Read Online Amanda Scott - [Border Trilogy 2] by Border Wedding - Free Book Online

witness to his wedding, Wat followed his future father-in-law inside, to find a quill and an ink horn waiting on the dais table beside a jug of what looked like ale.
    Murray set the rolled document down beside them.
    “I expect you’ll want me to sign that now,” Wat said.
    “In good time, lad. I’ve asked the friar to come and witness our signing. In the meantime, an ye’re willing, we’ll have a drink to celebrate our bargain.”
    Wat gratefully accepted a mug of ale and had quaffed nearly half of it before he recalled that he’d not had anything to eat since his supper the evening before and that ale had been partially to blame for his present predicament. Much as he would have welcomed the oblivion he could count on after a surfeit of the stuff, he told himself sternly that he would be wiser to keep a clear head.
    “I reckon my ladies will be along soon,” Murray said, taking his place in a two-elbow chair at the centermost place along the dais table, facing the lower hall. “Come, take this stool beside me, lad. We’re nearly kin now, so I would hear more o’ ye. I’m told ye support the Douglas in all things. Be that true?”
    “Aye,” Wat said as he settled himself on the back-stool to the right of Murray’s armchair. Deciding to follow his host’s lead in speaking bluntly, he said, “
I’m
told, sir, that you do
not
support Douglas. Indeed, I’ve heard it said that you refuse to support either side.”
    “Sakes, lad, did ye no observe how I’m fixed here? Not only am I just three miles from the line, but my lady was born and raised in England and has powerful kinsmen there. ’Tis as much as a man’s life and property be worth to take sides with or against anyone. Nobbut what we live in fear o’ being attacked by one side or the other whenever things get truly troublesome.”
    “But even so, you live in Scotland and are a Scotsman born,” Wat protested.
    “Aye, sure,” Murray said. “And for nigh onto a decade afore I was born, things were peaceful enough hereabouts. To be sure, England’s third Edward had conquered nearly all of Scotland south o’ the Firth then, and many hereabouts swore fealty to him in exchange for permission to keep their own property.”
    “So your father was one who swore then,” Wat said, not at all surprised to be talking of a conquest that had taken place half a century before. Scottish memories were long. Moreover, English armies had invaded many times since then. And Murray was not the only man to have sworn fealty to a conquering king in order to be left in peace. Others, perhaps even Wat’s own kinsmen, had done the same to keep their estates.
    “’Twas the sensible thing to do,” Murray said. “The alternative was to see one’s lands confiscated and given to an English lord. Other times, the English would burn everything as they came north, or the Scots would burn their own crops and drive off their own beasts to keep the English from supplying their armies wi’ them.”
    Wat nodded, knowing it was easy, if inconvenient, for most Scottish Borderers to abandon their homes and fields, and drive their cattle to safer places. Crops could be replanted and simple cottages rebuilt and rethatched in a day or two. Even peel towers like his own were safe to leave unattended if, like Raven’s Law, they were built of solid stone.
    Larger establishments risked occupation. Hermitage Castle, the nearby Liddesdale seat of the Earl of Douglas, was one such. The English had taken the fortress more than once in its hundred years of existence.
    “Do you not trust the Douglas and the Earl of Fife to keep the English out of Scotland this time?” Wat asked him.
    Murray shrugged. “I dinna doubt the Douglas will do all he can, but Fife will do what serves Fife. I ought no to speak against the man that my own son Simon serves, but I’ve nae doubt ye ken enough about Fife to understand what I say. He may be the King o’ Scots’ own son, but if he can gain by giving