The Fire in the Flint by Candace Robb Read Free Book Online Page A

the dead,’ he said sharply. ‘Edwina was a brave, noble woman who died carrying messages to the Bruce.’
    ‘She was not returning to her husband? To England?’
    ‘No.’ Roger swung his legs off the bed and bowed his head. ‘God help me, I wake at night wondering how I might have prevented her death and that of her escort.’
    Margaret crossed herself. ‘Forgive me,’ she whispered, hearing the pain in his voice, reaching for one of his hands and holding it to her heart. ‘But if you had trusted me with the truth of your activities …’
    He jerked his hand from her grasp and rose, facing her with a murderous expression. ‘I have explained my silence.’
    ‘What happened on the way to Dundee?’ she asked, knowing they would never heal this rift without more of an explanation.
    Roger dropped his gaze. ‘I’d prefer to talk of other things.’
    ‘I need to know. Tell me and be done with it.’
    He sat down on the bed with a sigh. ‘This is a sorry homecoming.’
    ‘What happened?’ she asked more gently, touching his shoulder. ‘It would help me to understand your long absence.’
    Roger groaned. ‘It is painful to talk of it.’
    ‘I beg you.’
    He gave a resigned nod and looked down at his hands, but said nothing for a moment. ‘It was what I saw at the house of my old friend George Brankston,’ he began in a quiet voice. ‘It was my custom to stay the night there on my journeys to Dundee. I was treated as kin, not a guest, and though they were seldom forewarned of my coming I was always made to feel welcome. But this time …’ He covered his eyes for a moment.
    When he looked up, Margaret saw tears. It was unsettling to see his emotion over a family he’d never spoken of to her.
    ‘The northern army of Edward Longshanks had ridden through George’s property in the summer on its march from Dundee,’ Roger continued. ‘They’d stolen the horses, the falcons, all the livestock.’ He took a breath. ‘They raped his daughter Emma, and so injured Isabel his wife that she lost the child she carried and the use of one leg.’
    ‘My God,’ Margaret said. ‘Why did you not tell me of this before?’
    ‘Where was John Balliol in all this?’ Roger demanded loudly. ‘He should have made a lastgreat attack, caught the army on the road. He made no effort to help.’
    ‘I believe our king was in England by then, along with many of the Comyns, under close guard,’ Margaret said quietly. ‘And Robert Bruce was in Carlisle helping his father protect that English city from our people.’
    ‘Our king.’ It sounded like a curse from Roger’s lips.
    ‘You can’t blame him for Longshanks’s brutality.’
    Roger swung his head from side to side slowly, as if trying to stretch out a pain. ‘You asked what happened to change my heart on the road to Dundee. It had nothing to do with Robert Bruce at first. To find the family I had loved as my own so broken, so … The light was gone from their eyes, Maggie. I thought of the soldier who had grabbed you for a kiss and I knew how much worse it might have been.’
    ‘If you were worried for me, why did you not come home?’
    ‘Edwina of Carlisle was the sister of George’s wife, Maggie. Isobel feared that what had happened to her and Emma might happen to her sister. I wanted to do something. George’s family needed him there, so it was up to me. It was a beginning.’
    Margaret took a deep breath. It did change things.
    ‘I did not go south with the intention of binding myself to Bruce. I wanted only to bring some relief to Isobel, who had always been so gracious to me.’
    ‘You’d promised to return by Yuletide.’
    ‘I am sorry, Maggie. I thought I would yet be home by then.’
    ‘In all that time, I received only one letter from you.’
    ‘I still hoped, Maggie. It would have been dangerous, perhaps impossible, to communicate with you. Dangerous for both of us. I’d left you safe in Perth, with Jack to look after you and my