The Renegade(62)

His grandfather smiled. “We will not be kingless for long. I intend to press my claim. Had you forgotten?”

Rob’s eyes grew wide. “Aye, sir, I had. Forgive me.”

“For what? No one remembers everything at this time of night. But it’s true, I could be King of Scots when your time comes, and if I am, then I will knight you myself. Now, get you off to bed, for I think I might sleep myself for an hour or two.”

Rob glanced at the narrow cot that lay against the rear wall. “Here, sir?”

“Aye, here. I often sleep down here. ’Twould scarce be politic to wake my lady wife at this hour, eh? And if you wish you may spend time with me tomorrow. I’ll have much to do but you can come with me and watch and listen. Forbye, I want my men to have a look at you. Away you go now, and sleep well.”

Rob woke up the next morning with his grandfather’s invitation fresh in his mind and he leapt out of bed. He knew that the old man’s invitation, absent minded though it had sounded at the time, was a test of some kind—of his willingness or commitment—and he was determined not to fail it by appearing to be indifferent or lazy. No time had been specified, but his grandfather’s day began early, and Rob intended to be there before the old man could notice his absence. He ate a quick breakfast and made directly for the great tower of Lochmaben.

He listened avidly as his grandfather and his vassal knights made their plans for taking the road north towards Stirling and Scone the following day, and he was fascinated with the meticulous attention to detail that Lord Robert brought to everything. He marvelled, too, at the magnate’s tireless repetition of what he deemed to be most important: the painstaking recitation to each successive newcomer of the importance of the logistical details needed for equipping, feeding, and maintaining a party large enough to be an army, for many days and nights over long distances. He listened admiringly as his grandfather catechized his leaders individually on the arrangements each had made, seldom raising his voice but harping insistently on the need to be aware of the most minute but necessary and well nigh unforeseeable details.

“Details, details, details,” he told his men, time after time. “You have to feed your people every day. And feed them well, every man of them, and even the folk that feed them, and any women that might be with the cooks. You know from your own experience that you can leave nothing to chance. You have to equip yourself as completely as you can against sudden needs you might never foresee—extra weapons, saddles, supplies, and the equipment to repair broken equipment. You wouldna think of going on a campaign without an armourer in your company, would you? Well, we are going on a campaign, to claim a kingdom! But where’s the good of having an armourer if he leaves half his tools behind him because he can’t carry them? Your armourer will need a cart, equipped wi’ everything he might need at any time. Might need, mind you, and hear me well on that, for God alone can foresee what might happen out there on the road.”

Most important to Rob, though, was that his grandfather introduced him to each man of the group of knights known as the lairds of Annandale in the course of that long day, and though several of the grim-faced veterans eyed him askance, all of them acknowledged him and, grudgingly or otherwise, accepted his presence among them. For his part, Rob worked hard to memorize their names and traits from the moment of first meeting them, analyzing them by appearance and demeanour and fixing their names, faces, and voices firmly in his memory.

When the business of the seemingly interminable day was over and all the lairds had departed to their homes to organize the next day’s expedition, Rob met again with his great-uncle Nicol MacDuncan to share his table at supper, the pair of them drawing odd looks from their seated neighbours as they spoke quietly together in rippling, lilting Gaelic. Nicol had all their own arrangements well in hand, he told Rob, and the remaining score of Carrick retainers were prepared to leave in the morning with the Lochmaben contingent—but he was itching with curiosity about what had happened that day between Rob and his grandfather. Nicol listened without interrupting as Rob told him everything in detail, watching his nephew enjoying his own recollections of what he had evidently decided had been the single most exciting and exhilarating day of his life.

“So,” he said when Rob had finished, “it’s clear your grandsire is a different man to you today than he was yesterday, and you— you’re bubbling over with excitement like a pot on the boil. What changed your mind about him?”

“I don’t know,” Rob said quietly. “A new feeling of rightness, of belonging?” He shrugged. “That sounds silly, but I think it’s true … I felt, today, like a real Bruce, one of the family, as though I belonged where I was, sitting by Lord Robert’s side while he planned for our future. I didn’t do anything other than sit there, but I felt welcome and I learned more about … about being a Bruce, I suppose, than I had ever thought to learn. And it felt natural. As though I was taking my rightful place.”