'We have bickered for decades.They have raided us, and we have raided them; we have reived a few cattle and they have reived a few cattle; we have burned a couple of their cottages and they have burned a couple of our cottages.There have been some killings.'
Father paused then to allow the men of the Lethan remember the men and women they had lost to the vicious Veitches and savour the triumph of victory as the brave Tweedies had exacted revenge by catching and killing a handful of the enemy over the decades.
'It is time to end this once and for all,' Father declared.
I was the only person who clapped in the ensuing hush.The feud with the Veitches had been a fact for so long that people could not think of an alternative.Now I believed that Father was proposing an end to the feud, so we could live in peace.
Father raised his hands high.'It is time that we finally quelled the Veitches and turned their lands into a smoking waste; put their men to the sword, burned their crops, reived their livestock, and razed their towers to the ground!'
I stopped clapping, appalled that Father intended the very opposite of what I had hoped.'No!'I said.Now my small voice was lost in the roar of approval from the assembled might of the Lethan Valley.The Tweedies and their tenants were on their feet shouting their delight at the thought of turning a smouldering feud into a full-scale war.
'Father!'I shouted, 'you can't!'I remembered Liddesdale where men carried weapons every day, where the churches and chapels had been destroyed, where the only law was the blade and the hangman's rope.I did not wish my green Lethan Valley turned into a place like that.
'You hear my daughter!'Father calmed his people down.'She has immediately realised the reason we have not done this before is that we lacked the numbers.'
'No, Father,' I protested, 'that is not what I meant.'About to explain, I found Mother's hands on me as she ushered me back to my seat.
'Hush Jeannie; this is Father's day.He has a lot to explain.'Mother's eyes were deep with warning.
I sat down and clamped shut my mouth.I knew I spoke too much.I also knew that I did not wish to see Father, brave though he was, pitted against active, proven fighters such as Hugh Veitch.I certainly did not wish to see Robert outmatched again.
'We have not done this before,' Father continued, 'because we have lacked the manpower.We have two hundred riders in the Lethan; the Veitches have three hundred.If we faced them in open battle, they would outnumber us.'
The assembly was silent again.They knew these facts, of course, but hearing them was always sobering.
'I was as aware of the numbers as you are,' Father spoke more quietly now, 'so I cast a wide net to look for allies and distant kinsmen.'
That got my interest.The old Border worked on the kin system.Family was second only to business.Men and women felt strong attachment to family, and blood and loyalty could be fierce unless cattle were involved.I had thought the Tweedies were a close-knit family; I was not aware that we had kin outside the Lethan Valley.
'Let me introduce you to one of them.'Father nodded to Willie Telfer at the door.'Right, Willie; bring him in.'
When Willie opened the door and a man stepped in, a buzz ran around the great hall.I watched in astonishment as the Yorling, resplendent in his bright yellow jack and with his spurs rattling, stepped across the stone flags.
I stood up, reaching for some sort of weapon, as a score of men did the same.I searched for Robert's gaze, hoping to reassure him that I believed in him despite his discomfiture at the hands of this lithe young man.
There was a smile on the face of the Yorling as he joined us at the top table.He gave a small bow to Mother, and a deeper bow to me.
'I am glad to see you alive and well, My Lady Jean,' he said quietly as the assembly broke into a hundred questions.
I responded with stiff formality.'Sir,' I said, with the briefest of curtseys.
Father banged his fist on the table for silence, causing great dents in the pine for which Mother would undoubtedly later take him to task.
'Most of you have heard of the Yorling.'Father had to raise his voice and repeat himself until the hubbub died down.'Well; I have a small admission to make.'
As the Yorling stood beside Father, I drew in my breath sharply.I had always been aware that I felt a bond to the Yorling; despite his actions, I had known that I was never in any real danger from him.Now I guessed why.
I looked toward Mother and felt her hand slide around mine.'Mother…' I said.
'Yes, Jeannie,' she whispered.'I already know.'
I squeezed my mother's hand in sympathy and support.
'Some of you may have guessed the truth,' Father said.'In my youth, before I met my lady wife, I was a roving blade.'
Most of the men laughed at that, digging each other in the ribs and guffawing their masculine approval.Oh, our Tweedie men loved to think of themselves as men's men, reiving and raiding for women as well as cattle, although in slightly different ways.I hoped.
'In these old days, I roved around the Debateable Land and had a name and reputation.I wore a yellow jack most remarkably like this one and men knew me as the Yorling.'
