Friarsgate Inheritance: Until You Part 33

"Perhaps," Tom answered him. "But go slowly, Logan Hepburn. Do not attempt to overwhelm my cousin this time by being forceful with her. She needs a strong man, but that man must also respect that she is a strong woman. You need not break her spirit to bend her to your will."

The laird of Claven's Carn nodded, understanding. "You will tell her of my wife's demise?"

"I will. But do not come courting until midsummer. She liked Jeannie and would not approve of any disrespect shown towards her. And in the name of all that is holy, Logan Hepburn, do not mention the bairns you desire of her! If you can coax her to the altar, the bairns will come as a natural result of your pa.s.sions for each other. Now, tell me, what is for dinner, dear boy, for I am absolutely ravenous?"

The laird laughed aloud. He had forgotten how amusing Tom Bolton could be. Laughing felt good. It had been a long time since he had laughed. Hearing a small noise coming from the cradle, he saw his son was awake. Lifting the lad from his bed, he displayed him to his guest. "Is this not a fine lad, Tom Bolton? Do I not have a fine son?"

"Indeed, Logan Hepburn, you do!" Lord Cambridge agreed.

The boy squirmed in his father's arms, anxious to get down. The laird set him upon the floor, and the little fellow toddled over to one of the great wolfhounds in the hall, climbing upon its back and crowing with delight. The two men laughed as the dog turned its ma.s.sive head and licked the child's face lovingly.

"I'll have him on his first pony come the spring," the laird boasted. "He's a braw little laddie, Tom Bolton."

"Aye," Tom agreed. "I can see that he is." And I can see you are a good and doting father, which will not harm you in my cousin's eyes.

"You'll stay the night?" the laird said.

"I will," Lord Cambridge responded. "Will your brothers be joining us?"

"They were lost at Flodden," Logan replied.

"Ah, your sorrow is great, my lord. A winter of mourning will ease your heart, I am sure," came the reply.

In the morning Tom returned to Friarsgate, eager to impart all that he knew to Rosamund.

She wept learning of Jeannie and her child. "And the wee laddie she bore last year motherless. Ah, cousin, these are hard times for us all."

"They are," he agreed.

Afterwards, when she had gone from the hall, Edmund asked Tom, "Will he come courting, do you think?"

"Perhaps, but I have advised him not to appear until at least midsummer," Tom replied. "She liked Jeannie."

"Aye, she did," Edmund agreed.

"You must tell Maybel to hold her peace," Tom said.

"Aye," Edmund agreed. "I will remind my well-meaning spouse that if she natters on at Rosamund about Logan Hepburn being a bachelor once more, it could drive the la.s.s away. Of course, Logan may do that himself if he goes on about bairns," Edmund chuckled.

"I've warned him about that, too," Tom responded, chuckling himself.

They celebrated the festive holidays, which concluded with Twelfth Night in early January. Tom was once again generous with Rosamund's daughters. She was amazed that he had managed to find gifts for them all under the circ.u.mstances.

"Perhaps in the spring," he told her, "I may travel into Scotland and see about that s.h.i.+p we want to built. It has been a year now since I first suggested it, dear girl."

"We have lost no time," she a.s.sured him. "The new flocks we bought last summer are doing very well. We'll have quite a birthing of lambs next month."

"I have never understood why sheep insist on having their offspring in February," he said. "The weather is foul, and the wolves are hunting vigorously."

"No one has ever understood sheep," Rosamund told him, laughing. "It is their own way, and they will have it, I fear. At least I have the flocks all gathered in now that the snows are covering the grazing on the hillsides."

The winter had now set in about them. Tom returned to Otterly to husband his own estate and attend to his business affairs. The days were beginning to grow visibly longer again by Candlemas on February second. Father Mata was teaching Rosamund's daughters six mornings a week. The three girls sat at the high board and studied diligently, for both their mother and their uncles had said it was important, no matter what others might say. All of them could read and write now. The young priest taught them Latin, not simply the church Latin needed for the ma.s.s but the Latin that was spoken within the civilized nations. Rosamund taught them French even as their father had taught her when they first met. They already knew their numbers and simple arithmetic. Rosamund and Edmund schooled Philippa in how to keep Friarsgate's accounts, as the responsibility would one day be hers.

"Great lords have others to do this for them," Rosamund said, "but a wise woman knows how to manage her monies herself, lest those others attempt to cheat her because she is a woman or make mistakes. It is not easy to manage Friarsgate, but if you would keep it safe you must learn, Philippa. Do you understand me, my child?"

Philippa nodded. "Aye, mama, I do. But when I marry one day, will my husband not take on this task for me?"

"Friarsgate will belong to you, Philippa, not your husband. You are the heiress to Friarsgate, my daughter. It will be yours until you pa.s.s it on to your eldest-born son or daughter," Rosamund explained. "It will never be your husband's property. I am the last Bolton of Friarsgate. You will be the Meredith of Friarsgate, but your heir, and I do hope it is a son, will be the next lord or lady of this manor. My unfortunate uncle Henry could never live with this knowledge. For him Friarsgate is the Boltons', but our sons are now all gone."

"What about Uncle Henry's son, mama?" Philippa asked innocently.

"He could never be the heir unless your sisters and I were gone from this earth," she said. "I have not seen him since he was a child. He was an obnoxious little boy, strutting and making p.r.o.nouncements."

"They say he is a robber chief now," Philippa said.

"So I am told," Rosamund replied. "Who told you that?"

"Maybel did. She said Uncle Henry's son is even worse than his strumpet mother," Philippa repeated.

"I suspect Maybel is right," Rosamund answered her daughter, "but she should not have said it to you, Philippa. Put my wicked uncle and his offspring from your mind. They will have nothing to do with your life."

"Yes, mama," the little girl said dutifully.

Rosamund sought out her old nursemaid. "Do not speak to the girls about my uncle's son. You will frighten them, Maybel."

"Very little frightens that trio," Maybel answered pithily.

"That is because they are young and sheltered. They have not lived as I did as a child. I don't want them to be afraid of the Boltons."

"You keep them too close, Rosamund," Maybel said. "Philippa has been to Queen Margaret's court. I think you should take her to her own king's court to meet our good queen. She was once your friend. Perhaps she will favor Philippa if she knows her. Philippa will be ten in April. It is time you begin seeking out a worthy husband for her."

"Not yet," Rosamund said. "Perhaps when she is twelve."

"All the good matches will be taken if you wait too long," Maybel replied, outraged by Rosamund's att.i.tude.

"Why, you had two husbands by the time you were her age, and a third two years after you were twelve."

"Which is precisely why I shall wait until Philippa is older. I don't want her marrying some graybeard. I want her to fall in love and marry a man closer to her in age, who will hopefully be her one and only husband," Rosamund said.

"Romantic twaddle!" Maybel huffed.

"But she is my child," Rosamund said, "and I will plan her life, as it is my right to do. I mean to plan wisely for Philippa and her sisters."

"They may have their own plans," Maybel said sharply.

The hillside now began to grow green with the coming of spring. The ewes proudly shepherded their new offspring into the meadows beneath the warm spring sun. The fields were plowed and the grain sown in those being used this year. The orchards came into full bloom. Rosamund's second daughter, Banon, celebrated her eighth birthday on the fifteenth day of March. Philippa turned ten at the end of April, and Bessie was six by the end of May. Tom came from Otterly, as he had for the two previous birthday celebrations. He brought Bessie a small terrier pup as a present. She squealed with delight upon opening the basket in which he had placed it, and then she hugged him. The squirming puppy jumped from its basket and scampered across the garden with Bessie in hot pursuit, causing them all to laugh. It was at that moment uninvited guests arrived, ushered into the gardens by a house servant.

"Such gaiety," Henry Bolton said. He was accompanied by a tall young man whom Rosamund immediately recognized as her cousin Henry the younger.

She arose. "Uncle, this is a surprise, but you are, of course, welcome." She deliberately ignored her cousin.

"I have brought my son with me today. He has been living with me," Henry said.

"I had heard he has taken to robbery, uncle," Rosamund replied.

"Nay, nay, niece. He is a reformed man. Aren't you, my son?" Henry said.

"Yes, father," the young man responded. His gaze had fastened upon Philippa. "Is that the heiress to Friarsgate?" he asked his sire.

"You have never been noted for your subtlety, cousin," Rosamund told him. "But if you think to wed my daughter, put it from your mind. I told your father this in December." She glared at her relations.

"The little wench has to marry someone, cousin," the young man replied.

"There are two criteria for her husband. She must love the man she marries, and he must be of a high social station. You fit neither of those standards, cousin. If that is the purpose of your visit, then you have wasted your time."

"Is this the kind of hospitality you offer me?" Henry demanded, outraged.

"You come into our midst unannounced, uncle, bringing my cousin, who has spent his last years in robbery and mayhem. Your purpose is to make a match between my innocent child and this ruffian, something I previously told you was not possible. And you wonder I do not welcome you with open arms? You have dedicated your life, uncle, to stealing Friarsgate from me. You have failed. Now you hope you may yet gain it through my daughter. It will not happen, I tell you! Now, get out! Take your wicked sp.a.w.n with you and know that you shall never darken my door again!" Rosamund stood as tall as she could, her index finger pointing out of the garden. About her, her family was very, very quiet. Her daughters had never seen her this angry.

"You were always a difficult girl," Henry said. His face was red with his outrage. "This is Bolton land, you stupid b.i.t.c.h! It must remain Bolton land! I will kill you before I allow Friarsgate to be given to a stranger!" He lunged at her furiously, but Rosamund was quicker and stepped back.

"Get out!" she told him again in a hard voice.

Henry's face now turned from red to deep red to purple. "Why could you have not died with your brother and your parents? You have ever been a thorn in my side, you d.a.m.ned b.i.t.c.h! This should all be mine!" He was foaming about his lips, and then with a loud cry, he collapsed at her feet and was very still.

"I think you have finally killed the old devil off," Henry the younger said as Edmund knelt, seeking a pulse from his half-brother.

Edmund looked up. "He is dead, Rosamund."

"Good!" she replied vehemently.

Father Mata stepped forward. "Have mercy, lady," he counseled her gently.

"He had none on me," Rosamund said softly. Henry Bolton was dead. She could scarce believe it, but it was true. Then she said, "I will give him in death what I would not give him in life, Mata. He may be buried here at Friarsgate."

The priest nodded approvingly.

"His cottage?" Henry the younger said. "Is it now mine?"

"Nay," Tom quickly said. "I built it for your father to live out his life in, but it is part of Otterly, and Otterly is mine. I know your father had a will, young Henry, and you are his sole heir. Meet me at Otterly in a week's time, and we will see what it is you have inherited."

The young man nodded. Then he turned to Rosamund and bowed. "I will not say it has been pleasurable seeing you again, cousin," he told her wryly. "And I should far rather wed and bed you than the little wench who is your heiress. I am old enough now by far, and it is said that I am skilled in pa.s.sion."

"Get out!" Rosamund said once more. "The sight of you sickens me, and your lack of grief is shameful."

"I do not grieve for him," her cousin said. "He was wretched to my mother. I hated him for it. Had I gotten my hands on Friarsgate, I should have exiled him from it even as you did. And I would not have allowed his bones to be interred in its soil." He bowed to her once more. "Perhaps I shall return, cousin."

"Do not," Rosamund said in a hard, cold voice.

Chapter 15.

The morning after Bessie's natal day they laid Henry Bolton to rest in the family burial site next to his mother. Rosamund's parents and brother were interred next to her grandfather. His son had not returned for his burial. Rosamund was very concerned that Henry the younger was in the vicinity and that he had seen Philippa. "Did you know," she asked Tom, "that my cousin was with his father this winter past?"

Tom shook his head. "If I had, I should have called the sheriff," he said. "G.o.d's blood, dear girl, I could have been murdered in my bed, and none the wiser!" He looked distinctly pale at the thought. "I wonder that Mistress Dodger did not tell me, but then I saw little of her during the winter. I shall certainly speak with her when I return to Otterly in a few days' time."

"If they cozened her, or threatened her, you can no longer trust her," Rosamund noted, "especially as my cousin is about. G.o.d! What am I to do, Tom? If only Patrick and I had been wed."

"Do you still think of him?" Lord Cambridge wondered.

"He is never far from my thoughts," Rosamund said softly, sadly.

"You will never forget him, cousin," Tom said, "but you must get on with your life, for he will never be with you again, and you know that."

She nodded. "I do, and yet I cannot help but grieve. But that grief I will keep to myself, Tom. My problem remains if Henry the younger still lurks about. What am I to do to protect Philippa? I cannot have her constantly dogged by men-at-arms, and I would not frighten her."

Rosamund's answer to her problem came several days later when a messenger arrived from Queen Katherine commanding her to court. She was astounded, for she could not imagine that someone as unimportant as she indeed was had been remembered. Certainly the queen had more important matters to consider. Henry Tudor's adventures in France the year before and England's great victory at Flodden had placed England clearly in the world's spotlight. Even here in the north it was known that representatives from all the countries of Europe were arriving in London to present their amba.s.sadorial credentials to the king. How had she been recalled in light of all of that?

"Does it matter, dear girl?" Tom asked. "This is the solution you sought. We shall go to court, and take Philippa with us. She has met Queen Margaret and her late lamented spouse. Now let her greet her own king and queen. Who knows what may come of it, Rosamund? I shall send word to have both the London and Greenwich houses opened and made ready for us. The trip will serve another purpose, for I would have you meet with my goldsmiths, and we must choose a factor to serve us in London. Our s.h.i.+p will be ready to be launched by next year, and by withholding our cloth this year we will build up our stock and increase the demand for it."

"I will set the men to work building a stone storage house for us while we are gone," Rosamund said.

"Then, you will go?" he asked.

"Of course I will go. I was not here last year when the summons came, and then the war came, making it unsafe for travel. I cannot afford to offend the queen or her husband. Aye, I will go, and taking Philippa with us is the best way to keep her safe from Henry the younger. But will Banon and Bessie be safe from him?"

"Philippa is your heiress, and it is she he wants," Tom a.s.sured her. "If she is not here, then there is nothing here for him. Still, I would make certain Friarsgate is well guarded in your absence. I hesitate to suggest it, but I shall nonetheless. Why not send to the laird, your neighbor, and ask if you may hire some of his clansmen for the purpose of guarding Friarsgate, and your younger daughters? You may not like Logan Hepburn, but he is honest and brave."

"I do not dislike the laird," Rosamund said slowly, "and what you have proposed makes strange sense to me, Tom. But I would have you send to him."

"I think it would be preferable if Edmund made the overture, as he is your bailiff," Tom said.

"Aye. You're right," Rosamund agreed. "I should not like Logan Hepburn to get the wrong idea."

Tom hid his smile, nodding solemnly.

Edmund sent to the laird of Claven's Carn, asking that he come to discuss a matter of business to both of their best interests. To Edmund and Tom's amus.e.m.e.nt, the laird returned with the Friarsgate messenger. They kept their humor from Rosamund, who had decided to allow her uncle to manage the negotiation. The three men sat in the hall of the house while the servants brought them ale, bread, and cheese.

"What is it I can do for you, Edmund Bolton?" the laird asked the older man. His eyes quickly scanned the room.

"Old Henry Bolton came with his ruffian son on our Bessie's natal day. He interrupted the celebration. He wanted to make a match between Henry the younger and Philippa, something Rosamund had already told him was impossible. She told him again, and the old man fell into a terrible temper tantrum, which to our surprise, killed him on the spot. We buried him several days ago. Henry the younger, however, remains a danger to Philippa. Having been commanded to court, Rosamund will leave shortly with Tom, taking Philippa with her in order to protect her heiress. She means her daughter for better things, and being introduced into court is the first step."

Logan nodded. "Aye, she is wise where the la.s.sie is concerned. Friarsgate is no small inheritance. I see you have added Shrops.h.i.+res to your flocks."