'It was all of that,' I said.I expected her to ask who I had bedded, but she did not.
'You will be more ready to bed Robert Ferguson then,' Mother said, without looking up.She worked the foot pedal, so the spinning wheel hummed rhythmically.
'I may not be able to do that,' I said quietly.'Or not unless he is a very forgiving man.'
Mother looked up with a strange, crooked smile on her face.'Oh?And why is that, pray?'
'I am no longer whole,' I said.'As we just discussed.I am no longer virginal.'
The expression on Mother's face did not alter.'Do you think that Robert has never known a woman?He is twenty-one and the heir of Whitecleuch.'
'Robert would never betray me in that way,' I began hotly until I realised what mother had said.'He is the younger son; he is not heir.That is one of the reasons that you do not think him a fit husband for me.'
'No Ferguson of Whitecleuch is a fit husband for a Tweedie of Lethan,' Mother said, 'be he heir or be he bastard; you are of superior blood and bearing.That is a fact.However, the situation changed last night.Robert's brother had a bit of an accident.'
'What happened?'I asked.
'He died,' Mother said flatly.He was up at the summer shieling bringing in the cattle and he did not come home.The Fergusons found his body this morning at the foot of Posso Craig; it looks as if he lost his footing at night and fell over the craigs.Dead as a three-day old corpse, which means that Robert is now heir.'
I knew Posso Craigs well, a semi-circular hill with one end sheered away in vicious cliffs.It was an accident inviting a victim.
'Now that Robert is heir to Whitecleuch,' Mother said, without expressing any regret for the passing of his unfortunate brother, 'the situation here, as I said, has altered.Even as heir to the lands, Robert is a poor choice for a husband.However, given that his lands abut ours and are at the bottom of the valley, it would be advantageous if you and Robert were wed.'
I stared at her.This was my Mother, cold-bloodedly telling me that although Robert was not a suitable man, she would favour our marriage to blend our lands together.Of course, as the senior house, Robert would become Robert of Lethan; he may even take the name of Tweedie, in fact, I would insist on that, but we all knew who the real power would be.
Mother would be in control of the entire Lethan Valley from the headwaters at Lethanhead to Lethanfoot where the Lethan Water drained into the mighty Tweed, and from where the Spirit of the Tweed had emerged to woo my distant ancestor.That was a story I no longer found unbelievable.
'I remember you telling me that he would not be a suitable husband until he proved himself as a man,' I said, with more heat than I intended.
'Situations change, Jeannie.'When Mother glanced up from her spinning her eyes were every bit as hard as Wild Will's had been.'You had no interest in Robert's older brother.He was going to marry the daughter of a burgess in Peebles, a man who did not belong to any significant family; a nobody.We would have controlled him without any effort.Now that Robert is heir to the land, anything could happen.'
I sat down on a creepie stool, the three-legged stools that we used where we did not have chairs.'I have long known I would marry Robert; if he will still have me.'
Mother sighed and looked up from her spinning.'You bedded a man,' she said.'You are a Tweedie woman.The wonder is that you waited so long.'
'There was nobody I desired so much,' I said.
She faced me.'Now you have tasted that desire, you will never lose it.It will come on you when you least expect it and you will have to slake it.'
As I thought of Hugh, the desire that Mother spoke of increased.I felt my heartbeat increase and the strangest prickling sensation in a very personal place.'Yes, Mother.'
'That may not always be with Robert,' Mother said calmly.'A husband is for duty; pleasure you may have to seek otherwise.'
I felt my mouth open in astonishment.My mother was advising me to commit adultery.
'It is the Tweedie way,' Mother said without any expression on her face.
'Did you…?'I could not complete the question.
'I am not a Tweedie by blood,' Mother said.
'Father?'
'He is all Tweedie,' Mother said flatly.
'Oh.'For the first time in my life, I reached out to offer support to my mother.I squeezed her arm.'I did not realise.'
'Well, now you do,' Mother said.'There are many little Tweedie bastards running about the Borders.You have met at least one of them.'
