'The killing has already begun.'Father was in full war attire with padded leather jack straining against his full belly and a lance that had seen service at Langside.'Your new friends have brought fire and blood to the Lethan.'
'They have not,' I said as the full picture opened before me.'The Veitches have not attacked the Lethan.The Armstrongs have attacked us both, I think.'
Father frowned.He knew I would never lie to him.I was not good at that noble art.'Is that the Armstrongs over there?'He gestured with his lance past the assembled Veitches and toward the too-rapidly advancing horde of Armstrongs.
'It is,' I said.'They are burning the Lethan because I escaped from Wild Will and are burning Faladale in pursuit of their feud with the Veitches.'
Father rode forward, gesturing to the Yorling to remain in place.Robert made no move to join him.
'You are Hugh Veitch of Roberton,' he said.
OfRoberton?I stared at Hugh.I had not known that his house was named Roberton.So, my vision had been correct all the time.I had been rescued by a man with the name of Robert, except it was not the Robert I had expected.I would have laughed if we had not all been in imminent danger of being gutted by an Armstrong lance.
'I am Hugh Veitch, once of Roberton, now of Faladale,' Hugh replied steadily.'And you are Tweedie of Lethan.We are blood enemies from some long past dispute.'
Father nodded, looked to me and shook his head.'What are you doing here, girl?'
'I am no longer a girl,' I replied, 'I am full woman, and Hugh is my chosen man.'It was perhaps not the best time and place to announce my intention, but beggars can't be choosers and anyway, there was a very good chance that we would all be dead in a very short space of time.Best to get these things out in the open when one is still alive, I thought, rather than dying with the truth untold.
The Armstrongs were closer now, around seven hundred lances, all experienced in the bloody feuds of Liddesdale, hard men who had kept the Border aflame for generations, reivers used to warfare and plunder.Yet we ignored them as we discussed our own disputes and alliances.
'I see.'Father looked lost; I doubted if he understood half what was going on.He looked to the advancing Armstrongs, and at the gathered Veitches, many of whom glanced nervously over their shoulders or at the hills that might provide refuge if they fled.'I think, Hugh of Roberton, that we should set aside our differences and settle with the Armstrongs first.'
'That would be best,' Hugh agreed.'I do not know why we are at feud anyway.'
Father grinned.'I have long forgotten the reason,' he said.'I will take the left flank of the Armstrongs.'
'And I the right.'Hugh's smile was back.'The centre can care for itself!'He looked at me.'You keep out of the way, Bessie's Jeannie Tweedie.We have much to discuss when this battle is won.'
'I never use that name,' I told him, but he had already turned his horse and was leading his men toward the Armstrongs, shouting his war cry: 'A Veitch!A Veitch!'
I doubt you have ever seen a battle fought by Border horse, or prickers as we termed them.It is not like any other encounter that you can imagine.I stood with the Veitch women, watching as our menfolk rode to defend us, and like them, I feared for the safety of my men.
Hugh led his Veitches splendidly.I watched his every move as the combined army of Tweedies and Veitches advanced in a single mass, only to split in two when they were three hundred paces from the Armstrongs.Now, normally Border horsemen use subterfuge and cunning when they fight.They used feigned retreats and sudden ambushes, false noises in the dark and ruses to upset and confuse their enemy.This battle had none of that.The Armstrongs came in force, angry at the death of Wild Will and my people of both surnames were fighting to defend their land.And us, their women.
As Hugh led his Veitches in a glorious charge against the Armstrong left flank, Father was in front of the Tweedies.I watched, unable to tear my gaze from the scene as all my men crashed into the Armstrong ranks.I heard Father's bellow even above the roar and clamour of battle.I saw the Yorling, my half-brother, leading his band of callants in a mad dash that turned the very tip of the Armstrong army and pushed it back before he wheeled his horse round to hit them in their exposed flank.I saw Robert, my foolish, clumsy, spoiled Robert, fight manfully with the rest.Oh, he was slow and weak compared to some but when it mattered, he had turned up and he did his best for the surname.He did not disgrace himself on that day of bold deeds and bloody carnage.I was proud of my Robert, as I always knew I would be.Except he was no longer my Robert; he was Kate's Robert and he would be a good husband to her, and she a poor wife to him.
Most of all I watched Hugh.By that time, I knew that he had been the man in my vision: Hugh Veitch of Roberton.The name had a ring to it.It still has a ring to it, don't you think?It is a fine name and he led the Veitches with pride and valour.Of course I was scared for him, but on the Border, women knew that men would go to reive and to war.That was the way of the world.It always had been and we could not see it ever changing.We were proud of the hardihood of our men and of the deeds of our surnames.I was no different to all the rest, and why should I be?
My Hugh fought in the van, carving his way through the ranks of the Armstrongs, out the other side and then guiding his men into that flank attack that scattered the enemy.I saw the Armstrong army break up as men on the fringes decided that flight was preferable to death or capture.Others joined them in sudden dismay.They had come looking for plunder and destruction, not for hard fighting against a determined foe.
All at once the Armstrong array crumbled and collapsed.They turned and fled and this time neither Hugh nor my father called halt to the dogs of war.The combined Veitch-Tweedie force pursued them into the tangled hills that surrounded our valleys, and I dare say that many of the Armstrongs did not return to their sinister Liddesdale again.
I did not watch the pursuit.I did not have to.I knew that all of my men were safe and that is all that mattered to me.As I waited for their return, I wondered what Mother would have to say about everything.And I thought of Hugh of Roberton.
Chapter Fifteen
AT HOME
MAY 1586
We married in the ancient chapel at Laverlaw at dawn on Beltane Sunday.Hugh looked decidedly uncomfortable in doublet and hose, with no sword at his side and in a place with bad memories of past betrayal.I had chosen Laverlaw for that reason: the best way to remove a bad memory is to replace it with a better one.I ensured that there would be no bad memories this time, as our marriage cemented the two surnames of Tweedie and Veitch into a single family.
I tried to get Hugh to drop his name of Veitch in favour of Tweedie, but he refused.
'I have always been Hugh Veitch and Hugh Veitch I will remain,' he said, adding a slow kiss to sweeten his words.I welcomed that kiss and continued it to its natural conclusion with a mad encounter that left us both gasping and in disarray and the bedclothes a rumpled mess.
Afterwards, we toasted ourselves in honey mead and laughter as we adjusted each other's clothing and righted the bed.
