The Splendid Hour: The Executioner Knights Book 7

by Kathryn Le Veque

  He swung the sword in a very controlled, very skilled move, one that terrified and impressed Asa and his friends. When Peter ended up pointing the sword in their direction, they took off running frantically in the opposite direction.

  Peter just stood there and laughed.

  *

  She thought she’d never escape her mother and grandmother.

  Liora had spent the day with them, preparing for the Sabbath feast as they always did on this day of the week, but today was different.

  She had somewhere to be.

  Her mother had put her on kitchen duty, directing the servants as they prepared the bread and roast chicken for the Sabbath, so she’d been stuck in the kitchen for most of the day. As the sun began to make its journey across the sky and afternoon came, she thought she might be able to slip away, but her mother and grandmother were busy with their own tasks and making sure she was tending to hers.

  At one point in the afternoon, she managed to capture Asa and told him to go to Cripplegate, to the knight who had been at their home the day before and tell him that she would be delayed. Asa was many things, but flighty he wasn’t. He also wasn’t a tattletale, at least where his sister was concerned, making him an oddly dependable messenger. As Asa headed off, Liora continued with her duties, hoping that Peter would understand her delay. It was only later in the afternoon, with a few hours before supper yet, that her mother and grandmother went to lie down for a while, resting from the busy day.

  That’s when Liora bolted.

  Truthfully, Cripplegate wasn’t very far away from her home. Clad in a gown of deep amber with a golden tassel belt around her slender waist and a silken yellow scarf draped over her head and shoulders, Liora moved quickly to Cripplegate, staying clear of the carriages and wagons and groups of people moving about their business. She was out of the Jewish district now and feeling nervous, so she kept her head down and the scarf across her mouth to shield her features. Though it was traditional for Christian, unmarried ladies to let their hair flow and keep it uncovered, Jewish law required that Liora cover her head when she was out in public.

  It also kept her somewhat shielded from the Christian rabble around her. Although she’d never had trouble with the great population of London, the truth was that she spent almost all of her time in the Jewish quarter, so venturing out was a little frightening. She kept her focus on Cripplegate as it came into view.

  At this time of day, the gate was still open and people were coming in and out. To the north, on the other side of the gate, were mostly farmlands and moors. There were a few churches and monasteries north of the wall, set in fields that could be glorious and green when the sun was shining, but turned into giant swamps with the rain and the cold. Though Liora didn’t know that personally, she’d heard her father speak on it.

  Truth be told, she had lived a rather sheltered life.

  As she approached Cripplegate, she noticed movement in the shadows near the gate itself and turned to see Peter emerging from the shadow of the wall. She came to a sudden halt as he headed right for her.

  “Demoiselle,” he greeted with a warm glimmer in his eyes. “Your message was received. Asa and his band of misfits found me and told me.”

  Liora had been nervous, hesitant about meeting Peter until this very moment. Gazing up at him, she realized that she was glad to see him. Something about that big, muscular, golden god of a man had her heart thumping madly.

  “I am glad,” she said. “I told him not to shoot you with a pebble to get your attention. Did he behave himself?”

  Peter nodded. “Surprisingly, he did,” he said. “I must admit that I was a little concerned that you sent him after me. I’m assuming you do not wish for your parents to know that you had an appointment with a Christian knight. And you are sure he will not tell them?”

  She shook her head. “Asa and I have a special bond,” she said. “Moreover, pay the lad a pence and he’ll do anything, including keeping his lips shut.”

  Peter snorted. “He’s a born mercenary.”

  “He is, indeed.” A short, slightly awkward silence followed. “You said you wished to walk in a meadow?”

  Peter had been staring at her, dreamily, completely forgetting that he had an agenda. All he wanted to do was look at her. But her question had him on the move.

  “Aye,” he said quickly, reaching out to politely take her elbow. “Shall we?”

  Liora let him escort her out of the gate, into the wide-open space beyond. To the east were the moors, a swampy area that contained water run-off from the lands to the north, all of it draining against the wall. In ancient times, before the Romans built the wall, it was a natural drainage slope to the river. Because of that depression, however, the lands near Cripplegate were unfettered with water or marshes, and there was an attractive field between the wall and a farm to the north.

  It was September, a time just past the heat of summer and heading into the cool, rainy autumn season. The weather was surprisingly fine and the grass of the meadow was fat and green. Autumn wildflowers popped up near the road and in bunches across the field, small blue dots beneath the clear sky.

  “Well?” she said as they walked casually along the road. “What did you wish to talk about?”

  Peter looked at her, smiling. “You,” he said simply. “I want to know about you.”

  “What do you wish to know?”

  “Everything,” he said. “Anything. Did you foster as a child?”

  Her brow furrowed as she pulled the scarf away from her neck because it was growing warm in the sunshine. “Foster?” she repeated. “You mean when you are educated somewhere other than your home?”

  “Exactly.”

  She shook her head. “I did not foster,” she said. “But I am educated. My father saw to that. The rabbis at the Great Synagogue educate children. I can read and write in several languages. I can also do arithmetic and I am very good at geography.”

  He looked at her with great interest. “Do you paint? Or sing?”

  She shrugged. “Not really,” she said. “But I am very good at sewing.”

  “What do you do for entertainment?”

  She clasped her hands behind her back as she walked. “I like to read,” she said. “I read quite a lot. And I have friends next door, girls I grew up with. We spend a good deal of time together.”

  “Asa told me that you have a suitor.”

  She looked at him sharply, her pale eyes studying him in surprise. He looked at her, realizing her eyes were such a shade of blue that they were almost lavender. It was astonishing.

  “Why would he tell you such a thing?” she asked. “Did you ask him?”

  He shook his head. “Not at all,” he said. “That would be prying and it is none of my affair. It simply came up in conversation. Are you betrothed to the man?”

  Liora seemed to get a little defensive. “If I was, I would not be here with you,” she said. “You must not think well of me if you think I would be caught alone with one man when I was betrothed to another.”

  He came to a stop and faced her. “That could not be further from the truth,” he said frankly. “I think very highly of you. I was simply making conversation but I see that you have taken offense. Forgive me.”

  She eyed him before continuing on. “I should not have snapped,” she said. “If you must know, I have known Gideon ben Ehud for many years. But that is where it ends, at least for me. He, on the other hand, does not seem to share my view.”

  “I see,” he said. “Then his attention is unwelcome?”

  “Not exactly,” she said. “He is a nice man and he is wealthy. He buys and sells horses in London. But I do not want to marry him.”

  “He has asked?”

  “Many times.”

  “And you have refused?”

  “Many, many times.”

  Peter walked alongside her, pretending to be looking at his feet as he walked, but he kept glancing over at her when he thought she might not be looking.
He was rather glad to hear what she thought of this Gideon and the fact that she was keeping him at arm’s length. Gideon’s failure was his joy.

  “Were you educated together?”

  “Nay, because he is older than I am,” she said. “Now, that is enough talk about me because, truthfully, I am very dull. Nothing exciting ever happens in my life, but you… you have a very exciting life, I would imagine.”

  He shrugged, lifting his head and looking off across the field towards the east. “I am not certain I would call it exciting,” he said. “Unless you are speaking of being chased by a woman I cannot seem to get off my scent. That is not exciting – it is annoying.”

  Liora grinned. “Was she still hunting you last night after you left my home?”

  He shook his head. “I went straight back to Lonsdale and avoided the situation altogether,” he said. “However, I did get a bit of interesting news yesterday.”

  “Oh?” she said, looking at him. “What is it?”

  He glanced over at her. “You must not repeat it.”

  “I will not, I swear it.”

  Peter came to a halt, planting his feet apart and resting his big fists on his hips. “It seems that my father is being given more property from the king,” he said. “I told you that my home is in the Welsh Marches, did I not?”

  “You did.”

  “Do you know much about the Marches in general?”

  She shrugged. “Only what I have heard in passing from others,” she said. “My life has been spent in London. In fact, other than a journey to Oxford a few years ago, I have never left this city.”

  His eyes glimmered at her. “Then you have missed a great deal,” he said. “There is a whole, big country out there, and a good portion of it borders with Wales. That is my father’s domain and my domain, and as of last night, my father has been given four important properties on the Marches and I shall be the garrison commander of Ludlow Castle, one of the largest castles in England. The place is massive.”

  Liora appeared suitably impressed. “How very proud you must be,” she said. “I congratulate you. It is cause for congratulations, isn’t it? If it is not, then I take it all back.”

  He laughed softly. “It is cause, indeed,” he said. “The appointment alone will make me a wealthy man. I will command a thousand men.”

  “Is that what you meant earlier when you said your world is war?”

  His smile faded. “Aye,” he said. “The entire country is at war against itself and along with my father, I am part of that.”

  She cocked her head curiously. “I have never been around a fighting man much less a knight,” she said. “Of course, we see them riding through London constantly and many of them are customers of my father’s business, but I have never actually met one until now. The life you men lead… it is puzzling to me.”

  “What confuses you?”

  She lifted her shoulders. “All of it,” she said. “You swear an oath to fight for England, yet you make war against your own king. Why?”

  He folded his enormous arms across his chest. “That is a question without an easy answer,” he said. “John is not a good king. He is greedy, petty, and dishonest. Is that the kind of man who should sit upon the throne?”

  “Nay,” she said thoughtfully. “But it is his right.”

  “Is it his right to cheat his vassals?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then you must consider that men like my father and I are standing up for justice,” he said. “We believe the king should be fair to everyone and John does not want to be fair. That is a very simplified reason for taking a stand against him, but it sums it up well enough.”

  “Then you are not trying to take his crown?”

  “Of course not. As long as he rules fairly, that is all we ask.”

  “And if he does not?”

  “Then men like my father will do what needs to be done.”

  Liora considered that, looking over her shoulder to the city and its enormous walls. “I remember when the warlords laid siege to the Tower of London earlier this year,” she said. “We were very frightened. There were so many armies in London at that time. I do not think we came out of the house for an entire month. There are still armies here, but not like there used to be.”

  Peter looked at the city because she was, but his gaze moved back to her. That creamy complexion, pert nose, and striking coloring was enough to turn him into a giddy squire. But that sharp mind was the one quality that had his true attention.

  “The armies will be pulling out soon,” he said, somewhat quieter. “I told you earlier that we are returning to the Marches. My father is pulling his army out as we speak.”

  She turned to look at him. “And you are going, too?”

  “Aye.”

  “Will you return to London soon?”

  He shook his head. “Nay,” he said. “I will be assuming command of Ludlow as soon as we return, so I do not know when I will return to London at all.”

  She almost said something in response, but evidently thought better of it. Peter was rather hoping she might say something that could possibly suggest she might be sorry he was leaving, but she didn’t. She simply forced a smile.

  “Then I will pray for your safety and health,” she said. “You are a warrior for good, Sir Peter, and that takes a man of noble character and great bravery. Even if you do run from a woman.”

  Peter snorted at the last part. “It is not cowardice in that case, but intelligence,” he said. “It is a smart man who avoids Agnes de Quincy at all costs. But I will always be grateful to her for one thing.”

  “What is that?”

  “I would have never met you had she not been after me,” he said. “In a sense, she has introduced us.”

  Liora laughed softly. “That is one way of looking at it.”

  Peter opened his mouth to reply, but a bell pealed in the distance and they both looked towards the city, listening to it ring off four peals, denoting the hour. It was nearing the supper hour and Peter sighed faintly.

  “I suppose I must take you back now,” he said.

  Liora nodded. “I suppose,” she said. “The Sabbath is tomorrow and our evening meal will soon be upon us.”

  “What is the Sabbath?”

  “The holy day in the week.”

  “Do you go to mass? Or, the Jewish equivalent of mass?”

  She nodded. “Aye,” she said. “It is a day of rest, mostly. Chores, even cooking, are forbidden, so tonight we eat well and tomorrow, we will eat things that do not require cooking. You do not have a day like this?”

  “Sunday is church day for us,” he said, turning her back for the gate. “We can cook and feast, and we do. It seems as if Jews have many rules.”

  “Enough,” she said. “But having been raised in the faith, I am used to them.”

  “Do you ever wonder what the world is like outside of your faith?”

  “Nay,” she said. “I am happy in my faith. Are you happy in yours?”

  Peter thought of Pandulf at that moment, the papal legate who had threatened to excommunicate the English warlords last night for their opposition to a king who used the church when it suited him.

  That reflection gave him pause.

  “I’m not sure,” he said honestly. “Sometimes there is a good deal of politics involved in the Catholic Church, like now.”

  She looked at him curiously. “Oh? Has something happened?”

  He didn’t want to repeat what had happened last night. That wasn’t common knowledge, so he wasn’t going divulge that to a woman he’d just met, no matter how infatuated he was with her.

  “Nothing unusual,” he said. “I do not know how the Jewish religion is, but sometimes Christianity has its… issues.”

  “Like Richard’s great crusade to the Holy Land?”

  He shook his head. “That whole country is a chaotic mess,” he said. “The Muslims held Jerusalem and the Christians went to purge them. But the Jews live there beca
use, historically, Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. So much fighting over that sandy, hot land. My father spent years of his life there. He said it was futile.”

  Liora thought on her hereditary homeland. “There have been troubles there throughout history,” she said. “Before the Christians and Muslims, it was the Romans and the Egyptians. But I would still like to go there, someday, and visit the Great Temple. It is a pilgrimage for every person of the Jewish faith.”

  Peter had ended up walking closer to her, reaching out to take her elbow as he walked. It was a polite gesture, although a bold one, but he simply wanted to touch her. He couldn’t help himself because something told him that after this day, seeing her might not come easily again, if ever.

  He wanted to remember it.

  “I thought that I might like to journey there, as well, to revisit the places where my father fought battles,” he said. “Truthfully, it seems like a great adventure, but I know it wasn’t as glorious as some men make it out to be. My father said it was hell most of the time. He lost many friends there.”

  They were nearing the gate at this point and Peter slowed his pace. He simply didn’t want to take her home any sooner than he had to. If Liora noticed, she didn’t let on. She slowed down right along with him.

  “It is not the land that is hell, but the men who make hell on earth there,” she said. “No land is inherently evil. It is the men who are evil.”

  “Very true,” he said. “But men like my father are not evil. He goes to battle to fight evil, in response to a wrong or a terrible action. My father is the most noble man you will ever meet and, someday, I hope you do.”

  She smiled up at him. “I would like that,” she said. “Mayhap someday there will be an opportunity.”

  They were passing through the gate now even as Peter slowed his pace even more. They entered the city with its inhabitants going about their business. Since night was approaching, there were less people on the streets. Peter finally came to a halt and let go of her elbow, facing her.