The Rock Read online

  Elizabeth tried to bite back a smile but failed. Joanna was right. “I do wish Jamie would finish up whatever he is doing at Roxburgh,” Elizabeth said. “I’m not getting any younger. I’ll be four and twenty next month. Now that Jamie has finally found someone who meets his requirements, I want to get on with the wedding.”

  “Maybe he can just take the castle for you?” Joanna said dryly. “That will get you to Edinburgh quickly.”

  Both women looked at each other and burst out laughing. Jamie’s reputation for taking castles by subterfuge was becoming legend, but Roxburgh was one of the most heavily defended castles in the Borders.

  “Well, it might have taken cousin James awhile to find you a husband, but he did find one of the most important men in the kingdom,” Isabel pointed out. “Not to mention a newly created earl. I should hope cousin Walter does half as well for me.”

  As Jamie held Elizabeth’s wardship and marriage rights, the young Steward of Scotland held Isabel’s.

  Elizabeth flushed with pleasure, not bothering to hide her excitement among her friends. Jamie had done well for her—extremely well. “I can’t believe I will be the Countess of Moray,” she said in a low voice, as if saying it too loud might jeopardize it.

  Jamie had proposed a betrothal with Robert the Bruce’s nephew, and Jamie’s close friend and rival, Sir Thomas Randolph. The Douglases were also related to Bruce—through their great-grandfather the 3rd Steward of Scotland—but Randolph was the son of Bruce’s mother’s half sister.

  “There is so much to do, I cannot wait to get started,” Elizabeth continued. “It’s been too long since we’ve had the excitement of a celebration to plan for, and since Jamie thinks the king will insist on holding the wedding feast at one of his castles, it will likely be the biggest since he became king. Music, dancing, the best wine and food . . . It will be like being in Paris again. I’ll have a beautiful new dress made—I know just what I want—and matching slippers, and—”

  “A husband,” Joanna interjected. “Don’t forget that after this fantastic wedding and beautiful dress you’ll have a husband.”

  Elizabeth shot her a chastising frown, refusing to let her sister-in-law dampen her excitement about the prospect of a wedding.

  Although nothing had been settled yet, the trip to Edinburgh was a mere formality. She had met Sir Thomas a few times, and there was no reason to think they would not suit. He was handsome and charming enough to make any young woman’s heart race. She scrunched her nose. Hers hadn’t as yet, but she was sure it would once they got to know one another better. More important, as the favored nephew of the king and an earl, he had enough lands to ensure her security for the rest of her life. Neither she nor her future children would ever have to rely on the charity of relatives again.

  Aside from the Bruces, there might not be a more important man in the country than Thomas Randolph. Although Jamie might disagree about that. “I would be hard-pressed to find anything to object to in Sir Thomas,” Elizabeth pointed out.

  “Aye, he’s a handsome rogue,” Joanna agreed. “As well he knows. Women certainly seem to love him, but do you?”

  Elizabeth gave her an odd look, taken aback. “What does that matter?”

  It was Jamie’s decision whom she married. Though he would never force her, Elizabeth knew her duty.

  “It matters a great deal,” Joanna said quietly. “I know James is excited about the prospect of this alliance, but don’t let him push you into anything. He will want you to be happy—even if you need to remind him of it.”

  Elizabeth smiled with understanding. Jamie and Jo were so happy now, sometimes she forgot that it hadn’t always been so easy for them. Jamie had married “beneath” him “for love,” but it hadn’t been without some struggle on her ambitious brother’s part.

  For a man in James’s position, marriage was a duty, and marrying for love opened him to public censure. It offended not just the social order but was viewed as giving in to lust rather than honor. Elizabeth blushed. Who would have thought her fierce, strong brother would neglect his duty for base desires?

  Although Jamie had weathered the scandal well, he could afford to do so with the king’s rewards, and Elizabeth knew her duty. Unlike her brother, she did not have the ability to fight her way to greatness with a sword. Her only path to a secure future was through marriage.

  Of course she didn’t begrudge her brother his happiness—and she loved Jo like a sister—but that path was not for her. “What you and Jamie have is rare, Jo. It’s not like that for most women in our position. Nor is it something that has ever been important to me. I’m not romantic like you are. But don’t worry, I’m sure I will come to love the earl well enough. What’s not to love?”

  Joanna looked at her as if she wanted to argue, but decided not to press. Instead one corner of her mouth lifted. “Plenty, if you listen to James. Although until you are safely wed, I expect he’ll be singing his praises.”

  Elizabeth laughed, having heard more than one of her fearsome brother’s tirades against the “pompous” knight, when Randolph had bested him at something. The men were fierce rivals, always trying to one better each other in feats of battle, but surprisingly also were good friends.

  “I can’t wait to meet this paragon,” Isabel said. “If half the things I’ve heard about him are true, he must be an impressive man.”

  Izzie would get her wish sooner than they anticipated. As if on cue, the sound of hoofbeats below signaled the arrival of a rider.

  A few minutes later, Joanna was holding a message from Jamie in her hands. Her eyes bulged as she started to read it, and she muttered something like “God in heaven!” Elizabeth was concerned until her sister-in-law started to laugh.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  There were tears of joy and pride in Joanna’s eyes as she handed the parchment to her. “Read for yourself, but your future husband isn’t going to be very happy when he hears about this.”

  Elizabeth read it in stunned disbelief. Near the end she let out a cry that mirrored Joanna’s and threw her arms around her in celebration. Jo was right. Randolph wasn’t going to be happy. He was almost two months into his siege on Edinburgh Castle, and James had just taken Roxburgh Castle in one night.

  They laughed until tears ran down their cheeks. The miraculous feat that they’d jested about moments before had come true. Jamie had done the impossible once again. In a move that no one—including the Bruce—was expecting, he’d seen an opportunity and had taken the castle by subterfuge the night before during the Shrove Tuesday celebrations.

  And almost as wonderful to Elizabeth’s mind, after seeing to the destruction of the castle, her brother would arrive at Blackhouse within a fortnight to escort them to Edinburgh.

  Overjoyed, Elizabeth went to share the news with Archie and her youngest brother, Hugh.

  She only found one of them.

  The bastard was toying with him. Thom attacked from the left and then from the right, but each time the captain deflected Thom’s sword with a deft twist of his hands, first slapping—hard—the flat of his blade to Thom’s shoulder and then his thigh. Letting him know that were they not sparring, his blade would have cut.

  Thom didn’t need to look at his opponent’s face to know that he was gloating. The captain had been his enemy since Thom had stopped him from accosting Eoin MacLean’s wife last year. The bastard should be thanking him. The captain—Sir John Kerr—had suffered a beating at MacLean’s hands, instead of the slow death he would have had had Thom not intervened before he did more than grope.

  But the captain didn’t see it that way, and he looked for any opportunity he could to make Thom look bad—especially, like now, when their lord was watching.

  Over the past three years Thom had quietly been making a name for himself, and Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick, had taken notice. The king’s only remaining brother had taken a personal interest in Thom’s training, and let him know that despite his late start and humble begi