Return Of The Highlanders: The Guardian Part 21

They had seen it for miles before they reached the town, perched on top of the towering rock cliffs that protected it on three sides. The side of the castle that faced the town was the only way it could be approached, and this was protected by a curtain wall and ma.s.sive gatehouse.

"What if the queen isn't here?" Niall asked. "The royal family has more than one castle, ye know."

"Your da says that if the queen has any sense at all, this is where she's brought the baby king," Sileas said. "He says not even the English can take Stirling Castle."

They retraced their steps to a tavern at the edge of town that had guest rooms upstairs and a stable behind for their horses. After paying for the night, they took their supper in the tavern.

Sileas had never been among so many strangers in her life. Most of the men spoke in Scots, the English spoken by Lowlanders. Although she knew some Scots, they spoke it far too quickly for her to understand much. Most wore the English style of clothes.

"Will ye stop staring at their codpieces," Niall hissed and pushed her cap lower over her eyes. "You're going to get us hurt-or an unpleasant invitation."

Sileas stifled a laugh behind her hand. She had heard that English n.o.blemen wore a padded cloth over their private parts, but she had not truly believed it.

"I'll need a bath before visiting the queen." She looked down at her own clothes and sniffed. "I smell of horse, and that's the best part."

"I'll ask the tavern keeper to send up water," Niall said, getting to his feet. "It'll cost extra."

Sometime later, she saw a woman carrying two sloshing buckets up the stairs-the closest to a washing those stairs had gotten in a long, long while.

She and Niall followed the woman up to a small, serviceable room with a single cot. After warning Sileas to bar the door, Niall returned to the tavern to wait while she had her bath.

Sileas shook out the blue gown she'd stuffed in her cloth bag, pleased that in the chaos of her flight she had thought to bring her best gown for court. After spreading it out on the cot to air, she scrubbed herself clean as best she could in the small wooden tub and put on the chemise she would wear under the gown tomorrow.

When Niall returned, he insisted she take the cot. She lay with her back to him while he took his turn washing in the same water. When he was finished, he wrapped himself in his plaid on the floor in front of the door.

She blew out the candle and tried to make herself comfortable in the strange bed.

"Thanks for coming with me, Niall," she said into the darkness. "I don't believe I could have gotten here without ye."

"To tell ye the truth, I'm not sure we should have come at all," Niall said. "The town is filled with Lowlanders and worse-there are English here, starting with the queen herself. We've no notion what we're getting into. Perhaps we'd best go home and solve your problems there."

"After coming all this way, I'm going to see the queen," Sileas said, but she closed her eyes and prayed hard for guidance. Was Niall right? Was coming here a mistake? She had never been this far from Skye. And she felt guilty for bringing Niall with her.

Niall was silent so long that she thought he had fallen asleep, when he said, "I've been thinking a lot about what we saw in the kitchen."

"And what about that did ye find worth considering?" she asked, her voice coming out sharp.

"Well, what if Ian was just taking a bath, and Dina came in, unexpected?" Niall said, hesitation in his voice. "Ye saw the tub, and Ian dripping water."

"Ye failed to mention that Dina was naked as well," Sileas said between her teeth. "And don't try to tell me ye didn't notice."

"I could hardly help that, now could I? And at first I believed the same as you about what they were up to in the kitchen." From the discomfort in Niall's voice, she could tell he'd rather be rubbed with stinging nettles than discussing this with her. "But ye see, Dina is the sort of woman to drop her clothes without a man even asking."

Sileas sat up in the bed and glared down at the dark shape on the floor. "And how would ye know this, Niall MacDonald?"

"Well... Dina did it for me," he said.

Sileas's mouth fell open. How dare Dina work her wiles on Niall? He was a boy still-despite being over six feet tall.

And Dina's tendency to shed her clothes did not explain how the MacDonald Crystal ended up around her neck.

"Are ye expecting me to believe nothing happened in that kitchen?" she snapped. "Is that what happened when Dina took her clothes off for you, Niall? Nothing?"

Niall's silence confirmed his guilt.

"Your mother would be ashamed of ye." Sileas lay back down and punched her pillow a few times to fluff it.

"I am not a married man," Niall said. "And what I do with a willing woman is no concern of my mother's."

"Hmmph. I'm disgusted with the lot of ye," she said, turning her back on him and pulling the blanket up to her ears.

The noise from the tavern below was all that interrupted the long silence between them, until, finally, Niall spoke again.

"If I had a wife like you, Sil, I wouldn't have taken what Dina offered." Niall paused. "That's why I keep thinking that maybe Ian didn't do anything he shouldn't have. Maybe ye ought to give him a chance to tell ye what happened."

Sileas tossed and turned on the narrow cot half the night, slapping at the bugs in the straw mattress and thinking of what Niall had said. She had such an abiding weakness for Ian MacDonald that she could almost believe anything that would absolve him.

When she felt her resolve begin to fade, she made herself remember seeing Ian in all his naked glory, his c.o.c.k standing at the ready, and Dina right behind him without a st.i.tch on-except for the pouch with Sileas's crystal hanging between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Every time she managed to set aside her thoughts about Ian and Dina, she tossed and turned, worrying about meeting the queen. Was she on a fool's errand, bringing her problem to the queen? Ach, but she was tired of men deciding what to do with her. A woman was bound to be more concerned with her than with her castle.

Even if the queen chose not to help her, what harm could there be in asking?

When Sileas got tired of slapping at the bugs and chasing her thoughts in endless circles, she got up and lay on the hard floor a little ways from Niall. She was grateful to him for staying with her and respecting her decision, even if what she did seemed foolish to him.

By annulling her marriage to Ian, she would also sever her formal tie with Niall. That was one more loss, and a hard one. She lay listening to him breathing, knowing Niall would always be the brother of her heart. She hoped he felt the same and that she would not lose him as well.

CHAPTER 23.

Sileas paced the tiny room above the tavern, regretting with every turn that she had let Niall talk her into waiting here while he delivered her letter to the castle. At the sound of a knock, she picked up her dirk from the bed and put her ear to the door.

"Sileas, let me in."

It was Niall, so she slid the bolt back. "I was worried half to death. What took ye so long?"

"Don't ye look fine, now," Niall said, taking in her gown.

"Tell me what happened," she said. "Will the queen see me?"

"The guards laughed at me when I told them I would wait for the queen's answer," Niall said, as he dropped onto the cot. "But an hour later, they gave me the message that the queen will see us this morning."

Sileas's stomach suddenly felt as if she had eaten a pound of lead instead of watery porridge for breakfast. She was actually going to see the queen.

"I've no mirror," she said. "Can ye help me with my hair?"

Niall's eyes went wide, but he dutifully took the pins from her hand. After she twisted her wild waves into a coil at the back of her head, he stood behind her and attempted to pin it in place. Niall could shoot a straight arrow, but he turned out to be all thumbs when it came to hair.

"I'll just tie it back with my ribbon," she said when it kept falling loose after three attempts. After she finished, she turned in a circle. "Do ye think this will do for court?"

"You're sure to be the loveliest la.s.s there," Niall said, giving her a wide smile.

As they walked up the steep hill through the town to the castle, unease crept up Sileas's spine and slowed her steps. No wonder Payton said the baby king would be safe in Stirling Castle. The gatehouse, which projected out from the curtain wall to form the castle's fortified entrance, was enormous. Sileas's gaze traveled from the gatehouse's four round towers to the equally ma.s.sive square towers at the corners of the wall that faced the town.

"We can go home," Niall said. "It's not too late to change your mind."

"We've come this far," she said. "It would be discourteous to refuse the queen's invitation-especially after I asked for it."

They crossed the drawbridge and showed their summons to the men standing guard at the entrance between the first two round towers. After checking the seal on the letter, the guards waved them through.

Sileas felt as if she couldn't breathe inside the gatehouse with tons of stone above and on either side of her. As they pa.s.sed through it, she saw that there was yet another set of ma.s.sive round towers facing the interior of the castle. The pressure on her chest eased as they emerged into the light on the other side.

"This is where I waited yesterday," Niall said. "It's called the Outer Close."

In front of them was a building made of shining pink stone that was so beautiful it took Sileas's breath away. The building was immense, yet graceful, with high windows and slender towers that appeared to be decorative rather than defensive. Carved figures of lions with crowns and a horned mythical creature she didn't know were perched at intervals along the center line of its peaked roof.

A guard who had followed them pointed to an arched gate next to the building. "Go through there."

Sileas and Niall pa.s.sed under the arch and entered the castle's inner courtyard. The building with the decorative towers was to their right. A second large building made of the same shining stone stood opposite. Bordering the far side of the courtyard was a smaller building with stained-gla.s.s windows that must be a chapel. Servants, soldiers, and well-dressed courtiers hurried across the courtyard looking as though they knew where they were going.

"Which building do ye suppose the queen is in?" she whispered to Niall.

He shrugged and nodded toward the building with the decorative towers. "This one's the biggest."

When they approached the guards, the men looked Sileas up and down as if she might be hiding a dirk beneath her skirts-which of course she was. Still, she was relieved to see that they were Highlanders.

"We're looking for the queen," Niall said.

"This is the Great Hall, which is only used for grand occasions." The guard who spoke was a man of about forty, with muscular legs the size of tree trunks and laughter in his eyes. "But since the la.s.s has such a lovely smile, I'll let the two of ye have a wee peek."

After glancing left and right, he opened the door and motioned them inside.

Sileas found herself in a room that was perhaps three stories high, with five fireplaces, and a roof with heavy wooden beams that crossed to form angled arches.

"The babe James V was crowned in here not long ago," the guard said. " 'Tis the largest hall in all of Scotland-even larger than the one in Edinburgh Castle."

The guard spoke with as much pride as if he'd built the hall himself.

" 'Tis a grand sight, and I thank ye kindly for letting us see it," Sileas said. "But the queen is expecting us. Can ye tell us where we may find her?"

The guard opened the door and pointed across the courtyard. "She's keeping court across the way, in what is called the King's House."

When Sileas started to follow Niall out, the guard stopped her with a touch on her arm.

"Let me give ye a wee bit of advice, la.s.s," he said, leaning close enough for her to smell the onions on his breath. "Don't go in there with just the lad. Wait and come back with your father and a few other men of your clan."

"He's my brother, and he'll look out for me," she said, managing a smile.

The King's House was an impressive building, though it lacked the soaring elegance of the Great Hall. Well-dressed men and women moved along its covered wooden galleries, which served as outside corridors to the upper floors.

"We must keep our wits about us," Niall said in her ear, as they crossed the courtyard. "If the queen is at all like her G.o.dforsaken brother, she'll be crafty and willful."

"That describes most of the men I know," Sileas said, "so I should be well prepared."

"Watch out for the Earl of Angus, Archibald Douglas, as well."

"The Douglas chieftain?" she asked. "Of what concern is he to us?"

"Last night while ye were washing up, I heard that the queen relies on him for advice." Niall leaned closer. "In fact, they say she has taken the Douglas to her bed."

Sileas turned to stare at him. "But the king is hardly cold in his grave."

"Aye, and she carries the dead king's child," Niall said in a low voice. "All the same, they say the queen is quite taken with the Douglas-and that the Douglas is quite taken with the notion of ruling Scotland."

They had reached the entrance to the King's House, where they were met by another set of guards, who directed them to wait inside the hall until they were called.

Sileas was immediately glad she wore an English-style gown, which was high-waisted and closer fitting than her everyday gowns, since all the women wore them. Hers, however, was simpler and far more modest than the ones the other women were wearing. Although there was a sprinkling of Highlanders dressed in saffron linen shirts and plaids, most of the men in the hall also wore English clothes.

Sileas crossed the room, drawn by the spectacular view through the windows on the opposite side of the hall. When she reached the windows and looked down, it appeared that the King's House had been built on the very edge of the sheer cliffs.

"Ye can see for miles from here. Ach, that looks like Ben Lomond," Niall said, pointing.

"I believe it is." They both turned at the sound of a light, feminine voice behind them.

If the woman hadn't spoken to them in English, Sileas would have thought she was looking at a faerie queen. She had hair the color of moonbeams and sparkles in her headdress, which framed a face with lovely, delicate features. A rose-colored gown with a silvery sheen floated about her-except for the tight-fitting bodice, which had a square neck that revealed the tops of small, perfect b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Faerie or no, Niall was staring with his jaw hanging open, as if enchanted.

"You are new to Court, or I would know you," the woman said with a bright smile at Niall.

Either Niall was too enthralled to speak or his English was failing him. Sileas's English was poorer than his, but she managed to say, "We have just arrived."

"Ah, you are Highlanders." The woman let her eyes drift over Niall again. "In truth, I knew by your size-and that wild handsomeness-that you were a Highlander."

Niall swelled like a toad at the blatant flattery.

"Welcome to Stirling," the woman said. "My name is Lady Philippa Boynton."

Philippa. The name was like a knife in Sileas's heart. Philippa was the name of the young woman Ian had told her about that fateful night they slept in the woods.

"Have ye been in Stirling long yourself?" Sileas asked, wondering if she could truly be having the bad luck to be meeting the woman Ian had wished to marry.

"Not long this time," the woman said, turning her sparkling eyes on Sileas. "These days, I spend more time in London, but I have been to Stirling many times."