The Brunson Clan
What a strange man. Had he never seen a woman bake bread? ‘Since I feed my brothers at home, I don’t think they would see a hot griddle as a violation of your oath.’
She tugged against his hand and he let her go, slowly.
‘Nevertheless, that is the way it will be.’
She opened her mouth, but before she could protest, he walked away to supervise the set up of the camp, leaving her with her hands propped on her hip and her mouth open, arguing with the wind.
Her hands, unfamiliar with idleness, dropped to her side, useless. The damp wind teased her with the smell of griddle bannocks frying.
Carwell might think to protect her, but surely his men would welcome her help? She looked over her shoulder. His back was turned, so she walked over to the fire and knelt down, welcoming its warmth on her face.
The man holding the griddle nodded at her without speaking.
‘Here,’ she said, reaching for the handle. ‘I’ll do that.’
Not waiting for permission, she grabbed the hot iron.
It seared her fingers and she dropped it into the flames, popping her fingers in her mouth.
Frowning, Carwell’s man dug into the hot coals with a gloved hand and rescued the meal. Muttering an apology, Bessie stood and stepped back.
How could she have been so daft? Turning away, she squeezed her eyes against tears of pain. She would never have made that mistake at her own hearth where she knew every stone in the floor. But here, even the land looked unfamiliar and unforgiving and she was far from home and at the mercy of a man she neither trusted nor understood.
‘Here.’ Carwell’s voice, just behind her, sounded as close as if he had heard her thoughts. He held out a crisp bannock. ‘Have one.’
Had he seen her awkward mistake? She studied his eyes, blaming the fading light when she couldn’t decipher his expression. Whatever anger he had held when he left her before was gone. Or hidden.
At home, she could interpret her brothers’ emotions, even when they did not speak. There, she was the hub of the wheel around which the rest of them revolved. Here, she had no place, no role, and this man before her was as confusing as the steps of the silly dance he had tried to teach her.
He grasped her unburned hand and set the warm oat cake on her palm. ‘Hot and ready.’
Her tongue wanted to refuse, but her stomach did not, so she accepted and her lips curved into an unwelcome smile as she munched her first bite of welcome warmth.
Then, startled, she felt Carwell wrap a heavy cloak around her shoulders.
She looked up at him, bewildered. No man she knew studied a woman so carefully that he could hear her unspoken thoughts. The men she knew didn’t even hear the ones she said aloud.
She might be cold, yes, but she was not a woman who needed pampering. She pulled off the cloak, holding it out to him. ‘I don’t need this.’
He took it back and swept it around her again, proving he could ignore her words as thoroughly as any man. ‘I won’t have you falling ill on the road.’
His hands rested on her shoulders and the wind, at her back, blew the cloak around them, enfolding them like lovers in a blanket. What would it feel like, to have a man to hold her, to protect her? She swayed, tempted to lean into his chest …
No. This journey was not about what she wanted. It was about her duty to her family. So while she could not succumb to a desire for protection, neither could she allow stubborn pride to make her refuse good food and warm clothes.
‘I must thank you, then,’ she said, the words bitter as the bannock had been savoury.
He let her go. ‘Don’t force yourself.’
She bit her lip. Again, she had stumbled. He must expect please and thank you, curtsy and smile, and all the rounded corners of courtly style.
Well, she had thanked the man. That was high praise from a Brunson.
‘I’ve made you a place there—’ he pointed ‘—near the water.’
They had stretched a blanket between the ground and a tree to create a makeshift tent. Her eyes widened. No Borderer bothered with a shelter when they travelled the hills. They slept under open air, the better to see the enemy’s approach.
But at the sight, her shoulders sagged, suddenly acknowledging her weariness. He had given her a private space, a shelter near the water where it would be easy to drink and wash.
The rush of gratitude was genuine this time, but she would not grovel with thanks. Not after he had rejected her last effort.
‘Your women must be soft,’ she said. The words held an edge of envy she had not intended.
Pain seized his face.
‘I can see,’ he said, struggling to return his mask to its place, ‘that you are not.’
Then she remembered.
Not … now. He had no women in his house.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean …’ Her thoughtless words fell gracelessly in the air. She was as awkward in speech as in the dance. Tripping over feet, bumping into people.
He did not wait for her to trip again before he turned to leave.
Chapter Four
Carwell was puzzling over her when he woke the next morning.
He did not like puzzles.
Problems, yes. Problems could be solved. Warring Brunsons could be persuaded to observe a temporary truce. The King could be convinced to return the warden’s post to its rightful owner.
The English could be induced to secret negotiations concerning the fate of the Earl of Angus.
These problems he could solve, though the solution might be imperfect. The trick was never to reveal your aim. To stay flexible and circumspect and let each side feel as if they had won.
But women could not be dealt with that way. Fragile, delicate and even irrational, a man could only accept them and protect them. At any cost.
For if he could not, the price would be much too high.
I’ll hold you responsible, Bessie had said. And he had failed. Betrayed by the betrayer, he had allowed an outlaw to escape.
A pale reminder of larger sins.
But Elizabeth Brunson? He did not know who she was or how to deal with her. She was silent more often than she spoke and when she looked at him with that damnable calm, he wanted to shake her.
He could deal with hot-blooded, quick-tempered Borderers. Was one, though he hid it well.
But he was accustomed to a woman who wanted to please, to bend, to mirror your wants in her smile. This woman took in your desires, ignored them and went on to do as she pleased.
Sure as the stars, they sang of the Brunsons. Immovable as a rock, they should have sung of her.
Well, such stubbornness might have been welcomed on the Borders, but at Stirling, it would serve neither of them well.
He was going to have to protect this woman, too, but in a very, very different way than most.
He rose to start the day. He must reach Stirling and convey the secret English offer to King James before official treaty negotiations reconvened. And as for Elizabeth Brunson, he would get her safely to Stirling and back.
What happened to the woman after that was not his affair.
For the first moments after she opened her eyes, Bessie thought she must still dream. Where were the walls that sheltered her? Where was the ceiling that had protected her from wind and rain for all of her eighteen years?
She had been away from home before, of course. Since her mother’s death, she had visited every scattered Brunson household. But she had never been so far away.
She had never been out of sight of the Cheviot Hills.
Now, she was on the edge of a strange landscape with a strange man, going to a place that might as well have been across the sea.
She sat up and shook her hair down her back. Well, here she was. She would do her duty. At least she had slept well.
She cast an eye towards the stream. This morning, shielded from the rest of the camp, she had easy privacy. When would she have water and seclusion again?
She grabbed her plaid and slipped out of her dress, leaving only the linen sark. Light touched the sky, but the sun still hid below the hills. Cold, cloudy, but without snow. The water would be freezing. Too bitter to bathe, but at least she could rinse off the dust of the journey before they headed into the hills again.
She crept down to the water and stilled as she heard something downstream.
And she turned her head to see Thomas Carwell, naked as the day he was born, wading into the freezing river up to his waist.
Her eyes widened to take in broad shoulders and a strong chest narrowing to—
She shut her eyes.
Hearing the splash that meant he waded in deeper, she dared to open them again. He had submerged himself in the water, then stood, throwing his head back, letting the water drip off his straight brown hair and run down his neck and shoulders on to his chest.
She shrank down, hoping he would not see her. Too late for pretence. If he saw her, he would know what she had seen.
Well, she had as much right to the river as he did.
Next time he ducked beneath the water, she would run around the bend, where he couldn’t see—
‘Do you spy on me, then?’
Too late. And a Brunson should never cower.
She opened her eyes and stood to her full height, fighting a shiver. How could the man stand so calmly, waist deep in frigid water? ‘You put my bed near the river. I assumed you wanted me to use it.’
For a moment, she could read his eyes clearly. They travelled from her hair to her bare toes, raising heat within to fight the air’s chill. The water safely disguised him below the waist, but the plain white linen covering her from shoulder to knee suddenly felt transparent.
Did her breasts press against the linen? Could he see the shape of her legs?
She wrapped the Brunson plaid around her shoulders, the ends covering her. ‘It seems you spy on me, Thomas Carwell.’
Yet she did the same, taking him in, no longer a warden, but just a man. Not as broad of shoulder as Rob, nor as tall as Johnnie, but she remembered how he stood close and draped the cloak over her shoulders, how his body seemed to fit against hers …
And then her eyes met his.
No ambiguity now. Just hunger he did not, or could not, hide.
He opened his mouth, but the words emerged slowly. With difficulty. ‘Perhaps we each only seek to bathe in the river.’
She nodded, her head a jerky thing, tongue-tied as if she had never seen a man’s chest before. She’d seen men aplenty. But never one that seemed …
‘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.
The woman’s eyes widened. So did her smile. ‘You’re Johnnie’s sister?’
‘Aye. You knew him?’ A woman who knew Johnnie. It felt like coming home.
Mary laughed, deep in her throat. A laugh that said it all. ‘Aye. We all miss Johnnie,’ she said, with smile that spoke of experience. ‘Especially Long Mary and me!’
Although she knew her brother had lived at court, Bessie had never pictured his life here. She had certainly not pictured him with women.
Given the woman’s smile, Bessie decided not to mention that Johnnie was a happy new husband. ‘Long Mary?’
‘She’s the tall one. Stowte Mary and I both serve the King’s mother.’
‘And what does Long Mary do?’
‘As she pleases.’ Her expression teetered between envy and resentment. ‘For now.’
Bessie understood these words no more clearly than the French ones. ‘This is all so … different.’
Wee Mary took in Bessie with one sweeping glance. ‘Has the King seen you yet?’
Bessie looked down at her dress and then at Mary’s. She was wearing something stiff and black with gilded trim and a square neckline that exposed more than Bessie was used to.
This was worse than she had feared. She shook her head.
Mary raised her brows. ‘You are très jolie. Il va vous voir avec plaisir.’
Before she could ask what that meant, there was a knock on the door behind them. A servant entered, carrying Bessie’s chest, put it down and disappeared.