The Captive Heart (22 page)

“We will reach Ravenscraig today, late,” Malcolm Scott told his companions as they set off the third morning.

“Where exactly is this castle, my lord?” Alix asked him.

“In the region called Fife. It overlooks the Firth of Forth to the south. The king bought it from the Mure family, I believe. The owner had no heirs, was old, and had little wherewithal to keep it up. He died shortly thereafter.”

“Is it a great castle?” Fiona wanted to know.

“It is a small castle,” her father told her.

“Oh,” the little girl said, sounding disappointed. “Shouldn’t a king have a great castle, Da?”

The laird chuckled. “Kings have both great and small castles,” he told her.

And then in late afternoon, even as the sun was hurrying towards the western horizon, they came in sight of Ravenscraig. While Malcolm Scott had said it was a small structure, he had not told them how impressive a castle it was. And upon its battlements the queen’s banner was visible, announcing to all that Marie of Gueldres was in residence. Their party approached it slowly, showing the men-at-arms upon the walls that the visitors were friendly. The banner of Clan Scott with its great stag and the clan’s motto,
Amo
, embroidered upon it, went before them, announcing their arrival.

Ravenscraig Castle sat on a low rocky promontory set between two dark shingle beaches overlooking the Firth of Forth. Two rounded gray stone towers greeted the visitors approaching from the land side of the castle. A drawbridge lay over a water-filled moat at the gate entrance. The tower to the west was the oldest part of the castle, but the tower to the east had a deeper foundation where steps led down to an underground stable. The queen resided in the West Tower. Their party clopped across the oak bridge, beneath an iron portcullis, and into the courtyard between the towers. They were met by a captain wearing the queen’s badge.

Malcolm Scott dismounted, saying as he did to the man, “I am the Laird of Dunglais, here at the queen’s command. My daughter and her companion travel with me.”

“I am David Grant, the queen’s captain at arms,” the soldier replied. “Aye, you are expected, my lord. If you and the ladies will follow me, I will take you to Her Highness.” He turned to the Scott men-at-arms. “You men stable your mounts and then you may come to the great hall to be fed. You’ll sleep with your horses. Ravenscraig isn’t a large dwelling.” He signaled to a soldier at arms, who came immediately. “Show the Laird of Dunglais’s men where they are to go and then bring them to the hall.”

“Aye, sir!” came the quick reply, but David Grant was already hurrying away with the guests.

“Your trip was an easy one?” the captain inquired pleasantly.

“Good weather always makes a trip smoother, especially when you travel with a woman and a child,” the laird answered as they entered the tower, following the captain up a flight of stairs to a second level into a great hall.

Another man wearing the queen’s badge hurried forward. He had an air of self-importance about him.

“This is the Laird of Dunglais and his family,” David Grant said to the man. Then to the laird, “This is Master Michel, the steward of Ravenscraig Castle. He will see that Her Highness knows you are here.” He bowed neatly to them and left.

The steward nodded to the laird and waved a servant to his side. “Go and tell Her Highness that her guests have arrived from the borders.” As the servant dashed away, Master Michel said, “I have a bedspace for you, my lord, here in the hall. The ladies must share a small chamber.” He signaled to another servant, who dashed to his side. It was obvious that those who served Master Michel were well trained. “Please take these two ladies to their assigned chamber,” he told the serving woman who had come in response to his silent demand.

“Da! He called me a lady,” Fiona said excitedly.

“Fiona,” Alix admonished, but she saw the steward’s quick brief smile out of the corner of her eye. “Come along now.” And taking the little girl’s hand, she followed the servant from the hall.

They were led up two flights of stone stairs to a narrow hallway. Down the dim corridor the woman trotted, finally stopping before a small door. She opened it and ushered Alix and Fiona inside. “You’ve a hearth,” she said proudly. “Her Highness likes her guests to be comfortable. I lit the fire earlier. There’s wood and peat both. Ah.” She turned at the sound of footsteps. “Here’s your trunks. Put it there at the foot of the bed, Finn, and you, Gordie, place yours beneath the window.”

The two servants did as they were bid.

“There’s water to wash the dust of your journey off,” the serving woman said. “Shall I wait, or can you find your own way back to the hall?”

“We’ll find our way,” Alix said. “Thank you so much for your kindness.”

The serving woman gave her a quick smile. It wasn’t often guests thanked her. She departed the small chamber, closing the door behind her.

“We will bathe and change our clothing. We do not want to meet the king’s mother dressed in our travel garments,” Alix said to Fiona.

“I liked it when they called me a lady,” Fiona told her companion. “They did it three or more times!”

Alix smiled. “I always felt special when I was your age and someone would refer to me as ‘my lady.’ I wasn’t, of course, but everyone in the household knew it pleased me. My father began it,” she remembered with a smile. “We must hurry now,
ma petite
.”

They quickly removed their travel clothing and bathed their hands and faces in the warm water they found in a pitcher in the hot ashes of the hearth. Then Alix helped Fiona into her scarlet velvet gown, and, after brushing the child’s long dark hair, outfitted it with a matching ribbon with tiny freshwater pearls about her forehead. She made Fiona sit upon the bed while she quickly dressed herself in the green velvet gown she had made. Brushing her hair out, she confined it in a delicate gold caul. She found the little chamois bag and took two thin gold chains from it, putting them over her head. The gold took away from the severity of the deep green of her gown. She then pulled out her rings, slipping them onto her fingers. Rings were an important accessory, and many women wore them on every finger, and the most fashionable wore several rings on each finger, fitting them onto each joint. Alix had five rings. She wore three on one hand, and two on the other. They had been her mother’s but for one that her father had given her.

“I wish I had jewelry,” Fiona sighed wistfully.

Alix reached into the bag and drew out a long strand of pearls. “These were my mother’s,” she told the child as she looped them twice over Fiona’s head. “You may have the loan of them only, but they do show nicely on your red velvet.”

Fiona flung herself at Alix and wrapped her little arms about the older woman’s neck. “Oh, Alix, I do love you! I wish you were my mother! Thank you!”

Alix hugged the little body against hers back. “I love you too, Fiona,” she said. Then she untangled them, saying, “We must return to the great hall. The queen will certainly have come by now, and your father will be wondering what happened to us.” Taking Fiona’s hand in hers, Alix led them downstairs and back to the hall.

Marie of Gueldres was already there and in light conversation with the laird. She was a lovely woman of medium height who still retained a good figure despite the six children she had born her late husband. Her complexion was a light olive in tone, and her hair was jet black. She had fine amber-colored eyes. She was known to be intelligent, educated, and devout.

Alix led Fiona to where the queen and the laird sat. Then she waited politely to be acknowledged. The widowed queen did not wait. She turned almost immediately, smiling at them. The laird came at once to his feet and drew his child forward.

“Madame, this is my daughter, Fiona,” he said.

Fiona curtsied prettily as Alix had taught her.

“What a lovely child she is, my lord,” Marie of Gueldres said. “Welcome to Ravenscraig, Fiona Scott. We are pleased to see you.”

“Merci beaucoup, madame la reine,”
Fiona answered easily.

“Vous parlez Français, m’enfant?”
Queen Marie smiled.

“Oui, madame, un peu,”
Fiona said.

“Très bon!”
the queen replied, and then she laughed.

“And my daughter’s companion is Mistress Alix Givet,” the laird said.

Alix curtsied a deep court curtsy.

“You did not learn to curtsy like that anywhere but in a court, Mistress Givet,” Queen Marie noted, curious. “In what court were you raised?”

“In the court of King Henry and his good queen, Margaret of Anjou,” Alix replied politely. She realized the laird had said nothing of her background to the queen, leaving that up to her. Alix was grateful for his thoughtfulness.

“And what brought you there?” Queen Marie wanted to know.

“I was born there, madame. My mother was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Margaret, who is my godmother. My father was the queen’s personal physician. They are both now deceased, God assoil their souls,” Alix said, crossing herself piously.

The Scots queen crossed herself as well in a gesture of respect. “But how came you to the household of the Laird of Dunglais?” she asked Alix.

“I had traveled into Scotland and became lost upon the moor. The laird’s men found me and brought me to him. As he has no wife and his daughter’s nursemaid was elderly, the child needed to be educated in a manner befitting her station as the laird’s heiress; he asked me to remain at Dunglais and care for Fiona. I am recently widowed, madame, and to be candid, his offer was the answer to my prayers. The husband my godmother had seen me wed to had died but seven months after our marriage was celebrated. I was planning to find her, but the truth is in her current condition she would not have been able to take me back into her household. That is why the laird’s offer was such a blessing.”

“But why would your husband’s family not give you refuge?” The queen was curious and surprised.

“My husband’s father had no other heirs,” Alix said. “He sought to marry me himself, madame, which is why I left. He is a good man, but he was my husband’s father. I felt it went against the laws of the church and of nature that he desired such a thing of me. But he sent the house priest to the archbishop at York for a dispensation. When I told him the archbishop would certainly not grant it, my husband’s father said he had sent a large purse with his priest as a bribe. That is when I knew I must leave, and so I did.”

“And you were perfectly just in doing so!” Queen Marie said. “Desperate men, however, will do desperate things, I fear, Mistress Givet. You are most welcome to Ravenscraig.”

Alix curtsied again, and knowing she was dismissed, moved away with Fiona.

“She’s lovely,” the queen noted.

“She is good for my daughter,” the laird answered.

The queen smiled a small smile but said nothing further.

“Tell me, madame, why have you called me to you?” Malcolm Scott inquired. “There is certainly nothing I have that can be of value to you or our young king. I am nothing but a simple border lord.”

“You have a knowledge of guns, my lord,” the queen said. “I wish to fortify this castle and arm it. Sitting on the edge of the Firth of Forth, it is vulnerable to attack.”

“There are others who have a greater knowledge of cannon than I do,” the laird replied modestly.

“But I know I may trust you completely, for you were my husband’s old and good friend, my lord. My position is precarious now, for my son, the king, is only a little boy. You know what happened to his father in a similar situation. I stand between him and the horrific childhood his father had. Bishop Kennedy has his own agenda, and only I can keep him at bay, making certain his loyalty remains with my son. But there are those among the earls and other lords who would kidnap the king given the opportunity and use him for their own power base. That is why I would make Ravenscraig impenetrable to any who would attack it. And you can tell me what weaponry I will need, for I know for a fact that you have no loyalties other than to yourself, my lord.”

“And to Scotland, madame,” the laird murmured softly with a small smile.

She returned the smile. “And to Scotland,” she agreed. It was silently understood between them that Scotland meant the young king, James III.

“I will advise you as best I can,” he told her.

“Good! My uncle of Burgundy has agreed he will have the cannon I need cast and delivered here to the beach below the castle. He will also send men to install the cannon.”

The Laird of Dunglais nodded. “Has Martzioun built you battlements?” he asked.

“Aye, he is constructing them now,” the queen answered.

“I will want to inspect them to make certain they are sturdy enough to hold the guns you will need,” the laird told her.

“Tomorrow is time enough,” Queen Marie said. “In the meantime, let us pretend I have simply asked my husband’s old companion for a visit because I am feeling nostalgic. I have all the children here with me. Your daughter must meet them. How old is she?”

“She will be seven in December,” the laird said.

“My son Alexander is eight, and his brother David is six. They will need wives one day, my lord.”

“And you will need greater names for them than mine,” he replied with an amused smile. “You can do better for them than a border heiress.” She did not need to bribe him. He would help her for the friendship he had had with her husband.

“You must wed again and have sons,” Queen Marie said.

“So my housekeeper tells me.” The laird chuckled.

“Your daughter’s companion would make you a good wife. Her bloodline is respectable,” Queen Marie noted thoughtfully. “And your daughter loves her, or perhaps you had not noticed it. However, seeing how well she does with your daughter I wonder if she might not make a good addition to my own household. My daughters are still babies, but Mistress Givet is just the sort of young woman I would want in their nursery influencing them. And her French is excellent, of course. Still I would repay you ill if I stole her away from you, my lord.” Queen Marie smiled mischievously.