Page 43 of Wild Hearts

She had a town house full of servants; all she had to do was find it. Dawn was turning the sky pink as she slipped from the stables and walked down the back street. As she walked on, she noticed how decrepit the buildings were becoming. She had walked for a half hour now, and everything was windowless and black with the grime of centuries The downstairs level of every hovel was some sort of a business. Gin shops beckoned alongside pawnbrokers and old clothes shops. Peddlers were beginning to fill the streets, offering everything from herrings to dead men's boots. She noticed boys running around almost naked. She was barefoot and saw with amazement that everyone else was, too. There weren't many women about, just a few drabs reeling home, still drunk from the whisky cellars they'd slept the night away in, with God knows what paying customers. This was what had killed her mother the slow death of poverty. Then and there she swore it would not happen to her.

Alexandria had told her where the town house was. She walked down the Royal Mile, past St.. Giles Church and into the Cannongate. The houses were very grand in this section. They were narrow but rose up many stories high. On the wall of each house was the crest and coat of arms of its owner. She stopped to examine a swan with two necks. No, that was not the right one. There it was! A lion rising from a coronet. It was the Cockburn crest, and above it was the Earl of Ormistan's coat of arms, showing Castle Tantallon.

She ran up the steps and banged heavily upon the front door. The housekeeper, who had only just arisen from bed, answered the summons slowly. She was a good woman, but at the moment her plain features showed her annoyance to have a caller at this ungodly hour. She opened the door, saw the young girl in the boy's shabby clothes and said, "Get away, we want no beggars here."

"Beggar? Beggar?" flared Tabrizia, throwing up her head as if she were a queen. "My good woman, I happen to be the daughter of the Earl of Ormistan. Stand aside instantly."

The woman looked doubtful. She looked down at the bare feet and said, "The earl hasna got a daughter."

Tabrizia pushed past her lightly. "I certainly don't intend to stand on the doorstep and argue with a servant. You must be blind, woman, if you can't see that I'm a Cockburn." She waved her hand as if to dismiss the open-mouthed woman.

"Oh, before you go, I'll need a message sent to Tantallon to tell my father I'm at the town house, and in the meantime you can send a maid up with hot water for my bath, and you can tell the cook I'll have warm scones and honey for breakfast. Be a dear and bring it up for. me."

The house was very unfamiliar to her, but common sense told her that staircases led to bedchambers. The very first door she opened turned out to be a bedroom. She slipped inside and sagged against the door in relief. She had pulled it off, and it had been quite simple, really. It was all in the attitude. Rogue Cockburn had been right. If you acted like a doormat, the world would wipe its feet on you! After she had bathed and eaten, she locked the door from the inside and climbed into bed naked. She was asleep in minutes.

Paris Cockburn was up at dawn. This was an important day for all the people of the castle, as well as the villagers who lived on Cockburn land; all were shown appreciation for their loyalty and hard work during the year past. He also had to take the Oath of Allegiance from everyone in the clan, in which they knelt before him and swore, "So may God help me as I shall support thee. I swear and hold up my hand to obey, defend and serve thee as long as my life lasts and if needs be, die for thee."

The castle yard and the grassy slope outside it were beginning to fill with merrymakers. Oxen and sheep were being roasted on huge spits over open fires, and stacked barrels of homemade ale were ready to be tapped. Fiddlers and pipers were tuning up for the dancing, and the children ran around, their hands filled with apples and butterscotch toffee.

Paris was looking forward to the festivities in hopes that he would be able to coax Tabrizia into a warmer mood toward him. He would beg her forgiveness for what happened at Tantallon and tell her how much he loved her.

He was surprised to see Lord Lennox arrive so early, but when he asked Paris if he could have a word in private, Paris guessed it was about Venetia. They went into the gun room next to the men's barracks. Lennox didn't beat about the bush.

"I'd like your sister Venetia for my wife, Paris, if you have no objections to joining our two families."

"None whatever. There are advantages in it for both of us, David."

Lennox thought Cockburn would drive a hard bargain and demand a heavy bride-price for his sister. "My problem is cash flow, Paris, so I will have to let you have a piece of land instead."

Paris, in a magnanimous frame of mind, asked, "Don't you have a nice manor house in Midloathian?"

"Aye," nodded David Lennox, "but 'tis heavily mortgaged," he admitted.

"Put it in Venetia's name, and I will pay off the mortgage," Paris offered rather generously.

"Ye jest, man!" exclaimed Lennox, surprised and relieved.

"No, I am serious. Let's shake on it, and we can have the legal papers drawn up in Edinburgh next week."

Lennox couldn't believe his good luck and went off happily to find Venetia, silently thanking whoever had put Rogue Cockburn in such a generous mood.

Paris had just begun to tap the first barrels of home-brewed ale for his men when Magnus, with only two escorts, thundered into the courtyard. Poor Margaret had been left a mile back with the rest of his men. He sought out Paris immediately and had hardly dismounted before he started shouting.

"You must think I'm old and daft, and by God I must be to let you hoodwink me, you bloody rogue. I've only just put two and two together and realized the bride you are holding for ransom is none other than my daughter. Well, if you think I'll let you get away with this, y'er dafter than I. I've come to take her home where she belongs," he shouted.

"Magnus, calm down. Come up to the family quarters where we can discuss things over a drink," said Paris.

"I demand to see my daughter!"

"As you wish, Magnus. Ah, there's Alexandria. Sweetheart, ask Tabrizia to come up to the solarium, will you?"

"I can't find her, Paris. She's missing all the fun."

"She will be with Damascus or Venetia. Be a good girl and find her for me."

"She's free to come and go as she wishes?" Magnus asked skeptically.

"For God's sake, Magnus, she's a young lass. Do ye suppose I'm keeping her a prisoner?"

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