A Rough Wooing by Virginia Henley Page B

I cannot help that it is too tight. Beggars
can’t be choosers.”
    “Come on. We’ll have to get in line behind
these English arse-kissers.”
    There was hardly room to move in the throng
gathered to meet the new sovereign. Jock struck up a conversation
with the people in front of him, while Douglas schooled herself to
patience All at once she felt a hand caress her bottom. She whirled
about ready to strike the offending male, and stared into the
facetious face of Alexander Hume. “Do not presume to take liberties
with me, sir. Your familiarity breeds only my contempt.” Bugger
and balls, I should have known the king would be taking his
Treasurer to London.
    Alex Hume grinned. “Perhaps you’ll have to be
more generous with your favors, my lady, now that you’ll have
fierce competition from the English lassies.”
    “I welcome their competition. I might even
let them win the prize, or take the cake if it is not to my
taste.”
    “You play a high stakes game, Douglas—luring
a man on by holding him off.”
    “I don’t remember giving you leave to use my
given name, my lord.”
    Hume bent close and whispered, “I would be
most happy to call you mistress. ”
    Douglas turned her back on him, and saw that
it was her turn to make her curtsy to the king. Jock led her
forward and she sank low before James like a supplicant and gave
him a poignant smile.
    “Och, I’d ken this lassie anywhere,” the king
said, staring overlong at her décolletage.
    “Your Gracious Majesty, I have two brothers
imprisoned in Carlisle Castle, falsely accused of theft by George
Clifford, Earl of Cumberland.”
    “Clifford has allus bin an avaricious swine,
wi’ his eye on the best Scots’ Borderland. It dinna surprise me
he’s stoopin’ tae false accusations tae get his hands on a piece o’
it.”
    He raised Douglas and patted her hand. “Ye’ll
accompany us tae Carlisle, an’ I’ll decide who’s guilty and who’s
innocent.”
    Dear God, I can’t return to Carlisle! “I think it would be safer for me to go home to Castle Elliot, Your
Gracious Majesty.”
    The king laughed. “Wheest, lassie, ye’ll be
safe wi’ Jamie. Ha’ no fear.”
    “Thank you, Sire,” she murmured, and fear of
returning to Carlisle rose up in her. As she moved away quickly,
Alex Hume caught up with her.
    “If you want something from the king, there
is no man breathing who has more influence than my brother. King
James never fails to take his Treasurer’s advice.”
    Douglas almost cursed him for eavesdropping,
but shrewdly thought better of it. If Hume could influence the king
to pardon her brothers, he could also influence him to condemn
them. “It would be very kind of you to use your influence,
Alex.”
    ~~~
    Douglas slept in a small chamber with the two
English ladies she’d met on the road to Langley. Their husbands had
been assigned to a dormitory chamber reserved for men.
    On the morning they were all moving on to
Carlisle Castle, Douglas donned her leather riding clothes. She
carefully folded the blue brocade gown and an extra set of
undergarments, and put them into a bolster case. She arrived at the
stables early to retrieve Greystoke’s mare from the meadow that now
held over fifty horses.
    She put the problem of finding a saddle in
the capable hands of her cousin Will and by the time the king’s
cavalcade was ready to depart Langley, she had her garments and the
exquisite antique pendant tucked safely into her newly acquired
saddlebags.
    It’s only about thirty miles to Carlisle,
but I warrant it will take most of the day to get there. Though
Douglas dreaded encountering Lance Greystoke, and would have much
preferred going home to Castle Elliot, she knew in her heart that
she would do anything she could to get her brothers released. If
fortune favors us, I can ride home with Gavin and Rob.
    The closer she got to Carlisle, the more she
thought about Lancelot Greystoke. She had been in utter despair
until he had freed her. That