'I will tell you the story,' Hugh said, 'once we are settled in.'He did the usual, knee haltering the horses and checking the ground for the best place to lie concealed.We found ourselves in the very centre of the circle, with the ancient stones all around us, chilling in their knowledge.
'Lie still,' Hugh ordered me.'I will be back shortly.'
'Where are you going?'But he was already gone, slipping into the night.As always when he disappeared, I felt lonely, as if something good had vanished from my life.I was beginning to depend on that man too much.Indeed, I was also beginning to like him far too much and I knew I could not allow that.
I lay there, wondering where he was and what he was doing.I also wondered about Robert and my parents.They must be missing me.The thought of their familiar faces and my chamber in Cardrona Tower nearly brought tears.I knew I had to be strong to survive this ordeal: I could not allow myself to weaken.
Unable to lie still, I stood up and walked around inside the circle of stones.Now, what I am about to relate next, you may not believe and you may not understand.Well, neither do I.It happened and that is the end of it.Please remember though, that I was born on the midnight of Midsummer's Day, so I am perhaps more susceptible to these sorts of events.
It was not dramatic.One minute I was leaning against the nearest of the stones, looking down the valley in the hope of seeing Hugh return, and then a vision came.It was not my usual vision of the burning tower and the scar-faced man.It was a far different one, where I was older, sitting in a chair in a comfortable chamber with a bright fire sparkling within a broad fireplace and tapestries hanging on the wall.I was in an armed chair, with a baby in my arms and a child playing around my feet.I knew I was at home, wherever that home happened to be.
There was a man walking away from me, laughing as he carried a third child.He was tall and broad and confident yet, with his back turned, I could not see his face.I wanted desperately to see this man that I knew to be my husband.I longed for him to turn.Only when he opened the door did I see the coat of arms on the wall above.I looked up, noting the device and the name beneath.The first words were blurred but the first part of the last was clear.It read Robert.I lifted the baby to my shoulder to rub his back and break his wind and rose to read the rest of the name.
'Jeannie?'Hugh was handing something to me.I was back on the Nine Stane Rig with the usual rain descending and the stones pointing to a weeping sky.'Eat.'
It was a leg of chicken, still warm from somebody's fireside.'Where did this come from?'
'With most of the people rushing about looking for intruders, nobody is minding their own houses.'Hugh was quite calm.'I have quite a bag of spoil: apples, chicken, beef, a new cloak for you, two kerchiefs, clean underwear, a kirtle, and sleeves… all courtesy of our kindly hosts, the Armstrongs.'
I grabbed at this gift from heaven.Unless you have spent days astride a horse crossing scores of miles of wild territory without a change of clothes, you have no idea how luxurious such a simple thing as clean underwear can be.I had been concerned about that important little matter for quite some time.'I could kiss you for that,' I said as once again my mouth captured my thoughts and broadcast them without consideration.
'There will be no need for the kissing,' Hugh said, turning away.
I closed my eyes, wondering how many ways I could embarrass this man before he decided that I was not worth his bother.
'You are a kind man,' I said stoutly, 'and nobody could disagree with that.'
'The previous owner of these articles could disagree,' Hugh said.
I frowned at that.You see, in our Border, we accepted reiving as part of life.Thieving the property of a rival family, especially one with whom we had a feud, was accepted as normal.There was no stigma attached.The Armstrongs were hunting us down; therefore, they were fair game for us to rob.
'Hugh,' I said.'It was my fault that the valley woke.'
He screwed his face up so it looked even uglier yet strangely more attractive.'It happened,' he said.
'Yes; and it was my fault that it happened.'If I had been so inattentive with Father or Mother, they would not have been backward in telling me exactly how foolish I was.Robert too would have been withering in his scorn; I expected Hugh to launch a vicious tirade against me.Instead, he merely touched me on the shoulder.
'We are safe now,' he said.
'Thank you,' I said simply, although I doubt he knew for what I was thanking him.
He smiled.'Now.'He put down another bag as he sat beside me, leaning against the standing stone.'I was telling you the story of this circle.'
That was the end of it.He never mentioned that incident again.
'In the old days, a man named De Soulis was the Lord of Liddesdale and Captain of Hermitage Castle.'Hugh's deep voice filled the space between the standing stones yet was so low it would not have penetrated beyond.'He had the reputation of being a bad, wicked man and that was confirmed when the people discovered him stealing the local children to use for his black magic.The people of the valley, the ancestors of the Armstrongs, Elliots, and the rest, decided to take their revenge.They took the evil Lord Soulis to this stone circle,' Hugh waved a casual hand around him, 'wrapped him in lead and popped him in a cauldron.'
'And quite right too,' I approved.'That is what happens to evil men.'
'Oh, there is more,' Hugh said.'They popped him in a cauldron, lit a fire underneath and boiled him into soup, which they then drank.'
I stared around me.For one fleeting instant, I saw the men and women of Liddesdale wrestling Lord Soulis into a cauldron and boiling it up.I could hear his screeches as he boiled to death, and I could see the people crowded round, laughing at their revenge as they drank the Soulis soup.
'That is horrible,' I said.
'They say that on dark nights people with the gift can see the people boiling Lord Soulis and can hear his death screams.'
'What nonsense,' I scoffed, looking fearfully into the night.
