The Border Lord's Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

had trapped as they traveled. They ate them with the bread the laird had been given before they left the court. The cold salted meat that had also been included they saved for a day when they could not trap their meal; the hard-boiled eggs they had been given they would eat in the morning with the last of the bread.
    The cave and its fire gave them refuge from the cold, rainy night outside. Ellen was glad she had worn her heavy woolen cloak. It was not elegant, like the beautiful velvet ones some of the girls at the court had possessed, but it kept out the bitter chill. They had ridden silently the day long but for a word now and again. When the laird offered her a bit of whiskey from the flask he carried, Ellen seized the opportunity to initiate a conversation.
    "Have you known the king long?" she asked him. "How did you meet him?"
    "My half brother, the laird of Cleit, is wed to a distant English cousin of the king‘s. I first met him several years ago when he came to Cleit. I was living there then, for ‘twas my oldest brother, Ian Armstrong, who was Duffdour‘s laird after our father died. Our mother married the Bruce of Cleit and gave him two sons, Conal, the eldest, and young Murdoc. Actually I was raised at Cleit. I barely remembered Duffdour."
    "What happened to your brother?" Ellen asked him.
    "He was killed at Sauchieburn," Duncan said. "As he had no wife or child the lands and laird‘s bonnet came to me."
    "And have you a wife and child?" Ellen asked him, smiling.
    "Nay, there has been no time for me to go courting since King James arrived on his throne," the laird said with an answering smile. "There is still much trouble in the borders, and keeping order isn‘t easy. And too, Duffdour needed my attention. My brother, Ian, God assoil his soul, had been its laird since he had been breeked, but he was not a man who thought ahead, being more like our father. The house was falling down and needed to be rebuilt. My cotters were living badly in crumbling cottages. I had not a penny, not even one of old King James‘s black ones, to my name."
    "You seem to have survived nonetheless," Ellen noted.
    Duncan Armstrong smiled at her remark. "Aye, I have, thanks to the king. He gave me a portion of the revenues he gains from the sale of livestock in the borders. It has allowed me to rebuild my home, and to rebuild my cotters‘ homes. We even built a church and have a priest. Duffdour is a prosperous place now, which is why I am forever having to defend it from the English." He chuckled. "They seem to think my cattle and sheep are there for the taking. I came to court this time to request royal permission to fortify my village and my house. They will be easier to defend, and suffer less damage from the English raiders that way."
    "I hope the king agreed to your request before you were given the privilege of taking me back to Lochearn," Ellen said, laughing softly.
    He grinned back at her. "He did. I‘m an easy man to bargain with, provided I get what I want, Ellen MacArthur." The laird chuckled.
    "Now you must take a wife," she told him.
    "Ah, but there is the problem. My sister-in-law taught my brother of Cleit a valuable lesson, and I learned from it. I‘ll only wed a woman I can love, and I haven‘t found one yet. But now you need to get some rest, for we will leave again just before dawn. Sleep near the fire, and I will rest on the other side of you. We should be able to keep somewhat warm, and from freezing that way," he told her.
    She did as he bade her, pulling her hood up to cover her head and wrapping the cloak about herself tightly. Between the fire, which was kept burning the night long, and the bulk of the man lying by her side she was able to sleep. When the sound of the camp stirring awoke her the following morning, Ellen slipped deeper into the cave to relieve herself. Then, coming back to the fire she discovered a pot of water warming.
    "I thought you might like to wash," the laird said to her as he