He kissed her desperately and this time it was she who pulled away.
‘Quick!’ Lainie shouted, ‘Robert’s men will be upon us before long!’
Wallace took her case and hurried her out. She turned back to see Brice looking after her with apprehension and regret. ‘I will come for you!’ he shouted. Marion said nothing, but ran behind Lainie and allowed Wallace to hoist her onto a horse.
The two women galloped away across the moors, fear spurring them on.
‘How far to your house, Lainie?’ Marion asked.
‘Don’t worry my lady,’ Lainie said, ‘We will be there before long.’
Night was on them as they reached Lainie’s home – a crofter’s cottage with the hills rising up behind it. The spiral of smoke rising up from the chimney somehow revived Marion’s spirits, as did the steaming hot bowl of broth that Lainie’s mother put in her hands. She accepted it gratefully, dipping a bannock into the thick liquid as she sat before the fire.
‘How will we get word of Brice?’ Marion asked anxiously.
‘Do not worry my lady. He will return when his war is won.’
‘Yes but what if…’ Marion couldn’t bear to give voice to her thoughts.
‘You cannot and must not think like that my lady,’ Lainie said sharply, ‘we must believe that my laird will return soon.’
As Marion wondered fearfully what fate Brice would suffer, he gathered the peasant forces together and attacked Bothwell at night. Even as he stormed the battlements of his own home, Brice felt regret. He wished he did not have to take such a course but he saw no easier path. His family had done enough harm to the peasants on their land and they had deceived the woman he loved.
‘Put your sword down, lad!’ his father said when he swung the door of his bedroom open.
‘No father,’ Brice said, ‘You have done me the gravest wrong but it took me a while to realize it.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I told you that I wanted to marry Marion after I saw her at the wedding, but you kept insisting she was pledged to Robert.’ Brice raised his sword menacingly. ‘You knew that Robert has never had any interest in women. You knew about his life in France and why he desired so much to return there, yet you persisted in ruining an innocent girl’s life by making her marry him. How could you?’
‘It was in your brother’s best interests!’ Lord Murray said.
‘Or in yours? You could have let him go to France without insisting he marry before he did, but you had to have it your way, didn’t you?’
‘What do you want lad?’ Lord Murray asked.
‘I want my rights. To have Robert’s marriage with Marion annulled so that I can marry her. And I want you to step down as laird of Bothwell Castle if you do not vow to treat the peasants humanely.’
Lord Murray laughed. ‘And do you think you can be laird?’
‘I know I can,’ Brice said, ‘Because I have all the peasants on Murray lands on my side.’
Lord Murray sat up in his bed. ‘So you have been rallying my people and going behind my back, and you make me out to be the villain?’
‘You sent me out to collect rents and check on the crofts. I merely did as I was told. I just saw how badly the peasants were being treated.’
‘So you will kill me and then take my place as laird?’
‘No. I will not kill you. I will ask you to send Robert to France as he desires, and William to England, and give me what I deserve.’
‘I will not listen to your drivel,’ Lord Murray said, rising up from the bed. That was when the peasant army poured into the castle.
CHAPTER VI
Marion was outside walking with Lainie. She had fallen into a pattern of doing that every day after her chores – hoping that she would see Brice riding towards her.
‘What do you suppose has happened with the war?’ Marion asked Lainie. ‘Are you not anxious about Wallace?’
‘Our men are fighters. It’s what they do best, my lady. We sit home and wait for their return…and they almost always show up.’
Lainie squinted and raised one hand to shield her eyes as she peered into the distance where she could just about discern a solitary figure. She did not want to raise Marion’s hopes so she said nothing, but Marion had followed her gaze and her eyes were riveted to the horizon, from where emerged a single horseman.