The Thistle and the Rose by Jean Plaidy Read Free Book Online

Earldom of Moray. The Castle of Darnaway. It was a good reward.
    She said quietly: “I believe there is good hunting in the forests of Darnaway.”
    He smiled. Let her believe that he intended to hunt there and visit her when he did so. Better not to say he intended never to see her again when he was married to Margaret Drummond.
    “It is indeed good.”
    Then she threw her arms about him and laughed in her wild way. Well, there had to be a last time and he had been prepared for this. What was one more night among all the rest that were left to him?
    Farewell Janet, he had said to himself when he had ridden away next morning.
    He often wondered afterward what part Janet and her family played in the tragedy that followed. But he could not be sure and Janet might have been guiltless, for there were others to oppose the marriage.
    When the news was brought to him he remembered the longago occasion when he had heard of his father's death.
    Margaret was at Drummond Castle, making preparations for her wedding. Her four-year-old little daughter, Lady Margaret Stuart, was with her there; so were two of her sisters—the two youngest: Eupheme who was married, not very happily, to Lord Fleming, and Sibylla who was unmarried.
    The three sisters sat down to breakfast one morning; a few hours later all three were dead. One of the dishes which had been served to them contained a deadly poison.
    So grief struck him for the second time. I shall never forget Margaret, he mourned; as once before he had told himself he would never forget his father's death. He was distracted by his grief, but his first thought was for his child, and impetuously he set off for Drummond Castle and took the little girl to Edinburgh Castle. He himself would watch over her.
    He often wondered who had done this foul murder, but there was no means of knowing. There were some who declared that Lord Fleming, heartily sick of his wife Eupheme, had intended to dispose of her and had carried off her two sisters at the same time.
    No one really believed that. There were so many who were opposed to the King's union with the Drummonds. Already there was a faction who believed that Scotland could best be served by a marriage with Margaret Tudor, the daughter of the King of England. Such ruthless nobles would not care that in killing Margaret they had to kill her two sisters also.
    Lurking in James's mind was the thought of the Kennedys. Was it possible that wild Janet and her family had found some means ofdestroying the woman who had displaced her? Did they plan to put Janet in her place?
    He did not care; he was not a vindictive man. Nothing he did now could bring back Margaret.
    He listened with indifference to the arguments which were put before him. A political marriage was the duty of a king. He must contemplate the good which could come to Scotland if there were means of making peace with the old enemy across the Border.
    Nothing brought peace between countries as easily as marriage in the royal houses.
    He knew they were right. Let the negotiations with Henry VII go forward.
    This had been done and now, mourning Margaret Drummond as he believed he would do all his life, he prepared himself to meet that other Margaret who was journeying north to share his throne.

O N A S UNNY J UNE D AY , F OUR M ONTHS A FTER THE death of her mother, Margaret, Queen of Scots, set out from Richmond Palace accompanied by her father. Crowds had gathered in the countryside through which the cavalcade was expected to pass, and Margaret could not hide her delight to find herself the center of such pageantry.
    She was young and beautiful. She still mourned her gentle mother, but she had seen little of her during her lifetime and it seemed to her quite a long time ago that Elizabeth of York had died. So much had happened in between; there had been all the excitement of preparing her wardrobe—and how she loved those silks and damasks, those purple and crimson velvets! How she enjoyed the