anymore advice. “All will be well. Dinna fret aboot my weddin’ night.”
“But ye are both like virgins!” Cain protested. “Ye need some help from men who—”
“Uncle,” Galeren cut him off, not wanting to hear of their prowess with his aunts and mother! “Both of us bein’ like virgins is all right with me. I like the idea of us teachin’ each other what is pleasin’.”
His father patted him on the back and smiled at him. “Let us go drink to yer upcomin’ nuptials and yer excellent skills.”
They walked to the solar in Torin’s manor house and drank their kin’s fine whisky. Among many other things, they discussed what to do when the high steward arrived.
“He doesna seem like the type to let this go,” Cain said. “We should kill him.”
“What aboot King David?” Tristan asked. “Will no help come from him?”
“No. None,” Galeren told them. “He can do little from where he is. Still, he willna kill us fer doin’ what must be done if John attacks.”
“The king will take your side?” Nicholas asked him.
“Aye.”
“How do you know for certain?”
“Because I’m friends with John on the king’s orders.”
All the men straightened in their chairs and stared at him.
“I mean, the king doesna trust his cousin, John. He never has. He is sure John had his hand in his capture and arrest at Neville’s Cross. He sent me to befriend his rash cousin and wait fer him to plot against his rival, David. That is what I have done.”
“Ye have been a spy fer nine years, learnin’ the high steward’s secrets?” his father asked, looking prouder than ever before.
“Three years, actually,” Galeren answered. “Before that, David was free. Once David was imprisoned, my role changed. I have learned much. The king calls his cousin a thief and a heartless, disloyal scoundrel. He is correct. John has his hand in the royal coffers. He robs the coin to pay killers to silence any Scots noblemen who comes against him. David knows aboot all of it because of me.”
“Why has David done nothin’ aboot it?” Cain asked. “Even if ’twas to order ye to kill him?”
“He wants John only after his cousin plots against him. John havin’ Silene killed willna cause the king to move. ’Tis murder, not treason. John could always come back somehow and become king.”
“Perhaps he won’t plot anything against the king at all. They are cousins, after all,” Nicholas offered.
Galeren shook his head. “Once he had the seat secured, he likely would have made his move against the king. I dinna care if we lost our chance, Silene wouldna make a promise to God to prove John wanted the throne, and I would never ask it of her.”
They all agreed, knowing the king might not share their sentiments. Silene might have the king against her as well as the high steward.
Would he put his kin in danger to protect her?
“We will leave,” he said.
“No, ye willna leave,” his father told him. His uncles agreed. “King David isna only yer friend. Most of yer cousins fought with or fer him. And we,” he motioned to himself and his brothers, “fought with his father, Robert the Bruce.”
“Aye,” Cain agreed. “But even if he still comes here—we will stand with ye, lad.”
“Ye have my gratitude,” Galeren said softly. He loved them. He didn’t want them to stand against the king. If David went against him, Galeren would take his wife and leave.
He prayed it didn’t happen.
“Son,” his father said, “tell us how ye stayed true to the king’s orders these years withoot some kind of friendship growin’ between ye and the steward.”
“Friendship did grow, but I can separate it from duty, save when it comes to my men. Fer them, our friendship comes before all else.”
“Rumor traveled as far as Invergarry,” said his uncle, Nicky, “that the high steward put you in charge of everything. He practically gave you his position.”
“’Tis true, he handed everythin’ to me, his army, even his children. That is why he canna muster his army against me and must hire a new one. My men willna fight me. Well, most of them. John didna completely trust me. He had one of his men implanted into my ranks. Morgann Bell. I found oot and tied him to a tree near Jamie Treskil’s cottage.”
“Jamie is in Perth visitin’ his brother.”
“Aye, as I later discovered. I saw Morgann alive after that and let him go free. Perhaps he went into the woods.”
“Fittin’ punishment fer a traitor,” one of them said.