That name caused a hush to fall on the gathering.Everybody had heard of the Yorling as the leader of an outlaw band decades before.Now they knew that my Father, Tweedie of the Lethan, had been that man.I am sure their opinion of him multiplied.I am not sure that I shared their adulation.
'This bold young callant took on my mantle.'Father tapped the Yorling's shoulder.'This is George, now known as George Graham from his mother's side, or the Yorling.He is my son; born out of wedlock so not able to inherit my lands, but Tweedie by blood.'
I had guessed that truth and now I looked on the face of the half-brother I had not known that I possessed.He looked at me along the length of the table.
'Will you forgive me, my sister?'His smile was as wide as ever although there was genuine concern in his smokey eyes.'You were never in danger.'
'I always knew that,' I said truthfully, 'but why did you do it?'
As he opened his mouth to talk, Father started again.'Now you see why the time is right to rid us of the plague of the Veitches.George—the Yorling—will add his band of twenty riders to our strength and our combined force will sweep the Veitches from their land of Faladale!'
The gathering were on their feet, clapping hands and stamping feet, hammering the tables with fists, tankards, and the pommels of daggers as they agreed full-heartedly with Father's ideas.
Oh, Father was clever.He had used his youthful faults as a tool to give the valley exactly what they wanted.Now nobody could accuse him of anything except being a vibrant youth, a man with the Tweedie Passion, which all knew about and nobody would gainsay.
'Mother…' I leaned closer to her, embarrassed that her husband's philandering should be so publicly revealed.
Mother shook her head.'We are all Tweedies now,' she said softly and stood up.
'I wish to speak!'Mother said, and silence fell on the gathering as men and the few women waited to hear what the Lady Lethan had to say about her husband's bastard son.
'George!'Mother said loudly.'Welcome to our surname, our valley, and our family!'
She sat down again as the great hall erupted in a huge roar of approval and probably relief.All knew that my mother was a formidable woman, well able to take care of herself verbally and physically.Now they had heard her formally accept the issue of Father's pre-marital loins into her household there was no reason for any other to take issue.George Graham, the Yorling, was accepted as part of the Tweedies of Lethan Valley.
'Now the Veitches will pay the reckoning in full, and we shall sign the deeds of their repentance in red ink and with a sharp quill!'Father said as the gathering roared approval of bloodshed, violence, and death.I slipped away with my head confused and my eyes stinging with hot tears.I was not sure why.
Chapter Twelve
LETHAN VALLEY
OCTOBER 1585
'So, I have a brother.'I did not soften my words with a preamble.
Father looked up from the table where he was eating, with half a leg of reived mutton before him and a flagon of good claret.'You have a brother,' he confirmed.I could tell by the narrowing of his eyes that he expected me to lay blame on him.I could not do that after my experience with Hugh.
'I always wanted a brother,' I said and saw Father's expression soften.
'We all need kin,' he said.
I nodded at that.'I think there is more you need to tell me, Father.'I slid onto a bench opposite him, folding my skirt neatly beneath me.'Such as why he rode into the valley and abducted me.'
Father could never look innocent.His attempt was ludicrous, with spreading hands and wide-open eyes.'Why should I know that?'
'Because you know everything that happens in this valley.'I held his gaze.'And you knew he was your son.'I tapped my fingers on the table, copying Mother's gestures when she insisted on a reply.'You knew he was coming, Father, and you allowed him to ride free.I noticed that there were no injuries in the fighting and only one young lad was taken captive.'
Father's smile was wide and as reassuring as a cat's gape at a mouse hole.'Yes, Jeannie, I arranged the Yorling's attack.'
'Why?'I said.'And none of your lies, Father.I am in no mood to brook more falsehoods.'
'Oh?'Father raised his eyebrows.'The fox cub threatens the old wolf.'His laugh was loud and equally perfidious.'I arranged that raid to capture you, of course, my daughter.Oh, you were never in any danger.George would not have hurt a hair on your cossetted little head.'
'So why then?'I asked.
'Why do you think?'Father asked.'You have an understanding with Robert of Whitecleuch.The two of you have promised all sorts of foolish things ever since childhood.'
I had thought that Father did not care one way or another whether I married Robert.Now I looked into his devious face and realised that he had been watching everything all the time and hatching his own plans for my future.'Carry on, Father,' I said.
