The Beast of Renald (The Northern Knights)

by Amber Dane

  The next morning Darc strutted around the castle with a feeling of happiness he’d not felt in an extremely long time until Caroline asked a boon from him. Why she wanted him to follow her down to the village, he did not question aloud but sighed and followed her nonetheless. He had much to do this day after having put off much this week by being at her side.

  He shoved aside the passionate thoughts that they had shared last night and the way her body had exploded at the simplest touch from him. By the Gods, the woman had drained every ounce from him and he’d enjoyed every bit of it. Annoyed at his thoughts of late, he did little to slow his long and hurried strides.

  She surprised him when she kept up to his pace saying nothing and practically running alongside him. And he felt bad for being so irritated over something he refused to face.

  She had not asked much of him. Still, he grunted in vexation. He glanced down to see that plump bottom lip of hers pulled at one corner between her teeth. Even after last night, he wanted her again, her warm body, that mouth and…He missed a step at his thoughts.

  Her wide eyes turned on him and Darc quickly looked away, ignoring her. God’s thunder! He spent too much time worrying about her feelings.

  Villagers nodded, greeting him as they passed and geese and other loose fowl scrambled out of their way as they rounded one path through the small huts.

  Caroline ran ahead of him to a large cottage sitting back from the others.

  Darc hesitated in his step, almost coming to a stop. He knew this place and had not been back to it since that night his world had changed. A place he’d seen often enough in his nightmares. Another place he’d not visited when he’d returned on the few times he’d visited his estate here over the past five years. A ball of pain formed inside his chest.

  At the door she turned to look back over her shoulder at him. Darc did not realize he had stopped until she spoke.

  ‘Well, are you just going to stand there? Will you not come in with me?’

  Did she not know what this place meant to him? Nay, he cursed himself. How could she? He’d told her nothing of it. He’d not shared this part of his life with her. She had asked and he had refused. Anger replaced his confusion. Then why was she here?

  ‘Because I have something I wish to show you.’ Caroline answered him and Darc realized he’d spoken his question aloud.

  ‘Whatever it is, bring it out.’ He snapped.

  Her wide eyes flashed with hurt before narrowing on him and he knew she was upset. Her stance of indignation made him unsure. He asked angrily, ‘Why did you bring me here?’

  Caroline walked a few paces back to him. some villagers were casting curious stares their way as they went about their business. But Darc knew all ears were paying attention to seeing him this deep in the center of their village. A section he always avoided.

  He’d recognized a few faces of those that remembered on their way here. Now his eyes were only on Caroline and that dreadful stoop on which she had run back to.

  ‘Again I ask you, wife, why have you brought me here?’

  ‘I told you I wanted to show you something. Do you not trust me? ‘Tis best you come inside, husband. I do not wish to do this out here.’

  Darc did not move. ‘Why not?’

  Her hands went to her hips and her lips thinned with her anger. ‘Please, you said you would come with me no questions asked. Do you plan to break your promise already?’

  At that Darc drew in a deep breath and walked closer. She came to his side and he lowered his head to hers. ‘Whatever trick or game you are up to I do not find it in the least amusing, Caroline. I have had enough. I will not go in there.’

  She looked hurt but shook her head. ‘A man of broken promises. What I do now I do out of care and concern.’

  They both stared at one another over her words. The deep sincerity in her tone should have stopped him, but it did not.

  ‘Enough! I am going back to the castle-‘

  ‘Nay. Wait.’ She reached out for his wrist.

  He drew back and was immediately sorry at the pained expression on her face. Her fingers curled and she fisted her hand at her side as she stuck out her chin and bravely faced him. ‘Wait, I beg of you.’ Then as she turned she muttered under her breath, but Darc heard her vexed words. ‘So stubborn!’

  She did not wait for his reaction and disappeared inside the hut.

  Screams from that night long ago echoed off somewhere in Darc’s skull and another face worked its way into his memory.

  Adelay.

  He closed his eyes to all around him and stood still taking in deep breaths and exhaling. Caroline’s soft voice drew him back.

  ‘I have brought it to you.’

  Darc opened his eyes and looked from her ashen face to the older woman next to her. Aged pain ballooned in his chest as a name filtered through his mind. Agnes. The old midwife.

  He had not looked her in the eye since that night. He had believed she’d taken part in his wife’s treachery. But she had not. Now, her dull eyes, pale and filled with fear and sorrow pulled at him, pleadingly. Looking at her was a painful reminder.

  But it was the small boy she pulled from behind her skirts who captured his attention now and who wrenched the breath from him.

  The feel of Caroline’s arm through his did not turn Darc’s gaze away. A burning sensation engulfed him from head to toe, a headache formed at the back of his skull and the world seemed to spin around him. He vaguely felt her fingers curl around his numbing ones, like his heart.

  ‘What do you see?’ she whispered so softly but Darc heard the anguish in her voice.

  He finally expelled a painful breath. The young boy looked back at him in wonder, in fear and in respect.

  A headful of dark waves curved around his small square jaw and lay just above his little shoulders that one could see easily see would grow to be broad as his barrel shaped chest would be. Around the same age as Kelbie, but by far much taller. His stance rigid like a little soldier as he returned his gaze. Matching blue eyes met his own.

  ‘My lord. I did not know how…how to tell you. Lady Adelay left him here. She-She paid me to ki- to do away…But, I could not. Had I brought the boy to you- I- I thought you would not want him. You left so soon after…after all that had happened and never came back…So…I…’

  ‘So you thought to raise him? Raise him as your own?’ Darc looked at her then, murder in his eyes.

  Caroline moved back to the woman. ‘She is sorry, my lord. But remember, she did not do what your wife wanted her to do and that is what is important. Is it not?’

  ‘How do I know he is-‘ Darc choked on his words, unable to form the words to finish his sentence. Especially with those wide magnetic blue eyes staring up at him in confusion.

  ‘Can you not see? Your own eyes have seen. Our own will no doubt look the same. Has there not been enough misgivings as it were to continue to add more? Why can you not believe it?’

  He turned a cold glare upon her. ‘Because the bitch told me she murdered him and we buried his little body.’

  Caroline gasped, her hand in reflex reached out to him but she drew it back to her side ere they touched him. She swallowed the lump of grief she felt for him and said. ‘I am not sure who you buried, but this, him… proves she lied.’ Caroline saw him flinch at her words and she hurried on. She wanted to say more, but ‘twas not the time and place. ‘I told you this would have been best done inside. Nevertheless, I ask you now to open your eyes and see, husband. What was lost has been found.’

  ‘Nay. What was taken has been found.’ Darc turned his sharp gaze back on the sniffling midwife once more. ‘If what you say is true, woman and I do have my doubts. For I remember all too well the lies you told then. Nonetheless, my men will escort you and the boy to the castle till I decide what it is I am to do with both of you. If what you speak is not truth, you will feel the lash despite your age.’

  ‘My lord!’ Caroline exclaimed in a whisper as she whirled on him. B
ut ‘twas for naught as she saw he had stormed away and was almost out of sight and the guards had swarmed them.

  He’d been right.

  She had wanted something from him last night, more than his pleasuring. Her innocent hear me had been a ruse. But he had ignored the lie in her eyes. All women were sly. When would he learn and stick to knowing the truth of that? Darc fumed as he paced to and fro as unwieldy rage grew within him.

  For six years he had hoped, prayed…. had wanted to think it all had been a non-stop nightmare. One he’d lived out daily over the years and had hoped for a different outcome.

  Did Caroline truly expect him to accept that traitorous woman’s word? That…That boy, who looked so much like him, had his eyes, his nose, brows, jaw, and chin and though for one so little those shoulders he’d himself had inherited from his giant of a father. Nay!

  Adelay had said she’d murdered his son. If she had not, Raven would have taunted him and tried to use the boy against him if the boy had lived.

  Unless Raven did not know the boy lived…

  Darc stopped pacing and pivoted on his heel to watch the guards pass by with the trio he’d left. Caroline’s hunched shoulders bothered him and he winced when he saw Kelbie and Laur appear at the castle doors to greet her, the woman and the boy. Darc stepped back further under the trees near the maze. He turned away and walked toward a large tree, larger than all the others in the small area.

  It was not possible. The truth would have come to light much sooner. Would it not have? And did it hurt so badly because a part of him believed it?

  Darc fought to maintain his balance as he took a step back, staggered by what the woman claimed.

  Adelay had shared Raven’s bed. Was the boy his or his brother’s?

  The boy’s eyes were not the clear blue of Raven’s but were more like his own, cerulean blue with green flecks in them, changing with mood, with the flicker of light. In the brief moment he had been mesmerized by the sight of the boy, locked gazes with him, he had seen it. Then Adelay’s words came back to him that she wished it had been Raven’s seed she’d carried.

  Nay! He could not, would not accept it.

  He’d searched till he’d been called to William’s side and battle. There he’d spent his grief. There he’d shed the sorrow for the loss of his son. His love, his grief lost in others blood, the carnage and unforgiving brutal results of war. There the truth had hit him and it had come hard and claimed his heart.

  His son was as dead as the witch who had killed him.

  Darc dropped to his knees in the grass in front of the spot where the grave had been made for his son. A grave that held no bones, but the bloody and torn tunic his son had been clothed in.

  All these years and the possibility that his son, his heir, his flesh, raised as a serf right under his nose all this time truly lived. Guilt seized him in its painful grip.

  Had he not spent most of his time in Normandy when not leading a campaign battle for William mayhap he would have discovered the child himself. Deep anguish ripped a hole down to his gut and Darc reached out and laid his hand on the stone marker with his son’s name carved into it. Michael Anthony Darc Renald.

  He refused to believe it.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Caroline wallowed in pity for her husband over the next few days. Their cordial truce broken under the weight of the discovery of his son in the village.

  Caroline believed to her very soul the child was his even if her husband did not. He had spoken not a word to her since he’d brought Agnes and Cal to the castle. She only knew she was blocked access to both of them by Darc’s men when she had tried to see them where he locked them away on the west wing of the castle. Since he refused her a word, she had no idea what was happening. She deduced his interrogation of the woman had been fruitful despite his black mood for he did not carry out his threat of the lash.

  Aye, Caroline knew he warred with himself over it and she wished he would allow her in. But he avoided her like the plague. By end week she was angry and hurt that he would not trust in her to share in this sensitive matter with her. But the other part of her tried to understand.

  She made herself sick with worry and busied herself with her lady of the manor duties and Kelbie.

  Supping with Kelbie in the hall, she lifted her head and met Darc’s gaze as he entered and came to an abrupt halt. He turned sharply and walked out of the castle doors. Aye, Caroline turned her attention back to Kelbie, her heart aching. ‘Twould take much to repair the rift this time.

  One guard rushed past her down the gallery corridor above the hall, then another and Caroline turned around to see where they were off to. She heard a loud commotion below and looked over the thick railing. Several of her husband’s men were all but running out the castle doors. Caroline shared a worried look with Laur.

  ‘Take him, Laur.’ Caroline said and pushed Kelbie firmly by the shoulder toward the servant. She heard Laur soothing him as she walked quickly toward the stairs.

  Caroline made it outside in time to see the last foot soldier making his way down toward the crowd gathering around the mill. Soon voices rose and she started in that direction.

  What was going on?

  She was almost upon the crowd when she saw the bodies. As the crowd muttered in horror and moved about she caught a glimpse of one. A woman.

  Caroline gasped in horror, her hand flying to her mouth. Nesta!

  What had driven her former maid from the wood here? A sharp tug on her arm stopped her from moving forward further. Without turning Caroline knew who it was.

  ‘I-I know that woman. What has happened here?’ She heard herself saying.

  ‘Who is she?’ Darc’s face looked set in stone, but she saw the emotions in his eyes as he turned her around taking her in the opposite direction of the mill on the other side of the wheat field.

  More concern welled in Caroline at the sight of three of his guards up ahead, waiting. She tried to snatch her arm out of his grasp.

  ‘Tis my former maid. Nesta.’

  He nodded and she saw that he was remembering when she had told him of her life back at Halvard’s.

  ‘I am sorry but there is naught you can do for her now.’ His eyes darkened and his hard tone was rough. ‘I need you back inside, go with the guards.’

  Alarm made her clutch at his forearm. She had not recognized the other poor lost soul and she said a prayer for them both. ‘Darc, will you not tell me?’

  ‘Get back to the castle and await my return. Nay. I will speak of it soon enough. Just go.’

  Caroline wanted to refuse when the guards surrounded her but ‘twas too late. Looking over her shoulder she could see Darc’s dark head as he made his way back through the crowd. Foreboding gripped her and she practically ran back toward the castle, the guard’s right next to her. She knew Kelbie was safe and with Laur, but she needed to have him near her. The tension she’d felt in her husband’s grip and his firm tone heightened her worry and Caroline closed her eyes for a moment as her gut churned over the latest deaths. Poor Nesta!

  Caroline waited with bated breath for Darc as she watched him talking with his assembled knights in the great hall seated far across the room from the lord’s table. He had said little to her after the latest murders other than she was no longer allowed in the village. Caroline had not argued and his relieved expression had bespoke much. Aye, she knew the last thing he needed right now was her arguing over getting her way. Still she wanted to be included in what was going on.

  When he finally came to join her at the lord’s table, she said nothing and waited for him to speak. He laid down his orders in an angry tone. Caroline listened.

  After a while he said, ‘Again, I am sorry about your maid. You can say a prayer for her or visit the chapel if need be. I suspect she and the man that accompanied her came back here because they had nowhere else to go. Their bodies were nigh starved to death and full of lice.’

  Caroline closed her eyes at what he had not sai
d. She imagined many that had run from Halvard’s the day of the siege had not fared well or if any had survived. Tears burned behind her lids. Nesta had made it here only to have her throat slit.

  ‘There is a spy here working for Raven.’

  Caroline opened her eyes and looked at him, a chill settling over her. She watched him as he looked around the room at his soldiers until his gaze came to settle on the bailiff, the young foot soldier Melbert and Gan.

  A look of satisfaction came to his face before it masked back into the dark expression he’d worn earlier and Darc cut her a sharp look as he told her. ‘Another guard and Melbert will be at you side.’

  Caroline let out a pent up breath. Though she still did not wish for more men to follow her every move, she was glad his words had cleared the sweet-faced Melbert of his suspicions. Still, she could not help but keep her displeasure at bay at the thought of more guards at her heels and she said tersely, ‘If that is what you wish.’

  He glared at her, his hand frozen mid-way to his cup. ‘Nay. It is what I demand.’

  Anger exploded in her at his harsh response. Her emotions were stretched thin and though she could only imagine the weight and pressure he bore on his shoulders, the fact that he still seemed mad at her was too much. She needed comfort and his coldness and distant mood was intolerable.

  Caroline forgot about all else for a moment. Why must he speak to her so? She did not deserve his continued ill-treatment and she shot to her feet. This man would never understand her!

  His startled expression had little effect on her as she stepped down from the dais. ‘As you demand? That is all you know what to do.’ She all but growled at him over her shoulder.

  When she got near the young soldier she said loudly, snapping. ‘Come, Melbert.’

  The young soldier looked back at her husband. Caroline did not turn to see Darc’s response, nor did she care. As she headed for the solar which held Kelbie, Laur and Mildred she heard Melbert’s boots hurrying to catch up to her. He was not the root of her anger and she felt bad.