Disorderly Knights - Dorothy Dunnett [175]
‘And will she?’
‘Occasionally,’ said Lymond, and displacing a Scott son (or grandson) sat down himself. ‘When it suits me, and not when it suits the Queen Dowager or Gabriel.… How is Peter Cranston’s romance, Janet?’
‘There’s tact for ye, Janet,’ said Janet’s spouse with approval. ‘There she is, heaving like a burstit horse tae get her word in. It’s not about Peter Cranston—oh, he and the Donati woman are that thick it’s no decent—but Sybilla could do with a visit. Richard keeps on at her about you and Gabriel quarrelling, and Joleta’s pining, and Masterly ate something he shouldna and died.’
Masterly was Lady Culter’s beloved cat, and his end was recounted to a pattern of screams from the elder Lady of Buccleuch. ‘Wat Scott, ye big-mouthed auld thief. That was my news!’
Well, ye were too slow. Ye’ve a mouth like the West Bow. Use it!’ said her husband complacently.
Will Scott’s curious gaze hadn’t left Lymond. ‘It wasn’t news anyway,’ he said to his stepmother. ‘Francis has called at Midculter and seen Sybilla—isn’t that right?’
‘Two days ago. I presided over Masterly’s funeral and dodged the doting Joleta,’ said Lymond. ‘I gather they’ve sent for Philippa Somerville to entertain the child.’
Will Scott grinned. ‘Aye. I’ve to pick her up at Liddel Keep on May Day and escort her the rest of the way to Midculter, avoiding you like the glengore.’
The ominous sparkle suddenly became a flame. ‘Who says?’
‘Your madcap ox. Gabriel. He called at Kincurd once, about Christmas, when he was benighted, and Grizel took him in and gave him a meal like I’ve never had before or since,’ said Will Scott with resentment. ‘He still calls in whiles, and she feeds him as if he’s about to faint on the altar steps.’
‘It brings out the mother in her,’ offered Buccleuch senior unwisely.
‘Then bad cess to it. The mother gets brought out in Grizel Beaton already as if some folk were crazy,’ snapped Grizel’s sister Janet and glared as her menfolk went into peals of stupid laughter. ‘And why, pray, is Francis Crawford supposed to avoid Philippa?’
‘She’s out, I gather, to do him some damage. Flaw Valleys was a long time ago, Francis. You’d think she’d have come to her senses?’
‘Coming to your senses is no asset in dealing with the Crawfords,’ said Janet grimly. ‘What’s all this Will tells us of you visiting the Kerrs?’
‘The Kerrs?’ It was news, evidently, to Buccleuch. The shrewd eyes, hooded by the vast grey brows, stared at Lymond. ‘Visiting the ailing poor, are ye?’
‘Janet, you blessed fool,’ said her stepson uneasily. ‘I told you not to let the old man hear it.’
Janet stared back at him coldly. ‘I’ll hide any little murder you choose, but not commerce with the Kerrs. Your Da scents that out for himself like a rat after meat. You know that.’
From across the room, Buccleuch and Francis Crawford were staring at one another. Lymond said slowly, ‘I have been trying to persuade them, as I tried to induce you, to drop your family feud.’
Wat Scott of Buccleuch rose to his feet. Aged before his time by hard living and hard fighting and a lifetime of Court machinations, he could still draw himself up like a bear, beard jutting, command in every gnarled joint. ‘You presumed, ye brassy-necked jackanapes, to beg a truce of the Kerrs on my behalf?’
Francis Crawford stayed where he was. But he kept his gaze on Buccleuch, a cold, impersonal gaze that caused Janet to shiver suddenly and draw her youngest child close. ‘Beg, Wat?’ Lymond said. ‘An axe doesn’t need to beg. I have told him that the next Scott or Kerr to die in the cause of this feud will be avenged by St Mary’s, not by the injured family. The same applies to every house on the Borders terrified to ask legal justice. I mean to break this crazy hermetic chain of slaughter, and I will.’
There was a brief silence. Then Buccleuch laughed, although between the curling grey whiskers his skin was purple; a deep, growling laugh with a grim note in it. ‘Meddle with me, laddie, and your axe’ll be blunt before summer,’ he said. ‘The Scott family fights its own wars.’
‘I know. It’s easier than