Border Fire(21)

"I cannot imagine how even a man as powerful as Buccleuch thinks he can prevent it. Once Hugh demands his aid, he is duty-bound to arrest you and to see that you present yourself for trial at the next Truce Day. And although Hugh believes a jury might excuse you for your crimes, abducting me is clear cause for them to hang you even if I were to testify that I went with you willingly. If you force me to marry you, no man could speak for you, least of all Buccleuch."

"Aye, I'm sure you have the right of it, lass, if that is what were to happen."

"Then, what will become of me?" she repeated.

"I do not know, but you will be safe because I have promised it and because Buccleuch has promised it. If the worst happens and he decides that he must send you back to Brackengill, he will force Sir Hugh to promise you safety first. Mayhap he will insist upon keeping you under his protection until he can make him give that promise before witnesses at the next Truce Day. Indeed, that may be an excellent scheme," he added with a twinkle. "With such an event pending, Scrope might actually agree to a suitable date and site before the turn of the century."

"I do not think the problem lies with Lord Scrope," Janet said gently.

"Do you not?"

"Nay, for all his faults, he is a man of honor."

"He is no more honorable than his father was before him," the reiver said flatly. "Scrope told some of his own men that he chooses to answer Buccleuch with delays, and so he does. It has become a pattern and practice for him."

"My brother says the delays are Buccleuch's doing. Hugh says Buccleuch snatches at any excuse to delay, that he blames the weather or some imagined breach of manners, or just declares that he does not like the suggested site. He said that of Sark, after all, and Sark has been an acceptable meeting site for years."

"Aye, but just now it is too close to Carlisle for our liking. The site should be nearer to Hermitage, more central, so that neither warden has to travel much farther than the other."

"That is just an excuse," Janet said scornfully.

"It is a good reason," he retorted. "Moreover, I do not believe that Buccleuch has ever blamed the weather. That is Scrope's favorite excuse, though. He does not like rain, he says, because he cannot see what everyone is doing and someone might get up to mischief. He does not like snow because he gets too cold sitting at the grievance table and only a fool would try to move the proceedings indoors."

"Those sound like excellent reasons to me."

"Aye, well, them who get up to mischief do not need rain or snow to do it. And Scrope is the one who uses what Buccleuch calls beetle-witted legal niceties to avoid the meetings."

"There are always more grievances against the Scots than against the English," Janet said. "Why would Scrope delay?"

"Because he knows that half those English grievances come from men who should know better, men who have stolen from the Scots only to have the goods taken back. The Scots are not so quick to lay a grievance, because they know that chances are poor of getting their goods back in anything like a timely way-before their families starve to death, for example. Thus, they are more likely to take the matter into their own hands, to fetch their own goods back again."

"They should leave it to the law to decide who is right," Janet said.

"Aye, sure, but when the law is in the hands of men like Scrope, who delight in making a game of it, and who take wagers on the outcome, you cannot blame them too harshly, I think."

"Cannot blame you is what you mean, is it not?"

"Aye, lass, that it is. I'll not deny that I am one of them."

Another silence fell, and Janet realized that he had neatly avoided speaking of the threatened marriage. Not that it was a real threat, of course. Buccleuch, even with all his power, could not force her to marry a man she did not want. Only her brother could do that.   





 

The thought of marrying the reiver stirred memories of the way he had made her feel when he touched her, and that errant memory stirred those feelings again. Ruthlessly suppressing them, she told herself that it did not matter how he made her feel. Janet Graham could not marry a common thief, and that was all there was to it. Even Buccleuch would see that. He must see that.

A shutter rattled, and she realized that the wind outside had increased again. When it carried to her ears the sounds of men shouting to one another, a frisson of fear shot through her. What if Hugh attacked Hermitage?

Surely, he could not be so daft. Even she knew the castle was impregnable. She had heard of its strength long before she had laid eyes upon it. Now, having seen its thick walls and mentally counted its men-at-arms-and doubling that number to account for those she had not seen-she told herself that Hugh would never be such a fool. He did not possess guns large enough to make a dent in Buccleuch's defenses, but she did not relax until the lackey who had brought them word of Hugh's arrival entered the bedchamber to say, "Himself wants ye below."

Half expecting to find her brother pacing the red-and-blue Turkey carpet in the master's hall, Janet entered with trepidation, but the only man awaiting them was Buccleuch.

"You're safe for now, mistress. He's gone. I warrant he'll return to England for the night, although doubtless he'll take shelter across the line and return in the morning to renew his search. Apparently, he believes that a reiver named Rabbie Redcloak has abducted his sister and means to hold her for ransom. He demanded my cooperation in laying the said Redcloak by the heels, and since I am honor-bound as warden to provide such cooperation, I sent ten of my men with him."

Behind Janet, the reiver chuckled and said, "I warrant he well nigh choked on his thanks for your assistance."

"He is a sad, ungrateful man, is Hugh Graham," Buccleuch said with humor glinting in his hazel eyes. "He said that my men would serve better by simply fetching the damned reiver to him. He implied that they know exactly where to lay hands upon this Redcloak. He even insinuated that I spoke less than the truth when I said that I did not believe such a man existed in all of Liddesdale."

"Surely he did not go so far as to call you a liar!" Janet exclaimed as she set Jemmy Whiskers down to explore.

"Nay, he knows better than to stir my temper here in my own den," Buccleuch said with a wolfish smile. "He said that I am sadly misinformed, and suggested that if the man were not a resident of Liddesdale, he might still be known to me, since I am native to upper Teviotdale. I said that, as far as I knew, no such man lived in upper Teviotdale either. I thought he would take me through each dale, one after the other, but he abstained from that useless exercise."

"He must be furious," Janet said, repressing a shiver. "What said he of me?"

"He said naught that any might count against you, mistress, but I'll wager he has a notion that you helped Quin escape. Still, he is a proud man, is Sir Hugh. He will not want others to know of it, and I think we can use his pride to our benefit."

"How so, sir?"

"I've promised to send word of your plight out and about Liddesdale and the surrounding area. I told him that many people will help search for you."

"Did he believe you?"

"It does not matter if he did," Buccleuch said. "I mean shortly to invent a rescue for you."

"Oh, sir, if you could do that, then I might truly return in safety. I doubt that Hugh would dare punish me too severely, for others would soon learn of it and would hold him accountable if they believed me the victim of an abduction."

"Aye, lass, that would be a good thing, I agree; but there is a wee hindrance."

"A hindrance?"

"Aye. According to your brother, however all this turns out, your reputation is shredded beyond repair. He said that no decent Englishman would offer for you, knowing that you'd spent a full night and more as a reiver's hostage. Even were he to have you tested and proven still to be a virgin-"

Janet gasped at the humiliating image these words produced.

"'Tis sad, mistress," Buccleuch said, nodding sympathetically, "but they are his words, not mine. He evidently cares not a whit how much he might offend you."

"Nay, he would not," Janet said, "but even to have suggested submitting me to such humiliation … .It … it must not be thought of."

"It will not be," the reiver said grimly. "I promised that we would see you safe, lass, and so we will."   





 

"Then you must agree to marry her forthwith," Buccleuch said gravely.

"Aye, well, as to that," the reiver replied with a grimace,

"Pray, sir, I must object," Janet interjected. "Legally, my brother might be able to force me to a marriage I do not want, but surely no one else can do so. At least, no one else can under English law," she added as the unwelcome thought struck her that the laws of Scotland might be different. Her stomach tightened painfully as she awaited Buccleuch's response.

He smiled, and to her surprise, the smile was both charming and sincere. "In Scotland," he said, "a lass generally obeys her family just as she would in England, but even her family cannot force her to wed against her will."

The pain in her stomach eased. "I am glad of that," she said.