Sir Hugh gaped at the lad in shock, but by the time Buccleuch's envoy arrived at Brackengill that afternoon, he had seen for himself just how much had been stolen from him, and he was ripe for murder.
Buccleuch had schemed well, and his emissary was both smooth of tongue and skilled in the art of diplomacy, but Sir Hugh saw to it that persuading him to agree to any marriage took several days and a good deal of money.
Buccleuch and Sir Quinton arrived at Branxholme late the following Thursday evening, surprising Margaret and her guest. The two women were sitting companionably by a roaring fire in the hall when the men strode in, and Margaret leapt up to hug her husband.
"We can hold the ceremony on Sunday if you like," Buccleuch said matter-of-factly as he welcomed her into his arms, speaking over her shoulder to Janet.
Janet reacted with astonishment. "Hugh agreed?"
"Aye, he did," Buccleuch said, releasing his wife to let a servant take his helmet, gloves, and cloak.
Sir Quinton turned to the fire as he pulled off his gloves. Tucking them inside his doublet, he held his hands out to warm them, apparently deaf to the exchange and not eager to take part in the conversation. Janet had caught one darting look as he entered, but she had been unable to read his expression.
"What did Hugh say?" she demanded.
Buccleuch shrugged. "What can it matter, mistress? He has agreed to permit your marriage and therefore will make no legal objection to it."
"If it please you, sir, I should like to know exactly what he said. Did he not send any message to me?"
"Nay, lass, and as to-"
"He said that I am welcome to you," Sir Quinton said without turning.
"Then he does not suspect that you are Rabbie Redcloak," Janet said.
"He does not," Buccleuch said, adding smugly, "You can thank me for that."
"I am sure that I can, sir," she said, "but how can you be so certain?"
In a near growl, Sir Quinton said, "Because his envoy told your brother that I rescued you from Rabbie Redcloak." His voice took on a hard edge when he added, "His man went so far as to suggest that I am willing to overlook the way you entered Scotland, that because I took a strong liking to you, I would marry you despite the damage done to your reputation."
"Did Hugh believe that?"
"Who can say what he believes?" Buccleuch said, eyeing Sir Quinton with disfavor.
Sir Quinton turned then, and to her surprise she detected a flash of amusement in his eyes. He said, "It doubtless will come as no surprise to you that your brother seems to have decided that both Buccleuch and Buccleuch's idiot cousin are hand in glove with the reivers."
"Never mind that," Buccleuch said. "We've details to arrange now, so listen well, all of you. For the booking, mistress, I'll send my own men to wait on the session clerk in Hawick, to inform him that you and Quin have agreed to a betrothal. My men will likewise inform the parson. I trust that you're not a popish lass, or if you are, that you'll not insist on having a priest. Priests are not in good odor these days, and no priest-spoken marriage would be lawful hereabouts."
"I am not popish," Janet said, feeling overwhelmed and remembering what he had said upon entering. "Surely all this cannot happen by Sunday!"
"There's naught amiss with marrying on a Sunday," he said.
"But what of the banns?"
An impatient gesture dismissed the banns. "A single reading will suffice," he said, "and we've our own chapel here at Branxholme. Parson can marry you directly after the service."
"For a fee," Sir Quinton said.
"Which you'll pay, my lad, and without any fuss over it," Buccleuch told him. "You can afford it better than I can just now. You'll also pay the betrothal fee and give my men ample funds to lay down the pawns in Hawick."
Confused, Janet looked to Sir Quinton for enlightenment.
"Yet another fee," he explained. "Laying down pawns guarantees that our marriage will be solemnized. The session clerk will keep the money until we can show that a proper cleric has married us. Then he'll return it. He will not, however, return the fee that I'll pay for sending others in our stead to attest to our betrothal."
"I don't understand this," Janet said. "Need we not hold a proper betrothal ceremony to sign papers and make all legal?"
Buccleuch said, "Here in Scotland you need only speak the words of the marriage rite before witnesses, mistress, after which you'll each moisten your right thumb with your tongue and press them together. We count the violation of any contract so consecrated tantamount to perjury."
"I see. Did … did Hugh happen to mention my dowry?"
"Aye, he did," Buccleuch said, his gaze evading hers.
"Well?" She looked from one man to the other.
Buccleuch grimaced, still refusing to meet her gaze, but Sir Quinton looked sympathetic. "I'll see that you have no need for a dowry, lassie," he said quietly.
"'Tis just as well," Buccleuch said before she could protest such a ridiculous and humiliating notion. "Your pig-headed megrim of a brother said you could be married in your smock, mistress. He'll do naught to prevent the marriage, he said, but neither will he do aught to make anyone think that he favors it. He also said that no respectable Englishman would take you after such time as you had spent in the reiver's clutches. 'Twas then that he said Quin were welcome to you."
Margaret Scott said indignantly, "Husband, have pity! What a dreadful thing to say to her!"
"Aye, but she wanted to ken the truth," Buccleuch said.
"Nevertheless you need not have flung it at her like a hurling of stones," retorted the wife of his bosom with a look of grave displeasure.
He moved toward her, murmuring coaxingly, "Dinna be wroth with me, sweetling. 'Tis sorely I've missed you."
"I'll wager you have, locked up in that great pile of rocks with naught but a hundred loud, filthy men to bear you company, but you'll soon be thinking their company preferable to mine if you do not treat my guest with kindness."
Stunned by the knowledge that Hugh intended to keep her dowry, Janet paid them little heed. She realized that the laws of both countries would support her brother and that she had no recourse against him. For the first time, she sympathized heartily with the reivers. She would have liked nothing better than to ride to Brackengill with an army to retrieve her rightful property at sword point.
Chapter 10
"Her girdle show'd her middle neat
And gowden glist her hair."
ON FRIDAY MORNING, JOINING Margaret in her parlor to break her fast, Janet said ruefully as she sat down at the table, "I wish Hugh had at least had the kindness to send some of my clothing to Branxholme. Everything has happened so quickly, and I possess no finery to wear to my own wedding. Were it not for your generosity, madam, I would have naught but the clothes I wore when I arrived. I thank you most sincerely for the clean smock your woman provided me this morning."
"You need not thank me," Margaret said with a smile as she poured ale into a goblet for her guest. "'Tis my pleasure to help. You will soon have gowns of your own. Quinton is a generous man, despite his complaints about money."
"Nevertheless-"
"Do not bother your head about such things now," Margaret interjected. "We've much that we must think about. Trust Buccleuch to declare that all can be arranged in a twink, and then leave me to arrange it."
"Indeed, I do not know how you will manage."
"It will all sort itself out," Margaret said placidly. "He will invite everyone for miles, and gentry from as far as a day's ride away, I shouldn't wonder."
"I do not understand how he contrived any of this," Janet said. "He cannot have got the Queen's permission in so short a time. I doubt that he had time even to obtain Lord Scrope's."
"As he explained it to me, he required only your brother's. Doubtless the merchet will be high, though."
"Pray, madam, what is the merchet?"
"'Tis yet another marriage tax," Margaret said. "When I married Buccleuch, my father explained that the merchet dates from the Scottish feudal system. It is a tax that a superior exacts from a vassal on the marriage of the vassal's daughter. Proceeding on the principle that giving a daughter in wedlock deprives the overlord of her services, a knight or baron levies merchet from his bondsman, then pays it to his sovereign."
"But how can that affect me? Neither I nor my brother are vassals of your King, and Hugh will certainly refuse to pay any such tax to Queen Elizabeth."
"Buccleuch kens that fine, but someone will expect to receive his due. Presently, the King grants such merchet from persons of opulence to individuals in reward of service. In my view, since Buccleuch or Quinton will pay the King, they do it more to persuade Jamie to side with Quinton if Elizabeth makes a fuss over your marriage. But you need not tell Buccleuch that I suggested as much."
"No, of course not. Do you think the Queen will bother her head about me?"
"Buccleuch says 'tis ever better to be safe than sorry, since one cannot know which way any sovereign may hop. She may dislike your leaving England, he said, but he said also that she cannot express too much rancor when she still insists that after her death we will all be citizens of one country."