Border: The Border Vixen Part 20

Her poor son was filthy. She rolled him from the litter onto the bed proper, then cut the clothing from his unconscious body and washed it thoroughly. Then, puffing and heaving, she managed to get him beneath the warm coverlet. It wouldn't do for her Bobby to get an ague just when she had gotten him back. Jesu and his Blessed Mother had answered her prayers! Well she had prayed to them long enough, hadn't she? She had been faithful, and now she was rewarded. Her son was home with her again. The old woman pulled a stool near to the bed, sat down, and waited for her son to awaken.

Fingal Stewart began to slowly come to himself. He didn't remember a great deal of what had happened. He remembered an English horseman coming towards him and waving his sword. Fin had ducked the clumsy warrior, but the tip of the sword had cut him, and blood pouring from the wound obscured his vision. He was knocked from his horse. When he began to grow conscious once again, it was to find a man with foul breath leaning over him, pulling the ring from his finger. His boots were being yanked from his feet by another man. He protested faintly, trying to rise, but something hit him hard on his head near his wound, and he fell back into an unconscious state.

As he struggled to awaken, he tried to remember where he had been, and what he had been doing. But then the biggest question of all came to him. Who was he? He could not, try as he might, remember his name. Or where he had come from. A sudden wave of fear swept over him. His eyes flew open. He was too weak to arise, but he turned his head this way and that, seeking to learn where he was. An old woman, her crossed arms upon his bed making a pillow for her head, was sleeping as she sat upon her stool.

He could remember a battle. It hadn't been a big battle, but it had been a short and a fierce one. Where was he? He moved his head cautiously, his eyes sweeping about the cottage. It was a poor woman's abode, he could tell right away. But it was clean and it was neat. Had this old woman taken him from the battlefield? He was a Scot. That much he could remember. Was this Scotland or England? And what was his name?

"Bobby, my son, yer awake!" The old woman was looking at him with rheumy eyes, her toothless mouth spread in a happy smile. "When I heard the wounded were being brought in from the battlefield, I ran at once in hopes of finding ye alive."

"Where am I?" Fin asked quietly.

"Why, yer home in our own wee cottage in the marsh," she answered.

"The Scottish marshes or the English marshes? And where are my clothes?" He had become aware he was naked beneath the coverlet.

"Yer in England, my son. Aah, I can see the blow to yer poor head has addled yer wits. It will all come back to ye soon enough. Yer safe with yer mam."

"My clothes?" he repeated.

"Why, I cut them off ye, for they were filthy and bloodied, Bobby. Don't worry, my son. I've some breeks and shirts for ye to wear when ye are well enough to get up. Some scavenger must have gotten yer boots before ye were picked up, but there's an old pair of yer da's in the trunk where I put his clothing after he died. Mayhap they'll fit, although yer da had a bigger foot. Are ye hungry?"

"I am," he said, realizing suddenly that he was ravenous.

"Let me get ye a dish of porridge then, Bobby," she said, standing up and going to the hearth where a small pot was now hanging over the glowing coals of the fire.

Bobby. Nay, his name was not Bobby, and this old woman was not his mother. That much he knew for certain. But he was in England, and he was a Scot who had survived a battle. How far from the border was he? And again he tried to remember who he was. He was injured, and because she believed him her son, the old woman was caring for him. What if her real son returned? Or was he more likely lying dead on the battlefield? Whatever the truth of the matter, he would have to remain here for the interim until his wounds were healed, his strength restored, and his memory returned. Or at least enough of it that he could make his way home, wherever that was.

With the old woman's care he began to return to himself physically. He left the bed after several days. His limbs had grown stiff, and he worked each day to return to what felt like normal for him. Looking at his own muscled body, he knew he had been an active man. He suspected he had eaten better too than he was now eating. His diet consisted of oat porridge, bread, and hard cheese. The old woman's tiny kitchen garden was now covered in snow, the ground frozen hard as rock.

She didn't want him to go outside of the cottage. "I'll lose ye again!" she cried the first time he had sought to step out into the cold air.

He had rea.s.sured her as best as he could, but she stood in the low doorway of the cottage watching him as he walked about surveying his surroundings. Then he had cut some peat from the muddy marsh where the ground wasn't yet frozen and brought it in for her fire. She had virtually nothing but the few bits of wood she went out to gather each day to keep her fire going. He would gather as much fuel for her as he could as a means of paying her back for her kindness.

The winter set in with heavy snows, short bitter days, and long bitter nights.

Bits and pieces of his memory were beginning to return as the days started to slowly lengthen once again. He remembered he had had a horse, and a sword. One day he recalled a man whose name was Iver. He dreamed of a small stone keep on a hillside above a neat village. There was a priest, and an old laird. And then one night Fingal Stewart awoke suddenly and knew his name.

He arose from the pallet where he now made his bed. He could not take the old woman's only sleeping arrangement once his wounds had healed. Quietly he walked to the small window, opening one shutter to gaze out upon the snowy landscape surrounding the cottage. There was a moon that night. A border moon, he thought. He was Fingal Stewart, Lord Stewart of Torra. That much he knew now, but there was more he could still not recollect. He had to return to his house in Edinburgh and find the man named Iver who could probably help him to unravel the rest of the mystery surrounding him.

"Bobby," the woman called plaintively from the bed where she lay. She coughed a deep cough; she had not been well for several days now and had kept to her bed. He suspected she might be dying, for she had grown very frail with the deepening of winter, and she had lived alone in this marsh for many years, as he had learned from her.

"I'm here, Old Mother," he answered her, turning and walking over to the side of the bed. "Can I get ye something?"

She looked up at him with her rheumy blue eyes. "Yer not my Bobby, are ye?"

Her gaze was sharper, clearer than he had ever seen it.

Fingal Stewart shook his head. "Nay, Old Mother, I am not yer Bobby," he said quietly. "But ye saved my life by insisting to the men of the warden of the West March that I was. For that I am grateful, and I thank ye."

"I thought ye were," the old woman replied. "My Bobby went to fight King James at a place called Flodden. He was just twenty when he left me. His da told me that he died, but I never believed it. I always knew my Bobby would return to me. Ye look so like him," she said. "I was so sure. So very certain . . ." Her voice trailed off weakly, and a tear rolled down her wrinkled cheek.

"Flodden was more than twenty-eight years ago, Old Mother," Fin told her. "King James the Fourth died in that battle. The battle in which I fought was at Solway Moss, and the king now is his son, James the Fifth."

"Yer a Scot," she murmured, shaking her white head. "A gentleman, I think."

"Aye," he said, the tiniest of smiles touching his lips. "I'm a Scot. The head wound I received took my memory, but thanks to yer tender care, I am slowly regaining it."

"Do ye know yer name?" she asked weakly.

"My name is Fingal Stewart," he said, "and I have a house in Edinburgh. That much I remember. I also recall a man named Iver who I hope can help me revive the rest of my memory. I dream of a stone keep and an old laird."

"I am dying," the old woman said matter-of-factly. "Will ye remain with me until I am dead, Fingal Stewart? And will ye see my body is treated with respect?"

"I will not leave ye, Old Mother," he promised her. "I owe ye my life."

"Good! Good!" she said, and her eyes closed as she fell asleep again.

Their positions were now reversed, and it was Fingal who spent his time over the next few weeks nursing the woman who had saved his life by claiming him as her kin. Her spirit was strong though her body grew weaker and weaker. He developed chilblains on his hands from being outdoors in the bitter weather seeking fuel to keep the tiny cottage warm for the woman. He set traps and caught several rabbits he skinned, butchered, and broiled for them to eat. The skins he tanned and dried, making coverings for the old woman's hands, which were constantly icy.

She rallied for a time, and Fin was strangely glad. For now the woman was all he had. They saw no one, for the cottage was in the middle of a frozen marsh, and there was no road visible to his eye leading to it. She told him she had lived in the cottage her entire life. Her late husband has been one of the warden's marshmen who patrolled the area making certain no one poached the water fowl, or the fish. Her father had been one too, which was why the cottage was located where it was.

The old woman had lost two sons and a daughter before her Bobby was born. She had raised him and tried to protect him, but he was a stubborn boy. He might have taken his grandfather's position, but Bobby wanted more adventure than a marshman toiling for the warden of the West March had. When the call had come for men to fight the Scots for King Henry, Bobby had answered that call. When the battle of Flodden had been fought, and the Scots king killed, the old woman's husband had gone to find if their son had survived. He could find no trace of him, and Bobby never came home again. Then several years afterwards her husband had died.

"I lost track of time after that," the old woman said. Then she looked at him with clear eyes and said, "When I am gone, remain here until yer memory is better. No one ever comes here anymore. Ye'll be safe. Yer not so bad a fellow, considering yer a Scot."

Fingal laughed, but then he grew more sober. "We are all just folk," he told her. "It doesn't matter which side of the border we come from, Old Mother. It's the kings and the powerful who cause trouble for us."

She nodded. "There is much truth in what ye say," she agreed.

His rescuer finally breathed her last one early-spring evening. The snows were melting quickly, and bits of green, which would eventually become reeds, were shooting up from the patches of water that just a few weeks earlier had been frozen solid. That morning she had noted the birdsong that had been absent during the winter. Then her eyes had closed. He sat by her side, holding her thin worn hand the day long, and as evening approached, she opened her eyes a final time.

"Ah," she said, smiling. "Here is my Bobby at last." Then with a gasp so faint he barely heard it, the old woman died with a gentle shudder.

Fingal Stewart said a prayer for the woman's soul. He hadn't even known her Christian name though he had lived more than five months in this wee cottage. Because until almost the very end she had believed him to be her son, he had addressed her as Old Mother, which pleased her. Now he was forced to pray for her in those terms. The entire time he had been with her she had worn the same dun-colored skirt, a bodice that had probably once been white, and her old woolen shawl. Now Fin searched through the woman's possessions to see if he could find something nicer in which to bury her.

He stripped her scrawny frame, and washed it as best he might with a rag and some warm water from the pot on the fire. Then he redressed her in a clean worn chemise, several petticoats, and a medium blue velvet skirt and bodice he had discovered in a small trunk. Her man had obviously gone raiding as well as being in the service of the warden of the West March. There was no other way a man of his small status could have afforded a velvet gown for his wife. Fin combed the woman's thin white hair, and plaited it neatly. He took a wide silk ribbon he had found with the dress, placing it beneath her chin to tie at the top of her head. It would keep her jaw from falling open. He would bury her on the morrow as it was now dark.

He ate some stale bread and cheese, then lay down on his pallet. Awakening before the dawn, he arose and ate the rest of the bread with what remained of a rabbit he had broiled two days ago; then fetching a shovel, he went outside to find a place he might dig a grave. He found a reasonably dry spot just a short distance from the cottage, and realized another grave was already there-her husband's undoubtedly-but there was room for the old woman. He dug the grave deep, stopping only when he sensed he would hit water. He tossed a shovelful of earth back into the grave to make certain it would be dry. About him the gray of predawn had given way as the coming sun began to stain the horizon, and the birds began to sing.

Returning to the cottage, Fingal Stewart picked up the body of the old woman and, lifting it from the bed, carried it to the simple tomb. Jumping down into the grave, Fin laid the body neatly, the arms over the chest. He placed a small cross he had made from some sticks beneath her hands. Then climbing from the grave site, he began to fill it in, piling the brown soil into a mound. It would flatten out naturally over the next few months, but hopefully the grave would not collapse into itself. Kneeling, Fingal Stewart said a prayer for Old Mother's good soul. Then he returned to the cottage.

He remained there for the next several days. He didn't know if anyone would come to check up on the old woman, but until his memory was fully restored, he didn't want to have to speak with anyone. One word from his mouth and they would realize he was a Scot. He had to go to Edinburgh and find the man named Iver. Oddly, he knew exactly where his house was. But where the man named Iver was he did not know. Still, the first objective was to gain the safety of Scotland, of Edinburgh, and finally of his house.

Standing outside the cottage, he was able to determine north by the placement of the rising and setting sun. Finally, on the third day after the woman's death, Fingal Stewart set out. He had no idea how far he had to travel, but once he gained the border and saw someone, he might safely ask. He had boots on his feet courtesy of Old Mother's late husband. He was clothed respectably, though he hardly looked like a Lord Stewart. His hair had grown to his shoulders, and he kept it tied back. He had a beard, although he knew he did not wear a beard. There had been no means of shaving it; however, he had trimmed it short with a knife. Perhaps at his house in Edinburgh there would be something with which to shave his face and cut his hair.

He had trapped two rabbits, cooked them, and wrapped the pieces along with the last of Old Mother's oatcakes. He didn't think his scant rations would last him as long as it would take to get to Edinburgh, but he had found a small cache of coins beneath the mattress of the cottage's bed. All were dead here. He felt no shame in taking those coins for himself. He had no idea what lay ahead. He walked for at least two hours, finally coming to a river. It was the Esk, his memory prompted him. The force he had traveled with prior to his injury had crossed it on horseback. Scotland lay on the other side of this water, but how was he to get across? There would be no bridge, of course. Neither the English nor the Scots would make it easy for the other to invade. He wasn't certain he could swim across. Sitting down on the bank of the river to rest and consider what to do, he suddenly heard a voice hailing him.

"Laddie! Laddie!"

Looking up, he swiveled his head about.

"Across the water, laddie," came the voice. "Are ye seeking a way to ford yon river? Perhaps I can help ye if ye have the coin."

Fingal Stewart looked over the river to the other side, and saw a man standing by a small boat. "I'm a poor soldier who fought at Solway Moss. I've just been released by the English," he called back to the man. "I have no coin, but I'll give ye a day's labor if ye'll get me back to Scotland so I can get home."

"What can ye do?" the man asked him.

"Whatever ye need done. I'll chop wood, herd yer livestock. I can write if ye need a letter written," Fin answered the man.

"I have two daughters in need of servicing," the man called back. "If I bring ye across, will ye linger long enough to do what needs to be done?"

Fingal Stewart wasn't certain he had heard the man correctly. "What?" he said.

The man was already in his boat, and rowing across the Esk. As the river was not particularly wide where they were, the prow of his little vessel slid up onto the English side of the riverbank in short order. The man, of medium height and stocky, climbed out and came towards Fin, holding out his hand. "I'm Parlan Fife," he said. "Let me explain."

Fin shook the man's hand. "Could ye do it as we cross back to Scotland?" he asked. The man looked relatively sane.

"Help me push 'er back into the river, and get in," Parlan Fife said.

Fin complied, but when they were midriver, his ferryman stopped rowing.

"Now, laddie, hear me out. My wife is dead. I've six la.s.ses, and I've managed to get four of them wed respectably. But I have nothing left with which to help the two who remain, and it would take far more than I could earn in a thousand years to find husbands for Lily and Sybil. They're nae ugly or misshapen, but they have another fault that cannot be corrected, nor that a decent man would accept in a wife."

Fin was fascinated. "And what is that?" he asked Parlan Fife.

"They like to f.u.c.k," the ferryman answered him.

"What?!" Had he heard the man correctly?

"They like to f.u.c.k, and they can't get enough of it," Parlan Fife said. "Their reputations are such that some call them witches. It's been a long winter, and they have had no man to satisfy their needs in months. The few families here abouts keep their men away from my la.s.ses for they fear them. Oh, now and again one comes calling, but my la.s.sies wear them out and send them home half dead. Ye look like a strong man, and if ye've been in an English prison since the king's last battle, then ye should be ready for a rough and tumble. I'll take ye the rest of the way across, but ye must agree that ye will service my la.s.ses for at least ten days. After that, yer free to go on yer way again or remain if it pleases ye. I could use the company of another man myself."

"The king's last battle?" Fin said. "What news of the king?"

"Will ye agree to my terms?" Parlan Fife said stubbornly.

Fin considered. To f.u.c.k a woman. Aye. It had been months since he himself had satisfied his own l.u.s.ts. And before Solway Moss? He couldn't remember. "Aye," he said. "I'll give yer two la.s.ses a good ten days to ease their l.u.s.ty natures. Now, tell me of the king, Parlan Fife."

The ferryman began to row again towards the Scots side of the river. "The king is dead," he said. "Died in mid-December just after his little daughter was born. Scotland has a queen. Her name is Mary. These will not be easy times for Scotland with an infant for its monarch. Already the English king is saying he wants her for his son. That England and Scotland should be one."

The king dead! There was certain to be more war, with the English believing that Scotland was vulnerable, the French Queen Mother fighting to keep her daughter safe, and the powerful lords fighting to gain control of their queen, and thereby ruling Scotland. They would divide into factions behind England, behind France. How he knew this Fin couldn't have explained, but he did. It had happened before.

The little boat finally touched the Scots sh.o.r.e. Fingal Stewart jumped out. He was home again. A few days of servitude to Parlan Fife and his daughters, then he would be on his way again. He followed the ferryman away from the river, walking for several minutes until they came to a stone cottage. There were three small children in the front playing at a game of tag with a large dog that seemed to be watching over them.

"My grandchildren," Parlan Fife said. "Two are Sybil's; one is Lily's."

"Their sires?"

Parlan Fife shrugged. "Who knows," he admitted. "The eldest is a lad, and I'll teach him to man my boat. At least I'll have someone here to watch over me as I grow older. They're good bairns, though I fear for the two little la.s.ses because of their mams."

Remembering Old Mother and her sad, lonely existence, Fin understood.

"Da! What have ye brought home?" A buxom redhead appeared in the door of the cottage. She turned her head back, calling, "Sibby, come and see what Da has brought us." She strutted forth from the dwelling, smiling, hands on her ample hips. "Welcome, laddie!" Her blue eyes surveyed him from the top of his head to his booted feet, lingering thoughtfully on his crotch just long enough to make Fin flush. She giggled. "I'm Lily."

"Ohh, he's a big fellow." A second woman had joined them. She was much like her sibling but that her eyes were gray. She too examined him thoroughly, licking her lips as she did so. "Is he for us, Da?" she asked their father. Her hand reached out to touch Fin's bearded face as the tip of her tongue touched the center of her upper lip.

"The lad will remain for ten days in return for his pa.s.sage across the river," Parlan Fife told his two daughters. "He's been in prison since the big battle last autumn."

"Ohhhhhh," the two sisters said, looking meaningfully at each other. "What's his name, Da?"

"My name is Fingal Stewart," Fin answered them.

"Is the meal ready?" their father asked them.

"Shortly, Da," Sybil said.

"Would ye like me to shave that beard from yer face?" Lily asked Fin.

"Aye, I would!" Fin replied. Seeing these two women, he wondered if he should have offered the ferryman a coin, but then it was better that Parlan Fife not know he had any coin. He would have to find a place to hide the little purse, for he had no doubt these two wenches would go through his belongings given the opportunity.

Lily led him into the cottage and set Fin upon a straight-backed chair. She removed his shirt, running her hands over his broad chest and back with little murmurs of appreciation. She brought a basin of hot water and a sliver of white soap. Then hiking up her skirts, she sat on his lap, facing him as she shaved the thick black beard from his face. It was not an easy project, and it took time to accomplish. Her bare bottom rubbed and bounced across his crotch. In short order he was hard as iron.

Lily smiled into his face as she shaved him. "Unlace yer breeks, laddie, and take out what I suspect is a fine bit o'c.o.c.k. No one will know if I sheath ye while I work. How long were ye imprisoned?"

He didn't argue with her. "Five months," he said as he followed her instructions, rubbing himself against the inside of her plump thigh.

Lily put down her razor, reaching beneath her skirts with her hand as she rose up slightly. Her fingers tightened about his length as she guided him to where she wanted him, and then sank down to encase him fully. "Aah, darlin', that is so good. Can ye wait but a moment for me to finish, and then we'll go for a little jog together," she said, smiling. Lily quickly finished, sc.r.a.ping the several months of beard from his face.

She wiped the remaining soap from his skin. Then she leaned forward to kiss him, her tongue plunging into his mouth as her lips parted.

Her shameless aggressiveness surprised him, but Fin quickly gained a mastery of the situation as his hands clamped about her waist. He held her tightly, controlling her movements, for her abstinence had made her too eager. If he had to spend ten days of his time giving pleasure to these two sisters, he would show them what pleasure was truly like. And it was not a quick tumble-and-be-done. Lily's blue eyes began to glaze over as she came close to her pinnacle.

It was at that point Fin ceased all movement. The la.s.s's eyes flew open in surprise, and he said to her, "I will give ye what ye want, sweeting, but ye will remember that both of us must gain pleasure. And pleasure is not gained quickly, but slowly, slowly, and with great patience. Now, are ye ready, Lily?"

She nodded slowly. He watched as her eyes widened. A little moan escaped her lips as the big c.o.c.k plumbed her depths until she wanted to scream, but he silenced her with a hard kiss, and then with a fierce hard thrust that gave her exactly what she wanted. Lily shuddered several times, and then fell forward onto his shoulder.

"Yer such a s.l.u.t," Sybil said, coming to tell them the meal was ready. "Could ye not wait until tonight, Lily? Well, I get him first later," the gray-eyed redhead said.

The meal was rabbit stew served in a bread trencher. Fin ate it all. It had been months since he had experienced such a good meal. His host's ale was nutty and flavorful. He was curious as to how the ferryman could keep such an excellent table, but perhaps his daughters' talents accounted for it. Or possibly poaching and thievery supplemented his income, for traffic across the river right now couldn't be busy. When the meal had been cleared away and the bairns put into their cots, Parlan Fife bid his guest a good night with a grin as his daughters came to fetch Fin.

They brought him into a little chamber that was almost entirely filled by a large bed. A little table was set between the bed and the wall. Upon it was a single short, fat candle that burned with a smoky light. There was a single window, shuttered now with the night. The two sisters wasted no time divesting themselves and Fingal Stewart of their garments. He managed to pull off his own breeks, thereby hiding the purse of coins from them, for he had not yet had time to find a place to secrete it.

They ran their hands over his naked body, exclaiming over it as if they were judging a prized stallion. Well, Fingal Stewart thought, amused, he was to be their stallion for the next few days. He turned them about finally, pulling their backs against him, one arm about them, a hand reaching up to fondle their b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He liked their b.r.e.a.s.t.s. They were round and familiar. He pinched the nipples of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The two sisters yelped excited, high-pitched squeals. "To the bed with ye," he told them, pushing both women forward. He was reminded of a similar situation he had found himself in with two ladies many years ago in France. It had been a satisfying time.

Fin lay between Lily and Sybil, an arm about each. "What shall we do, la.s.ses?" he asked them.

"Ye've already had Lily once," Sybil said plaintively. "I want to be f.u.c.ked!"

"Then make me want ye as yer pretty sister did earlier," Fin told her. "Ye could begin by sucking my c.o.c.k. That should put it in prime condition to pleasure ye, la.s.s."