Amanda Scott - [Border Trilogy Two 02] Read Online Free PDF Page B

Amalie had expected to be hers, Isabel patted the one next to her own.
    Nodding thanks to Sir Duncan, and doing her best not to trip over or step on any toes, she eased her way past Lady Sibylla, who smiled at her, Lady Susan, who did not, and the two older ladies, Nancy and Averil, to the place beside Isabel.
    “Did you elude them, then?” the princess asked archly without bothering to lower her voice. Not that it mattered. The monks still chanted, and the additional buzz suggested that nearly everyone else was involved in private conversation.
    It took Amalie a moment to remember eluding her parents, but then she said, “Oh, yes, thank heaven. I just pray that my mother did not see me slip away.”
    “Nay, she did not, or she’d have said something as I passed,” Isabel said with a mischievous smile. “She has small respect for the blood royal, your mother.
    “Nay, nay,” she added when Amalie moved to protest. “I ken fine that she means no offense. ’Tis naught but the pride she has in her own ancient lineage, and she is hardly alone in that. Many others look upon us Stewarts as upstarts. She’d have had no satisfaction from me today, although I own, the woman does frighten me witless. Does anyone
ever
go contrary to her wishes?”
    Grateful not to have to answer more questions about her absence, long though it must have seemed, Amalie said, “Scarcely anyone dares. Simon is less submissive than the rest of us, and my father sometimes reveals a stubborn streak. But neither Meg nor I have stood up to her, unless one counts my unwillingness to go home. Mother did not press me to return, though. She suggested it only once, just before you invited me to join your household, but that was all. Simon did say I should go home at Yuletide, but that was when we were at Dunfermline.”
    Remembering what else had happened there, and feeling herself flush at the memory, she added hastily, “Mother understood why I wanted to live with you. I did expect a summons from her after Simon told me to go home, but she sent none.”
    “You knew that she and your father would be here, though,” Isabel said. “You told me so, and of course, nearly every noble family
is
here because most think it treasonous not to be. ’Tis only natural they would want to see you. I’m only surprised they did not look for you before now.”
    “They did not attend his grace’s funeral, so they must not have arrived until late yesterday, and they most likely stayed with Murray cousins in town, so this morning was their first opportunity to look for me here. But Mother had that look of determination she gets when she has made up her mind to something.”
    “Which is why you suspect she has a plan for you,” Isabel said, nodding. “But it is time that you think of marriage, my dear. If you fear they may try to force you to wed someone against your will, recall that Scottish law forbids that.”
    Amalie allowed herself an inward sigh. Isabel barely knew Lady Murray and stood in awe of her. It ought to take little thought for her to understand how difficult it was for a daughter of Lady Murray’s to oppose her.
    She was trying to think how she could phrase the point tactfully when Isabel said, “Here comes Annabella now. They must be about to begin.”
    With no more fanfare than a low drum roll to silence the audience, Annabella Drummond, Countess of Carrick and later to be Queen of Scots, walked up the aisle alone, followed by two men-at-arms bearing the Stewart and Drummond banners. A chair of state awaited her at the front on the north side of the aisle, and when she reached it, she sat without further ceremony, facing the altar.
    “She ought to have walked in with John,” Isabel muttered. “It is unfair to make her wait a full day for her own coronation. Few will pay it any heed, but of course, that is why Fife insisted on the delay, to belittle her position as Queen.”
    Amalie wondered if others had heard Isabel. But despite the drum