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‘I will let you finish, then,’ she said, turning her back. Hard to muster even those words, that movement.
He did not answer, but she heard more splashing behind her, and then footfalls, as if he had quickly climbed the bank. The rustle of cloth, as if he were pulling on breeches.
And then, behind her, the steps came closer …
She whirled, not wanting him to creep up upon her when she could not see him.
As soon as she turned, he stopped, still a safe distance away, carrying a shirt over his shoulder. Still out of reach. But close enough now she could see the hair sprinkled across his bare chest and the sword-trained muscles of his arms. She had thought of the man as the warden, as a courtier, perhaps, but this reminded her—he was a warrior, just as much as any man of the Borders.
‘I did not mean to disturb you,’ he said.
She shook her head. She had been the one to blunder upon him.
‘The water is cold,’ he continued. ‘Do not go in too deeply.’
‘You did.’ She had never intended to do such a daft thing, but the decision was hers, not his.
‘That’s how I know how cold it is.’ He gave her an easy smile, but she could see the cold had raised bumps on his arms. She had the strangest urge to wrap her plaid around him, to warm him …
‘Then go. Finish dressing yourself and leave me be.’
He swung the shirt over his head, blessedly covering himself, but the sigh she released was more regret than relief.
‘I’ll stand over there and keep my back turned. Let me know when you are ready.’
She nodded and scampered down the bank.
Would he turn to look? She felt as if they were equally armed, neither with an advantage. If she turned to find him looking, then what? Better not to know. Better to imagine him a man of his word.
And yet as she splashed water on her face and arms, she had the strangest need to defy him.
If he wasn’t looking, he wouldn’t know if she stepped in the water.
She held her sark above her knees and waded in, curling her toes against the rocks on the river bottom, and shivered.
It was every bit as cold as he had promised.
He had promised not to look.
So he busied himself with tucking his shirt in, putting on his jerkin, pulling hose over freezing feet. Bessie was a sensible woman. Surely she wouldn’t take long.
He listened for sounds, trying to hear something above the gurgling water of the river.
Trying to keep his head from turning.
The sounds of the river were a small comfort. Different, very, from the relentless tides of the firth, but unlike the hills, moving, always moving.
As they must move today. If he did not get the message to the King before—
A new sound. A woman’s cry.
He whirled and ran. Had she gone in? Was she drowning?
Yes, she had, daft woman. But far from drowning, she stood in thigh-deep water, soaked from head to toe, red hair clinging to her breasts, just hiding the curves and nipples that lay just beneath the thin, wet linen.
And she looked as angry as he felt.
‘Don’t you step a foot off that bank!’
‘I told you not to go in.’
‘Brunson tower is hard by Liddel Water. I know how to bathe in the river.’ Yet she was shivering now. A stronger woman than those he’d known, no doubt. But if she took a chill and died …
‘Get out of there before you freeze your—’ he looked away from her breasts ‘—self to death.’
‘Get away! You promised not to look.’
‘You promised not to get into the water.’
They glared at each other and he wasn’t sure whether it was anger or desire that raised his temperature.
He tried to keep his eyes on her face, but the linen clung to curves he had only imagined before. She was lean, like her brother Johnnie, but no one would ever mistake her for anything but a woman. Her breasts, now pushing through the wet strands of red hair, were high and proud and full. Her legs long. And between her legs, where the wet cloth clung …
He swallowed.
She had followed his gaze and there was no question now. She had seen his desire. Been touched by it. Her lips parted. She crossed her arms over her breasts. Her knees sagged, as if weak with some kind of hunger … as if she might fall back into the water any minute.
He waded into the river, lifted her up, walked back to the bank and set her down. His arms lingered on her shoulders. He looked down into her face, thinking again how full and ripe her lips—
She thumped his chest with both fists and broke his hold, stepping back. ‘Is this how you save my reputation?’
He looked down, realising he had walked into a river wearing leather boots. The woman had scrambled his thinking. He had thought only to protect her and then she was too close, too tempting …
‘It was not your reputation that was in danger. It was your health.’
‘I’ve not been sick a day in my life. Now step away and turn around.’
He shook his head. ‘Last time I turned my head, you jumped into the river. Now I’m taking you back to your tent and sitting there until you are dressed and ready. We’ve miles to go today.’
And his clothes were soaked from the waist down. It was going to be a long, cold ride.
Embarrassment, and something even more dangerous, warmed Bessie as she stomped back to her tent.
Treacherous man.
She had ignored the feelings he had raised that night he had arrived at the tower. Hand on hers in the dance. Standing too close. She had neither time nor inclination for such foolishness, particularly with this man who, no doubt, had betrayed her family once and might do so again.
She ignored the fact that she had, on a foolish whim, marched right into the river after he told her not to. After she had no intention of doing so.
She didn’t even like water.
One night away from home and she was no longer herself.
Her jaw trembled and her teeth clattered together. She clamped them tight, angry. It was as if she had left Bessie behind when she left the valley. All her life she had been the one bundled in blankets, layered in hose and gloves. So why had she marched into a frigid river in the middle of November?
The man had scrambled her thinking.
She was a sensible woman. Steady. Solid. Dependable. But with this man, steps that should have been simple became awkward. There was something about him that threw her … off.
Inside the tent, she stripped off her wet sark, wrung the water from her dripping hair and donned clean linen with shaking fingers. Shivering, she sneezed.
She was never ill and damned if she would be now. She would not give him the satisfaction.
No. Now she would do her duty, and that duty did not include swooning in any man’s arms, particularly those of a man who had likely betrayed her family. She had promised her brothers she would discover proof of that. Time to be about it.
She rolled up the rest of her things and stuffed them back into the travel bag. She would question him. She would uncover the truth.
But as she emerged from the tent and mounted her pony for the day’s ride, she glanced at Carwell and discovered she could not look at the man without a catch in her breath.
Without remembering …
Well, then, she would keep her shoulders square and her eyes straight ahead. Just a few days and she would be herself again. Just a few miles and she would be able to act as if their river meeting had never happened.
At least, she hoped so.
He was grateful, in the end, for the plunge into cold water. It kept his tarse from rearing its head when he looked at Elizabeth Brunson and remembered the feel of her in his arms.
But as the days wore on and the miles passed under the ponies’ hooves, the memory moved through him again. Aye. There was a reason he had not wanted Bessie Brunson to be the one to come on this trip. He had memories to forget. Memories to hide. And having her close made it that much more difficult.
Soon, they would reach Stirling Castle, where she would be put in a bed far away from him and where no loch or river would provide temptation.
For he must think of why he had come and what he might face. A new king. Grown, yes, but more than ten years younger than he. Younger even than Elizabeth Brunson.
He hoped the boy he only partly knew would be wise. Scotland could not afford war with England right now. But at least he and the King shared one goal.
The Earl of Angus would be caught and punished. The man must not slip through their hands, cross the border, and into the protection of his friend and ally, King James’s uncle, the English King Henry VIII.
Chapter Five
She was not prepared for Stirling Castle.
The Brunsons were the most powerful family in the March. She was unaccustomed to meeting families more powerful than her own. But as they rode up the steep, winding path to the castle, looming high on a cliff above them, she felt as if she were approaching Heaven.
And once inside, she was even more confused. Buildings, courtyards, all teeming with people. More than she had ever seen in one place, except for the times that Brunsons were riding a raid.
Carwell left her with the men for a few minutes, then returned with the steward.
‘It seems,’ Carwell said, as the steward took charge of the horses and men, ‘that when the King abandoned the siege against Angus, he brought the men here. There’s to be a tournament. Jousting and celebration.’ His voice did not sound celebratory.
‘What is it like, a tournament?’ Bessie asked. She might as well have been in France. They had tournaments there, she had heard.
‘It means we dress up and fight each other.’
‘Why?’
‘For glory.’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘Clearly, the King is a man who doesn’t have enough fighting to do in his everyday life.’
His expression echoed hers. ‘Or he wants a battle he can win.’ He leaned closer to whisper. ‘He is still smarting from his defeat by Angus.’
The defeat he blamed on the Brunsons.
She looked up at the cloud-covered sky. Falling off his horse into the mud would not improve his mood.
Finished with the men, the steward approached her with a boy to take her horse. As she started to dismount, Carwell was there, helping.
He steadied her on her feet and turned to the steward. ‘This is Elizabeth Brunson.’
She blinked. She had never been Elizabeth. Always, only, little Bessie. Elizabeth sounded like a different woman.
One who might dance at court, light on her feet.
The steward bent at the waist. ‘This way, my lady.’ He summoned another man to carry her travel chest.
She looked back at Carwell, suddenly reluctant to be separated. ‘Am I to meet the King?’
He shook his head. ‘There’s no time now. You’re to join the other ladies as soon as you change your dress.’
As she followed the steward up the stairs and down the hallway, she looked down at her travel-worn wool.
As soon as she changed into what?
With minimal introduction, the steward led her to a building at the far end of the huge stone palace and turned her over to a short, dark-haired, dark-eyed woman who guided her upstairs, chattering in words Bessie had never heard.
‘Excuse me.’ She must interrupt the woman. ‘I don’t understand—’
‘Vous ne parlez pas français?’
Bessie shook her head.
‘Ah. I see.’ They had reached the end of the corridor and the woman opened a door. ‘It’s empty now,’ she explained, in words Bessie could understand, ‘but three of us share it already. We’re all named Mary.’
Bessie felt a moment of relief. She had not seen another woman in the week since she had left home. A female face was a comfort.
‘They call me Wee Mary,’ she said, with a smile that showed a gap between her front teeth.
‘I’m … Elizabeth Brunson.’ So Carwell had introduced her. So she would be.
