Read Amanda Scott - [Border Trilogy 2] for Free Online

more than gaze back at him. “Would you accept any terms to see your daughter wedded to this rascal?”
    “It is not for me to accept or reject terms, my lord. As always, that must remain for you to decide. It does strike me, though, that Sir Walter speaks fairly. Were he to agree to marry our Meg only to save the neck of a child, one cannot imagine what use the child would be in seeing her safely to her new home.”
    “Bless us, I’ll see her there safe enough with a large, well-armed escort.”
    “I am sure you will, my lord, but at what cost? ’Tis not the money concerns me, of course, but did you capture every man who rode with Sir Walter last night?”
    He hesitated as Meg nervously nibbled a fingertip.
    “Even if you believe you did, one can never be certain of such a thing,” Lady Murray went on in her placid way. “Only consider that even Sir Walter did not know that the boy had followed them. In the uproar that usually ensues during such incidents, I should imagine that some of the raiders may easily have escaped. By now, I suspect that both Buccleuch and Douglas have heard about what happened.”
    “I do not fear Douglas,” Murray snapped.
    “No more should you, sir, for I warrant he hopes, despite your customary neutrality in such matters, to persuade you to support his forthcoming efforts against the English. But if he has already learned of
this
incident . . .”
    Seeing her father stiffen, Meg knew Lady Murray’s unfinished suggestion had struck home. They did not want to make an enemy of the Earl of Douglas. It would be far safer for them if he retained at least a hope of persuading Sir Iagan to support the Scottish cause. The earl was going to need all the men he could muster.
    In England, she knew that whenever the King needed an army, he just forced his nobles to order out their vassals and equip them with arms. But the King of Scots was merely the chief of chiefs. If he wanted an army, he had to persuade the Scottish nobility that his cause was good. Therefore, even the Earl of Douglas, as powerful as he was, often had to do some persuading.
    The earl’s vast power lay in the fierce loyalty of the enormous Douglas clan and that of other noble supporters such as the Laird of Buccleuch, who would do whatever he asked of them. But to raise the entire Scottish Borderers to aid him in discouraging yet another English invasion, he would have to persuade others like Sir Iagan, who did not leap to obey whenever the Douglas lifted a finger.
    It was one thing to remain neutral. In that event, the Douglas would be displeased, but he would do them no harm. However, if aught occurred to make him believe that Sir Iagan might actively aid the English, Douglas would likely take swift, punitive action.
    Indeed, in view of Lady Murray’s kinship with the powerful English Percy family, which included Douglas’s chief rival, Sir Harry “Hotspur” Percy, Douglas would have to be a fool to trust Sir Iagan much under any circumstance. And no one had ever called Douglas a fool.
    Sir Iagan, evidently lost in thought himself, had not yet replied to his wife when that wily dame went on to say, “You will doubtless agree, sir, that Meg would be quite safe in riding to Rankilburn with Sir Walter and an escort of six men-at-arms all known to be loyal to Douglas and Buccleuch. Indeed, it might be wiser and more tactful than to escort her yourself. Moreover, you need not provision them.”
    Indignation rose swiftly in Meg’s breast. Was her mother truly suggesting that she should ride off with the reiver and have no one she knew to protect her, not one soul whom she could trust even to talk to?
    Her contrary imagination suggested that she would likewise have no one to scold her or order her about—other than this supposed husband-to-be of hers. She eyed Sir Walter speculatively, then glanced at her sister.
    Amalie was watching her, probably trying to imagine what Meg’s feelings must be. Meg couldn’t tell her, for