Chapter 17

Chapter 17

For two days Rob and Henry explored together while Adela organized the servants and began a thorough cleaning of the castle from top to bottom. She also persuaded Archie Tayt to help her practice the skills Rob had taught her, and show her how to hold her new dirk and wield it to some effect. Rob's attitude was affable, but his mind was on the search, and she decided that if she wanted him to trust her, she had to trust him to keep his word if they found anything.

But at the end of the second day, with still no sign of riders from Edinburgh or anything resembling a sword in the caverns beneath the castle, and with Henry's ship returning to Leith in two days to fetch him, the men had reached an impasse.

"I can give it one more day," Henry said as they took supper with Adela at the high table. "But if we don't find it, Rob, you'll have to wait for Hugo."

Rob agreed, and later after Henry had ridden back to Roslin, he and Adela went upstairs to their bedchamber. As they were preparing for bed, she said, "Are you still angry with me?"

"Nay, sweetheart. We both gave way to our tempers."

"Then may I make a copy of your map to study for myself?"

He hesitated, doubting she would see anything that he and Henry had missed.

"Sakes, do you think I'd let anything happen to it? I loathe secrets, sir, but I'd never betray one of yours."

"I know," he said. Not willingly, at all events. "You are certainly as capable as I am of finding a fire to throw it on if anyone should try to take it from you."

Still reluctant, despite knowing that she was as unlikely as Henry, Michael, or Hugo to betray him, he fetched paper, quill, and ink for her and watched as she carefully reproduced the fair copy he had made.

She was nearly finished when she said, "What is this bit here, sir? I can't make out your drawing."

He looked. "I remember those odd lines. I suspected they were naught but a flaw in the vellum, but they are on my half of the map. Let's have another look."

Moments later, she said, "I don't think that's a flaw. Might it be a waterfall?"

He frowned, his gaze fixed on three obscure wavy lines on his original half-map. "The ink is faded," he said. "Moreover, the grain in the vellum may have deceived me, but I think you may be right."

"Are there any waterfalls in the caves under Hawthornden?"

He shook his head. "Not any that I know about. But several falls spill into the glen, and I'm certain that entrances to other caves exist, too. One thing has plagued me about this the whole time we've been searching."

"What?"

"The size …" He grimaced, then gave his head a shake to clear it. But it just showed how easily one could slip. "I own, lass, I still don't want to tell you all that I've been thinking," he admitted. "I'd like to say I've good reason for that other than my dislike of sharing secrets, but I'll admit that enters into it."

She sighed. "You said ‘the size,' so I expect you meant the size of the object you think the map may lead us to is of a size that makes it unlikely to be in the caverns we've seen. Why won't you just tell me what you think it is?"

"Because I'm likely wrong," he said. "I may have taken details heard over a period of years and added a childish hope to come to my conclusion. If that is what happened, I'll look a proper dafty, and the Sinclairs will never let me forget it. I've told you some of it. Perhaps if I tell you more, you'll come to the same conclusion."

"You haven't told me about the treasure," she said. "What is it, exactly, and where did it come from?"

ldquo;Get into bed," he said, kissing her cheek. "I'll put out the other candles."

Leaving one lighted taper on the stand by the bed, he climbed in beside her, plumped pillows behind them both, then lay back, slipping his good arm around her.

Adela waited patiently as he settled himself, but then he hesitated again until her impatience stirred and she wanted to urge him to get on with it. She held her tongue, though, and at last he said, "Have you heard of the Knights Templar?"

"Aye, sure," she said, striving to gather her wits. "They existed during the Crusades, did they not? They protected pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land, and the King of Jerusalem housed them in his own palace over King Solomon's temple. My aunt Euphemia used to tell us stories about them when I was small. But what have Templars to do with you or with the treasure that Waldron sought?"

"The treasure belongs to the Templars. The whole story is too long to tell tonight, but for two hundred years they were the world's bankers. They guarded valuable items and lent money to nobles and heads of state. In 1307, King Philip of France, having borrowed vast sums from them, decided he did not want to repay what he owed. In a single night's raid, he arrested many Templars in France and tried to seize their Paris treasury. But most of the Templars escaped, taking all their ships and the treasure with them. At least a portion of that treasure came here to Scotland."

"But that was long ago," she said. "What is your part in this tale?"

"My training is that of a Scottish Knight Templar," Rob said. "Like my grandfather and great-grandfather before me—and like Hugo, Michael, and Henry, too. Sithee, the Sinclairs were among the guardians of the treasure from the outset."

"Was your father not a Templar as well, then?"

"He was not suited to the life, my grandfather said. Moreover, my father had no brothers to inherit if aught happened to him. Protecting our heritage and Lestalric was more important, Grandfather said. My brother Will did not please him either," Rob added. "Will was boastful and lazy. My grandfather said my father fed Will's pride but not his brain, with unhappy result."

"But your grandfather was proud of you," Adela said.

Dryly, he said, "I have my faults, too, as you will agree. As to what my grandfather thought … Sithee, I was for training with the Douglas. He is the finest commander of our time and more powerful in many ways than the King. So when Grandfather told me I was to go to Dunclathy instead, I was disappointed. He explained what an honor it was to go and said I would learn secrets I must never tell. He also said he'd entrust me with one secret that only he and one other knew."

"He told you about the map."

"Not the map, only that he had hidden something important for me to find one day. He gave me a strong hint where to look for it and promised to explain more at a later time. Only that time never came, because he died soon after I left for Dunclathy. I believed when I left home that he'd put it off because I'd taunted Will, and I wondered for a long time afterward if I'd ever know what it was."

"You taunted your older brother?"

"Aye, I told him I was doing something he'd never be allowed to do and that I knew something he'd never know. It wasn't much, I thought, just words flung in anger, but we got into a fight. My father stopped it. Then he told my grandfather what I'd said, and my grandfather soon had the whole tale out of me."

"Was he angry?"

Rob winced. "He'd never raised a hand to me before then, but he flogged me till I feared I'd have no skin left and told me that things said in confidence were not playthings to be flung in anger, that if he was ever to trust me further, I'd have to prove myself worthy. I swore to him I'd never disappoint him again, but he died before I could win back his trust. I made a second vow then that I'd strive never to act again in any way that would disappoint him."

"I see," Adela said. "That does explain your reluctance to part with secrets. You told me before that the day you left for good your father demanded information that you could not give him. Was that what it was?"

"Aye," he said.

"And then your brother really angered you. I do understand that. No one can make me angrier than my sisters can—except you, perhaps," she added thoughtfully.

He chuckled, pulling her closer. "They both angered me, sweetheart, but the reason won't please you. Art sure you want to know?"

She sighed, remembering. "Lady Ellen."

"Aye, I'd made no secret of my interest in her, and my father learned of it. When I returned home that day, I thought he'd be proud of me for earning my spurs, but he demanded to know what I'd meant by those taunts I'd flung at Will. He asked what secrets my grandfather had told me. I'd never mentioned that he'd told me anything, but my father guessed somehow that he had. He wanted to know them so badly that, although Douglas had already accepted Will to be Ellen's husband, my father suggested that he'd ask him to take me instead. All I had to do was to share my secret with him so he could offer it to Douglas in exchange for Ellen."

Aching for what he must have felt at such betrayal, she said only, "Did your father know that your grandfather had flogged you for that taunt?"

"Aye," he said. "Oh, I see where your thoughts led you. Very likely you're right, too. If that flogging impressed me, it must have impressed my father, too. And he may have felt as resentful as Will did, or worse. He was Sir Walter's only son, after all. I admit, I didn't give much thought to his feelings."

"Even so," she said, "I cannot imagine, from what you've told me, just what it is that you think you know about what the map may reveal. Should I know more about the Templars and their treasure, or more about your grandfather?"

"Since you ken fine that I'd liefer say no more about either, I'll not gnaw that bone again. Most likely, all you need know is that the conversation with my father took place shortly before the present King was crowned. Father seemed to think I might know something that could add to the splendor of that occasion."

Adela nibbled her lower lip thoughtfully, then looked at him, waiting until he turned to meet her gaze. Then she said quietly, "Only one object leaps to mind that both relates to a coronation and might be secretly hidden."

"Aye," Rob said. "Bear in mind, sweetheart, that I've no knowledge of what stirred my father to think I might know aught of such, and no reason other than his questions for my conclusion. Doubtless 'tis nobbut more bairn's yearning."

"Was your father an imaginative man?"

"Nay, but rumors have run through the kingdom for the better part of a century, since the Coronation Stone got carted off to London with Edward I."

She nodded, relieved to know they were thinking the same thing. "My aunt said she could never believe loyal Scots would allow such a thing to happen, that surely someone had done something to stop it, especially as they'd been warned he meant to take it. But he did take it, she said, and then afterward he still razed Scone Abbey to the ground."

"Aye," he said. "But he razed it two years later, and they say he did it because he'd learned that the stone he had taken was not the true Stone of Destiny."

"Yet the English still claim to have the real one."

"Aye, and mayhap they do." He snuggled closer. "But this is all imagining, lass. We'll not know the truth unless we find where that map leads. I'll ride to Roslin early and tell Henry and Michael what we think about that odd symbol. If the scale of the map means anything, and if you are right about the waterfall, it cannot be far away, because it must lie somewhere between here and Roslin."

"I want to go with you."

"Aye, I ken fine that you do, but I want you to stay here."

"But—"

"Hear me before you eat me, lass. I agree that you deserve to be with us when we find it, and I give you my word, if we find any opening near a waterfall, we'll come to fetch you. But I don't want to have to fret about your safety if Fife comes upon us whilst we're looking. If he comes here, the lads can bar the gates and tell him to seek me at Roslin. In any event, if he shows his face hereabouts, we'll have warning and come back straightaway."

"Then why can I not go with you and come back with you?"

"Don't argue with me, sweetheart," he murmured, kissing her forehead and then the tip of her nose. "I don't want to fratch with you tonight."

His hands were moving over her body, and although she knew he was learning how easily he could arouse her and thus divert her, she had no objection.

She could always fight with him later.

They made love and talked of other things, made love again, talked again briefly, and then a comfortable silence fell for a time before Rob thought of something else to say to her. But as he opened his mouth, he realized that the pattern of her breathing had changed to the deep, even rhythm of sleep.

He lay there, listening to her breathe and thinking how pleasant it was to have someone he could talk to, even argue with, as easily as he did with Hugo and Michael but about things he would never discuss with either man. He barely remembered his mother, and he had no sisters, so he had always assumed that he knew little about women. Heaven knew, Countess Isabella terrified him.

He had met Hugo's three sisters and thought Eliza, the eldest, much like Isabella in temperament but haughtier. He liked the younger ones well enough, but had rarely spoken to them. The lady Sorcha amused him because, although she clearly loved Hugo with all her heart, she treated him as if he were her own size instead of twice as large and twice as temperamental.

And Hugo, who could be as fierce and stern as anyone Rob had ever known, regarded his wife one moment as he might a precious jewel, and the next with much the same mixed fear, astonishment, and exasperation that one might accord a wild, unpredictable creature from the land of myths.

The lady Isobel, Sir Michael's wife, was cheerful and pleasant, and Rob liked her very much, but he could never think of anything to say to her. And Lady Sidony was practically unknown to him. But Adela was different from all of them.

He had been as surprised as anyone when he had declared that he wanted to marry her. But the words had spilled forth. And once said, they had sounded natural and right. The ceremony, too, had been right, and he had felt no regrets since. As he lay there, holding her, he felt more contented than he could recall ever feeling before. Until he had met her, contentment had been something other people talked about, not something Rob Logan even understood. Now he thought he could.

But Adela's difference, whatever it was that set her apart from everyone else, was something he could not identify. Whatever it was, it had made him feel at ease with her from the outset, as if he had known her all his life. Possible reasons teased him, but none explained what he felt for her.

One minute he was lying with her in his arms, and in what seemed the very next, dawn's gray light awakened him. Adela lay curled beside him, one fist under her chin, a smile playing on her lips. No nightmare had wakened her for three nights now, but he doubted she had seen the last of them. Such things took time, he knew, but he could keep her safe. And in safety she would find peace again.

Her lips twitched, and he wondered what she was dreaming. Whatever it was, she was enjoying it, so he watched silently, unwilling to disturb her. When the tip of her tongue appeared between her lips, his body stirred, and he wished she would waken. As the wish formed in his mind, her eyes opened and she smiled.

"Good morning," she murmured.

Needing no further invitation, he replied with a kiss, and matters progressed quickly until he had slaked his thirst for her. Afterward, he dressed quickly and bade her farewell, repeating his promise to fetch her if they found an opening by a waterfall. Taking only a fresh manchet from the kitchen to munch as he rode, knowing there would be food aplenty at Roslin, he was soon on his way.

As expected, he found Henry and Michael up and at the table. Accepting an invitation to join them, he made a good meal but lost no time in letting them know that he had things to discuss. Accordingly, they soon adjourned to the solar.

"Pull up that table yonder, Michael," Rob said. "I want to show you both something. Henry, do you have your fair copy of the whole map?"

"Aye," Henry said, extracting it from his doublet as Michael dragged the table into place and they each found stools. Michael and Rob sat facing each other with Henry on Rob's right between them.

When Henry opened his map, Rob saw that he had not copied the three lines that had caught Adela's attention. "Look here," he said, pointing to them on his own fair copy. "What do you think that might be?"

Henry peered at it. "I remember that. I thought it was a flaw in the vellum, but I suppose it could be some sort of symbol."

"Adela thinks it might be a waterfall," Rob said.

"It's on your half," Henry said.

"I brought my original, too," Rob said, bending to take off his boot. He laid his map on the table by Henry's fair copy and watched as the other two examined them.

Michael turned Rob's original half toward himself, and Henry turned the fair copy the same way, saying he wanted to be sure he had missed nothing else. Rob glanced from one to the other, and felt a sudden prickling sensation.

His first, instinctive reaction was to say nothing, to think more, to be sure, and then perhaps to look into this new possibility by himself before sharing it.

Michael said quietly, "What is it, Rob? You've seen something."

Feeling a flush of heat in his cheeks, he realized that both men were watching him and that neither looked annoyed. Henry seemed amused.

"I'm not certain," he said. "But turn that bit of my original map so that it lies exactly lengthwise between us, Michael, with the cut side to your left."

"What are you seeing?" Henry demanded, frowning at the map.

Rob said, "Because of the symbol pointing north on your bit, we've assumed that you had the top half, Henry, and I the lower half."

"Aye, sure, but that much is obvious."

"What if the north symbol means nowt? What if the sword points north?"

The other two stared at him for a long moment before both shifted their eyes to the map. Michael saw it first. "If that is so, the map is cut along the river Esk, and not alongside the castle as we thought. Do the caverns extend east across the river?"

"Perhaps," Rob said. "But recall Adela's waterfall … here." He pointed. "Note the only line approaching it begins on my half of the map and extends only as far as those three small wavy lines before it hooks right, to the north. I don't think the division itself marks the river. The river is the line we first thought was the route to the sword. See how it curves in here, just south of the castle?"

"By the Rood, I think you're right," Henry said. "Moreover, I think I know where that might be. It is not so much a waterfall, more of a trickle most of the time, but the cliff has eroded there into what amounts to a wee side glen now."

"I know the place," Rob said. "But I've never seen a waterfall there."

"You can see it after a heavy snowfall and a fast thaw," Henry said. "But come with me now. I'll show you."

"Are you going to come, too, Michael?" Rob asked.

"Nay, I've things to do here today, and I promised my lass I'd spend time with her. I know that place, though. I doubt it can be what you seek, Rob."

"We won't know until we look," Henry said.

Rob's heart was pounding. Despite Michael's pessimism, he felt sure that Henry was right. The pieces seemed to be falling into place at last.

Throughout the morning, Adela busied herself with chores. Archie Tayt had found two young women to help her, and Rob had told her to call in as many gillies and men-at-arms as she needed. So with Archie to act as her chief assistant, she was getting on famously.

During the previous two days, while Rob and Henry had explored the caves beneath the castle, she and her helpers had tidied the upper floors and raked all the old rushes from the hall. Now she was replacing them. The two maidservants had mixed rosemary and other herbs with clean, dry rushes collected from tenants whose business it was to dry them in the rafters of their crofts or cottages, and two gillies were distributing them carefully from threshold to threshold.

"Don't pile those too high," Adela warned one lad who was raking them into place. "We don't want straw spilling over the threshold onto the stairs."

"Aye, mistress." But even as he spoke, he moved away from the doorway, and Archie hurried in, his pleasant features creased in a heavy frown.

"Mistress, there be dunamany horsemen coming, five score at least."

"A hundred men? From what direction?"

"North," he said. "They be riding fast and nearly upon us."

"But who can they be?" Even as she asked the question, she knew it must be the Earl of Fife. Other than the Sinclairs, the Earl of Douglas or—and most unlikely—the King himself, few noblemen rode with such large tails.

"Tell them to bar the gates, Archie," she said quickly, recalling Rob's instructions. "If the riders stop here, have our men say that Sir Robert has ridden to Roslin and they should seek him there."

"Aye, m'lady, I'll tell them," he said, turning on his heel and hurrying away.

Noting that all work in the hall had stopped and that her four helpers were regarding her nervously, Adela said, "Back to work, all of you. I mean to finish our cleaning today so we can move on to other tasks I have in mind to furbish this place up. When Sir Hugo and his lady return, I want the results to make them stare."

Three turned back to their work, but one lad hesitated, looking more nervous than before.

"What is it?" she asked.

"What if they get in?" he asked.

She raised her chin. "If they do, we will greet them with civility and welcome them to Hawthornden in Prince Henry's name, of course. We are not barbarians here, whatever they may be."

He nodded and returned to his raking. Although she was glad that her words seemed to give him more confidence, they had done nothing to ease her own concerns. It was all very well for Rob to say he would hear in good time if Fife were on the move, and would return at once. But as she had no idea where he and Henry were and realized they could be wandering around in tunnels and passageways underground, his words brought no comfort to her now.

She told herself she had no cause to worry, because the men had barred the gates and Fife would ride on to Roslin where the Sinclairs would deal with him. But her confidence had evaporated. The waiting would be easier, she thought, if she could just see what was happening outside the wall.

Remembering Rob saying that one should know one's own ground, she wished she had taken time to explore the ramparts more carefully. Doubtless there was a vantage point there from which one could overlook the main entrance.

On that thought, she gathered her skirts and began to hurry to the stairway, but as she reached it, the main door on the landing below banged open and running feet came up the stairs. Recognizing steps of one man, she stopped to wait for him.

"M'lady," the gasping lad said, "Archie Tayt did say to tell ye it be me lord o' Fife, but he's no riding wi' just his own banner, mistress. Them devils be riding under the royal banner, Archie says."

"I don't care what flags they wave," Adela snapped. "Don't let them in."

"Aye, sure, but that makes for a wee difficulty, Archie says. It be treason, he says, to defy a royal command."

"But surely his grace the King has not ridden here from Edinburgh," Adela said. "And it cannot be a royal command unless he is with them."

"D'ye think Archie should tell that to the Earl o' Fife, m'lady? The earl thinks he is King, Archie says, and he wouldna hesitate to level the charge against Prince Henry, all his commanders, and every man wha' obeys them. Archie says—"

"Tell them to admit the earl if he insists on it," Adela interjected.

She was thoroughly sick of hearing what Archie had said, but they had underestimated Fife and she could do nothing about that now.

Even if Hawthornden's gates were strong enough to withstand determined effort to breach them, she dared not put Henry or Rob in the path of a charge of treason. Not when she was certain that Fife would delight in hanging Rob, even if he lacked enough courage to hang Henry.

"We need not admit them all," she added. "Tell Archie Tayt that if the earl insists on seeing for himself that Sir Robert is absent, he may do so, but that his lady is here alone and would prefer that most of his men remain outside the gate."

"Sakes, mistress," the lad said, his eyes widening. "D'ye think ye should—"

"Go," she said, pointing back down the stairs. "And hurry!"

But as he obeyed her, she heard the familiar sounds of arriving horsemen—hoofbeats, male voices, and the squeak and clink of harness—and she knew it was too late to stop Fife had she tried. One hundred riders could not possibly all fit in the courtyard, but they would easily prevent the gates from being shut.

Recalling Rob's orders to avoid any dangerous confrontation that she could avoid, her first inclination was to turn and run. But one look at the four frightened faces of her helpers dissuaded her.

"All of you, leave the hall at once," she said. "If you know a way to leave the castle without meeting those riders, do so."

No one stirred, and she realized they probably knew nothing about the sally port and that even if they did, most if not all four would be afraid to use it.

"Just go upstairs," she said. "I will speak to his lordship when he comes."

"M'lady, ye shouldna do that," the same lad who had spoken up earlier said. "The Earl o' Fife be a gey wicked man, they say."

"Don't argue with me. Just go."

Mentally sorting through the options she had, she could think of only one that might afford her any chance to escape.

Hearing boots on the stone steps, she straightened her shoulders, drew a deep breath to steady her nerves, and prepared to act the proper hostess.

The first person up the stairs was Fife himself, his hand on the hilt of his sword, the weapon half out of its scabbard.

"Faith, my lord, you've no need of weapons here," she said, curtsying. "Did our people not inform you that Lestalric is at Roslin today?"

His gaze swept the hall before narrowing and coming to rest on her. Smoothly and without so much as a polite nod, he said, "Art here alone, lass?"

The wave of fear and nausea that surged through her then told her that, whether she had thought so at the time or not, her abduction had indeed taught her to recognize evil when she was in its presence. Standing by Fife, she knew she might well be in the presence of the devil himself.

"Lady Adela?"

Forcing her gaze from the earl, she saw that he had not come alone.

The chevalier de Gredin, his smile as charming as ever and showing no sign of injury, stepped across the threshold into the hall.