The Herald's Heart

by Rue Allyn

  Making herself presentable took little time, and soon she entered the great hall. “Welcome, Sir Amis. Talon mentioned a friend was visiting nearby. I am sorry he is attending some matter in the village and is not here to greet you. I know he will regret missing your visit. How may I help you?”

  She took a seat. More slightly built than Talon but still muscular, the man’s wheat-blond hair framed a chiseled face and striking green eyes. Had it not been for the laughter in his gaze, he might have passed for one of the angels. Gabriel perhaps, but more likely Raphael in his human form.

  He tilted his head and considered her as well. His gaze lingered on her breasts. “Please let Talon know that I have been unable to meet with Baron Le Hourde. He left on a journey a day before I arrived but is expected to return soon. I will stay at Rosewood and wait for the baron there, but I did not wish to neglect my heraldric duty, even if I do believe Talon is somewhat over nice in his pursuit of details. I’m sure you must have experienced his stiff-rumped attitude on more than one occasion.”

  She forced herself to continue smiling. Was rivalry the only reason for Sir Amis’s thinly veiled insults?

  Sir Amis reached for her hand.

  She placed both in her lap carefully under the table. “I am happy to relay your message.”

  The knight lifted his gaze to hers. His eyes were limpid and his mouth pursed to suggest kissing. Any other woman might swoon at his feet. She frowned.

  “Tell me how you and Talon met,” asked Amis.

  She forced a laugh. “Oh, that’s much too long a story, and telling it without Talon present would be unfair.”

  Her guest raised his brows. “Unfair? That implies some complexity to your relationship, yet I understand you are neither wed, betrothed, nor lovers. How comes a young unmarried woman to stay in a bachelor keep?”

  “I ... I ...” she floundered. “That is a very personal question.”

  “Yes. I would have you know that if Sir Talon coerces you, you may count me friend.”

  Why would Sir Amis think that? “There is no coercion. I am here because I believe the earl had a valuable box that belonged to me. As Talon’s stepmother, I have every right to reside here while I search for it.”

  “Hmm. I’d forgotten you were wed to the earl.” Amis’s eyes lit up. “Sounds like a treasure hunt. I would love to help.”

  “’Tis not necessary.”

  “Necessity has nothing to do with it.” He leaned forward, close enough for his breath to brush her cheek. Her face heated, and her skin crawled. “One of the reasons I became a herald is because I enjoy solving puzzles,” Amis continued. “Heralds are often called to do so in the cause of verifying a noble’s identity.”

  She wanted help very much, but this man’s aid could be dangerous. Clearly he had impure intentions. Yet perhaps there was a way. “The box is very old; you must promise not to touch it and call me immediately if you find it. I would not want you to be responsible for any damage.”

  “Nor would I, Lady Larkin. We will not be searching together?” His shoulders slumped.

  “I will search nearby, close enough to hear you call.” And far enough to run should that be necessary. She led him to the last unexamined room on the third level of the keep and explained the method she used to search the walls as well as any objects. They worked well together, talking as they labored. Amis behaved like a perfect gentleman. As dusk approached, Amis excused himself, begging the privilege of visiting her again when he next reported to Talon.

  Larkin couldn’t recall what she’d answered other than that she agreed, praying Talon would be present when next the other herald chose to visit Hawksedge.

  Talon claimed to worry for her safety enough to remain by her side and help her searchings. But he left her alone long enough for a very uncomfortable interlude with a rival. He had not even bothered to tell Cleve to remain nearby when a stranger was present. Yes, she was certain her life was in no danger from Sir Amis and that Talon’s reasons for his absence were legitimate. If he had insisted on a man guarding her at all times, she would have objected. However, none of that stopped her from wreaking her frustration on the plasterwork that covered the stones of the room’s walls, scraping her hands and breaking her nails.

  She’d made a complete circuit of the room and found nothing. Out of patience with the fruitless search, she kicked a nearby stool, as she would like to kick a certain knight’s head.

  • • •

  Cleve greeted Talon in the baily with the announcement that the guard captain did not care much for Sir Amis. “He was here for most of the afternoon trying to weasel his way into Lady Larkin’s favor. He’ll cut you out there, for sure Sir Talon, if ye don’t do something to gain the lady for yerself.”

  Amis would not abuse their friendship just for a tumble with a beautiful woman, would he? Talon hurried to the room where he’d been told Larkin now worked. He opened the door, and a stool hit him in the shin.

  “St. Swithun’s shroud, woman,” he shouted, hopping about on one foot. “Are you determined to do me injury?” He righted the stool and sat, rubbing his maltreated shank.

  “Hmph.” She muttered something unintelligible and turned away. She opened a chest that stood against the wall and began to lift out the contents.

  “I heard you met Sir Amis today and he helped you search. I am sorry I missed him. Did the two of you meet with any success?” He doubted that Amis had done much searching, unless it was beneath Larkin’s skirts. The thought was unfair to his friend, given their plan.

  She rose and looked at him, twisting her hands. A frown worried her face. “Nay. We scoured the entire upper level.”

  Talon lowered his foot to the floor, suddenly contrite for his ill thoughts. If the two had accomplished so much, they’d have had little time for fornication. And Amis had assured him that he had no designs upon Larkin. Of course that had been before he’d met her and discovered how alluring she was. “I am sorry, Larkin.” He held out his hand to her.

  She took it. “Truly, I do not know what to do. I searched the cellar and most of the rooms on the main floor before you arrived at Hawksedge. You and I gave the counting room a thorough examination. If the earl had the box, he hid it very well.”

  “From the difficulties we’ve had cleaning this keep, I’d say the earl never got rid of anything.”

  “Even something as damning as this box?”

  “Who can tell? Tomorrow we can search the caves in the cliffs.”

  “Why there?”

  “Because they connect to this keep. It may well be that the earl kept his most valued items outside the building, believing that they would be safer there than where a servant might come across them.”

  “Aye, ’tis possible. I should have thought of that.”

  “Neither of us thought of it.” He grasped her other hand and drew her closer. She did not pull away. “If you are finished here, I will escort you to your chamber. That is, unless ...”

  His voice shook with the restraint he placed on himself. This gentle pleading was not the way he wished to do things. He longed to seize Larkin by the waist, carry her to the solar, strip her naked, and pleasure them both until she never wanted to leave his bed again. But he held back because he wanted much more from her than mere coupling. He desired her willingness, her passion, and her need.

  “Unless, what?”

  “Unless you would care join me in the solar.”

  Larkin’s eyes glinted, and her mouth formed a thin line. She snatched her hands away.

  Walking to the door, she looked at him as if he were some slimy thing she’d passed on the road. “Perhaps you should find Sir Amis and spend time with some tavern wenches.” Then she stalked out, closing the door with a definitive thump.

  He sat, stunned. What had his friend said or done to make Larkin send them chasing after whores? He leapt from the stool, about to chase after her and assure her that he’d no desire for whores or any other woman. He stopped with his hand on the
latch.

  She was angry over something that had to do with her value to him, he was certain of it. Nothing else would prompt a woman to send a man she cared for to women so far beneath her. Good. She felt something for him. Tomorrow, in the isolation of the caves and free from Amis’s interference, he would discover exactly what those feelings were.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Talon watched Larkin pick her way carefully across the rocks and lead the way into the cave that connected the keep to the sea. He had wanted to start the search at the farthest point from the keep, so they had walked the long narrow passage to the thin, rocky shoreline.

  “Where do the other caves lead?” he asked.

  “I’m not certain they lead anywhere. I’ve never really explored down here. I was always focused on searching the keep.”

  He studied the walls, noting the discoloration. “Does that come from the tides?” He pointed to a line running where the roof and wall of the cave met. The stone below was darker than the finger’s span of stone above.

  “Aye. At high tide, this cave is completely submerged. We’ll have to find caverns or passages that don’t flood. Surely the earl would not leave the marriage box where the sea could damage it.”

  “There are ways to protect smaller items from water damage, but I agree the box is more likely to be somewhere dry. Still, we’d best be thorough. A man trying to hide something will often choose the most illogical place.”

  “Then we’d better set to work. I would not want to get caught down here at high tide.”

  “’Tis a good thing these caves connect to the keep. Otherwise we might have to cut short our search.”

  “I could have wished that you placed that new door farther back toward the keep.”

  “Had I done that, it would not have served its purpose. Any invader who discovered these caves could, with some effort, destroy the door or even tunnel around to get through. I wanted to make any such attempt as difficult as possible.” He gestured with the torch he carried to where two smaller passages opened off the central cave where he stood with Larkin. “There are still branches off the main cave that provide opportunity for sapping, but the work will be much harder for the extra distance. And with increased patrols, we’ve greater chance of catching anyone who tries.”

  “These walls are solid rock—how could anyone tunnel through them?”

  He brushed at the pale, sandy-colored stone and watched small bits crumble away. “’Tis not so hard.” He showed Larkin where tiny flecks of the stone clung to his fingers.

  “I see. Then you were no doubt wise to place the door as you did.”

  Talon felt an irrational glow at her small approval.

  In the light of the torch, they walked a short way down the nearest of the smaller caves. The way became narrow. Talon examined an old rock fall that blocked the lower half of the passage. He saw no sign that the stone had been worked by anything except time and the sea.

  “We’ll have to turn back,” he announced.

  “Nonsense,” she uttered and clambered through the opening.

  Talon passed the torch to Larkin. “I don’t know if I can get through.” His shoulders scraped the sides, and he bumped his head once, but he managed to follow her.

  A few more steps and the passage widened to the size of a small chamber. Sunlight streamed through a large crack in the cliff face. Larkin stepped up to the hole and peered out. “Oh my. How glorious,” she whispered.

  Behind her he echoed, “’Tis indeed glorious.” Waves crested around a pile of giant rocks on the far side of the cove. The keep stood visible beyond the top of the cliff, dominating the countryside and defying the relentless attack of the sea on the bluff. But the sight was ordinary compared to the sparkle of sunlight in Larkin’s hair and the unalloyed pleasure on her face. He wanted to be the cause of that pleasure almost as much as he wanted his place at Hawksedge Keep. The thought that he might lose any claim to Hawksedge because of lust for this woman soured the moment.

  Knowing he should resist her lure, he joined her in looking out at the cove that separated them from Hawksedge Keep.

  “I never liked the sea,” he murmured in the peace of the moment.

  Larkin swept a hand at the caves behind them. “ But the sea has gained entrance here.”

  “Not by its own efforts, I suspect.” And it appeared that his efforts to regain Hawksedge might fail.

  “Then how?”

  “Mother Clement says God’s ways are mysterious. None can know why the Father of Heaven bid the sea enter here, yet a league down, the coast turns the waters away like an unwanted child.” Like him.

  Larkin fell silent.

  He shifted, to watch the light play over her face.

  “Do you think the earl gave any thought to the beautiful sight the keep makes on that cliff side?” she asked.

  “Nay,” he replied quietly. “From what little I know of my father, he placed no value on such things.”

  “You are right.” Her voice took on a hard edge.

  Too vulnerable to her allure, he resisted touching her, even in sympathy. He’d thought this time together would reveal what she felt for him, but all he’d gained was confusion about his own desires. “Why such bitterness over a pleasure the earl denied himself?”

  “Because he stole not only my family’s lives but my home and did not even care enough to keep it.” The pain in her expression twisted Talon’s heart. The earl had had a child and not cared enough to keep it.

  “’Tis not so strange for an earl to enfeoff secondary estates to a vassal.”

  “You don’t understand.” She turned on him with brutal vehemence. “He did not even give Rosewood to a vassal. He let the lands lay fallow, the castle fall to neglect.” Her voice rose. “The serfs and yeomen had no way to earn their livings because he ordered them from the lands they’d farmed for generations. ’Twas years before he deeded Rosewood to Baron Le Hourde.” She struck the rock wall beside her. “Do you hear me? Not enfeoffed but deeded, as if the place had no importance to him other than the gold coins its sale could bring.”

  Worried that she might hurt herself, Talon lifted his hands, then reminded himself that holding her was holding the end of his dreams. Helpless, he watched her beat out her sorrows on the stone, then collapse against it, sobbing for the loss of her home and her family. Family, a thing he knew little of but longed for most desperately. Family defined a man’s place. Without family, a man had no more worth than the waves hurling themselves unwelcome against the shore. And family needed a home. He’d learned that from Amis. His friend complained about his grasping, manipulative father, but at least Amis had a family and a clear sense of where home was, even if he did resent it and wanted a home of his own.

  “Talon?” Larkin grasped his sleeve. The gesture and the concern in her voice shook him from his dismal thoughts.

  “What?” The sun was sinking, edging toward the shelter of the cliff before yielding sway to the night. Spray from crashing waves spumed upward and sprinkled Larkin’s dress.

  “Am I mistaken or has the tide risen?”

  Yes, several of the caves that opened onto the cove were nearly covered by water. Only a few were high enough to be barely touched by the rapidly rising tide. He checked—waves lapped at the cave entrance to the keep. Then he ran his gaze over the walls of the cavern in which they stood. The tide line that he’d seen earlier marched around the cavern’s uppermost perimeter.

  If they stayed here, they would drown.

  “We’d best get back to the keep.”

  “Aye, I’ll hold the torch while you go out first.” She took the flambeau as she spoke.

  He wanted to argue but feared delaying even a small bit. He squeezed his body through the opening, turned and reached for the torch. Larkin wasn’t there.

  “Larkin!”

  “I’m right here.” Her voice came from below the level of the opening.

  “What are you doing? We must go, now!”

  “I fo
und something.”

  “The box?”

  “Nay. This.” She thrust her arm at him and opened her palm.

  “Wax? You found wax?” He took the pale smatterings from her.

  “Yes.” Her head appeared in the opening.

  “And you risk our lives by delaying to find this because ...?”

  “Don’t you see? Someone else is using these caves.”

  “That may or may not be true, but right now, we must leave.”

  “Right.” She shoved the torch into his grasp and crawled through the opening.

  Talon shifted the torch to his far hand and held out his free hand to help her through.

  She ignored it. All on her own, she thumped to the ground with a sploosh. She looked down at the sodden hem of her gown. “Oh dear.”

  “What?”

  Talon had been so concerned with Larkin’s dallying that he’d failed to notice the water already covered his feet. He grabbed her hand and strode in the direction of the new door into the keep.

  “Hurry.”

  Larkin slogged along behind him as best she could, but the water dragged at her skirts, making swift progress impossible. “Stop a moment.” She pulled her hand from his, forcing him to halt.

  “We don’t have time to wait for ...” He turned around to find her lifting her sopping skirts between her legs and tucking the hem into her kirtle. “What are you doing?”

  “Ready.” She picked up his hand.

  “Aye.” He set off again. Now was definitely not the time to comment on her shapely legs.

  They waded down the passage going deeper into the cliff side. The water level sank to ankle depth as they neared the door.

  “Thank heaven.” Larkin rested against the wall.

  Talon reached for the handle. “Indeed. ’Twill be glad I am to get into the keep.” He pushed, but nothing happened.

  He jerked, pulled, and tugged, but the door remained closed. All thought of lost dreams fled before the knowledge that he and Larkin might drown this night.

  CHAPTER TWELVE