Arsenic and Old Armor (37 page)

Together, they went to the window and looked
out. Marion was relieved to see Armstrong men, carrying torches,
pouring into the courtyard. Alan and Brother Luke were just
climbing down from their horses, and Iain called to them to come
into the great hall.

Marion glanced in the direction of her aunts
as Iain went to unbar the door. Jack was quiet, his eyes closed.
Margaret and Judith were smiling and stroking his hair.

The door to the great hall swung open, and
Marion saw Brother Luke and Alan rush in, swords drawn. Both men
stood speechless for a moment, and Marion looked around her. It was
definitely a startling scene.

Brother Luke, still holding his sword, began
to make the sign of the cross and murmur prayers in Latin.

Alan found his tongue quickly. “M’lord, the
English troops are not far behind. They arrived at Blackthorn Hall
in the middle of night looking for Sir George Harington.”

Brother Luke stopped praying and added,
“they didn’t know he was missing.”

“
They’re the troops that
were accompanying the Marquis of Dorset, but now he is missing,
too. Kidnapped from an inn on the south road.”

Both men’s gazes fell on the Englishman with
the nasty cut at his throat.

“
Meet the Marquis of
Dorset,” Iain told them.

Brother Luke wiped away the sweat forming on
his forehead. Alan’s face was grim.

“
Iain,” Luke said. “They
were claiming that it was Armstrong men—and perhaps even you—who
took Dorset from his rooms.”

“
All Jack Fitzwilliam’s
work.” Iain motioned to him next. The McCall sisters had laid his
head down and were rising to their feet.

Brother Luke pointed to Bane. “Who is
that?”

“
He called him David Bane.
He was Jack’s personal cardinal,” Marion told them.

“
David Bones, from the
village across the glen,” Luke said. “Oh, yes, I knew him. A
ne’er-do-well who never should have joined the abbey. He was tossed
out not long ago, I believe.”

“
We’re going to have a
reasonable explanation for all this before Dorset’s men arrive,”
Iain said. “How far are they behind you, would you say?”

“
Your mother was trying to
detain them for as long as she could,” Brother Luke told them. “But
they can’t be far behind.”

“
How are we going to
explain the bodies in the dungeon?” Marion broke in.

“
What bodies?” Alan
asked.

“
There are more bodies than
these three?” Brother Luke asked, shocked.

Some of the Armstrong men had come into the
great hall, and Margaret and Judith were greeting them and giving
them directions. Marion turned back to Iain.

“
I will explain everything
only once,” Iain told his uncle. “You can listen when I tell my
tale to Dorset’s commanders.”

“
Do you know what you’re
going to say?” Marion asked hopefully, turning as her uncle shouted
out the window at the newly arrived men. They appeared to be
cheering him on.

Margaret and Judith hurried over to speak to
Brother Luke.

“
You’ve come back for
supper, Brother Luke,” Margaret said excitedly.

“
But we have no supper
left,” Judith reminded her sister.

“
I am not here for your
hospitality tonight, my dear friends,” the portly monk
explained.

“
Very well,” Margaret said,
looking behind her before taking his arm. “Then perhaps you’d like
to pay your respects to the new earl.”

“
The new earl?” Marion
asked.

“
He’ll just be the earl for
a wee bit,” Aunt Margaret whispered to her.

“
We promised him,” Aunt
Judith added, pointing.

Marion and Iain turned and looked at Jack
Fitzwilliam, sitting in the earl’s armchair. David Bane was in a
chair to his left and Dorset in a chair to his right. It was a
macabre sight, and the Armstrong warriors who had followed the
aunts’ directions in putting them there stood by with sheepish
looks on their faces.

“
Lady Margaret, why is
David Bane there?” Iain asked.

“
Well,” Margaret explained,
“even though he was a drunk and a fraud, our nephew appeared to
take great comfort in his presence.”

“
Great comfort,” Judith
echoed.

The two women went over to the three corpses
and began arranging them carefully.

“
I have my explanation,”
Iain told Marion. “I know exactly what I’m going to
say.”

“
What will you
say?”

“
It is all Jack’s work. All
of it.”

“
Because he wanted to
become the McCall laird?”

“
That, and because he hated
the English. He wanted to stir up trouble and leave us to take the
blame.”

“
But what about the bodies
in the dungeons?” Marion asked.

“
I’ll tell them that ever
since the old earl died, Jack has been storing his murder victims
here. He was a madman who believed that Edward Longshanks is still
alive and invading Scotland. Somehow in his twisted mind, he came
to believe he was the son of William Wallace, and he was building
an army of dead turncoats.”

She looked over at Jack and his cardinal.
“And how did these two die?”

“
Jack bled to death of his
wounds and Bane died of a weak heart.”

“
What about the witnesses
at the inn?” she asked.

“
Those witnesses were
bought. That will be the easiest part. But it was still Jack’s
doing.”

Marion wanted to feel comfortable with these
answers, but she wouldn’t know until the English troops came and
went. She looked at her uncle as he waved his sword out the window
at the men and shouted, “Freedom!”

“
What are we going to do
with him when they get here?” she asked. “He can ruin all of
it.”

Iain paused. “We can take him to the abbey
at Cracketford. Now, before the English arrive. He won’t be too far
away, and he will be well cared for. And I can have Tom and John,
his two trusted men, accompany him there.”

Marion’s immediate response was relief. He
would be close, and she could make sure he was well cared for.

“
We have to try,” she told
Iain.

He seemed relieved, too. “I don’t think
we'll have any difficulty convincing Sir William, but those two may
be a different story.” He was looking at her aunts.

“
Perhaps I can help with
that,” Brother Luke said.

Pulling Margaret and Judith away from their
corpse arranging and into a corner of the great hall where they
could talk was a huge challenge. Somehow, though, Iain managed
it.

With Marion and Brother Luke beside him, it
made three of them versus two old ladies. He might have a chance,
he thought.

“
Lady Margaret, Lady
Judith, the time has come for Sir William to be moved to
Cracketford Abbey,” Brother Luke started without any
fanfare.

“
No, we are not dead yet,”
Margaret replied, shaking a finger at the clergyman.

“
Jack is dead, but we are
not,” Judith said cheerfully.

They didn’t have much time. Dawn was
breaking over the eastern sky. Iain decided to intervene. “Sir
William must go to the abbey today, before daybreak. We are not
waiting for anyone else to die.”

Both women turned to Marion. For the first
time, he realized, they seemed to think she was the only one who
could help them.

“
He is our baby brother,
Marion. We cannot be separated from him. Tell them they can’t take
him away,” Margaret urged.

“
Tell them. Tell them,”
Judith encouraged.

Marion put a hand on each woman’s arm. “You
saw what happened here tonight. There were uninvited guests, dead
bodies, weapons used. There will be English troops swarming into
our courtyard in a matter of an hour. Iain wants to move Sir
William from Fleet Tower because he is concerned for the Wallace’s
safety. They are after him.”

“
After William?” Margaret
asked, concerned.

“
He is not safe here?”
Judith asked.

Marion shook her head. “The word is out. The
English know about him, so they are coming after him. As his kin,
it is our responsibility to protect him. Don’t you agree?”

Both women nodded. She had their
attention.

“
We have to move him
now
, before the armies
arrive,” Marion repeated. “We cannot do that without your help. Sir
William won’t go anywhere without your blessing. So will you help
us?”

Margaret and Judith looked at each other.
There was some whispering between them. As always, the older sister
offered their decision. “We will help. But he will not be going
alone.”

“
Not alone,” Judith
agreed.

“
His two men, Tom and John,
will be accompanying him,” Iain repeated. “We don’t expect Sir
William to find his way to Cracketford Abbey alone.”

Both women shook their heads. Margaret
explained. “If he goes, then we are going, too.”

“
They have to take us,
too,” Judith insisted.

Iain saw Marion light up at her aunts’
words. She looked at Brother Luke. “Is there a convent attached to
Cracketford Abbey where my aunts could stay?”

“
Of course,” Luke replied.
“I know the Mother Superior very well. They will be extremely
pleased to have your aunts. And just think how close you all will
be. You can visit them anytime. I can visit them, too.”

“
That would be delightful,”
Margaret said cheerfully. “We can see Sir William and Brother Luke
every day.”

“
Every day,” Judith said
happily.

A stray thought darkened Margaret’s
expression. “But what would William do with his army? He has
invested a great deal of time in training them.”

“
A great deal of
time.”

“
I will take over their
training,” Iain quickly offered. “I will make sure they remain in
excellent fighting condition.”

The two sisters looked at each other and
again there was some whispering back and forth. Margaret looked up.
“Then it’s all settled.”

“
Settled,” Judith echoed
brightly.

Iain reached over and took his wife’s hand.
He heard Marion let out a sigh of relief.

“
When are we leaving?”
Margaret asked.

“
When?”

“
Right now,” Iain told
them. “You all need to go now, before the English
arrive.”

“
I will bring your things
over tomorrow,” Marion offered.

“
And I will travel with you
now to make sure all the arrangements are to your liking,” Brother
Luke offered.

Margaret and Judith reached over and took
each other’s hands. “We will have a new kitchen.”

“
There will be a new hall
to dine in.”

“
Lots of
visitors.”

“
Lots of Englishmen,”
Judith said excitedly.

“
No more Englishmen,”
Marion interrupted, looking seriously in each woman’s eyes. “No
more making wine. No helping William recruit for his army. Do you
understand?”

Margaret and Judith smiled at the laird.
They could no longer hear Marion’s words. “We are ready to go as
soon as your men are.”

Because of the time it took to resolve the
problems resulting from the deaths of the English emissaries, the
date of the ceremony was pushed back another fortnight.

The news of what happened spread on the
wings of birds throughout Scotland. As a result, the wedding at
Blackthorn Hall between the McCall and Armstrong heirs became a
much larger event than originally planned. More guests, including
clan chiefs from as far away as the Western Isles and Fife, started
arriving. Legends about a graveyard of English soldiers in the
dungeons of Fleet Tower began to spread, and Scotsmen far and wide
came to see the place and hear the story again.

Iain always made Jack out to be a hero and a
son of Scotland who, in his last days, unfortunately lost his way,
blinded by his own ambition. In the end, he would say, Jack
Fitzwilliam simply could not tell friend from foe.

To Marion, Scotland was all about heroes and
legends, and it set well with her for Jack to take his place among
them.

The wedding was to be a Scottish affair. To
Iain’s and Marion’s delight, the unwanted English guests carried
their fallen heroes southward. As Iain had foretold, the English
had their villain, and with Jack Fitzwilliam’s death and the
scattering of his band of outlaws, the English king would have to
be satisfied.

Now, however, with Marion’s aunts and uncle
settled at Cracketford Abbey, the young woman’s greatest worry was
her mother-in-law.

From the first moment of her arrival at
Blackthorn Hall, though, Marion had been pleasantly shocked to
discover Lady Elizabeth nothing but affectionate and likable. At
first, Marion could not understand the matriarch’s change of heart,
but Iain later confessed that he’d told his mother about Marion not
being true blood kin of the mad McCalls. As Marion could much
better understand now, the information had been a great relief to
the older woman.

The night before the ceremony, Marion was
surprised even more when her mother-in-law came into her bedchamber
with a dress the color of ivory over her arm.