by Jillian Hart
“Mount up, we ride,” he commanded, and bound the woman’s wrists.
Chapter Two
“Take care how you speak,” Alma whispered while they rode side by side. Their horses were led by the knight called Hugh, who kept a careful eye on the position of Elin’s feet. “’Twould not be good to tempt Malcolm le Farouche’s anger.”
“He is a villain.”
“He strikes with the authority of the king. We are at his mercy. Pray do not forget that the next time you speak to him.”
“If I speak. I want naught to do with that cowardly knave.” She could see him up ahead. He was touched by stardust now that the clouds above had parted. Though he shone with silver light, he was still more shadow than substance as he led the entourage, sword raised, an image of power and might.
“See? Again you speak without thought. I bid you to cease with the insults. Call him neither coward nor knave. You have yet to see the world as I have, little one. He has done naught but bind our wrists and your feet. Look how loosely Sir Hugh tied me. ’Tis far better than abuse and rape, so mind your tongue.”
Fine. But Elin’s anger grew. She was no chattel to be bound like a cow on butchering day. Or a weakling afraid to stand up to tyranny. Look how he rode, spine straight and those broad shoulders gleaming with dark light. Triumph and arrogant pride held him up, no doubt. No matter the cost, she refused to be at that knave’s mercy.
“Elin, what are you about?” Alma muttered, and drew the attention of the knight called Hugh, who kept peering with suspicious eyes over his shoulder, despite the restriction of his armor.
Surely Elin’s few kicks to his chest and shoulder had done no more than bruise him. How else was she to fight when she had no weapons—well, none she wanted to reveal?
“I am locating my dagger,” she whispered when Hugh turned forward to watch the road.
“Toward what end? Pray do not tell me you wish to wage war against six knights with one small blade?”
“I intend to cut our bindings, silly goose.” Elin shook her head. “I shall outwit those knights. They are far too sure of themselves.”
“As are you.”
Elin frowned at Alma’s wry comment. Didn’t she have every right to be furious? She was trussed up like livestock. And worse, she had deeper fears she would not confess to Alma. Whether true or not, her father was being taken to the king under the charge of treason. She had at first thought such accusations unlikely, but Father’s righteous fury changed her mind. An innocent man would not spout death threats and then offer bribes to anyone who could free him.
Was the dark knight correct? Would she face the same charges just by being in her father’s company? But what if le Farouche followed his own agenda in kidnapping them? If he’d concocted the accusations against her father, what future awaited her then?
Either way, escape seemed the best course.
As if sensing her intentions, Hugh turned to study her carefully. Grateful for the shadows of a grove they rode through, Elin froze. She tried to appear innocent until he faced forward again. Then she wiggled the knife tucked against her waist so that its hilt caught against the inside of her elbow. With a little concentration, she freed the blade from the small scabbard beneath her mantle.
So far so good. Now to retrieve it. She had to appear innocent every time Hugh turned to spy on her. That damnable knight was truly annoying.
Finally the blade slid down the length of her sleeved arm and into her palm. The sharp point nicked her flesh, but she didn’t even wince. Such victory! With the way that dark knight led his men, eyes straight ahead and nose to the sky, he would never know she and Alma had slipped away into the darkness.
But Hugh would notice. Something had to be done about him.
“I see what you are up to,” Alma whispered, piquing Hugh’s interest once more.
“Alma! Stop this! How are we to escape if you keep drawing that annoying knight’s attention?”
“We ought not to escape.” Alma drew herself up straight, her low voice ringing with authority. “Listen to me for once, Elinore. They will set us free. We are innocent. Edward is a fair and just king.”
“I trust no man, not even the king.” And not Malcolm le Farouche. “Neither should you.”
“And tell me what harm can come to two women traveling these woods unarmed and unprotected? Nothing worse than what will befall us by staying beneath the fierce knight’s protection.”
Elin hated it when Alma made sense. “I will protect you.”
“You have no sword or armor, little one. You are brave, but do not consider it. I pray you, stay with me. No harm will come to us. You wait and see.”
Now what should she do? Elin waited until Hugh faced forward again before she positioned the hilt in her palm and worked the tip of the knife into the bindings.
“Surrender your weapon, maiden warrior.” A deep voice shivered over the back of her neck, vibrating down her spine.
She jumped. The knife fell to the ground, lost forever. Le Farouche rode half a hair’s width beside her. How had he gotten there? He’d been at the lead just moments ago. He made no sound as he rode alongside her. Was he part demon? How would she fight him now?
“As you can see, I have no weapon.” She held flat both palms. “I speak the truth.”
“Then why do you bleed as if pricked by a sharp blade?”
“’Tis from the bindings.”
“Do not mistake me for a fool.”
She lifted her chin. “Or me, cowardly knight.”
“Hsst!” Alma whispered, scolding her.
The dark knight’s laughter boomed through the silent forest. “I see that at least one of you females has good sense. Listen to the older one, dove. Escape would only bring peril and prove your guilt to the king.”
“I have no guilt.” She’d had her share of misdeeds and misadventures, but not treason. “If you believe in our innocence, then release us.”
“And risk the king’s wrath? ’Tis unlikely.”
“The king need never know.”
“You are not just fierce, you’re clever, not a typical maiden. I like that.” His great voice thundered over her, at once powerful and kind.
Kind? Now, where had that notion come from?
He leaned close and she could smell the night scent of him, mysterious, wooded, crisp like cool air. “If I see any knives, I will seize them. Do not reveal your weapons and I will allow you to keep them.”
He spurred his destrier forward, leaving her behind with the shades and shadows of night.
“’Tis twice he’s forgiven your transgressions, Elin. Do not tempt his anger further,” Alma murmured.
Elin cursed at the loss of her knife and felt some satisfaction that she had another tucked inside her mantle. Just one weapon left.
’Twould have to be enough.
“We are being watched,” Sir Giles said in a low tone so that his voice wouldn’t carry.
“That has not escaped me.” Malcolm did not look around. He saw no reason to alert whoever watched them that he knew of their presence. “I sense two riders keeping just to the east of us in the wood. They ride distant enough so we hear naught of their movements but close enough to strike quickly. See how my stallion senses them.”
“I hear now and then the sound of hooves on dried twigs.”
Malcolm pulled off his helm. Cool damp air swept across his brow. “At least two ride west of us as well. Did you hear the sound of a horse exhaling?”
“Look how your stallion swivels his ears.”
“More will be waiting on the path ahead of us. Expect an ambush. Alert the men. Quietly.”
“Aye. We will fare better if we are not surprised.” Giles fell back to speak to each knight in turn, giving no sign of alarm.
Malcolm slid his helm down over his face. He neither loved battle like some nor hated it like others. ’Twas something he excelled at, however. His blood heated with anticipation. His grip on his sword tightened.
&n
bsp; “What of the women?” Hugh rode up beside Malcolm for a moment. “If you count four men, surely there will be more. I cannot sit by and watch a battle. I must fight.”
“We may well be outnumbered. Leave the women to their own devices. The girl is armed.”
“She mayhap could level an entire army with that kick of hers.”
As a knight, one who made his way by fighting and war, Malcolm admired courage and strength in all forms. Even in a girl-woman who knew not enough of the world to be afraid of it.
“Look to. Up ahead the road narrows.” The perfect spot for an ambush. Malcolm studied the lay of the land. Enormous boulders blocked his view of the shadowed lane. The stillness of the forest told him his instincts where correct. Their opponents would strike from both the front and behind, an organized charge. By whom? Why?
He drew to a halt. His men, ready to fight, positioned themselves. He heard the girl, Evenbough’s daughter, demand to know why they were stopping. Then why Hugh was cutting Alma’s bindings. Malcolm thought to bid her to silence, but he felt it then, the expectant charge in the air right before battle, as if nature could sense the impending clash of men and muscle and sword, and the resulting injury and death.
He lifted his shield. “Who challenges us?” he bellowed into the night.
There was no answer. “You think you have surprised us? Cowards, show your ugly faces.”
No movement.
Then a stallion trumpeted in the dark, and hooves drummed upon rock and earth. Figures burst out of the brush in front of them and at their flanks. Malcolm met the first man with the might of his sword. He landed a blow to the knight’s shoulder and deflected a thrust with his shield.
The crisp focus found only in battle filled his head, beat in his veins. Malcolm wheeled his stallion around and charged, knocking the knight to the ground. As another attacked him, he easily landed a bloody blow.
Not even breathing hard, he drew his mount to a halt. Blood thundered in his head. Battle cries and the clash of steel surrounded him. He counted three knights on the ground. Saw Giles in trouble and rode to his aide. Together, they fought side by side. But the two knights proved difficult to defeat. Malcolm took a bruising blow to his collarbone and another to his ribs before he felled them.
“We are sorely outnumbered,” he shouted as he engaged another knight. “Look to Hugh. He’s injured.”
“I cannot,” Giles cried as more knights descended upon him.
Malcolm spun his destrier and charged deep into the fray. He took another blow, this one to his helm. Blood filled his mouth, though ’twas hardly more than a split lip. “Behind you, Hugh!” he called, lifting his sword.
Hugh turned to face his enemy, but Malcolm could not reach his friend in time. Every galloping step of his stallion seemed in slow motion. The enemy knight evaded Hugh’s shield and drove his sword deep into the young man’s abdomen, breaking mail and flesh. Hugh fell bonelessly to the ground.
“No!” Malcolm cried. In an instant his sword lanced the knight’s side. He knocked away the weapon, then the shield, then dragged the knight to the ground with him. He’d found the man in charge of this attack, for this was no band of robbers. He tossed the knight against the broad trunk of a tree and held his blade to his throat. “Do you yield?”
“Not without the woman.”
“Are you a fool? Attacking the king’s knights? Yield, I say, or I will drag you to Edward myself.”
He felt his enemy tremble. No courageous knight, this; not even a fine mercenary, but one grown soft working for some lord or baron, protecting his fences and castle walls. “I yield.”
“Call off your men. Now, I say!”
“Beo! Cedric! Hold!” The enemy lifted his helm.
“Tell me your name,” Malcolm demanded, the edge of his sword tight beneath the leader’s throat.
“I am Caradoc of Ravenwood and I claim right to the baron’s daughter.”
The little dove? “Is she your wife?”
“Nay, Philip had agreed on a match between us.”
“Philip is bound for the king’s court, as will you be.”
Even in the darkness, Ravenwood paled. “My intent was to capture the woman, Elin.”
“Then you know of Evenbough’s flight?”
“We tracked him.”
Tight with fear, that voice. Ravenwood’s body felt tense. Not with the anticipated bunch of muscles ready for a fight, but with true terror. This was no warrior. This was a man without courage.
“Pray,” Ravenwood begged, “do not kill me.”
Malcolm’s sword hovered while he decided his course. “Bid your men to lie facedown, arms spread. We will take them as prisoners.”
“Why? We want only the woman. She’s a maiden, an innocent.”
“A woman has no innocence.” Malcolm pressed the edge of his blade to Ravenwood’s throat until he drew blood. “’Tis not my place to judge your intentions or the girl’s. Like you, her future will be determined by the king.”
“Then you are the greater fool, Malcolm the Fierce.” Ravenwood’s eyes glittered in the way of men who cannot win by their battle skills, but by deceit and manipulation. “I am a favored nephew of the king. He will have your head, if I do not have it first.”
“You are the fool, Ravenwood. Do not threaten one who has spared your life. Else you may not have the same fate when we meet next.”
“You are not a lord, sirrah, but a hired man of the king’s. A barbarian sired you, and a barbarian you will always be. I know your ilk, le Farouche, and I spit on it.”
“You are a brave man with words, but you mistake my sensibilities. I know I am like my father, a killer to the bone. And knowing this should frighten you.” Malcolm tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. “Do my bidding while I am still of a mind to spare your life.”
“Kill me and earn the king’s disfavor.” Ravenwood laughed with the cocky ease of a lord’s spoiled son, born to a life of uselessness.
“I do not fear the king’s disfavor.” Malcolm tossed the traitor to the ground, pressed a foot to the small of his back to pin him there, and eased the sharp point of his sword into the vulnerable spot between his hauberk and the back of his helm.
“Lie on the ground or your lord will be run through,” he commanded the others.
The half-dozen remaining knights eased themselves to the bloodstained earth, wary and uncertain of their fate.
“Bind them. We’ll have more prisoners for Edward’s dungeon.” Malcolm knelt with some satisfaction to tie Caradoc of Ravenwood’s hands behind his back. “Pray your uncle looks upon you with favor, for being found trying to rescue a traitor is a damning act.”
“I merely wanted the shrew.” Caradoc’s words were muffled from the dirt in his mouth. “I will have your head, le Farouche, one way or another.”
“You are not warrior enough to win it in a fight.” Malcolm did not value his head overmuch. “I will gag you as well. I grow tired of your threats.”
Malcolm stood careful watch while Caradoc of Ravenwood and his bound men were chained to trees like dogs.
“You did not take his head,” Giles observed. “You have taken far more from those who have insulted you less.”
“He is a relative of the king and a powerful man.”
“You are afraid?” Giles’s astonished whisper carried in the still night air.
“Nay, but wary. I never turn my back on a serpent.” He’d seen the contrivances of men like Caradoc and had recognized in his manner a man who took triumph in hurting others. “Is Hugh dead?”
“Mortally wounded.” Giles gestured toward the road, where their men had gathered. “We lost no others.”
“And the women?”
“Escaped during the fray. Shall I track them?”
“The king will be displeased if we do not.” His thoughts turning to the wounded man, Malcolm raced across uneven ground toward the fallen knight. Men parted to allow room at Hugh’s side. Silence and sorrow scented th
e air.
Grief tore at Malcolm’s heart as he knelt, knowing he was helpless to repair rent flesh and shattered bone. Someone had removed Hugh’s helm and had bathed his sweaty face. Faint starlight showed the deathly pallor tainting pale skin. Hugh would die, and Malcolm seethed with anger at his powerlessness to save him.
“We have not long to wait,” Lulach whispered, so Hugh would not hear.
“Then we wait,” Malcolm decided. He would let the young man, once so eager to serve beneath him, die in peace.
Hugh’s fingers gripped his. “I fear I have done you shame. I am not the knight I prayed to be.”
“Fear not, Hugh. You fought like a true warrior. I am proud of you.”
“’Tis all I ever asked.” Hugh let out a rasping breath, and Malcolm closed his eyes, unwilling to watch another fine man die.
Such was a knight’s life, easily spent, easily expended, lost on a dark road for no reason. The injustice of it beat at him like a wielded spike, but there was naught Malcolm could do to change the way of the world or turn back the tide of death.
He had survived and was left to mourn—as always—those who did not.
“The young knight has fallen,” Alma whispered as they galloped down the dark lane. “We must help him.”
“He trussed me up like a pig. I’ll not risk my freedom and welfare for any man.” Elin thought of the dark, fierce knight and how he’d taunted her. And then of the younger knight, who had shown kindness toward Alma. “I shall not return.”
Yet she slowed the mare from a gallop to a trot. Then she halted the animal entirely. What was her freedom worth? If the king wanted her at his court, then nothing would spare her. That little voice inside her head had been smiting her since she’d fled Hugh’s watchful eye.
“’Tis an unwise decision,” she informed Alma.
“But a noble course.”
“Fie on nobility! The true reason I turn this palfrey around is so that I might sleep at night. I’ll not have some man’s death on my conscience!” Truly, she was no soft-hearted female. She could wield a sword as well as her brother and run twice as far. And a pox on anyone who thought her weak and sentimental.