Adelm’s response was a non-committal grunt. Coward or not, Reiner wasn’t one to mistake a threat. Nor had anyone misread Sir Josce’s black expression yesterday each time the knight looked upon Knabwell’s sheriff as the noblewoman’s cart was prepared. Sir Josce wouldn’t be at peace with his sire’s death until he’d spilled blood. Elianne, on the other hand, was far too quick to forgive and to trust.
Raising her head, his sister looked at him. “I hope I’m not out of place in suggesting this, but perhaps you should confer with Sir Josce over these thieves. If you tell him all you know it might set his mind at ease.”
Adelm could have kissed her. Elianne’s suggestion was just the excuse he needed to broach the subject with Sir Josce. However, it wasn’t the knight’s mind he wished to ease, but his own. He needed to tease Sir Josce into revealing all he knew, or thought he knew.
“So it might,” Adelm said to his sister, forcing his lips to lift into a smile. “Sir Josce has some novel ideas. I’d do well to hear him out. Mayhap his fresh eye will find that little piece we need to finally run these villains to ground.”
“Go to him now and speak with him,” Elianne insisted, already stepping back from the table as if she expected him to rise immediately and do as she bid. Then her affection for him took light in her eyes, to drown out her newborn feelings for Sir Josce, if only for that moment. “But before you go, I’ll thank you for calling on me.”
“I seek only to repay your continuing care for me,” he replied, his heart twisting with that aching warmth only Elianne had ever stirred in him.
His sister smiled. “Will you stay for the evening meal?”
Adelm shook his head. To remain close to Coneytrop and Elianne would surely stir Sir Josce’s interest in him, and just now his life couldn’t bear the scrutiny. “Would that I could, but your sire claims to have need of me this night.”
That Elianne sighed in disappointment over this only further warmed Adelm’s heart. “As you will,” she replied. “I’ll bid you farewell then. My arbor just collapsed in the garden.”
A startled bark of a laugh slipped from Adelm’s lips. “No surprise that! Nay, that it lasted as long as it did is the astonishing thing.”
She made face at him. “You’re supposed to commiserate over what I’ve lost and what that loss costs me, not laugh. Take pity! I vow I’ll be pruning until the morrow.”
“The morrow,” Adelm said, only now deciding to pass on his father’s message to his sister. “I almost forgot me. Your sire asks that you come to him on the morrow an hour before Terce, bringing a clean shirt and something other than his best to wear. He’d also like linens for the king’s bed.”
As was Reiner’s right as sheriff, he slept in Knabwell castle’s sole bedchamber, the bed being the one their king would use should he ever make a royal visit to this bucolic corner of his kingdom. However, the sheriff’s right didn’t extend to use of the royal linens.
Irritation blossomed on Elianne’s face. She crossed her arms. “He needs me to bring these to him and on the morrow? And not just at any hour, but the one before Terce? What is this? Why can’t I send Richard into Knabwell with them right now?”
Knowing that Reiner wished to pick his daughter’s brain over Sir Josce’s activities and was choosing a quiet moment in which to do it, Adelm could offer his sister nothing more than a wry look and a shrug. “What can I say? He was specific. He wants you, not Richard, and on the morrow when he stated. He also reminds me that you shouldn’t come without an escort.”
“An escort?” Elianne spat the words at him as all the softness departed from her expression. “What need have I of escorts now that my sire has thrown away my future? When you return to Knabwell you may tell my sire that I’ll come to him as it pleases me and no other way. If he doesn’t like it he may choke on it.”
With that parting jab for their father, she turned and started for the door. Adelm smiled at her back. And thus did Reiner get what he deserved from at least two of his children.
His attention shifted to Sir Josce. Haydon’s bastard had shucked his hunting tunic in preparation for donning a new garment. However, Elianne’s departure had caught the big man’s interest. Sir Josce watched Elianne cross the hall. Adelm wasn’t so far from his fellow bastard that he could mistake desire as it took light in Sir Josce’s face.
Adelm’s lips tightened. His hand fell to his sword’s hilt. Here was one who needed a reminder to behave himself around other men’s women.
In the next moment, Adelm let his hand fall from his weapon’s hilt. What point was there in warning Sir Josce away from Elianne when the knight was already doomed to failure? Adelm knew his sister. No matter Elianne’s longing for Haydon’s son, she was too sensible to give up her purity.
Amusement stirred. It really was a shame she wouldn’t. It’d serve Reiner rightly to become grandsire to a bastard’s bastard.
Content that Elianne was and would remain safe, Adelm came to his feet and started across the hall toward Sir Josce. It was time to meet the man most likely to be his opponent if this drama of theirs played itself out to its worst outcome. As he walked Adelm assessed his adversary. Haydon’s bastard stood half a head taller than himself and had more bulk in muscle. Neither trait was an advantage unless the knight owned his sire’s ability with a sword.
“Well met, Sir Josce,” Adelm said as he came to a stop near the man and his servant.
As the knight presently had his head inside a fine yellow tunic trimmed with green braid, Perrin made the announcement. “It’s Sir Adelm, Sir Josce. The sheriff’s captain led me here from Knabwell.”
Sir Josce’s head appeared out of his garment. There was a new tenseness in his expression. His chin lifted in a sure sign of aggression.
Adelm almost smiled. As usual, Elianne judged wrongly. Sir Josce’s need for vengeance was no less intense today than it had been yesterday, only concealed for his own reasons.
“Sir Adelm,” Coneytrop’s guest said, offering his titular equal a brief nod.
Adelm reciprocated the gesture. “I understand that Lady Haydon is a little improved. Do you plan to remain at Coneytrop now that your companions have arrived and she can retreat to the priory?”
“We do. My lady stepmother is fain to stay,” the knight replied, his tone almost too polite, “and Mistress du Hommet has given us leave to do so. That is, if her father agrees, of course,” Sir Josce finished, the confidence in his voice saying he knew full well Reiner wouldn’t refuse him.
Nay, there was more than confidence in the knight’s face; Sir Josce’s expression said he knew he was here because Reiner hoped to control him. Against that, a reckless desire to taunt stirred in Adelm. What better way to learn a man’s limits than to push him past them? Aye, and Elianne had given him just the weapon he needed to prick the man.
“Mistress du Hommet spoke with me a moment ago about your beliefs regarding the thieves. Dare I say I’m astounded to learn you think your sire recognized someone among that band of ruffians? How can that be, when there could be no one in that foul troop worth the dirt beneath your lord’s shoes?”
When neither disappointment nor chagrin came to life in Sir Josce’s steady gaze, the cockiness drained from Adelm. Death once more breathed upon his nape. Sir Josce didn’t care that Elianne shared this information with another man, which could only mean he’d expected her to spread it. And that meant Adelm had no idea what this man’s true thoughts were. Worse than that, the knight now knew that someone other than Reiner was interested in his activities.
Lord Haydon’s son gave a careless shrug. “I keep telling myself such a thing can’t be possible. Still, what other reason did the thieves have to remain and fight once they were set upon by a small army? Protecting their identity seems logical to me.” Sir Josce sounded every inch the reasonable but confused man.
The tall knight paused to cock his head. “Say, you may be just the man I need to ask. Are there any among this shire’s gentry who kept more men than t
hey seemed to need last week, but this week lack that surfeit?”
Relief surged through Adelm. He’d fully expected Sir Josce to ask for a head count of Reiner’s troops. For the moment, the knight yet followed the wrong scent. Aye, and it was up to Adelm to see his fellow bastard kept moving in that errant direction.
“Well now, there aren’t many in these parts who can afford to keep more than they need. There’s Sir Thomas le Hearne. He has five knights at the moment, but three of those are his own kin. Blood demands he feed them all, even while they strip his larder bare. Beyond that no one comes to mind.”
“Nay, not knights but soldiers, and it’d be more than three gone missing,” Sir Josce countered. “I’m looking for a man who ran with eighteen, twenty, or even as many as two-and-twenty at his back. Now he’d be hard pressed to account for ten, or mayhap even as few as eight of those he once kept.”
Adelm blinked, startled at how close this came to the truth. He’d started that day with two-and-twenty, and now had but ten remaining in his troop. That no one had yet noticed their absence was solely due to the frenzy that came with preparing for Michaelmas Court. When anyone asked about the missing men, they were told the soldiers were across the shire gathering this or that bit of information.
“My apologies, sir,” Adelm said with a shake of his head. “As I said, no man springs to mind. Do I take it from your questions that you’d have one of our shire’s better folk acting as the bandit king?”
Sir Josce’s eyes narrowed just a little. “Let me say I but toy with the idea to see where it leads me.”
Adelm did his best to make the lift of his shoulders seem unconcerned. “Now that’s something I never considered. Hmm, but if some grand knight or one of our barons was responsible for these attacks, I doubt he’d parade his excess men across the shire. Doing so would only call attention to himself, wouldn’t it?”
Frustration flashed through his opponent’s gaze, then was gone. “I suppose. Ah well, as I said, I but toy with the thought.”
Despite Sir Josce’s words there was nothing in his tone to suggest that reaching a blind corner meant defeat. Instead, the knight smiled, the curve of his lips tight. “Oh, and by the by. Bear a message to your lord sheriff for me, if you would. Tell him that my threat stands. When the sun sets this evening, he’ll have a fortnight less two in which to bring me my sire’s murderers, or pay my price.”
It was in every line of the man’s body. Either Reiner produced the thieves or Sir Josce extracted from the sheriff the blood he needed to sate his grief. The threat rankled, then it reminded Adelm of Sir Josce’s face as he looked upon Elianne. Armed with this new weapon, he dropped what he hoped would be at least a stunning blow.
“What’s this?” he demanded in pretended outrage. “Would you be so swift to threaten Mistress du Hommet’s sire if you knew that the sheriff’s death leaves her a penniless orphan with no future save that of begging?”
The attack surprised Sir Josce, or so said his sudden flush. “The fate of du Hommet’s daughter is none of my concern.”
“Is that so?” Adelm persisted. “I’d have guessed you felt otherwise, after the way you watched her a moment ago.”
His adversary’s eyes narrowed. In anger, or because he wanted to hide his expression? “So, we’re past the pith and into the pit of this fruit, are we?” Sir Josce asked, his voice low. “Do I tread too near a lass you’d claim for your own? If so, be at ease. I’ve no ambitions in her direction.”
“No ambitions?” Adelm retorted, allowing a touch of scorn to fill his voice in the hopes of unsettling his fellow bastard a little. He needed a weakness to use against the man. Nay, he needed to know what Sir Josce truly thought. “It wasn’t harmless interest I read in your face a moment ago. Were I Mistress du Hommet’s guardian, I’d be asking after your intentions toward her. Since you seem not to have noticed, I think me I’ll offer this warning. Watch your heart, for its slipping from your grasp.”
The knight stiffened, his expression almost startled. Triumph shot through Adelm. At last he’d found a chink in the man’s armor. That it might be an affection for Elianne was sheer irony.
Giving his erstwhile opponent no chance to respond, Adelm offered a brief nod, then whirled and made his way from Coneytrop’s hall. The warmth of success lasted only until he took his horse’s reins from Will. As Adelm lifted himself into the saddle, Death once more panted at his back.
And why shouldn’t it? His life hadn’t been worth that of the two sweet lasses he’d killed. Now he was using his sister to save himself.
Everything in him rejected this. He couldn’t use Elianne, not when doing so betrayed the affection and respect she’d ever shown him. In the time it took this thought to register, Adelm’s future shifted. No longer was it if he would die for killing these nobles, but when. A surprising wave of peace followed, lapping around him like warm water.
He turned his horse as Elianne stepped out of the tool shed with what she needed for her pruning. She offered him a cheery wave. Adelm nearly sighed, as he once again read the caring for him written upon her face. If only there were a way his passing could save his sister from her future.
Watch his heart?!
Sir Adelm’s words of yesterday drove Josce across a hall yet trapped in predawn darkness. Shoes in hand, he wore naught but his thigh-length shirt. Tossed over his shoulder were the rest of his garments. Enough people had already been disturbed by his insomnia this night; dressing could wait until he reached his destination.
At the screen, Josce stepped over Richard of Coneytrop’s blanketed form. He rounded the wooden panel to stop before the door, then took care lifting the bar. There was but a wee creak as the panel opened. Josce shot a glance back around the screen at what he could see of Richard. The man responsible for guarding his master’s hall snorted and rolled onto his side. Such were Coneytrop’s defenses.
Closing the door behind him, Josce donned his shoes, then made his way down the stairs. Sir Adelm’s statement nipped at his heels all the way. Watch his heart?!
Exactly what did the knight mean by that? It was Elianne who was infatuated with him, not he with her. Aye, but if that were so, what Sir Adelm said shouldn’t have kept Josce from his rest this past night. It was the meaning of his sleeplessness that worried Josce.
In the courtyard, he started toward Elianne’s garden, that being the farthest he could go from the hall at this time of the night. Come Prime, the service that marked dawn and the opening of the city gates, he’d ride to Knabwell, but right now he couldn’t even saddle his horse. Will and his brothers slept in the stables, supposedly standing watch over their paddocked four-legged charges. If Josce roused them, they’d surely wake their mother. If Aggie woke, so would Elianne, and the last thing Josce wanted at this moment was to face her.
So he might tell himself, but that didn’t stop his head from turning toward the kitchen where she slept. Even after Josce had asked Beatrice to keep Elianne within the hall and under their protection, his stepmother refused to allow her enemy’s daughter into the bedchamber. That left Elianne no choice but to sleep with her female servants outside the hall, which in itself was unusual.
The soldiers and male servants belonging to visiting guests customarily took residence in an estate’s outbuildings, leaving the hall and its barred door for the womenfolk. However, there wasn’t enough room in all Coneytrop’s barns and sheds for the soldiers who accompanied Haydon’s noble widow. Thus had the sleeping arrangements shifted, Richard’s wife and daughters retreating to the kitchen, taking Elianne along with them.
Despite the hour, the kitchen door stood wide. That vulnerable women might leave the door open startled Josce. As he strode past, he caught the glow of a banked fire through the portal. No doubt even that bit of light lent those within the kitchen’s flimsy walls a bit of company and a sense of security.
Once past the kitchen, Josce made his way around the estate’s vegetable plot, then through the sheepfold to Elianne’s ga
rden gate. Lifting the latch, he pushed, expecting resistance, only to have the door swing wide with ease. Elianne must have returned yestereve to clear away the wreckage of her arbor.
The recall of her broken roses brought with it the memory of her hands on his as she pleaded for her precious plants. There’d been nothing subtle about the sensations that had streaked through him from her touch.
Desire stirred anew. So did the indignity of Sir Adelm’s charge. Watch his heart?!
Josce left the gate open behind him to pace across the grassy expanse to the bench. Tossing his clothing onto the seat, he dropped to sit beside it, then kicked off his shoes in preparation for dressing. Just who was Sir Adelm to make such a charge to him?
Someone who apparently knew Elianne well enough to speak of her like an uncle or a brother. Josce’s eyes narrowed. It didn’t matter who Sir Adelm thought he was to Elianne, the man was wrong. There was nothing at all for anyone to read upon his face. He wasn’t enamored of sheriff’s daughter. Or at least he hadn’t been until that cursed knight set his ridiculous seed into Josce’s brain.
Driven to it by Sir Adelm’s charge, Josce had relived his every encounter with Elianne all the night long. Again and again, he took that walk with her across the priory’s yard, enjoying the odd intimacy of their matched pace. This was inevitably followed by the image of Elianne standing before the wreckage of her arbor, holding aloft that pallet of hers.
Josce’s eyes closed. He breathed out with the promise of pleasure. Oh, but the things they could do, that he would love to do with her, upon that mattress.
Which, as had happened more times than he could count this night, led him back to the pool. Right on cue, remembered sensations stirred, then grew until every inch of him craved her. God help him, but he longed to be in the water with her again. This time, he wanted her legs higher, fastened about his hips not his thighs, as they made love.
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