“What did ye see?” Laird Halkerston intoned.
Davey Torrens shook his head. “It will come better from the witnesses, M’Laird.”
Once again, the guard standing at the hall doors went outside and then came back in again with two men: Donald and Roald McKay. Laird Halkerston beckoned them forward, saying, “Tell us what ye saw, lads.”
The two men looked across at Laura with apologetic expressions on their faces, and Donald stepped forward. “Davey woke us up, and we followed him out to the barn. We could see fairly well because there was a lighted oil lamp on the ground by the hay bales… Bruce Duncan and the Lady Laura were lying on the top bales…and they were kissin’.” The poor man squirmed with embarrassment. He did not want to tell tales about his friend, but he had sworn an oath to the laird to uphold his laws.
Murmurs of outrage rippled around the hall.
“It seems to me,” the captain said out loud, “that the knavish Duncan wanted to have his bread buttered on both sides: he knew he could have a kiss—and more—from the lady anytime he wished it, but he led on the soldiers to believe getting a kiss to satisfy the bet would be hard work. He wanted the woman and the gold!”
Davey Torrens piped up. “Aye. It’s a bet I often make with Bruce Duncan! It’s how he makes most of his money to send back home to his sister. I see a sweet lass and place a wager with Duncan that he will no’ be able to kiss her or even make the lass fall in love with him. It’s a fair way to pass the time. Some lasses take fright at his great strength and height, while others cannae wait to see if he is so large in the flesh.”
“Enough!” Laird Halkerston smashed his fist onto the table. He turned to face Laura. “Well? Have ye heard enough? The only question that remains is this: How much of yer gold are ye willing to part ways with to keep this quiet?”
Laura turned to her father, but he had already beckoned his scribe to the table and was busy whispering in the man’s ear. He had to warn Henry what had happened as soon as possible. Her mind was in turmoil, and her heart felt like ice. Had she been betrayed? It was so hard to make sense of it all.
“I-I don’ believe ye!” she said. “I dinnae believe this nonsense about a bet!”
Laird Halkerston indicated to the guard who went out and came back into the hall with…Bruce Duncan. The guards on either side of him looked small compared to Bruce, but they were regular-sized men. When the bystanders realized that, it made their heads spin how tall and muscular the man was. Some of the older gentlemen looked at Laura with disgust. The woman must be depraved to want such a large man as a companion. She must have a very unnatural itch that she wanted scratched. Laura could hear the whispers and felt her cheeks turn red. They only saw his size and strength; they did not see the kind man underneath it all.
It seemed to her as if Roy Halkerston was losing interest in the little scene playing out in front of him. All he wanted was her gold. “Did ye enter into a bet to kiss the lady for gold, Duncan?” was all the laird said.
Laura was too shy to look at him, but she desperately wanted him to know she did not believe that Davey Torrens for one moment.
“Aye, but—”
When she heard him admit it, her head flew up and her mouth dropped open. It was impossible! Their love was genuine, for goodness’ sake. Surely Bruce did not understand the question.
“Bruce!” His name came out of her mouth before she could think. “Tell them what we have planned! Tell them—”
He cut her off. “Be quiet, woman! Me sister lives half a day’s ride from here. Don’ put her life in danger! Remember that day in the woods? It meant something!”
Laura gave a cry of despair and ran out of the hall, pushing past the guards once they raised the bar on the doors for her to leave.
15
Bruce Duncan was the perfect soldier. He knew when to fight and went to lay down his arms. He had left his father’s sword in the stables with Maegli. Davey Torrens was a rat, but Donald and Roald had managed to get word to him before the guards came to bring him in front of the elders for judgment.
When the small boy ran toward him and tugged the hem of his plaid, he had bent down with a kind smile on his face. “How now, wee one? What can I do for ye?”
He had not slept since the midnight bell the day before, but he felt good. His mind was full of plans for his future with Laura, and his heart was full of love for her. Their exit would be complicated, but it was possible. He planned to leave with Laura if she could not convince Laird Anderson to buy his bond from Halkerston. First, he had to get his sister away from the cottage. He and Laura could make a comfortable home together somewhere else. As much as it hurt him to think about it, he was prepared to leave the Highlands and the north if it meant keeping the women in his life safe. Maybe they could go to Edinburgh? The physicians in that great city might know how to heal Alice. He could soldier for the king. Laura would give birth to their bairns in the South…
That was where his dreams for the future stopped. Bruce Duncan could not imagine any clan of his being born in the south.
The little boy was well known to him. He would often come to the castle and pester the soldiers for sweetmeats and ha’pennies. “Please, sir,” the boy whispered, “I’m sent to ye from the McKay brithers. They bid me warn ye that the jig is up. They have been summoned to bear witness against ye for bussing the lady.”
Bruce slipped the little boy a ha’penny. “Run back to yer mither, wee Matt, an’ tell this message to nay one else.”
He knew they were coming for him. The sixteen-hour guard duty he had been ordered to do had stopped him from settling into the castle properly. He raced to the stables, found his laden saddlebags, and threw the load over Maegli’s back. “Shh, old girl, be still. I promise ye there’s a method to me madness, and ye will soon find out.” He fastened the saddle, lowered the stirrups, and slipped the bridle between the destrier’s teeth. He led her to the water trough and flung a bale of hay into the string bag. Then he removed his sword from the belt slung around his back and hid it under the saddle.
He strolled back to the castle, whistling through his teeth, as though he had not a care in the world. Four guards cornered him inside the castle tower. “Ye’re to come with us, Duncan,” they said, “an’ please don’ give us a reason to fight ye.” Even though all four men had their swords drawn and Bruce was unarmed, the men were quaking in their boots. They had seen the man in action on the battlefield and knew he needed no weapon. He could kill a man, or many men, with his bare hands.
Bruce raised his hands to show the men he meant them no harm. “Losh, lads. Ye have caught me fair an’ square. Take me to the lodge. I’ll no’ fight ye.”
It broke his heart to see Laura begging for him to stand up and fight for their love in front of that blasted avaricious toad, Roy Halkerston, but Laura was not the only woman he must protect with his life. He wanted to shout out after her that everything had been twisted around to make it look as if he had been toying with her affections, or even worse, using her to get ahead in life. But there was no denying the fact that he had accepted Davey Torrens’s wager and wanted the gold so desperately he had planned on kissing her outside the balcony to win the bet. He had tried confessing everything to her, but somehow the time and place had always slipped past. When he heard she planned on marrying Roy, he had thought he might as well do it because he had lost everything already. And then, when she had come to him at the stables to ask him to help her escape, he had been so busy planning how they were to do it that telling her about the bet had slipped his mind.
After she had run out of the hall, Laird Halkerston turned to Laura’s father. “Well, how much is yer clan prepared to pay me to keep me mouth shut? I don’ want to marry the girl anymore. She’s too headstrong and careless with her favors. But I still want the gold. It’s up to ye, Anderson. Will ye pay me, or do I herald me news to the whole of the Highlands? That Lady Laura jilted me with a common soldier?”
