CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Thomas rode toward his home in the moonlight. This all seemed like a dream. William returning a man. He looked exactly the same as he always had except he had filled out now, and the youthful cast to his countenance was gone. He behaved the same, but Thomas thought there was quite a bit more under the surface than there used to be.
And what of this news of Richard? Despite his mother’s refusal to hear it, Thomas was not convinced that Richard himself was not behind this. He had sided whole-heartedly with his mother because politically he needed her favor, but secretly he was much more inclined to Henry’s perspective. But Henry was not a trustworthy confidant. Thomas could never approach him in confidence and expect that it would remain between them.
Perhaps Richard and William were in cahoots. William returned to deliver the message and ensure they only took enough men that they could easily be defeated… He stopped his horse as the thought struck him. Did he need to return to the castle to warn everyone? He pondered for a moment and shrugged off the thought. That was nonsense. Richard was capable of such a deception, but not William. Of course, how much did he really know about William anymore? He shook his head and clucked his horse into a trot again. What did it matter? He could not prove anything even if he were correct. Groundless paranoia they would call it. For the moment it appeared they were going after Richard.
Thomas did not like Richard. Richard had not been kind to him in his youth, and Thomas had started to entertain the idea of becoming baron of Dawning Court. Richard was the only real threat to that. It was not in Thomas’ best interest go after him. Richard would be a hard and ruthless baron if he took over. Thomas was convinced that he would be a peace-loving and wise leader. If they rescued Richard, they might genuinely be doing a disservice not only to themselves but to the people of Dawning Court in general, and indeed to all England. He was not at all sure he wanted Richard back. In fact, he was quite sure no good could come from it.
It was easy for Henry and William to contemplate this fool’s errand of going into hostile territory with a tiny force.. Henry and William were unmarried, had no children, had nothing to lose. Thomas had everything to lose. Whether they were successful or not, he would lose the prize he had begun to set his sights on.
He looked down at his paunch bouncing in time with the horse’s stride. He was in the worst shape of his life. He could see clearly now that he had lived the soft life of a noble for so long that he was not at all prepared for real battle. His younger brothers, however, were both recently returned from the Crusades and in fighting trim. At his best, Thomas had no doubt that he was more than a match for both of his younger brothers, but now Thomas was having serious misgivings about his own abilities. He stopped in his own training yard, which he had not used in too long a time. He dropped from his saddle and retrieved an old mace from a small outbuilding in which he kept all his training equipment. He walked to a thick post he had buried in the center of his yard. He stared at it for a long moment before reeling back and striking it hard with the round ball of the mace head. He made a solid contact and left a sizable impression in the wood. He felt good about that and opened up a combination of strikes: strike, spin, strike, reverse swing, strike, side-step, underhand strike. Within moments he felt his wrists starting to buckle under the force of the strikes. His breathing was labored, and the force of his swings diminished rapidly. He ordered himself to push through this and find his stride again, and he continued the assault on the post. His speed rapidly slowed, though, and finally in frustration he raised his mace with both hands and brought it down on the post. But his trembling limbs sent his aim askew and he missed completely, bouncing the mace into the ground and losing his grip on it. It bounced up and knocked him on the head soundly before falling forgotten on the turf.
"You are going to die fighting for an outcome you do not even desire," he told himself. "You have to stop this thing!"
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Henry lowered his hand to his side without knocking on the door. He could not disturb her at this hour. As much as he desired company at that moment, there would simply be no excuse for disturbing a young lady at this hour in her own private quarters. What would he say to her? And how was he ever going to tell her after dragging her here all the way from London that he was leaving her here while he went traipsing off into a distant land for reasons he did not fully understand. He sighed to himself and turned to return to his own chambers when the door opened a crack and was presently thrown wide.
“Sir Henry?” Mary’s voice sounded surprised, but he noted she was still attired as she had been that day. She apparently was not yet sleeping.
“Forgive me, milady,” Henry stammered quickly. “I hope I did not wake you.”
Mary laughed. “It is not my custom to retire in my skirts.” She looked to either end of the hallway to be sure they were alone and then stood aside, motioning for Henry to keep quiet. “Charlotte is sleeping in the next chamber; I do not wish to disturb her.”
“Or explain yourself to her, I would imagine,” Henry said in a soft voice but stepped into her chambers. Mary only grimaced in reply.
“I was just finishing up a letter to my mother,” Mary explained. “I endeavor to write her as frequently as circumstances permit, at least every day when possible, and I have been neglectful of her on this arduous ride up from London.”
“Yes,” Henry said, chagrinned. I do apologize for that. The roads have fallen into surprising disrepair since I last used them.”
“Well, never mind that,” she said, sitting down on a sofa and indicating he should be seated beside her. She then turned her full attention to him, which Henry found delightful and disconcerting all at once. He loved that when no one else in his life seemed to pay him any attention, she seemed to be fascinated by him, but it equally concerned him that she would soon realize her interest was misplaced and she would tire of him. “What has a great knight strolling the deserted halls of Dawning Castle at this hour?”
“Something has happened, I’m afraid,” he said, unsure of what he could or should tell her.
“No,” Mary put her hand to her chest. “I fear it is something bad… Sir Henry?” She ventured when he did not immediately respond.
“Forgive me,” Henry said, shaking it off. “I was only thinking about what you said just now.” He was on his feet, pacing with his hands clasped behind his back. “Something bad has happened, but that is not what has me seeking the comfort of your company at this bewitching hour,” he told her. “What is concerning me is that the intended solution to the problem may be even worse than the problem itself.”
“Sir Henry,” Mary laughed lightly. “You are talking nonsense. Sit here and tell me what is on your mind?”
Henry sat and hesitated for only a moment more. “My brother Richard has fallen into the hands of profligate brigands, and they are holding him unless we meet their demands for silver,” he blurted.
Mary was shocked. “Oh, my dear Henry, what a strain this must have put on you.” She reached out and stroked his cheek in an eerie similitude of the gesture his mother had made earlier in the study, but Henry did not refuse her. “Whatever will you do?”
Henry was on his feet again. “Well, that is the quandary I am wrestling with. The family has decided to send a small force to rescue Richard, but I am not convinced that is wise. Sacrificing the lives of good men in an ill-judged endeavor seems pointlessly foolhardy to me.” Mary said nothing; she only looked thoughtful.
“We don’t know anything about what we are up against; we have formulated a daring plan based on pure speculation. There is scarcely one thing about this situation that we know to be true. Such a scheme seems destined to fail.”
”Well, I am sure you could not devise a scheme that would be destined to fail.” Mary dismissed that concern. “Your intellect is too acute, your mind too keen.”
”Therein lies yet another worry,” he admitted. Once he began opening up to her, he found
he had a hard time stopping. “This is not my plan; in fact, this is the opposite of what I proposed. This was William’s idea.”
“William?” Mary asked, surprised. “Your disavowed younger brother? But I thought—”
“He is the one who delivered the message…”
“But if he is disavowed, how—”
“He is not truly disavowed. It was just assumed that his actions and the resulting consequences would have warranted that. So when he fled that very night, everyone just assumed he had been disavowed and banished, but no such thing ever happened. Everyone just says it as it conveniently describes the relationship.”
“But Sir Henry, if I may, you say a disavowed brother returns in secret with a message that another brother of dubious character is in trouble and needs silver to survive; does that not make both brothers extremely suspect?”
“Yes, it does.”
“He then shows up and proposes a course of action different and contrary to your own, a course of action that offers more risk and fewer protections if I am not mistaken?” Henry nodded. “Does that not make this whole situation extremely suspicious?”
Henry nodded again but then spread his hands helplessly. “But what am I to do? I already attempted to express doubts to my mother, and she would not hear it. I do not believe she can tolerate the thought of her son being returned to her corrupt and conspiring after all this time. And even Thomas does not seem to have any reservations whatsoever.”
”Surely, you are not bound to participate in a scheme that you know will likely lead to your demise,” Mary protested.
Henry sat down again next to her. “Curiously, the very rules of chivalry may demand I lay myself on the altar of sacrifice to my brother’s misdeeds.”
“That must not be!” Mary protested passionately. “We must—”
“Milady,” he smiled at her, “consider the position I am in. Everyone believes my brother to be in mortal danger. As a knight, I cannot refuse to help him. I may suggest that this is a trap and that those who accompany me are riding into certain doom, but as a knight, I would be branded a coward if I refused to do what I could to ameliorate the situation. If I know that they are going into a trap, even if no one else believes me, I am obligated to do what I can to protect the others.” There was silence for a long time after he spoke.
“Sir Henry,” Mary said with emotion in her voice, “you are the bravest man I have ever known.”
“Please, milady,” Henry turned to her suddenly. “Please only address me as Henry. Sir Henry is so formal, and it has always weighed on me that… people were always so formal with me when I would wish them to be more intimate friends.”
Mary considered him for a moment. “Very well, Henry, I will grant your request if you will in turn call me by my Christian name.”
“I would be honored to do so, mila—Mary.” He was overcome with a feeling of closeness to this woman. This feeling of affection welled within him as she listened to him and seemed genuinely interested in him, not because she wanted something or was worried about the affect his demise would have on the family, but because she liked him; his well-being was first and foremost on her mind, and it made him feel wonderful.
A wild impulse seized him. As a general rule, Henry tried to resist acting on impulse as it only seemed to bring him humiliation and heartache, but perhaps one more time he would try it–just one last time to gratify his own desires and find that perfect moment that he always believed love was supposed to create.
With no small amount of trepidation, he slowly dropped to one knee before her. “Mary, I know this is a serious breach of etiquette, but I fear there is no time to go through the requisite steps. Only indulge me for a moment. I can face the challenges that lie ahead of me in my life alone. But how much braver and bolder could I be if I had you by my side. Guided by your wisdom and fortified by your love, there is nothing I could not do. Will you give me your hand?”
Mary went white, then blushed, and then laughed and quickly stifled it while he knelt before her.
“Mary?” came a female voice from the next room. “Is everything all right? Are you unwell?”
Mary suddenly looked panicked. “We have awakened Charlotte,” she whispered furiously. “She must not find us here like this.” Henry was befuddled for a moment before he jumped up. She quietly but quickly ushered him out the door and slipped it shut behind him with only a weak smile for an answer.
He had done it again. He had acted on impulse and revealed his deepest feelings and been rejected. Henry cursed his stupidity aloud as he plodded his way to his own chambers.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“We are simply not prepared to ride against the Dawnings at this time,” Baron Braddock explained to the rather large Saracen that stood before him not for the first time. “I thought I made that clear during our last interview.”
“But they are weak now,” the giant persisted. “The serfs are all stirred up, ready to revolt! Will you pass up this prime opportunity to crush your adversaries at long last?”
“As I explained before, the bulk of my armies are committed elsewhere. What remains with me is a skeleton force to protect the realm. Besides, I am not convinced the Dawnings are so weak as you believe them to be. Braden Dawning may indeed be deceased, but Richard yet remains, by all accounts as fierce a warrior as his father, and slightly touched in the head.”
“I have spent weeks fomenting this revolt, and all this time I have labored under the belief that if I was able to bring such a condition to pass, I would have your support.” The giant flicked a desperate glance at Braddock’s personal advisor.
“Don’t look to Rafiq for support because he is one of you,” Braddock growled at him. “Whatever the color of his skin, be assured that he shares his allegiances with none but me.”
“If you will not act now when they are at their weakest,” the giant was visibly deflated, “when will you move on them?”
“I am a patient man. I have waited this long; a bit longer could hardly matter.”
“But if the Dawnings consolidate power by crushing this rebellion, have you profited from failing to take a stand?”
The baron considered this a moment. “Perhaps you have a point—”
“Right,” the giant said excitedly. “We hit them now while they are still in disarray after their father’s death. They have had it easy for so long, they don’t realize how disorganized they have truly become. We will hit them so fast, they do not realize until it is too late,” he almost leapt for joy. “This is the moment I have dreamt of—”
Braddock held up a hand to forestall any more gushing. “You are very quick to assume command of my forces,” he said. “What I meant was that if you and your ‘rebellion’ prove they can make a show against the Dawnings, stand on their own for a time, I will come to your aid.”
“What help is that?” Amir demanded. “These are untrained, ill-equipped men. Their numbers may be many but they cannot withstand knights. They need your help!”
”Ah, but now you begin to understand,” Braden smiled at Amir. “I am not looking for an excuse to attack Dawning Court. In this day and age, one hardly needs that. I am looking for a clear advantage, and you have nearly admitted your men are not that advantage. But by all means, go,” Braddock waived Amir away dismissively, “go lead your little rebellion. It cannot help the Dawnings. And rest assured that if these serfs of yours prove to be equal to the challenge, my men will come over that hill with banners flying.”
The Giant turned and stalked out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
“Race you to the stables,” William whispered loudly as they skulked around the courtyard. William’s natural strength and dexterity were already starting to favor him in contests of physical prowess against his taller, more slender brother, and he was always anxious to find new feats he could best him at, constantly challenging him over and over until he beat him.
“Are you crazy?” Henry objected. “The guards will see
us.”
“The guards watch outward not inward, stupid,” William told him in a forced nonchalant tone that was deliberately louder than prudence would dictate to show he was not afraid. “Quiet!” Henry hissed at him. They were skipping the day’s regime of study and exercise to spend their time fishing and playing. In their naïveté they told themselves that if they left early enough and got back by supper, no one would realize they were gone. Naturally there were a few holes in this plan, but they were easy enough to ignore since they both were fed up with the daily drudgery of tutoring and practice. Who cared about speaking French anyway? They often joked that if they wanted to communicate with a frog, they would send a princess to do it. Their beloved king, King Richard, was mostly French, which was a pill that was hard to swallow, but that was easy enough to dismiss by claiming it was the English blood in him that made him great.
“Who’s going to hear us?” William laughed, slapping the stone walls of the castle. “These walls are over ten feet thick.”
“The guards will hear us!” Henry hissed.
“Stop worrying about the guards!” he said, annoyed. “They work for us.” Then, before Henry could argue, “Last one to the stable is a mangy dog!” And he bounded across the courtyard toward the stables.
Safely away from the castle, they spent the rest of the day swimming and fishing and dozing in the shade of an old elm tree by the pond. They imagined themselves on wild adventures, talked fancifully of running away and living off the land. They were free from lessons, responsibility, and the knowledge that their blissful day was about to be soured by an approaching rider. To their mutual surprise and dismay, the figure solidified into Richard. At once they knew their fun had come to an end.
They watched wordlessly as he rode up and inspected them for a moment. They were still dripping with water. They had braced makeshift fishing rods on some stones on the bank behind them and were each holding a stick like a sword. “We are returning to Dawning Court now!” Young Richard commanded in the unmistakable tone that, though he was still a young man, many were coming to respect and fear.
The Knights Dawning (The Crusades Series) Page 24