“My lady,” the commander said. “I think we should get to the convent as soon as possible without any more stops. Once there, you will be safe until your husband arrives.”
Alianor called the guard to her and whispered some additional comments to him. The commander rode back, issuing orders in a low voice so that his words did not carry outside the group. At his word, Anne and Alianor, still surrounded by other guards, began to move forward.
“What did you tell him?”
“I invited Sir Royce and the others to join us at the convent. He deserves at least a good meal for saving our lives.”
“Alianor! How could you?”
“He came to save your life, Anne. Not mine. And from the looks he gave you he has something to say to you.”
“He said all there was to say and did not speak words I wanted to hear. You may eat with him if you like, but I will seek solace in prayer tonight.”
They rode for some time before Alianor spoke again.
“You know this will mean war.”
“War?” she asked. “Why?”
“Father arranged your marriage to close the breach between him and Lancaster at the king’s order. And Father returned that bloody piece of land that Robert lost his life defending as part of the settlement.”
“Aye, I know those things.”
“Since your death, that land remains with Lancaster.”
“Why was it not returned when I was reported dead?”
“Their agreement called for it to remain in Lancaster’s hands unless your marriage ended in an annulment. On the birth of an heir or on your death, they retain it.”
Anne was stunned. She knew that Edward’s father had refused to allow him to seek an annulment and now she knew why. She guessed that Edward had given up hope after five years and one miscarriage and tried the easier method—her death. Of course it would have to happen in such a way that he could not be blamed or the land would be lost. An attack by brigands while traveling was a good way, especially if there was a family member there to identify the remains and bury them quickly.
“And now?” Anne was almost afraid to ask.
“When your survival is revealed and you identify your attacker, Father will go to war.”
“And many will die.” The whole reason for her marriage, the reason she had not gone to her father when Edward had turned abusive, would be overturned and many in her family and in their allies’ families would die. Because she was alive.
“So be it. Those mangy curs deserve to die after what they did to you.” Anne wanted to smile at her sister’s bloodthirstiness, but the subject of war was too serious. “Worry not,” she continued with a dark look in her eyes, “they will pay.”
Anne could see Alianor standing on the beach once more, brandishing her sword of driftwood and scaring off the imaginary Viking soldiers as they attacked. She may be the older one, but Alianor had always been the stronger one, the bolder one in their play.
She rode in silence the rest of the way, never daring to look back to see where he was, but always wanting to. They arrived at the convent and were shown to quarters reserved for higher-ranking guests in the lay wing. Anne discovered that Orrick’s men had stayed back an hour to search for any others who might be following the party.
True to her word, Anne asked to be shown to the chapel when dinner was announced to Alianor. Her sister took her aside, none too happy at her decision.
“I did not know you to be a coward, Anne.”
“You have not known me for five years, sister. I have changed much in that time.” Sometimes, she’d discovered, ’twas easier to be a coward and live to tell. “Besides, your words today made me think about the effect of my ‘resurrection’ on our family. I want to think on it.”
“You fear war?”
“I fear losing Guillaume to them. I fear causing so many deaths when my death will keep the peace.”
“And I am unwilling to lose you again, Anne.” Alianor looked at her. “But, go and think and pray on these events. I want you to be at peace with this before we do anything more.”
Anne walked into the chapel and knelt near the altar. She prayed for guidance, she prayed for options and she prayed for peace. Lady Margaret’s words and suggestions came back to her. Mayhap she should enter the convent? Alianor would know where she was, could even visit her from time to time, but war would be averted. And, if she chose one like this one, she could live as a lay sister and not take vows.
Is that what she wanted? To live with these other sisters and work in service to them?
No. She wanted one thing, one person, and, damn her weak heart, even knowing that he did not want her, she still loved him. She really needed to talk to someone. She needed the counsel of someone she trusted. She would seek out Alianor and come to a decision by morning. Too many people were already aware of her identity. The sound of footsteps approaching drew her attention. Thinking that Alianor had come to berate her for missing dinner, she stood and turned to her.
It was him.
Royce stood just a few paces away. She lowered her eyes, not daring to meet his gaze. She needed to leave before she said something stupid. Or did something even worse. Anne had begun to walk away when he reached out and touched her sleeve.
“I am here to beg forgiveness.”
She purposely misunderstood him. “If you ask Sister Genevieve, she can arrange for one of the priests to hear your confession. Now, excuse me.” Gathering her gown, she stepped around him.
“I have begged God’s forgiveness so many times that he ignores me now. Nay, Isabel…Anne, I have come to ask for yours.”
His voice sent chills rippling down her spine. She must go. Now.
“I am so happy over being reunited with my sister, Royce, that I will forgive you any transgressions you may have committed against me. Now, I bid you good evening.”
One…two…three…just two more steps and she would be out of the chapel. She held her breath and took the first one. Staring at the floor and clenching her fists to keep from crying, Anne prepared to take the final one. Royce stepped in front of her and stopped her from leaving.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“In the months I have known you, you have never been a coward.” Did he know his words echoed her sister’s?
“You are the second person to call me that today and I have to say I like it no better now than the first time.” She stepped back away from him but did not try to leave.
“I have no right to say that to you, since I am the one who behaved cowardly when last we spoke.”
“Royce, I do not have the strength to face you again. It will do no good and it…” She stopped the words before they came out. Will break my heart.
“Anne, just hear me out. You need say nothing if you do not wish.”
She looked around and spotted a bench against one wall. Walking to it, she sat down and prepared herself as best she could.
“When I spoke with your sister and discovered who you were, I was terrified. I kept it to myself to keep you with me.”
“You told me that already. Like a…”
“Nay! There you have it wrong. When I knew you would leave, I wanted you to leave without regrets. Unfortunately, I did not display the same planning abilities that you do when you set your mind to something.” He walked in front of her, but she refused to meet his eyes.
“I said some very stupid things to you and I would have you know the truth.” He crouched down in front of her, making it difficult to look past him. “I made you believe that the blame lay with you and it did not. I treated you no better than Edward did and I ask your pardon for that.”
She blinked faster, trying to rid her eyes of the tears, but it did not help. She glanced at him and then away. Her heart would not survive this. Her soul would not.
“Before you waste any more tears on me, you must understand why I cannot offer you marriage now. I would rather you hate me than yourself.”
“I already know, I am b-
b…” She choked on the word that had been used as a weapon against her so many times.
“Nay, Isabel…Anne.” He shook his head at using the wrong name. “I fear you will always be Isabel to me.” He frowned at her and then continued, “Much as I will always be Royce to you.”
“Your name is Royce. We chose Isabel when I could not remember mine.” He was not making sense.
“My name is William de Severin. Royce was a family name I was given growing up since my father was also William.”
“William? Why did you change your name?” She could not help but ask.
“If you ask anyone at court, they will tell you that William de Severin died on the field of honor three years ago, settling a dispute with the Earl of Harbridge. The earl cut his throat and gained the countess and her lands and titles and wealth. I got this.” He lifted his hand to his throat, now without a beard, and pointed to the jagged line on one side of it. “Luckily the earl is as skilled as he is merciful or I would have truly died that day.”
“I do not understand. Why did the earl fight you?”
“I think I should begin a bit earlier in the tale. May I sit?” He pointed to the bench next to her. Not waiting for her answer, he sat down.
“When King Richard was held for ransom, I fell in with John, whom I had known as a boy in Anjou and Poitiers. I was intent on finding excitement and wealth and a rich wife to support my tastes. I was arrogant then and did not see the evil in him. I thought only of the spectacles and the tournaments and traveling across the Plantagenet empire. I became his champion and his enforcer as well.”
“Prince John? You support the prince?”
“I did. If he was challenged, I fought in his name. If his will was not followed, I made it happen. I did things in his name that brought darkness to my soul and that God will never forgive.”
She shivered at the ominous tone of his voice. This was a different man than the one she knew.
“He strung me along like a puppet, offering me what he knew I wanted, each reward larger and larger until he knew I would not resist. And I played his games.” He rubbed his face and held his head in his hands. “Then the prize I’d waited for was put in front of me. He must have realized I was tiring of being his man and so he tempted me with Emalie.”
Her stomach churned at his tale. She did not know him, but she knew men like him, toadies to royalty, hangers-on who sought the castoffs of royal favor.
“Emalie?” She was afraid to ask and, when he began speaking in a bleak voice, she feared what was coming.
“Gaspar Montgomerie owned much land and held the ancient title of Earl of Harbridge. His daughter Emalie would inherit everything, to be passed on to whomever she married. John decided I should be that man.” He smiled grimly, but he did not look up. “Gaspar had other ideas and sought support from Eleanor and Richard. Before it could arrive, he was killed.”
She could not believe what he had said. “You killed him?” Her hands shook now. She clenched them together to try to control them. She could not believe it of him. Certainly he had killed men in fighting and in defense, but in cold blood?
“As good as. I did not put the poison in his cup, but I did not stop it, either.” He leaned back against the wall and looked at her now. “This is why I could not tell you of my past. I see the hate growing in your eyes already and my tale is but half-done.”
Anne swallowed several times to clear her throat and asked him to continue. As sordid as this was, she wanted to know his role in it. Something just did not sound right with this to her.
“Gaspar died and Emalie was alone. John presented me to her as the man her father wanted her to marry. He even presented her with betrothal papers outlining our settlements signed by her father. She knew they were false and she resisted.”
She was getting sick. Anne was glad she’d had no dinner, for it would never stay in her stomach as this story went on. Already she felt the urge to heave. “And you cooperated with him? You were the prince’s accomplice in this?”
“By this time, I can say that I’d had enough. John did what he did best, something he’d demonstrated with countless others before me—he sought out my weakness and used it against me.”
She feared the answer but asked anyway. “Who was yours?”
“Clever girl! You saw what I did not. He knew that the allure of gold and lands were losing their power with me, so to keep me playing his tune, he took my sister into his custody.”
“Custody? Your sister?”
“Aye, Catherine. A lovely girl of fifteen. I was her guardian after my father’s death. She was an innocent, much like others John and I had debauched together. He held her and never let me see her. When I would hesitate, he would remind me of her innocence, her beauty, his control.”
“Did he…?” She could not say the words.
“He promised her safekeeping to me so long as I followed his plan to claim Harbridge. With the betrothal papers, all we needed was a consummation to make it a marriage that could not be denied. I consummated the agreement with Emalie.”
She gasped, then. He had raped this woman to gain control over her lands and titles. For John, he had taken this woman by force. She shook her head, still not believing that the Royce she knew was this man William he described.
“I loved Emalie. At least I thought I did. I tried to convince her to accept me, but she was as stubborn as her father had been. And smarter.” He smiled and she could hear the admiration in his voice for this woman. “She did not behave as most noblewomen would. You know, Anne, you remind me of her in that.” He caught her gaze and then looked away. “When John went to her and proclaimed her dishonored, she denied it. He almost spit! He had expected her to meekly submit and to control her wealth and her person and she laughed at him.”
“That does not sound like a good thing to do.”
“Nay, ’twas not. She had also sent to Eleanor and Richard asking for help. Once the old queen arrived and intervened, providing a husband for Emalie of her choosing, John stood to lose everything he had arranged. His last gambit was for me to go to the bishop in Lincoln and claim the prior betrothal and to claim,” he paused, “the child she carried as mine.”
“She was pregnant?” Her breath hitched and she broke away from his eyes. “Was it your babe?”
He looked as though he was about to say something else when he spoke. “Yes, the babe was mine.”
She stood now and paced in front of him. “How could you do such a thing? You raped her? You made her pregnant. And you still continued to act with John?”
“He had Catherine,” Royce forced out from between clenched teeth. “What else could I do? I thought the worst was over, I would be good to Emalie as her husband, I could make this unholy alliance work and still save Catherine from his evil.”
“There is more to this sordid tale. Tell me the rest so we might end this.” She was repulsed by the evil he had done.
“We had everything arranged. John had paid the bishop handsomely to decide in our behalf. But Emalie’s husband was a surprise. He would neither be bought nor acquiesce. He challenged me to combat to decide the fate of the countess and her child.”
“Did you kill him?”
“I should have since I was the better fighter. And since John increased my need to win by telling me of Catherine and how he would keep her if I died. He told me such sickening details of things she had already seen that I knew I must win. She could not endure such horrors because of my weaknesses.”
He stopped and she could feel his pain welling up. As much as she wanted to hate him, she could not. Once caught by John’s evil, there was no easy way out from it. His sister must have suffered so much while his prisoner.
“She still lives? Your sister?” Anne remembered that he had mentioned her once.
He took in a breath and let it out, his voice was shaking as he spoke now. “Aye. John underestimated Christian of Langiers. John did not plan on him accepting a dishonored bride and he did not expect
him to fight with all means at his disposal. And he did not expect him to win.”
“And he won? How?”
“He was a man of honor. He learned of Catherine and sent his men for her. They freed her from John before we fought. During the fight, he told me that only through my death could she and Emalie be safe. At first I did not want to believe that something as simple as my death could free them both, but he swore for their safety. Then as the battle went on, he told me again that he had Catherine, that she was safe from John.”
“Could you believe him?”
“I had to take that chance. As I said, Emalie’s husband, the earl, had shown himself to be honorable to her, accepting her pregnancy even though he knew she did not carry his child. When the opportunity presented itself, I gave him the opening he needed to kill me. I knew my death would at least protect my sister.”
“But you did not die.”
“Nay. He knocked me to the ground and I felt the slash of the sword as it went in. I waited for the twisting of the blade that would have finished me.” He touched the scar as he spoke. “His words told me I was dead. There was so much blood from injuries to both of us that he was able to make it look as though he had killed me.”
Royce, or William, took another deep breath. She saw the sweat on his brow and that his hands shook as he relived the battle and his death. She sat back down at his side and waited for him to explain what brought him to Silloth.
“I was told later that John stalked off the field furious at this lost opportunity. The earl’s man arranged for me and Catherine to be placed at a nearby convent to be cared for. When I had healed enough, I left.”
“And Catherine? Was she safe?”
“The earl had saved her body, but not her mind.” His voice and breath caught and he sobbed out his answer. “Her mind dwells someplace else. The sisters there said she had seen such horrors that her mind fled from them. She lives, but she…”
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