The Rock (52 page)

Park Castle, one month later

E
LIZABETH WAS STARING
out the tower window again, but this time she knew exactly what she was looking for—or rather
whom
.

She turned to Jo, who was seated by the fire working on a cap for the baby. “Jamie said they would be here by now. Do you think something has happened?”

“You have to calm down, Ella, it’s not good for—” She stopped suddenly as if remembering something. “You have to learn patience if you are going to be married to a warrior. These things never go as planned.”

Elizabeth plopped down in a chair, not hiding her frustration. “But I’m not patient. I hate waiting and not knowing. I never realized how hard it must be for you. How do you do it?”

“I try not to think about it. I realized it wasn’t doing either of us any good for me to worry myself to death. Uilleam helps keep my mind off things.”

She looked at Elizabeth meaningfully, as if she should be understanding something. Elizabeth frowned. “Aye, I can see why. He’s as much of a handful as Hugh and Archie were.” She shuddered. “When I have children, I’m going to be much more firm with them.”

Joanna looked like she was choking on something before she managed, “I shall look forward to seeing that.”

Elizabeth sighed. “I wish Thom had been able to come back from training on Skye before he’d been called away on a mission with James. He’s been gone over three weeks now.”

“They’ll be back soon enough.”

Jo was right. When the call rang out from the yard below a few minutes later, Elizabeth was already halfway down the stairs.

“Careful!” Jo yelled from behind her, but Elizabeth wasn’t listening. All she could think about was . . .

The moment she ran into the yard she saw him. The impact of emotion that hit her was like a physical blow. It landed across her chest with the force of a hammer. He was here. Dirty, tired, a little grizzled. His hair was longer than she’d ever seen it and his jaw looked like it hadn’t seen a razor in a week, yet he was even more handsome than she remembered. But none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was that he was safe—and by the looks of it in fine form.
Very
fine form. If possible, he seemed even
more
physically imposing. He looked every inch an elite warrior of the Highland Guard.

The relief was so overwhelming it almost brought her to her knees.

She made a sound, and he looked over from his conversation with Jamie—a surprisingly
un
-tension-ridden conversation, she noticed—to see her standing there. When he grinned, her legs seemed to finally remember how to move. She tore across the yard and threw herself into his arms.

The moment they closed around her the emotion that she’d been trying to control came bursting out in a flood of tears.

He held her for a minute, squeezing her tight and whispering soothing words into her hair as he kissed the top of her head. He smelled of horse, and leather, and wind, and nothing had ever smelled so good. She wanted to hold on to him forever.

It took her a moment, but eventually she felt the shaking in his chest and realized he was laughing.

When she scowled up at him, he took the opportunity to drop a too-quick kiss on her mouth, when all she wanted to do was melt into him (he was no doubt aware of her blasted brother standing right next to him).

“Aren’t you happy to see me?” he said, his eyes twinkling.

She felt the strange urge to stomp on his foot. “I am, you wretch!”

“I thought you didn’t cry.”

“I don’t.” She wiped her eyes furiously. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m crying all the time of late.”

“You’ll be fine soon enough,” Jo said, coming up behind her. “The mission with the Earl of Carrick went well?” she asked her husband.

All the women knew was that it had been a raid in England.

“Well enough,” Jamie said with an odd look in Boyd’s direction. “We had some help from Randolph and his men.”

Elizabeth’s gaze shot to Thom’s, but he shook his head, telling her it had been fine. Apparently, according to James, there weren’t any hard feelings between Randolph and Thom. Randolph apparently considered his graciousness toward the man who was now marrying his former betrothed as recompense for Thom saving his life.

“Now I saved his,” Randolph had said.

Thom had disagreed that a battle between them would be so one-sided, but Elizabeth had just been relieved that Randolph hadn’t dropped his gauntlet at Thom’s feet and demanded a joust or some other knightly form of satisfaction and forced her to find out.

She suspected she had Izzie to thank for that. If she hadn’t wrangled the lauded knight yet, she would soon.

Elizabeth was glad not to have Randolph to worry about; preventing Thom and Jamie from coming to blows had been difficult enough. Although she was relieved to see that no longer seemed the case. Elizabeth didn’t fully understand the bond men seemed to form in war, but if it helped restore some measure of the former friendship between them she was grateful for it.

Jo had arranged a feast for the men when they arrived, and Elizabeth stopped crying and let go of Thom long enough to greet some of the others as they walked into the Great Hall. Most of the Guard had already gone on to Dunstaffnage to give their report to the king before returning to their own families for a few days, but Boyd and Lamont had accompanied Thom as far as Douglas and would continue on to their families tomorrow.

Elizabeth was looking forward to meeting them all in a couple of weeks for their wedding, which would take place—fittingly—in Edinburgh at the abbey under the shadow of the great castle Thom had helped restore to Scotland.

Jamie would have put it off for even longer to avoid the taint of scandal after the broken betrothal, but with the English planning to march north in June, he knew the men would be called away at any time. Elizabeth didn’t care about what people said. She would have married Thom the day he’d asked for her, if Jamie would have let her.

Once they were seated, she finally had an opportunity to talk to him. “You are well?” she said, searching for any sign of injury.

“Very well,” he said, sweeping a few strands of hair from her cheek to tuck behind her ear. His thumb lingered long enough to caress her cheek. “But I missed you.”

Her chest squeezed at the loving look in his eyes. It squeezed with something else as well, but thanks to Jamie that would have to wait. He’d made Thom agree that he wouldn’t have cause to walk in on them again before the wedding, and Thom was now honor-bound to keep his word.

Her argument that the horse had already trotted out of the stable was met with extremely chastising frowns from both of them.

The next few weeks were going to be torture.

“I missed you, too. Training was not too difficult?” she asked.

He gave her a wry look that said otherwise. “I survived.” Why did she think he left out a “barely” in there? “But it’s not anything I’m anxious to repeat.”

“The swimming?” She knew he’d been worried about that.

He didn’t bother hiding his grimace. “Let’s just say I got a lot better—quickly—but I will always prefer mountains to the sea.”

Knowing there was only so much he could tell her, she didn’t question him any further, but promise or not, she intended to do a very thorough inspection of him later.

She hadn’t realized she’d been watching the door until Thom asked, “Are you waiting for someone?”

She shrugged, which only seemed to increase his curiosity.

“I hope I do not have cause to be jealous?” There might have been a certain sharpness to the question behind the lazy tone.

She had to bite the inside of her mouth to keep from laughing and couldn’t resist teasing him. “Well, he is
extremely
handsome and talented and is doing a great favor for me.”

Apparently, he wasn’t in the mood for teasing. It had been too long for both of them. “Ella . . .” he warned.

“There he is right now.”

Thom’s eyes moved to the door and a moment later, his gaze turned back to hers. “Which one?”

“Both, but in this case I was referring to the younger of the two.”

His father and Johnny had just walked into the room, Johnny carrying the favor. Elizabeth rushed forward to greet them, and a space beside her and Thom on the bench was made for them to sit. If anyone thought it odd that the village smithy and his son were seated at the high table, no one said anything.

“Is it ready?” she asked Johnny.

Thom’s younger brother nodded. “Aye.”

He handed it to her, and she in turn handed it to Thom.

“What is this?” he asked, eyeing the long, linen-wrapped package.

“A gift. Something to show how proud I am of you.”

He took it in his hands. Having made enough of them—including the one that hadn’t left Jamie’s side since he’d been given it (and had inspired all the envy Elizabeth knew it would)—Thom had to know what it was.

He gave her a questioning look and unbound it. Jamie and Jo knew what she’d done, but the others were watching with interest as he drew out the long sword.

It was nearly the match for the one Thom had made Jamie in skill and design. The blade was strong and perfectly balanced and weighted, the handle and grip tight and molded for his hand, and the hilt and scabbard were decorated with enough gold and precious stones to be fit for a king. Indeed, she suspected when the king saw this one, he would be demanding that Thom finish the one he’d promised to make for him after he’d seen Jamie’s.

One day Johnny might even surpass his brother in sword making. But the design and the scene and words etched on the blade—that was all her. Maybe Thom wouldn’t be the only one in the family making swords for kings.

She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Thom speechless before as he took in the picture of the famous castle on the Rock etched on the blade. “You did this?”

She beamed with pleasure. The work on the sword had kept her busy, but she’d also liked it. A lot. Enough to make her hope that it might keep her busy some more in the future. “Johnny and I work well together,” she said with a wink in Johnny’s direction.

They already had plans for a few more. Thom would be busy in the months ahead readying for war and so would she. She’d found a cure for her restlessness—although she suspected it might have something to do with the man at her side as well.

“I hope I did the words right,” Johnny said. “Lady Elizabeth”—she cleared her voice and he smiled sheepishly—“Ella said you had an affinity for French.”

Elizabeth was trying not to laugh.

Thommy shot her a look. “She did, did she?”

“It says ‘Climb high where honor leads,’ ” she translated.

Their eyes held. “It’s perfect,” he said, his voice thick. “Thank you.”

She nodded. Seeing how moved he was, her chest swelled to bursting. But then one of the maidservants passed by with a tray of mutton and it was her stomach that swelled—and turned upside down. The wave of nausea hit her so hard she had to grab the edge of the table to steady herself.

Thom reached for her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“The smell,” she said, fighting to keep the contents of her stomach in place.

Thom must have looked so worried that Jo took pity on him—on both of them because Elizabeth was just as unaware of what was going on as Thom.

“I think you might need to move up the wedding a week or two,” Jo said to her husband.

“Why?” Jamie asked.

Jo looked around at all of them as if she couldn’t believe they could be so dense. Only Thom’s father seemed to have guessed, and he was almost as pale as Elizabeth.

“Because as it is, your first nephew or niece is going to be awfully big for eight months.”

Elizabeth was stunned, but she recovered quickly. Her future husband, future brother-in-law, future father-in-law, and brother, however, didn’t demonstrate such resilience. Good gracious, she had never seen so many big men look close to fainting before!

“Will they be all right?” she asked Jo worriedly.

“In about eight months give or take. Just get ready for the—”

She didn’t get a chance to finish before the fussing started. Thom growled for someone to get her a pillow—ten pillows, damn it!—not listening when she said she didn’t need one; Jamie called for wine, whether it was for himself or for her, she wasn’t sure; and Johnny and Big Thom took turns asking her if she needed anything and if she felt okay—every five minutes.

It was going to be a long eight months.

But the good news was that a few days later, she found herself standing before a priest with Thom—her brother and sister-in-law at their side just as they’d been all those years ago—repeating the vows that would bind her to the noble man who’d captured her heart when he’d rescued her from a tree.

It had taken her awhile to recognize it, but she would never forget it again. Thom had always been her rock, and she would hold on to him forever.

T
HE TAKING OF
Roxburgh Castle on Shrove Tuesday 1314 by Sir James Douglas and—not to be outdone—the taking of Edinburgh Castle three and a half weeks later on March 14, 1314, by Sir Thomas Randolph are two of the most renowned events in the almost unbelievable Bruce journey to kingship.