‘Yes, my lord. A missive has been sent to notify you about our troubles.’
‘I received no such thing,’ he said curtly. ‘And my wife? Is she...is she well?’
It seemed so long since their parting and now Hugh had to wait to see her.
‘She is, my lord, and is inside the castle. She will be glad of your unexpected arrival.’
Balvoire flicked something off his surcoat. ‘Yes, it is a shame that Lady Eleanor won’t be attending. With the public hanging of such a notorious criminal she really should do so—especially in your absence. Well, never mind... Now you’re here, my lord.’
Hugh glared at him. ‘Lord Balvoire, can you explain to me why you feel you can march into Tallany and throw your weight around like this?’
‘I’m only doing my duty, my young lord, as a good neighbour should—especially with all the difficulties here whilst you were away,’ he said wryly. ‘And anyway, you will remember that the King asked us to work together.’
‘Not like this,’ Hugh said through clenched teeth, reining in his anger. ‘I thank you for your assistance whilst I have been away on the King’s business, but this is a matter for me—not you.’
‘Oh, you are full of self-importance, are you not?’ Balvoire chuckled softly. ‘And I disagree. This is a matter for all of us.’
Hugh dismounted and strode to the dais, growling as he climbed one step at a time until he was towering over the much shorter man. ‘Once again you overstep your authority, Balvoire, coming into Tallany like this. Just as you did before in my hall. But, by God, no more.’
‘You have much to learn, Hugh de Villiers,’ he sneered.
‘Not from you.’ Hugh jerked his head around and nodded at Eustace Le Moyne, the new steward, and a few of his retainers. ‘Escort Lord Balvoire and his men off Tallany, Le Moyne.’
‘Yes, my lord.’
He watched as Edmund Balvoire climbed down from the dais. Just as he did so, arrow after arrow hissed through the air, striking as if randomly and yet hitting inanimate objects with absolute accuracy from different directions. Incredibly, the deluge of flying arrows did not strike a single person, but the situation was enough of a diversion to create chaos and everyone dispersed.
Then the outlaw Anselm freed his hands from the rope binding them and punched one of the guards in the face. Damn! The villagers were seemingly helping the prisoner escape into the woods and doing nothing to stop him.
All this had happened in a matter of moments and mayhem ensued.
Hugh turned to Will. ‘Catch him and bring him back—but I don’t want anyone hurt.’
He turned his head and narrowed his eyes. The arrows had come from many directions, but he suspected only a handful of archers had fired them. Yet there was only one of note. One from a particular angle. One who had shot the most and the fastest arrows. One who had to be the leader. And Hugh knew without hesitation who that must be...
Le Renard.
This time Hugh would get him.
This time the outlaw would not get away from him so easily.
Chapter Twenty-One
It had all happened so quickly. Eleanor had knelt very still, perched high under the branches of an old oak tree chosen for its strategic position and also to conceal her with its expanse of foliage. She had sucked in her breath and nervously tied Le Renard’s mask around her eyes and face, hoping that every single one of her outlaws was now in position to play his part in bringing about Anselm’s freedom. An outcome which was anything but assured.
Eleanor had watched as Anselm was led out to the gallows by Father Thomas and taken a few more breaths, knowing that the time had come. Father Thomas would have slipped a small blade into Anselm’s bound hands before he gave the last rites. She’d hoped to God that there would be enough time for Anselm to cut through the rope.
A few of her men had perched in trees surrounding the area and another handful had made their way into the crowd, blending in with the villagers whilst all eyes followed the prisoner.
She’d watched with bated breath as Anselm was led out towards the gallows...but suddenly a pounding of hooves from a different direction made Eleanor turn her head.
Her breath had caught in her throat.
Hugh...? Could it have been?
Oh, Lord, it was Hugh, and he had returned safely to Tallany. Her heart had jumped for joy. He was finally back home. She’d felt like climbing down from the tree and throwing herself into his arms... But, no, she had a job to do.
And she would use this intervention, knowing it would allow her a little more time to put her plans in motion.
She’d moved into range, gripping her arrow tightly and nocking it to her bowstring. She steadied herself, knowing she would have to strike with absolute precision.
The voices at ground level had been drowned out by the rampant beating of her heart. She had felt a tiny bead of moisture on her forehead but had no time to brush it away.
She’d waited for a sign from one of the outlaws in position that Anselm had indeed cut through the ropes that bound his hands.
She would play her part in causing mayhem, helping Anselm to safety.
There was a flash of something in the distance and Eleanor had known it was her sign—the discreet way her outlaws wordlessly communicated with each other.
It was time to act.
She’d struck arrow after arrow with breathtaking precision, sending them flying through the air in different directions, aiming for a wooden post or the branch of another tree. Two of her men had followed suit, adding to the confusion.
She had known the villagers below were intent on aiding the prisoner’s escape, and even the Tallany guards seemed reluctant to recapture him. Only Hugh and his men had thrown themselves into the fray.
Eleanor had smiled as she watched Anselm pull a woollen hood over his head—a similar hood to those worn by every other man around him—before getting away into the woods.
She’d hoped they would all get to safety as quickly. Her smile fell away from her lips and she exhaled, her relief keenly felt.
But this was anything but over, and it was time for her to slip away.
* * *
Hugh ran in the direction of where the most arrows had been struck from. He located a tree he suspected had concealed the outlaw, looking above into its branches, but Le Renard had once again disappeared...or had he?
Hugh heard some swishing noises, looked up, and made out a figure swinging from tree to tree ahead in the woods.
Le Renard! It had to be.
Hugh followed on foot and unexpectedly found Eleanor’s grey palfrey tethered to a tree. No doubt she was here, waiting for her friend, but there was no sign of her or The Fox.
Hugh groaned in frustration. He couldn’t have got away, again, especially without a horse. So, where in God’s name was the outlaw?
He stroked the palfrey’s soft muzzle absently, looking around in every direction, when suddenly something fell onto the horse. Hugh looked up to find that he was face to face with Le Renard himself.
‘Greetings, my lord. Thank you for keeping my horse company.’
Le Renard shoved Hugh and grabbed at the reins, pulling the animal to try and get away hastily.
But Hugh was too quick for the outlaw and somehow managed to hurl himself on top of the moving animal, sitting behind The Fox and getting elbowed for his troubles.
Le Renard applied pressure to the flank of the horse with his legs, making it sprint faster, weaving briskly through the woods.
‘Damned impudence! Slow down, boy.’
‘No!’
Le Renard careered ahead at breakneck speed, evidently knowing the woods extremely well as he pulled the reins in every direction and missed flying branches. But Hugh now knew them well too, and it seemed the outlaw was going back to the small dilapidated hut he had follow
ed Eleanor and Claymore to before.
Hugh had to think of something. He couldn’t reach his sword belt, lodged underneath him, but he managed to filch a dagger from the back of the outlaw’s belt. He pushed himself to a sitting position and coiled his arms around Le Renard, pointing the tip of the weapon to the outlaw’s neck.
‘I swear if you don’t stop I’ll—’
‘Cut me from my neck to my navel?’
The voice of Le Renard seemed different...feminine—in fact it sounded remarkably like Eleanor’s... But that was not possible. His ears must be deceiving him.
He gave his head a shake, hoping to clear it.
It couldn’t be her...
‘It is me, Hugh.’
‘Eleanor?’ he said, almost falling off the horse. ‘It can’t be!’
‘I’m afraid that it is.’
‘I... I don’t believe it,’ Hugh muttered. ‘You must be a decoy for him.’
Le Renard, or rather Eleanor, sighed. ‘No, I don’t think so.’
‘How? How can this be?’
‘Please...let’s get away from here and I can explain everything.’
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hugh glanced around the small, unassuming hut as he leant against the wooden table with his arms folded. His eyes flicked back to Eleanor, dressed in green hose and tunic with a rope around her waist. He opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again. He had so much to say, so much he wanted to know, that it was difficult to know where to start.
She was dressed as Le Renard, for the love of God.
No, she was Le Renard!
‘I find this hard to believe,’ he said finally. ‘Any of this.’
‘I know.’ She nodded.
‘But you...? You are and have been Le Renard?’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘All this time?’
‘I realise it’s not how a lady should behave.’
‘That,’ he said, ‘is an understatement.’
‘Precisely—no one would ever believe it. No one would ever believe a woman to be capable. In all honesty, people see what they want to see.’ She shrugged.
‘Is that what this is about? You showing off your prodigious talents?’
‘No, of course not. This is nothing to do with my being an unnatural woman.’
‘You seem natural enough to me, Eleanor—and that’s not the issue,’ he ground out. ‘It is the fact that you lied to me.’
‘I know, but it was never intentional. I wanted to tell you...’
‘And yet you didn’t.’ He narrowed his gaze.
‘I tried to.’
‘Oh, yes?’ He tilted his head. ‘When exactly was that, my lady?’
‘In Winchester.’
True, he hadn’t wanted to listen to anything she might have said about Le Renard, but then never in his wildest imagination could he have believed that she would be telling him this. That his wife was in actual fact the outlaw he had been seeking all this time.
What an idiot he had been...
There was a subdued lull for a moment, before Eleanor broke the silence.
‘I had better get out of these clothes.’
‘You keep them here?’
She nodded. ‘The last time I was here I left a dress.’ She moved towards the coffer in the corner of the room and started to undress, slipping into a plain grey dress. ‘Can you help me with the laces?’
With deft fingers Hugh helped tie the laces on her dress. ‘That must have been the night I followed you,’ he said from behind her.
‘Yes.’
The night Hugh had been consumed with jealousy and hurt by her betrayal. Yes, he was a damnable idiot...
‘You gave me your word that you wouldn’t meet with the outlaws again.’
‘I couldn’t stand by and allow an innocent man to die.’
Hugh bit back a smile. ‘Commendable sentiment, sweetheart, but your friend is far from innocent. Anselm’s an outlaw, for heaven’s sake.’
‘We were never just your ordinary run-of-the-mill outlaws.’
‘You surprise me.’ He gave her a perceptive look. ‘Tell me, though, are you a wife pretending to be an outlaw, or an outlaw pretending to be a wife?’
Her forehead creased as she thought of her answer. ‘Is there a difference?’
‘Oh, yes, Eleanor—since one would suggest that The Fox is not real and the other that everything you and I shared was not.’
‘Then I would say neither... I am both Lady Eleanor Tallany and the outlaw Le Renard.’
Hugh shook his head. ‘It’s so dangerous and reckless of you. Why take all this unnecessary risk?’
‘I did what I did to survive.’
‘But to pursue this for all this time?’
She took a deep breath and met his eyes. ‘It all started a long time ago, Hugh, when I was a young girl. My interests, as you might guess, were not the same as other children’s. And my father trained me in the art of combat—in secret, of course. I even dressed as a young squire.’
‘Your father encouraged you?’
‘He did it because I was his heir and because I harassed him continually to do so. And he realised that I was an apt pupil.’
‘Now, that I can believe.’ His lips curled upwards slightly and she returned his smile hesitantly. ‘But this also has something to do with Millais?’
She nodded. ‘Yes. He was a monster.’ She swallowed before continuing. ‘It wasn’t until after Richard died that I could put everything my father had taught me into practice. And so, in Tallany’s hour of need, I didn’t hesitate. I couldn’t do anything as a woman—as Lady Eleanor Tallany—but as a young man I could. With Gilbert’s help and Father Thomas’s blessing I got together a group of likeminded local men, bent on redressing the balance and safeguarding those in need.’
‘Are you telling me that all those men knew and accepted you as a woman? And that Father Thomas blessed you as...as Le Renard? It cannot be true.’ He felt his jaw drop.
‘No one knew me as The Fox except Gilbert, Brunhilde and, yes, Father Thomas.’
‘The trinity of the faithful,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘And you were all bent on this madness?’
She nodded. ‘Something had to be done, Hugh. People were starving—actually starving—whilst we were sending box after box of silver for King John’s coffers with the huge increase in scutage levied for more of his disastrous wars.’
She paused for a moment, clearly recalling, remembering...
‘On one particular night I saw the King’s soldiers actually laughing and goading the people as they piled up their wagons with silver. One loathsome yob slapped a young girl he’d propositioned and something inside me snapped... Le Renard was born that day.’
Hugh stared at her in disbelief before moving close, resting his forehead against hers. ‘Your courage astounds me. When I think of how anyone else would have reacted in a similar situation...’ He closed his eyes. ‘But Eleanor, you could have got yourself killed.’
‘We were never caught because we were always careful, selective, making sure we didn’t seize every strongbox moving south. Occasionally we also brought back the Rebel Barons’ scutage—meaning we were protected, up to a point.’
‘I would never have believed it, but I should have known it was you,’ he sighed. ‘Racing on horseback, wanting lessons in combat, talented at chess... It was all there, staring me in the face.’
‘No one, not even the outlaws themselves, ever realised The Fox was me—because it’s outside the realm of possibility for a woman to be able to do all that Le Renard has done. But you...? You would have found out eventually.’ She shrugged.
‘Not even in my wildest imagination would I have thought of this.’ Hugh’s eyes widened as he recalled something. ‘Oh, God! I even fought you—and again you resorted to subterfuge an
d cheating. From that alone I should have known.’
They fell into silence momentarily. Then, ‘What are you going to do?’ Eleanor asked, and bit her lip.
‘What am I supposed to do?’ He rubbed his forehead. ‘Whilst everything you have told me seems reasonable—admirable, even—you have not only aided and abetted outlaws but you are one. And not just any one, but... Le Renard!’
‘I’m sorry, Hugh, but I was doing my duty the only way I knew how.’
‘Not that you would have done anything differently even if you had, of course.’
‘No. But you have to understand, Hugh, that my first marriage...he... Millais...tried to break me in every way he could. It was a desperate situation. And when he died I put everything—all my efforts—into keeping the people of Tallany, who had suffered with me, safe... As The Fox, I could ensure that no one would hurt us again.’
‘Such bravery...’ Hugh cupped her face, caressing her cheek. ‘You know, Eleanor, he could never have broken you.’ He drew her a little closer into his arms. ‘When all is said and done, you were stronger than him. Your spirit greater. Your heart constant. He couldn’t have changed you, however much he tried.’
Eleanor tilted her chin up and smiled softly. ‘But everything changed once I met you. Once I married you.’
His brow furrowed. ‘I don’t understand...’
‘I...’ She swallowed. ‘I had never met anyone like you before.’
‘That is also the truth for me, sweetheart.’
‘Well, that’s why I...’ Eleanor drew in a shaky breath and met his eyes. ‘I fell in love with you. I didn’t believe it could happen to me, but...but it did.’
If the discovery of Eleanor as The Fox had rendered Hugh speechless, this confession sucked all the air out of him. Yet, he needed to say something. He might be stunned, but his feelings for Eleanor were...were entirely mutual!
Oh, God, they were!
They had been for a long time, if he was honest with himself.
That was why his heart had ached so much when he’d found out about her betrayal. Why he’d needed time away from her...why he’d thought about her all the time and why he’d wanted to come back to Tallany.
The Rebel Heiress and the Knight Page 22