome to Scotland at long last, Lady Gordon,” said the queen.
“Thank you, madame. I am glad to have finally come home,” said Velvet.
“Will you be staying in Edinburgh long?” asked Queen Anne.
“Nay, madame. I am not yet up to following the court. My voyage was of almost six months’ duration, and although Alex and I have been married almost three years I have never seenDun Broc.It is past time that I settled down to the business of being a wife and a mother.”
“Yes,” agreed the queen. “ ’Tis for that purpose God created women.”
Before Velvet could reply, the king was raising her from her curtsy and saying, “Surely ye needn’t continue yer journey so soon, Lady Gordon? Would not the gaiety of court gie ye pleasure?” He could scarcely take his eyes off her. How young she was, thought James. Young and tender and undoubtedly quite delicious. She had green eyes like his Cat’s, not the same leaf-green, but more of a green-gold; and he would wager that her unbound hair fell to her hips in auburn waves as did Cat’s dark gold locks.
Velvet had seen the king’s look and was somewhat startled, yet her voice when she answered him was calm and friendly. “Your Majesty is so kind, just as I remembered you, but please understand that for all the time I was away I longed forDun Brocand my husband.” She sighed deeply. “Surely you will not forbid me my home when we are so very close? We will visit the court eventually, I promise Your Majesty, but for now I really do want to go home.” She smiled at him sweetly, and James could not help but acquiesce.
“Very well, Lady Gordon,” he said, “we shall let ye go this time, but the next time I shall not take a nay from ye.” How prettily she pleaded with him, he thought. He would like to have her under him pleading for his love.
Later as they rode back to the Gordon town house in the Highgate, Alex complimented his wife on her behavior. “Yer performance, lass, was magnificent.”
Velvet frowned. “Did you see how he looked down my dress, Alex? Poor Cat! The man is a terrible lech for all his pious mouthings. I wonder if the queen knows.”
“If she does she’ll say naught, for I believe she is basically intelligent for all her feather-headed ways. She’s queen of Scotland, come what may, and Jamie is fond of her. So she’ll have his bairns, and as long as he treats her wi’ kindness and respect she’ll tolerate his behavior provided it causes no scandal or embarrassment to her or the crown.”
“I should not be as tolerant,” muttered Velvet ominously.
Alex heard her words and knew that whether she had meant them as a warning or not, they were a warning nonetheless. He should, he thought, not have given Alanna Wythe any choice, but rather returned her to her father’s house in London. Still, there was the child to think of.
They left Edinburgh the following day, beginning the last leg of their journey northward toDun Broc.The countryside began to change, becoming wilder as they found themselves farther and farther from the city and entering the Highlands. The gentle hills of the south quickly gave way to the rugged mountains of the north, thick with forests of mixed conifers and hardwoods. There were trees of many kinds: alders, beeches, larches, sycamores, pines, firs, oaks, and birches. The mountain peaks were dark and granitelike, and fast streams of clear water tumbled over the rock-strewn streambeds. It was, to Velvet’s eyes, an incredibly beautiful and lonely land; the only signs of life being occasional flocks of sheep, herds of cattle upon the moors, or a suddenly come-upon village consisting of a few cottages, perhaps a small inn, and a church.
They were not the picture-pretty villages of England with their whitewashed cottages and windowboxes of brightly colored flowers. The houses here were of dark stone, and the summer season, Alex told his wife, was not long enough to encourage flowers. Besides, such things took time, valuable time that was needed for more important things like helping in the fields of barley and oats or for keeping the kitchen garden free of rabbits so that there would be onions, leeks, and carrots through most of the winter.
“ ’Tis a beautiful land, lass, but often ’tis a harsh one for our people.”
She was beginning to understand him through this. “At least the cottages are sturdy,” she noted.
“Aye, but they dinna belong to the people who live in them. They belong to the lord of the land. Only the roofs belong to the peasants. If they move, the roof goes with them.”
It took several days for them to reachDun Broc, and, to Velvet’s surprise, they stopped well before sunset each day and only at the houses of people who were bound by oath of fidelity to the great Gordon clan. Velvet and Alex were welcomed warmly there, fed simple suppers, and given beds from which they arose before dawn to eat bowls of hot oat stirabout with honey and cream, still warm from the cow, and then went on their way.
Velvet, having been advised by Cat Leslie, was now dressed very much like the Countess of Glenkirk. She rode astride, wearing dark green trunk hose and a cream-silk shirt over which she sported a leather jerkin with bone buttons belted with a wide, brown leather belt that had a silver buckle and showed her tiny waist off to perfection. Her brown leather boots came to her knees and her auburn hair was clubbed back with a black ribbon. Atop her head was perched a velvet bonnet with one eagle’s feather in it, and she carried a Gordon plaid of warm wool should she grow chilly. Alex was dressed in his kilt as were all of his men, but in his bonnet he wore two eagle feathers denoting him as a chieftain of a cadet branch of the Clan Gordon. Only the Earl of Huntley, George Gordon, had the right to wear three feathers, and, in all of Scotland, only the king himself wore four.
