Anaya brought Rose inside. She shared the room with two others who worked in Stonehaven’s kitchens. Rose sat at a small circle table and Anaya made tea. They spoke for a while as Rose asked about Kirkland Park, what it was like, what her mother had been like, questions she had never been able to ask anyone. “Did you know my father?”
Shaking her head, she looked down at her hands, clearly too frightened to speak about Lord Hereford. “Nay, mum ...”
Rose laid a palm over the other woman’s hand. “I amin need of a companion. You are widowed. I wondered ... I am hoping perhaps you might want to accompany me when I leave here.”
Anaya grasped Rose’s hands. “I loved your mam, I did. I loved her enough to protect your secret and never betray ye. I will be accompanying ye to Jedburgh as a witness as is required. But Lord Roxburghe has given me the chance at a good life here. I ask that ye no’ take it from me, lass.”
Rose peered around her at the comfortable setting and understood what it meant to feel safe. “Nay, I would not.”
Chapter 13
McBain, Jason, and Anaya Fortier arrived with Rose to the royal burgh of Jedburgh three days later, where she was sequestered in a remote red sandstone abbey on the banks of the Jed Water. All she knew was that Ruark was here and that her father was also in Jedburgh.
A single torch threw shadows against the stone walls as she paced the narrow confines of the room. She was vaguely aware of the soft swish of her patterned silk gown, the pad of leather slippers on the cold stone floor, and a bodice that was too tight to be comfortable when her wont was to breathe deeply.
Rose had been taken aback when Mrs. Duff laid out the dress yesterday morning before her departure. Rose knew nothing of ladies’ fashions, and she had not thought herself capable of loving such a dress, with its beautifully decorated skirts and beribboned underclothes. ’Twas a silly vainglorious sentiment to think a dress held the capacity to transform her into something she was not, but Ruark had been correct when he had said that she should not be a sheep when walking into the wolf’s den. Today, she felt every inch the earl’s aristocratic daughter.
A knock sounded on the door in the other room. She had been expecting the summons since breakfast hoursago. She stopped her pacing. Making a determined effort to steady her breath, she seated herself upon the settee provided for the occupant’s comfort. The worn piece of furniture that surely hailed from King James’s day was the only luxury in the sparse room that contained a table and a narrow bed. She folded her hands in her lap in an act of forced serenity, as she heard the squeak of hinges as Anaya opened the door. Friar Tucker stepped into the dimly lit room. “Rose.” No one had ever been so welcome.
They met halfway. He caught her against him and pressed her cheek against his shoulder, gently holding his hand to her head. His wooden rosary rattled at his waist.
“Rose,” he whispered. “I didn’t think I’d have a chance to speak to you.”
“Do you know what is happening?”
“Aye. Someone will be arriving momentarily. We haven’t much time.”
He enclosed her hands in his much larger ones and sat with her on the settee, the action reminiscent of every other time he had sat her down for comfort’s sake. “Is Lord Roxburghe safe?” she asked. “Is he well? Have you seen him?
“Aye, lass. He is in the great hall.”
He had been gone a week. What had happened during that time? Only her imagination could guess.
“These uncertain times have put us all in jeopardy to be sure, Rose. There are those among Roxburghe’s own clan who want to use this moment as a rallying cry to continue their fight with the English. It is enough no blood has yet been shed. I must know, Rose.” He tightened his hold on her hands. “Did he treat you ... well?”
She didn’t want to talk about herself when this was already too painful to bear, when she had so manyquestions to ask. Would her father release Jamie Kerr? But something in the tenor of Friar Tucker’s voice pulled her focus to his face. “Aye, Father. But I am ready to have done with today.”
More than anything, she hated the vulnerability that came with her next words. ’Twas Kirkland Park her father had always wanted. Not her, she knew. Yet, some part of her, the young girl she had once been, wanted to believe he could not be the monster everyone painted. Someone would come to her and say that ’twas all a mistake.Your memories of him are true.
“What of my father? What is he like?”
“He would foment the rift as best he could in the Kerr clan. He is not much different than he ever was when it comes to getting what he wants.”
Friar Tucker gave her a colorless, edited version of the happenings of the last few weeks, and told her how he had been summoned to Jedburgh, just as Anaya Fortier had been, to confirm her identity. Jedburgh was between Alnwick and Stonehaven. But it was all for show, like a spectacle with dancing bears and colorful jugglers to awe the crowd.
Friar Tucker ended by changing the topic with news about Mrs. Simpson, Sister Nessa, and Jack. “The boy misses you,” he said.
Her eyes lost their blankness and became brilliant again as she looked at him. “I would very much like to see both of them again. Will I, do you think?”
Approaching footsteps fell upon her ears. She turned her head toward the door. “Rose,” Friar Tucker rushed to say. “There is still much I have not said ...”
The footsteps in the corridor were suddenly in front of the door. A tall man appeared in the doorway, not much younger than Ruark.
“The name is Bryce Colum, Lady Roselyn. I served with Ruark on theBlack Dragon.”
Then she realized he had been one of the guards who had helped kidnap her.
He greeted Friar Tucker with a subtle nod, his blond curls brushing the broad width of his shoulders. “ ’Tis time.”
