Amanda Scott - [Border Trilogy 2] by Border Wedding Read Free Book Online Page A

can no longer be sure of him. Do you understand me?”
    “Aye, I think so.”
    “Well, ponder my words until you do understand,” Wat said. “For now, I want you to promise me again, on your Borderer’s word of honor, that you will serve the lady Margaret until she releases you from her service of her own will. You may not ask her to do so without breaking your word to me. Do you agree?”
    He held the lad’s gaze with his own.
    “Aye, then, I do,” Sym muttered.
    “Good lad,” Wat said.
    “I’ll just be going to see what I can do to help the others then.”
    “There is just one thing more,” Wat said as the boy turned away.
    Sym froze where he stood.
    “Look at me.”
    Swallowing visibly, Sym obeyed.
    “Do you remember what I said would happen if you followed me again?”
    “I didna!” Sym exclaimed. “I followed Dod and them other lads.”
    Hardening his expression, Wat said, “What did I tell you?”
    Reluctantly, eyes downcast, Sym said, “Ye said ye’d see me well skelped.”
    “Do you think I do not keep my word?”
    Still looking at his feet, Sym shook his head.
    “Answer me properly.”
    “Aye, sir,” Sym said, looking up at him. “I ken fine that ye’ll keep your word. Will ye do it now, or wait till we get back to Rankilburn?”
    “You will go to Dod right now and tell him I said he is to give you the skelping of your young life. And, Sym?”
    The boy’s lower lip trembled, but he said stoutly enough, “Aye, sir?”
    “Do not put me to the trouble of having such a conversation with you again.”
    “Nay, then, I won’t.”
    Watching him walk away with greater reluctance than ever to join the others, Wat felt surprisingly strong empathy for him. He had no doubt that after Buccleuch had described his own lack of good sense to him in a similar chat, he would be feeling much the same remorse that Sym felt now.
    “Begging your pardon, sir, but your bath be ready.”
    Turning with no small relief, Wat followed the gillie to the waiting tub.
    In the hall, as stunned as Meg had been to hear Amalie’s unexpected offer to go with her to Rankilburn, she could not think what to say to her.
    Their parents appeared likewise speechless.
    Lady Murray was the first to recover. “Do think of what you are saying for once, Amalie,” she said. “You cannot mean such a thing.”
    “But I do,” Amalie said, looking from one parent to the other. “I think Meggie is right. She
should
have someone she knows go with her. Sithee, I need stay only long enough to see her settled into her new home and happy there.”
    Sir Iagan opened his mouth, met his wife’s gaze, and shut it again.
    Having no doubt that he had been about to point out to Amalie that happiness was not a necessity in any marriage, let alone one resulting from such a negotiation as this one had been, Meg said hastily, “I swear I would take the greatest care of her, Father. Indeed, her company would do much to reconcile me to this dreadful change in my life. Oh, pray, sir, do say she may go.”
    “I do not like the notion,” Sir Iagan said stiffly.
    “Nay, sir, nor do I,” Lady Murray said. But her thoughtful expression gave Meg cause to hope she would not forbid it outright.
    Nor did she. Instead, she announced her intent to see to such changes in the midday menu as might transform it into a wedding feast. “Collops of beef and a few chickens, I think,” she said. “That young man’s lads must eat, too, after all.”
    “Meantime, I will send for that friar and try to find some maidservant or other who will agree to accompany our Meg to Rankilburn,” Sir Iagan said.
    “An excellent notion, sir,” Lady Murray said. “If Amalie does go with Meg, it would be as well to provide a respectable serving woman to attend them both. For now, Meg, you go along up to your chamber and set your Tetsy to packing your things into a pair of sumpter baskets that the men can tie to a pony. I’ll send someone up straightaway with your bath