Winter of Solace (The Executioner Knights Book 5)

by Kathryn Le Veque

  “Pembroke has indeed sent me, my lady,” he said. “I have come to speak with Rupert de Thorington’s daughter and get to the truth of the matter in this conflict. I promise I will not harass or molest her in any way. I will behave politely and appropriately. Will you allow me to see her?”

  Lady de Wrenville didn’t hesitate. She pushed through the door, nearly running to a small servant’s staircase that was hidden in an alcove in the corner of the keep. Hallam and Caius followed, trailing the woman up a ridiculously steep and small staircase. For a man of Caius’ bulk, it was difficult to maneuver. He hit his shoulders more than once and by the time they reached the top, he nearly had his head pushing through the low doorway.

  They were on the top level now, poorly lit on the windowless landing. Lady de Wrenville went to one of the doors, quietly knocked on it, and was admitted entrance. Caius could hear the bolt when it was thrown and they were drawn into a chamber, which was cold and dark but for the servant manning the door with a fat taper in her hand. Lady de Wrenville passed through the storage chamber and went to a second doorway. She knocked on that one, too, and announced herself.

  Slowly, the door opened.

  Even in the weak light, the first thing Caius saw was a woman of astounding beauty. Not just astounding; remarkable. Utterly remarkable beauty. She was wearing a garment that was too big for her because it was hanging off of her shoulders, which were magnificent, and it was too roomy around her torso. Her hair, which was blonde, was free flowing in a great golden mass that hung well past her waist.

  Truthfully, Caius wasn’t even listening to what Lady de Wrenville and Hallam were saying. They were having a conversation with each other, and with the exquisite woman in the baggy blue dress, but Caius wasn’t listening to any of it. He was staring at the woman as if he’d never before seen a woman in his life.

  Everything else around him seemed to fade away.

  “My lord?”

  Hallam was speaking to him. Or asking him a question. Caius didn’t even know, but he suddenly realized that Hallam was speaking to him and he tore himself away from the angelic vision and looked at Hallam, trying not to appear startled. Or foolish. If Hallam thought either of those things, he didn’t say anything. He gestured to the woman in the blue dress.

  “This is Lady Emelisse de Thorington,” he said. “Would you speak with her here or do you wish to take her elsewhere?”

  Caius’ gaze drifted back to the blue-clad woman, who was now looking at him with some fear. He gestured towards the chamber.

  “I will speak with her here,” he said. “You and Lady de Wrenville wait right outside this door, but I must insist on closing it. What I speak to her about will be in confidence.”

  Lady de Wrenville nodded, as did Hallam, and they stepped aside so that Caius could enter the chamber. As he stepped through, they closed the door.

  Now, Caius was alone with the woman who had so ably captured his attention. He’d never had a reaction like that to a woman in his life and was struggling to overcome it, but those efforts were thwarted when he looked at her again, now at close range, and found himself intrigued by eyes of sapphire blue.

  He couldn’t seem to look away.

  “My name is Sir Caius d’Avignon,” he said, sounding remarkably composed for all of the confusion he was experiencing. “I am a commander in the arsenal of William Marshal and I have been sent here to discover the truth behind the hostilities between Covington de Wrenville and Rupert de Thorington. My position at this point is neutral but you should know that I have been sent with the intent on supporting Baron Darliston’s army in this situation if I decide he needs The Marshal’s support. I realize this has been a difficult time, my lady, but if you would be so kind as to answer my questions, I will try to finish this as quickly as possible.”

  Emelisse was gazing up at him with those dark blue eyes. She wasn’t short for a woman. In fact, she was rather tall and busty in spite of the loose dress, but he was so tall that she ended up craning her neck back simply to look at him.

  “I will answer what I can, my lord,” she said in a voice that was deep and sultry. “I swear upon my mother’s grave that I will tell you the truth, as I know it.”

  Caius indicated a chair near the hearth. There was only one chair, so when she sat down obediently, he took up position a few feet away from her. Emelisse sat there, trying to keep the neckline of that too-big dress up from slipping too low. She wasn’t very discreet about it, so Caius finally indicated the dress.

  “That garment does not belong to you,” he said.

  Emelisse shook her head, looking down at herself. “It does not,” she said. “The clothing I came to Winterhold in is being cleaned. Lady de Wrenville has loaned this to me until my clothing can be returned. It was very kind of her. She has been kind, my lord.”

  She was letting him know that the wife of her captor was treating her well, but her tone also suggested that Lady de Wrenville had been the only one at Winterhold who had been kind. Considering she was a prisoner of war, Caius wasn’t surprised. He continued.

  “I am told that the army from Winterhold was able to breach part of Hawkstone today,” he said. “You and your father were brought here as prisoners. Is this true?”

  Emelisse nodded, trying to be brave in the face of the devastating reality of the question. “Aye,” she said. “I was in the great hall tending our wounded when the Winterhold army broke through and was unable to retreat to safety before they captured me. My father and I were taken prisoner while my brother held the keep. As far as I know, he still holds it, and if you have any intention of forcing me to tell my brother to surrender the keep, know that I will not. I will jump from this window before I tell Caspian anything.”

  Caius could see that she was already becoming agitated, clearly emotional about the situation. He put up his hand.

  “I have no intention of forcing you to do anything, especially not where Hawkstone is concerned,” he said. “But I would like for you to tell me, in your own words, what has happened between your father and Covington de Wrenville.”

  Emelisse was blinking back tears, struggling with her composure. “May I ask you a question first?”

  “What is that?”

  “What have you heard about the troubles?”

  Caius pondered that question before answering. “I would rather you tell me,” he said. “I do not want to influence your answer what with I know.”

  It was a fair statement and not a cruel one, but she sighed and hung her head, giving Caius a moment to study her unimpeded. Already, he could feel his sympathies being pulled towards her purely because of her beauty, and that was a very stupid reason.

  He knew that.

  The Britannia Viper wasn’t given to weaknesses like pity.

  … wasn’t he?

  “It all started three years ago, my lord,” she finally said, breaking into his thoughts. “It all seems so long ago, yet it really wasn’t. It was only three short years ago. Our lands are northeast of here, sixteen miles to be exact, and we have unique features to our property. Coal is near the surface, as it is in many places in these parts, but we have a hill on our property that rises up out of the flatlands. It is covered in trees and limestone cliffs, with ponds and waterfalls and strange rock formations. The Welsh believe our lands to be full of magic, but the truth is that they are not. There is no real magic on them except for their beauty. The River Roden borders our lands and three years ago, men hired by my father to mine some of the coal deposits found two big diamonds. Did you hear about that? Most people in England have.”

  Caius had been mesmerized by her smooth, seductive voice, almost realizing too late that she was asking him a question. He nodded.

  “The Roden Twins?” he said. “Aye, I have heard.”

  Emelisse looked up at him, her emotions for the moment under control. “The men brought the diamonds to my father,” she said. “We went back with more men and mined the area, but there were no more. We never fo
und any. But somehow, word got out about diamonds on our property and people came from all over to dig up our lands. That was the beginning of the trouble because shortly thereafter, my father received a missive from Covington de Wrenville, asking to enter into negotiations for a marital contract between me and his son, Marius. My father refused. Within a few weeks, the first of the harassment from Baron Darliston began.”

  Caius had heard all of this from Edward, so she wasn’t telling him anything he hadn’t already heard. She was simply confirming what Edward had told him.

  “So you believe a spurned marriage offer started all of this?” he asked.

  Emelisse shrugged wearily. “It never even occurred to me until today,” she said. “De Wrenville brought it up as I lay tied up on the floor of his great hall, begging to tend my dying father. He’s dead, you know. My father, I mean. De Wrenville’s physic said he choked on his own blood.”

  Caius simply nodded, the disturbing details of her capture and her father’s death becoming apparent. She lowered her head again and as he watched, her shoulders began to gently heave as the silent sobs finally came. She’d been brave until this point, but no longer.

  Truth be told, he didn’t blame her in the least.

  “Covington de Wrenville and his bastard son have been harassing us for three long years,” she wept. “We never knew why. They never told us. They never sent any word or demands or anything. All they sent were men to burn our villages, kill our vassals, burn our forests, and attack our home. My father was a good man, my lord, I swear it. He loved his family and his home. He never hurt anyone if he could help it. He did not deserve to die the way he did. He did not deserve any of it.”

  She was sobbing into her hand by that point and Caius let her. That pity he’d been feeling for her was back with a vengeance. It was everything he’d been told and worse; worse because now, the contention between Winterhold and Hawkstone had a face in the form of Lady Emelisse de Thorington. She had humanized the conflict. A seemingly bright, beautiful woman harassed by a greedy warlord. Her father was dead because of it.

  But her brother still held the keep.

  He wanted to talk to the brother, too.

  All of this was such a delicate situation, made worse now because if what he’d heard was true, and he’d heard it from more than one person, then it was Covington de Wrenville causing all of the problems. A greedy, ruthless lord with a son who was close to the king.

  And a wife who was close to William Marshal.

  God, how did I get myself into this position?

  “I am sorry for your loss,” he said after a moment. “But there is something else I must ask you, my lady. Are you, or have you at any time been, loyal to France?”

  Her head shot up, tears streaming down her face but fury suddenly in her expression. “Of course not,” she said. “Lady de Wrenville asked me the same thing and I will tell you what I told her – my father has always been loyal to England. He has never even been to France. Even when he returned from Richard’s Crusade, he said that his ship sailed from Tripoli and did not even dock until Gibraltar. It stopped in Bilbao and then on to Plymouth. I remember he told me that specifically because he ate strange food in Bilbao that made him ill the rest of the journey. He’s never set foot in France!”

  Caius knew that would be her answer. This whole situation was just so ridiculous, so perpetuated by Covington, that Caius believed her without question.

  “And your brother?” he asked.

  She shook her head, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “Caspian has been to France, but he is not loyal to the king,” she said. “There is a nice Welsh girl he wishes to marry, so if anything, he has some sympathy for the Welsh. He has no interest in politics or French kings.”

  “And you have no husband or suitor that could be in question?”

  “No husband and no suitor,” she said. “I am not loyal to France, either, if that is your next question.”

  Caius knew she wasn’t married or betrothed, but he wanted to hear it from her. He was rather pleased that she confirmed it, though he shouldn’t have been. He shouldn’t have cared, but stupidly, he did. A little.

  Idiot!

  “That was going to be my next question, actually,” he said. “Thank you for being truthful with me.”

  She was gazing up at him with those big, blue eyes. Where there had been anger and sorrow only seconds before, now he saw fear again.

  “What will happen now?” she asked. “You said that you brought an army to support de Wrenville against Hawkstone. Is that what you intend to do?”

  His black eyes glittered at her in the weak light of the chamber. “It is a decision I will have to make at some point,” he said. “Your answers have helped me with the information I need to make the right one.”

  It was an answer without giving her any real answer at all. Caius was clever that way. But Emelisse realized he’d dodged the question and she took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm.

  “My lord, I beg you,” she said quietly. “If you support anyone, let it be Hawkstone. We have done nothing wrong and were set upon by an aggressive, greedy neighbor. He has made our lives hell for the past three years, beating down what was once a beautiful and peaceful domain. I… I wish you could have seen Hawkstone three years ago, before all of this happened. We had herds of black sheep to feed and clothe our people, and great gardens to grow vegetables. There were fowl that made their home in the moat of our castle. Oh, I realize the moat is for defense, but in the years my family has lived there, we’d hardly had any need to raise our drawbridge. In fact, the chains were rusted open when Winterhold began their attacks. They destroyed this peaceful beauty and never once told us why. It was truly… heartbreaking. Won’t you please help us?”

  He listened to her gentle plea, feeling the angst and pain radiating from her. She seemed so bewildered by it all, helpless to fight back against a tyrannical neighbor that was stronger, militarily, against her peaceful home.

  Truth be told, he could have scolded her on allowing the defenses of Hawkstone to grow so lax. He could have told her how foolish it was for her father to have allowed his castle, built for protection, to become a place of serenity and peace. From a man who had seen much battle and death in his lifetime, he could have told her all of this, but he refrained. It didn’t matter now, anyway.

  What mattered was how to fix the situation and he had a lot to say on the subject, but not to her.

  He had to speak with Edward.

  “Thank you for being open with me, my lady,” he said. “I must depart now, but I will return and we will speak again at a later time.”

  That answer seemed to discourage her. It was emotionless and noncommittal, which gave her no comfort. She averted her gaze and her shoulders slumped.

  “Thank you, my lord,” she said quietly. “May I ask something more of you?”

  “What is that?”

  She took a deep breath for courage. “My father,” she said. “I do not know what has become of him. I am afraid they will throw him in that stinking moat and that is a horrible ending for so fine a man. Would it be possible to send him back to Hawkstone for burial? My mother is buried at Whitchurch, close to Hawkstone. It was his wish that he should be, also.”

  Caius watched her lowered head, thinking that Edward was probably already demanding that de Thorington’s body be brought to him, although he couldn’t help but remember that when they crossed over the bridge spanning the interior moat, there was a fresh body floating in it. He sincerely hoped it wasn’t de Thorington. But her request to send him back to Hawkstone, which was currently under siege, made her request impossible at the moment.

  He didn’t have the heart to tell her.

  “I will see what I can do, my lady,” he said. “If there is nothing else, I shall take my leave of you.”

  She silently shook her head, still looking at her lap, and Caius quit the chamber.

  There was something in her beaten manner that infuriated h
im.

  He was a knight, and a damned good one, and part of the knight’s oath was to protect the weak and innocent. That was exactly what he saw before him in Lady Emelisse de Thorington – the weak and the innocent. It was true that her beauty had been the first thing that had endeared her to him, but speaking with her, even briefly, had opened his eyes to a few things, not the least of which was Covington’s lies and appetite for things that did not belong to him. A man who had grandiose dreams and would stop at nothing to achieve them.

  There were bigger problems here than they’d all realized.

  He had to get to Edward.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “And that is everything she told me,” Caius said. “After speaking to her, it is my inclination not to allow Covington de Wrenville access to The Marshal’s army. In fact, I want to speak to the brother and hear what he has to say about all of this. It seems to me that the cause of all the issues is de Wrenville and his insatiable greed for his neighbor’s property. Denying him the betrothal between Lady Emelisse and his son was only the beginning. The man is as rotten as his moat.”

  They were in a small chamber in the knights’ quarters, a two-storied stone structure in the outer bailey of Winterhold. It was nearly white-out conditions outside as the snow that had so gently started upon their arrival was now whipping out of control. Ropes had been set up between various out buildings to the great hall so men would not become lost in the white tempest. Even now, Caius stood by the closed shutters of the chamber, feeling them heave with the force of the wind outside.

  A right and proper winter storm had descended.

  Inside the small chamber, it was stale and warm from coal burning in a tiny hearth as the fumes escaped up the chimney. It was Caius, Maxton, Edward, Peter, Morgan, Kevin, Gareth, and young William all crowded inside, with Edward sitting on the bed as the others stood around.

  This was their private meeting before proceeding into the great hall where a feast of epic proportions was being prepared, because no one was sure the direction the feast would take. There was already contention between Edward and Covington, so it could end with outright hostilities. Therefore, they chose to discuss what everyone had discovered beforehand to make sure there were no surprises.