“I will do everything in me power to get money to ye, Sister,” he said. “But if I hang, ye must sell the last jewel in Faither’s sword. Promise me?” He unbelted his weapon and unsheathed the sword staring at the blade with deep affection. It was all he had left of his father’s memory.
Alice began to weep. Sitting on her little stool next to the spinning wheel, she looked so helpless and frail. Bruce cursed his wretched fate as he prepared to meet whatever was on the other side of the door.
* * *
Laura found the cottage as easily as she had the first time, but the scene that greeted her on the other side of the door was completely different.
“Bruce, it’s me!” she gasped. “Lower the point o’ yer sword!” Laura’s guess had been right. When she heard the news that Bruce Duncan had taken out four guards and run away, she had wasted no time in riding to the seashore cottage as fast as she could. Her stomach was tied up in tight knots all the way: Mister Bruce Duncan and she had unfinished business.
Laura walked her horse around to the back of the cottage, where she knew she would find Maegli. After she tethered her tired animal next to the trough of water to graze in comfort, Laura turned to Bruce. “Ye and I have a lot of talkin’ to do. An’ it’s best if nay one is around to hear it.”
He looked shamefaced but seemed to accept she needed to rant and rave at him. This was no misunderstanding, this was a full-on argument. When they moved away from the cottage front door, Laura stopped and faced him.
“How dare ye make a May Day dance about me!” she screamed louder than the stiff sea breeze buffeting the cliffs. “It’s bletherin’ haver like this that makes folk hesitate to call ye a gentleman, Bruce! Trading away me good name for a couple of gold coins!”
He waited until he was sure she had finished before defending his actions. “A couple o’ gold coins? I would not sell yer kisses so cheap, lass! The man offered metwenty sovereigns!”
Laura’s mouth dropped open. “What!? That’s impossible. If a man had so much gold, he would set himself up in a fine cottage in town and act like a laird. Are ye telling me that Torrens fellow could stand to lose such a fortune? Does he wager that number o’ coins every time ye take on such a bet?”
He looked confused. “Every time? There was only this one time…an’ it’s been eating away at me for I don’t ken how long. I wish I’d never accepted the wager, lass. I was weak. The lure of gold promised me a way to make Alice comfortable if I were to ever die in battle. She wrote me a letter at the castle, telling me our village healer had found some special herbs that eased her suffering. How can I refuse me sister that hope? That letter tipped me to doin’ it.”
If Bruce was expecting these words to calm her down, he was wrong. Laura looked around to find an implement, saw a broom propped up against the cottage wall, picked it up, and began raining blows down on his head with the bristles. “Why d’ye keep it a secret from me? Answer me, ye big ox! Do I no’ deserve to ken such things? Ye infuriating man! Ye refuse me offer of gold after ye saved me life, and then go accept this knavish wager? I hate ye!”
He lifted up his arms to protect his face from the dried willow branches tied to the end of the besom, but other than that, he willingly accepted her punishment. “I’m sorry, lass, truly I am, but ye were to marry the man anyway, so I thought I’d make a bit o’ gold afore I lost ye to him.”
“Stop it! Both o’ ye! Stop fightin’!” Alice had dragged herself to the small window in the side of the cottage and had levered herself up to the ledge to watch them. “I never wrote any letter, Brither!”
The scene in front of the young cripple froze. Laura stopped with her broom three inches above Bruce’s head. “Someone’s been plottin’ mischief an’ using the two o’ ye as pawns in a wicked game. Cannae ye see that?” Alice scolded them.
Laura threw the broom onto the ground, and Bruce let his arms drop from protecting his face. Alice continued. “Bruce, ye allowed yerself to be turned knavish with a trick that anyone using their head would have been about to see through. Did ye even bother to check if that man had such a large amount of gold?” Bruce opened his mouth to say something, but Alice shook her head. “Never mind. Can the two o’ ye no’ see that Halkerston is behind all o’ this? Yer passion for one another played right into his hands.”
Laura bridled. “Passion? Yer brither an’ I were friends who liked to kiss and enjoyed one another’s company, Alice. That’s all. Huh!”
Alice gurgled with laughter from her perch in the window. “Love then. My apologies for using the wrong word!”
Laura hung her head and blushed, but Bruce grinned at his sister. “Ye wee imp. Ye like calling us to account, do ye? Och well, I have no problem with admitting it. I love Lady Laura Munro with all me heart, an’ I don’ care who kens it.”
“Come inside then, ye blethering loggerhead!” Alice said. “Agatha tells me the stew is ready.”
When Laura entered the cottage, she bent down to give Alice a hug and then went to touch Agatha on the arm so that the old woman would not startle. Bruce seemed relieved the fight was over. “I ken ye have every right to be sore mad with me, lass,” he said, pulling willow twigs out of his hair. “But please be so kind as to tell us what was afoot when ye left Huna?”
Laura frowned. “I was in such a froth to get away meself, Bruce, I was nae payin’ much attention. There’s nay use in us falling into gloom over how things stand. The truth of the matter is this: ye kissed a lady, and there is no doubt that I yielded to yer caresses.”
Alice gave a sigh from her armchair. “How romantic.”
Laura gave her a wink, then continued. “Halkerston is baying for yer head on a pike an’ wants gold to compensate him for the insult to his proposal. Else he threatens to bruit me infidelity all over the Highlands.”
“He already has a common wife—” Bruce began to say, but Laura cut him off.
“It would have been a good thing for ye to lead with that information at the start!” Then she calmed down, realizing the awkward position Bruce had always been in: a sworn and bonded loyal soldier to a laird on the one hand; a man who was slowly falling in love with an unattainable dream on the other hand. Bruce was never one of those backbiting creatures to come bearing another man’s secrets just so that he could gain the advantage.
“It takes time to muster a troop o’ men,” Bruce said. “However, we must prepare for their arrival. The cottage falls outside of Halkerston’s demesne, but he can defend his actions by sayin’ I offered him an affront by dallying with a woman destined to become his bride.”
Laura could not believe she had woken that morning full of hope about a future with Bruce. Now they were plotting how to defend the cottage from an attack by trained soldiers. It was as if he could read her mind. “I’ll no’ have me clan here when Halkerston comes, Laura. Ye must take Alice an’ go wait in the woods by the river. I’ll run down to the village an’ take Agatha back to her croft.” Bruce was very used to running down the lane leading to the village carrying his sister; he had done it so many times in the past.
Laura shook her head. “That makes no sense. Ye cannae fight off an entire troop o’ soldiers, Bruce. Ye must leave with us.”
He shook his head. “This cottage is the only possession that we have, lass. I won’ stand idly by an’ allow Halkerston to torch it.”
