The Knights Dawning (The Crusades Series)

by James Batchelor

  “That’s very fortunate,” William said, still staring through him with the same grim expression. The pounding in his head was a virtual torrent now.

  “Fortunate? Why? What do you mean?”

  “That way there will be someone to collect your bodies.” Callum’s surprised expression immediately fell to one of anger. “I know it was you two cravenly swine that had the audacity to implicate me in this when you yourselves stood right next to me through every step of it.”

  “You don’t know what you are talking about. Now why don’t you just get out of here!”

  “I know a miserable cur when I see one.” William was still speaking in the same darkly calm voice, though he could hardly hear for the roar in his head. “Now how shall we do this? I will take you each alone or both together.” Through all this, Neil and David, with a presentiment of what was coming, had remained but had stood several paces back so as not to be associated with what they knew their friend was likely to do. But they knew equally well that trying to dissuade him from anything in his wrath only threatened to turn his anger on them.

  “How dare you come into Callum’s house and call him out?” Tyler’s voice cracked as he became impassioned also.

  “You two now have a wrong to right. Let us settle this, you worthless dogs!”

  “Leave my family’s land!” Callum ordered and started to shut the door. William struck suddenly and without warning. He smashed the door inward with his foot with such force that it crashed open and hit Callum. He fell backward, his nose splattering blood on the door and running down his face. Maria screamed and retreated to a corner.

  “You think this is over? You think I am finished with you?” William roared as he rushed into the cottage. Tyler swore and leapt to Callum’s defense. With a hop, William crossed the short distance to meet him and shot his foot out sideways, planting it into Tyler’s stomach. He used his momentum to lift Tyler off the floor and send him careening back into the wall. Maria’s repeated screams gave William a sense of satisfaction.

  Callum was on his knees, holding his nose. “You maniac,” he said. A crack of William’s elbow temporarily silenced him. William turned back to Tyler, who was just leveling a weak punch at him, still out of breath from the blow he had received. With a scoff William caught the blow across both his upraised forearms. He seized Tyler’s wrist with his left hand and struck him a quick, stunning blow in the face. In such a state, Tyler was unable to resist William twisting his wrist upward into his own shoulder in a very unnatural state that made Tyler rise on his toes to try to relieve the pain that was shooting through his wrist and arm.

  “Did you think I was not going to know it was you?” William demanded to Tyler’s squirming face as he writhed in the grasp that William had on him, a hold easy enough to maintain with a single hand. “Did you think I would not find out you had betrayed me?”

  “I’m sorry,” Tyler said desperately. “But they knew already. They already knew who it was.” He was vainly trying to pry William’s fingers loose from his wrist.

  “It was all of us!” William roared. Suddenly he released Tyler as his hair was seized from behind and his head jerked back. He put his own hand over the one threatening to pull his hair out and pivoted, using his elbow to break the grip, albeit painfully. There was the petite blond-haired, green-eyed girl. William’s rage was now upon this attractive, young, terrified girl. Knowing she was defenseless, he threw his whole shoulder into a devastating punch that instantly crumpled her tiny frame to the floor. William would remember vividly, even years later, the white dress with elaborate needlework across the bodice, and how the rough material felt on his knuckles.

  “William, that’s enough!” Neil yelled from where he had hesitated by the doorway. He had an idea of what William was about, but all had happened so quickly, he did not know what to do; but this was too much. David had not come into the cottage at all. William slammed his foot straight back at Tyler, whom he sensed more than heard about to attack from behind. His foot struck Tyler in the same spot as before, and Tyler crumpled to the floor.

  The blood pounding in William’s ears subsided now. All he heard was Tyler’s gasping for breath and Maria sobbing on the floor of the cottage. “It seems you have chosen sides poorly,” William lorded over them.

  “William, let’s go,” Neil ordered.

  But William was not without a sense that there would be repercussions from this. “If I ever hear of this, I will be back. There is no place you can hide from me. Mark my words!” He did not know if his threat would do any good to two such cowardly souls, nor did he know where this would end if they continued to push him. Perhaps there was only one inevitable conclusion.

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE

  “Ah ha! You’re a laborer in a tailor’s shop!” Eve called at William, just out of arm’s reach as he was painting the front of the shop. He had finally acknowledged that he had wronged the tailor and apologized as best one could apologize without a trace of humility. Now he was only anxious to be free again.

  Eve and her little friends had happened upon him as he performed his duty and were now teasing him incessantly. “William Dawning is going to be a laborer all his life. End up with an ugly wife.” They sang and danced around just out of reach.

  “Eve! Go away!” he ordered, knowing his irritation was only fueling their game.

  “Don’t be cross with me because you’re bad. It’s your own fault you’re here.” This infuriated William all the more.

  “How can such a tubby girl have such a small brain?” he demanded of her. Her face fell at the insult, and he knew he had scored. Eve was no heavier than any other little girl her age, but that didn’t matter because she irritated William to no end, and she was always around when he least had the patience to deal with her.

  “I may not be smart, but I’m smart enough not to have to repair a shop like a tradesman!” she shot back.

  “That is true, you little toad. Because someone is always cleaning up your messes for you. If not for Leah, your family would have turned you out ages ago.”

  Her face fell again. “They would not!”

  “Oh, but they would,” William said in a confidential voice. "Leah told me that they had not wanted you. And when you were another girl instead of a boy, which is what they really wanted, they had tried to deliver you to a monastery.”

  Her upper lip quivered. “You are a liar! A laborer and a liar!”

  William shrugged nonchalantly. “Think that if you like, but I have seen the monastery where they left you on the steps. It was only Leah that brought you back.”

  Eve looked nervous now. “I am going to ask them if that’s true, and they are going to say you are a liar.”

  “Oh, they have all made a pact that they would never tell you they tried. You see, they might want to try again, and they can’t let you be suspicious or you might mark your way home somehow.”

  Tears stood in Eve’s eyes now that she attempted to hide behind her long, dark curls. “You are a liar, and I hate you.”

  “Go ahead and run home as fast as those chubby little legs will carry you and ask them. They will pretend to be surprised and say that it is all nonsense, and then you will know that what I have said is the whole truth.” She turned to hide her tears from him and began walking away. “Eve,” William called after her. She pretended to ignore him, but he knew by the way she cocked her head slightly that she was listening. “They did not want to give you up only because you are so simple-minded, but also because you are so homely. That should be of some comfort to you.”

  Eve suddenly ran back to him with tears running down her face and kicked him in the shin. William grabbed his shin in one hand and with the other hand still holding the paintbrush flicked it so a heavy spray of paint splattered all over her face, hair, and clothes. She ran away sobbing, and William rubbed his painful shin in mild satisfaction that he had won the day.

  He finished up for the evening and was just leaving the square when a slende
r figure appeared on the road in step with him. “Are you going home?” she asked casually.

  “It seems like the thing to do,” William observed dryly. “Every moment I am out and about, I seem to find myself in more trouble. What brings you out today? Come to mock me in my humble labors, too?”

  “Too?” Leah asked.

  “Your sister was here earlier.”

  “Was she, now?” Understanding dawned on Leah’s face. “That explains the multicolored child that came home in a fit of hysterics with tales of being assaulted by the worst brute imaginable. She curiously left out the part you just mentioned.”

  “Well she would, now, wouldn’t she?”

  “I expect. It makes her less sympathetic if she includes that part.”

  “I quite frankly do not know how you tolerate that little monster.” Leah started to reply, but William continued. “There is no possibility that you two can actually be related. She is scheming, conniving, obnoxious, and a homely creature to boot. She must take after your father.” Leah did not immediately respond, and William, sensing the awkwardness, attempted to lighten the mood by continuing. “Never have two people plotted so hard for my undoing as Eve and your father. I should be quite happy if they both just disappeared tomorrow and were never heard from again.” He had meant this to sound light, but Leah stopped and was staring at him. She was not laughing.

  “William, I understand that you have your differences with my family,” Leah said softly, still holding his gaze. “But they are my family, to whom I am indebted for everything. I love them dearly despite their not always seeing things as I might wish, and I cannot tolerate such awful things being directed against them, particularly from one who professes to be my friend.” William was embarrassed by her words and felt slightly jealous at what he perceived to be her favoring them over himself.

  “Leah, I don’t understand,” he said, flushing. “Families only bring exasperation and trials. What does it profit you to be so loyal to them?”

  “I understand how you may feel that way,” she said; she still had not moved as if she had not yet determined whether she would continue in his company or not. “But you must understand and give equal consideration to the fact that I do not feel that way about my own family. I love them for all their quirks and foibles.”

  “I am sorry… if I offended you,” William said, qualifying his apology as he did not regret his words against her family in the least degree.

  “Do we have an understanding?” she asked seriously. William nodded mutely. He was silently angered by her reproach but did not dare push her on this subject. “So are you about finished? At the tailor’s shop, I mean?” Leah asked, returning to their former conversation.

  “Another day or two, I suppose.” He tried to sound casual again as well.

  “This seems like a lot of work for one night’s rabble rousing with your friends,” she chided him mildly.

  “That had not occurred to me. Although if it had not been for my friends, I never would have been caught,” he offered with some amount of pride.

  “You never did explain to me how that happened. It wasn’t Neil and David, I trust.”

  “No, it was not Neil and David.”

  “Who, then? Have you had a falling out with them?”

  “We had a falling out,” William said, deliberately avoiding her question. “But it has all been settled now.” While he did not regret what he had done to Callum and Tyler, he knew that Leah, as good and sweet as she was, would never understand it. He felt it necessary to conceal certain things from her. That night was one of those things. They were the enemy and had made themselves so by their actions, and all that had happened to them happened in consequence of those actions. But Leah was too sweet and naïve to see this. All she would hear is that he had attacked his friends in their own house. She could never understand, so it was imperative that she never know.

  “I’m glad of that,” she said.

  William was very uncomfortable now. He did not like the way this conversation was going and was feeling very out of sorts since her reproach. After a moment’s hesitation, he decided to end it. “Leah, I have just remembered, there is something I am very late for. Will you excuse me?”

  Leah looked surprised. “Well of course, but what could—” William did not wait for her to finish but broke into a sprint. He was not the least bit subtle, he knew, but all he cared for at that moment was to extricate himself from this uncomfortable situation.

  “I will see you soon,” he called over his shoulder and abandoned her there on the road alone.

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO

  “Gentlemen,” Anisa said cheerfully as she walked into the cave, tracking in the light blanket of snow that was covering the ground. “It would seem our brother has succeeded. Winter is upon us and there is no sign of the Dawnings or their party. The Barony is as good as ours.” There was a general murmur of approval among those assembled. Anisa could not hide her excitement that such a big piece of this elaborate plan had fallen into place.

  “I fear your celebratory overtures are premature, milady,” Khalid said, walking into the cave after her. “I have only just received word that the Dawnings betrayed our people and have once again left many dead in their wake. They are returning to Dawning Court even now.”

  “What?! But that cannot be true!” Anisa’s heart sank. “Surely we would have heard…”

  Khalid spread his hands before him. “I cannot explain why they have not yet returned. I cannot even tell you how they eluded our brother, but it would seem they have and that they are expected back any day now.”

  “No, no, this cannot be,” Najid, the Dawnings’ house servant, protested. “I warned you they were only bringing a small force. I told you what to expect. What more could we have done?” There was a general sense of dread in the dank cave as the chill set in on them more deeply. “All that we have worked for is slipping away.”

  “Nonsense,” Khalid said dismissively. “We still proceed with the plan.”

  “How can we proceed with the plan? How do we stop the Dawnings in their homeland with a weakened force when we could not stop them with our whole army on our own land?” Rafiq demanded.

  “I told you not to underestimate them! I warned you!” Anisa breathed.

  “Amir is bringing men with him,” Khalid explained.

  “Excellent,” Anisa perked up again. “Provided he has arrived by Henry’s wedding day, then John will make his declaration, they will resist, and as John’s loyal subjects we will have no choice but to cut them down.”

  “Won’t that cause a problem with John?” Rafiq asked dubiously.

  “I have no intention of seeking John’s approval. He certainly won’t like it, but once it is done, I will help him to see the necessity of such a step. We are so close, we cannot let this opportunity slip through our fingers.”

  “The timing will be critical,” Khalid pointed out. “We will have to take them completely unawares, and we have to get all the Dawnings together. If even one escapes, he could and would incite a revolt. We do not have the manpower to contend with a large force.”

  Anisa nodded her understanding. “I think it may be time that John sets a date to become a man.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE

  Leah dropped her needlework for the tenth time. She rose and walked to a window and opened the shutters to peer out at the snow-covered landscape. Where were they? They should have been back by now. Why weren't they here? Why had they not sent word? All these questions and a thousand others had occupied her mind with increasing frequency since the weather turned. She sighed and closed the shutters again, sat back down near the fire, and picked up her needlework once again. She was determined to get her mind off of this. She stared into the fire for a long time before dropping it again.

  Suddenly from the lookouts came a trumpeted call. They had returned! The advanced lookout would have spotted them first and trumpeted the warning back to the sentries posted at Dawning Court’s in
ner walls, who in turn trumpeted the news to all those around Dawning Court; the brothers had returned. Leah was one of those who heard the call. She dropped her needle and thread and jumped up to check over her dress. She was not at all happy with what she was wearing, considered changing, and then decided there was no time. She rushed for the door but was brought up short by a vision of a potentially awkward scene that unfolded in her mind’s eye. But she had to know if they were successful or not. She had to know if everyone was well. “Of course he—they—are well. We would have received word if it were otherwise,” she assured herself. “Maybe it is better not to go?” She wrung her hands anxiously and paced nervously. She would have to decide shortly in order to allow time to meet them at the gate. Now that this moment had arrived, she had no idea how to handle it. How could she have let herself get into this situation? And how could she bear to tell William? Tears sprang into her eyes, but she quickly composed herself. Now was not the time. “He—they—will be expecting me. I'm going”, she determined.

  Before she could think better of it, she threw a cloak over her shoulders and raced out the door to the small stable attached to her house. She had a servant bring the carriage around while she waited, pacing anxiously.

  In a few moments she was on the road heading for the main gate. She could not imagine a more bittersweet moment. “This is not a situation of your own making,” she reminded herself. “You did not want it this way, either.” But that did little to cure the sick feeling in her stomach.

  Leah came upon a familiar figure: a woman walking on the road carrying a young child. “Salena?” she said, ordering her driver to slow. “You've heard the news?”

  “Oh, hello, Leah,” Salena looked up in surprise. “Yes, we were just on our way to greet them.”

  “Well, you certainly are not going to walk there; hand Rachel to me,” Leah said and took the little girl up, setting her on the seat next to her. Rachel smiled at Leah and swung her legs off the seat of the carriage. Salena climbed aboard. “Thank you,” she said as she seated herself self-consciously on the wooden seat. She did not try to make an excuse as to why she was walking. Leah was the one person Salena felt was not judging her. “And thank you again for the basket of treats the other day. You are too thoughtful.”