Free Amanda Scott - [Border Trilogy Two 02] by Border Lass

him to ask why. Experience warned him though that Archie the Grim would choose what to tell him, and when.
    Accordingly, he practiced patience as he nodded to acquaintances but encouraged none to stop for conversation. Not only would the gillie expect to find him where he’d left him when he brought his horse, but it would also be easier for Douglas to find him if he stayed in one place. When he realized that his erstwhile guide had melted into the crowd, he knew he had judged the situation correctly.
    Minutes later, hearing his name shouted in stentorian tones, he turned to see the earl striding toward him as other men stepped quickly out of his path.
    Archie the Grim, known far and wide as the Black Douglas because of his dark complexion and darker eyes, was an inch or two shorter than Garth. His black hair, worn long and free in the fashion of his youth, had acquired flecks of silver but was still darker than that of most dark-haired men who could boast of living sixty years, as he had. His figure was long-limbed and lanky, his shoulders stooped with age, but his manner was brisk, and he wore his great power with easy assurance.
    Looking sternly sober, as always, he put out his right hand and gripped Garth’s firmly as he clapped him on the back with his left. “ ’Tis glad I am to see you, lad,” he said. “How have you been keeping yourself?”
    “Well, my lord, I thank you,” Garth said.
    “I warrant you must be heading back to Perth now, as I am.”
    “I am, aye.”
    “Then you’ll ride with me for a time.”
    Minutes later, Garth was riding beside Archie at the head of Archie’s large fighting tail. Archie considered it a measure of his importance that he rarely traveled with fewer than a hundred men, and despite the lack of housing for large retinues in Perth, Garth knew that Archie would think a smaller one unreasonable.
    He also knew from experience that the Douglas rode fast. Archie and his men nearly always thundered across the countryside with banners waving, even in darkness. After all, few Borderers minded riding at night. Their ponies were nimble and used to long distances. Therefore, fast travel was common to Border life.
    Tonight, though, Archie kept his mount to a near walk. When he signed brusquely to his tail to fall well behind, Garth realized their conversation would be strictly private and hoped he had not done anything to draw Archie’s ire.
    “I’ve had news,” the earl said bluntly. “But first, have you learned aught that we did not know before?”
    “Very little, my lord,” Garth admitted. “I had thought I’d tracked our quarry to his lair, because I met one of Will’s men from Danzig, who told me Ben Haldane had taken service with Sir John Edmonstone of that Ilk.”
    “Our Isabel’s so-unsatisfactory new husband,” Douglas said. “Aye, well, I agreed to that arrangement, and sithee, Edmonstone was a crusader himself, so he might take a man claiming a like past into his household without question.”
    “Aye, but no one at Edmonstone knew aught of Haldane,” Garth said.
    “I ken fine that I’ve asked you before,” Archie said, shooting him a look from under dark, bushy eyebrows. “But are you sure you heard the name right?”
    “I am,” Garth said, taking no offense. “Will was in great pain and near the end when I came upon him, but he recognized me. His men were chasing those of his attackers who’d run off, so I knelt to see if I could aid him. He called me by name, sir, and he gripped my hand. As clearly as I’m speaking now, he said, ‘It was Haldane, Gar. Send him to hell for me.’ I found only a few men afterward who knew the name, but they all assured me that Haldane had returned to Scotland from Danzig nearly a sennight before, after a minor disagreement with Will.”
    “I believe all of that,” Douglas said. “But you know as well I do that Will’s own lads say it was English Cliffords who attacked them. They said the battle was fast and