“Who is old Mawgwen?”
“The servant who gave me the hide.”
“And that is why you went looking for it? Because the ghost said so?”
Annalyla nodded, trying not to feel stupid as he studied her. “Because of that, and because of the message on the hide,” she said. “And… and the fact that the message has nothing to do with a curse, but everything to do with a man pleading for mercy. It’s so tragic, Tenner. The poor man could not speak, so he wrote a missive to villagers who were too ignorant to read it. They killed him and he was innocent.”
Tenner could see the distress on her brow and it was difficult not to feel some compassion for the situation. Even if he didn’t believe it, she clearly did, and that touched him. She was a woman of great feeling and that was rare. He’d seen enough selfish women in his lifetime to know that. Faintly, he sighed.
“If that is what happened, then it is, indeed, a tragedy,” he said. “So you went looking for this amulet.”
She lifted her slender shoulders. “I did, but I did not truly think I would find anything.”
“Why the vault?”
Annalyla explained about her theory about the location of the pyre where de Paura was killed. She also told him of the man who had stolen the amulet and had then promptly fallen into the fire himself to be burned alive along with the wicked lord. She explained about the rain, and how the water flowed into the vault, and the mess of debris that was there.
It all sounded very logical and, in truth, Tenner was rather impressed with the way her mind worked. She was logical, and reasonable, even if she was young and emotional. But the more she spoke, the guiltier he felt for having rejected her quest so easily. He could see that it meant a good deal to her, a woman who was trying to do good. When she was finished, he held out his hand to her.
“Let me see what you found,” he said. “I am curious to see if it really is a horse’s head.”
Now that he was actually listening to her, Annalyla was eager to show him. She dug it out of her pocket and placed it in his palm, standing very close to him as he inspected it. In fact, they both inspected it as she pointed out that, although the piece was twisted and lumpy, the shape of the horse’s head was unmistakable. He turned it over a few times, looking at it from all angles.
“And you found this in the vault?” he asked.
She nodded. “Maude and I dug it up,” she said. “And the bones… they are human bones, Tenner.”
“How do you know for certain?”
“Because we found part of a skull.” She looked at him sadly. “They are charred, which lends credence to the stories of the wicked lord being burned to death. I think… I think we found him, Tenner. The poor man needs to be properly buried.”
Tenner looked at the twisted gold piece a moment longer before handing it back to her. “The event you speak of happened two hundred years ago,” he said. “Are you saying that no one has buried the man yet in all those years? That his bones are in a pile of rubbish in the vault?”
She nodded firmly. “Mawgwen told me that after the villagers killed the lord, Baiadepaura was vacant for a very long time,” she said. “She did not say how long, but mayhap long enough for the rains to wash the bones and debris into the vault. Mayhap no one even knew they were there. We found them buried under quite a bit of mud. Would you like to see, Tenner?”
He could hear the hope in her voice. He had a dozen things to do at the moment, but none of them seemed as important as what Annalyla wanted. Considering how he’d behaved, he was eager to make amends. Smiling, he nodded his head.
“I think I’d better,” he said.
Annalyla smiled in return, feeling a great deal of relief that things were forgiven between them. He held out his hand to her and she took it. Tenner began leading her towards the kitchen entry when they caught sight of people coming down the stairs towards the kitchen. As they stepped out from beneath the elm, they could see that Maude, Arlo, and Graham were on the approach.
Annalyla was glad to see them until she realized that Maude was looking rather angrily at Tenner. Quickly, she spoke.
“Tenner wishes to see where we have been digging,” she said to the woman. “He has inspected the amulet and agrees that it looks like a horsehead.”
Maude wasn’t in a forgiving mood. “I see,” she said. “Is that all he said?”
Tenner knew what she meant. He went to the woman and kissed her on the forehead. “I said that I was sorry,” he told her. “I have begged forgiveness for acting like an arse and my lady has graciously forgiven me. I hope you will, too.”
Because Maude and Tenner were such good friends, it didn’t take much for Maude to forgive him, either. Reluctantly, she smiled.
“Oh, very well,” she said. “I never could stay angry with you for very long.”
Arlo, beside his wife, was looking between the two. “What’s he done now?”
Maude waved him off. “Nothing of note,” she said. “Come along; do you want to see the bones or not?”
The answer was unanimous.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Those are most definitely human bones,” Graham said distastefully. “God, what more of a mess will we find beneath all of this mud? There has to be centuries of mud and debris from the bailey in here.”
The men were looking at the pile of bones that the women had carefully set aside. Maude had re-lit what remained of the candles they’d stolen from the quartermaster to inspect what seemed to be a graveyard beneath the keep. Arlo was over inspecting the vents where water from the storm outside was still pouring in, creating rivers and mud all around the east side of the vault.
“We will need to block off these vents, Ten,” he said. “Once the weather clears, we’ll send men in here with stones and mortar to block it up. I cannot imagine why it was not done years ago.”
Tenner was crouched down, looking at the partial and charred skull that his wife had found. “From what I have seen about this entire place, it is because no one cares,” he said frankly. “But we will see to it that these vents are blocked. Starting tomorrow, we’ll also send men in here to clean up this mud and see what else is beneath it. Mayhap even more bodies.”
He said it rather grimly, looking at the sea of mud before him. As he and the other men poked around, Annalyla and Maude stood together near the door to the vault, watching anxiously.
“Will you ride into the village and ask the priests if they will give the bones a Christian burial?” Annalyla asked her husband.
Tenner nodded as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his hands. “I will,” he said. “You can go with me if you wish. But I have a feeling it will be better if we do not mention where these bones have come from.”
Annalyla looked at him curiously. “Why not?”
Tenner looked at her. “Because everyone in Cornwall knows the legend of Baiadepaura,” he said. “If we tell the priests we believe this to be the wicked lord of Baiadepaura, I suspect they will refuse to grant the man a Christian burial. We would do better to say we simply found them and leave it at that. In fact, do not tell anyone what you have found here, including that old woman who has been telling you so many tales. She might tell the priests about the bones and then we’d have to find somewhere else to bury them.”
Annalyla nodded quickly. “I swear, I’ll not tell her anything,” she said. Then, she glanced out to the kitchen where Mercy was making bread loaves for the evening meal. “In fact, I have not seen Mawgwen lately. Have you, Maude?”
Maude shook her head. “Come to think of it, I have not.”
Annalyla shrugged. “Mayhap she’s gone off to tell the men her tales of ghosts and pirates. I think she likes to frighten people with her stories.”
That statement caught Tenner’s attention. “What about pirates?”
Annalyla moved away from the door, heading in his direction. “I meant to tell you about it when you awoke,” she said. “Mawgwen said that pirates have been using Baiadepaura as a bas
e. They sail in a ship called the Beast of the Seas and they dock in the cove down below the castle. She said they have been doing this for a few years.”
Tenner turned serious very quickly. “Why did you not tell me this before?”
There was concern in in his voice that caused her to feel some apprehension, as if she’d done something wrong. “Because you were sleeping,” she said, suddenly hesitant. “Did I do wrong not to wake you with this? I thought it was just another story, since the woman seemed full of them.”
Tenner’s first reaction was to become upset with her, but he couldn’t seem to manage it. It wasn’t as if the entire fate of Baiadepaura depended on that information, especially since they already suspected that the castle had been used as a base of some kind. They knew pirates were in the area because they’d seen a ship at sea last night, so Annalyla’s information simply confirmed it. He looked at Arlo.
“Then it is as we suspected,” he said. “The old woman’s story only verifies it. It is a good thing we destroyed the sea path earlier. They will not be able to come up from the cove.”
“Did I do wrong not to tell you immediately, Tenner?” Annalyla asked again, anxiety in her voice. “So much has happened this afternoon and it did not seem gravely important, so I apologize if I did not do the right thing.”
He could hear the apprehension in her tone. Reaching out, he put an arm around her shoulders. “You did nothing wrong,” he said. “It does not truly matter in the end, although if you hear anything like that in the future, please tell me right away. If I am asleep, then wake me. I would rather know sooner and not later.”
She nodded, smiling timidly, and he kissed her on the forehead. He smiled in return before turning to the others in the vault.
“Well,” he said. “I do not think there is anything more we can do today. Nightfall will be upon us soon, so let us do our rounds and set posts for the night. And I am sure the ladies are well on their way to preparing us a delicious meal.”
Thoughts of pirates and old bones were forgotten for the moment as they left the vault and moved into the warm and fragrant kitchen. As Arlo and Graham headed out into the rain, and Maude with them to search for more servants to help with meal preparation in the kitchen, Tenner turned to Annalyla.
“I am very sorry that we had difficulties between us today,” he murmured. “I know they were my fault. I shall try to do much better when I’m annoyed or angry.”
Annalyla smiled at him, feeling her heart swell with gratitude and warmth. This was her Tenner, the man she’d fallen in love with. Sweet, handsome Tenner who had been kind to her from the start. The man was allowed a little annoyance from time to time. Reaching out, she took his hand.
“And I shall try not to do anything foolish to upset you,” she said. “I suppose we must both learn to be patient with one another.”
He nodded, bending down to kiss her on the mouth. Her lips were sweet, and warm, and his kiss lingered a moment before he pulled away.
“I will be going about my duties,” he said. “If you need me, then send for me.”
She nodded, still dwelling on their kiss. “I shall be here overseeing the meal,” she said. “Try to stay dry, Ten. We do not need you becoming ill with the damp.”
He smirked, looking to the kitchen door and the rain that was coming down in buckets outside. “I shall try,” he said. “But no promises. It is chaos out there.”
He winked at her as he headed for the door and, with a smile on her lips, Annalyla turned for the stores that were stacked up against the wall to beginning preparing for the evening’s meal. But another word from Tenner stopped her.
“I forgot something,” he said, leaning against the doorjamb as the rain poured down behind him. “Maude told me something and I want to know if it is true.”
Annalyla looked at him curiously. “What did she tell you?”
“That you adore me.”
Annalyla flushed a bright shade of red, averting her gaze because she was so embarrassed at being caught in a truth of her own making. Of course, she adored him, but she wasn’t so shameless that she would tell him without restraint. Struggling not to look foolish, she turned back to the barrels.
“What do you think, de Velt?” she asked. “You have proven yourself kind and humorous. And you are very handsome. I would be a fool if I did not adore some part of you.”
“Why not adore all of me?”
“And you also have an ungainly amount of conceit.”
He laughed, going to her as she worked over a barrel with her back to him. He grabbed her from behind, pulling her against him and nuzzling her neck.
“I adore you, too,” he whispered. “Never forget it.”
After kissing her ear, he was gone, disappearing out into the ungodly rain. Annalyla stood there a moment, her hand on her neck where he had kissed her, with a giddy smile on her face.
All was right in the world again.
With renewed vigor, she went back to work.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
When darkness came, they moved.
The Beast of the Seas was anchored out to sea, just off the coast, because the seas were so rough and there were rocks closer to the shore that could tear up the hull. Therefore, Raleigh dropped anchor in Crackington Bay, south of Baiadepaura by a few miles, and took two small skiffs in to the beach just as darkness fell.
It was a difficult beaching of the skiffs because of the tide and the crashing waves, but they managed to pull the fragile little boats onto the sandy shore, one of the only soft sand coves on the entire west coast of Cornwall. They pulled the boats up far enough so that they couldn’t be swept out by waves or a rising tide. Once they were secured, the men gathered their weapons and took the narrow path up the cliff.
The trek to Baiadepaura wasn’t a long one in the least – only four miles to the north – but a storm had blown in from the west and it had been lashing the land for several hours. As the sun set, it only grew worse, so they’d had to fight the wind and rain all the way up the coast, walking a fisherman’s path through heavy sea grass and scrub.
Their mission was clear.
There were twenty-one of them, the majority of Raleigh’s crew, but as he put it, twenty-one of his men were worth fifty of a land army. His men were scrappers, born and bred to fight and kill by any means necessary. That was why he was confident that they would win whatever battle they faced. While the English soldiers were gathering their wits and trying to fight a clean and honorable battle, Raleigh and Alastair and the rest of his men would be fighting dirty. At a distinct disadvantage with fewer men than the English probably carried, they would win any way they could.
With them, they mostly had daggers – and many of them. Daggers to fight with, daggers to throw. They weren’t archers, nor did they carry arrows, which swelled with the moist sea air and weren’t accurate from a moving vessel, so they’d become adept with an assortment of daggers. Raleigh carried a nasty one, about a foot and a half in length, with a serrated edge on one side. It was a horrific weapon that had killed a good many men and this night it would claim a few more, God willing.
Aye, Raleigh prayed for such things.
He prayed for victory.
The weather was working in their favor. Storms concealed their movements and they’d learned to love them. The path cut inland for a time and they struggled through the mud and wind but, soon enough, they were in view of the sea again, which was faintly illuminated on this night. The moon behind the clouds was full, giving the clouds a glow all their own, which reflected to the rough seas below. As they pushed on in a single file line, hidden by the tall grass, Alastair caught up to Raleigh.
“Do ye think old Mawgwen was able tae get rid of the Sassenach?” he asked, wiping water from his face.
Raleigh’s focus was up ahead. “We shall know soon enough,” he said. Then, he came to a halt, waiting until the rest of his men caught up so he could speak to them in a group. He waved his hands at them, bringing the group
in close. “Come near, lads. ’Tis time tae speak of what will come.”
When the men ganged up around him, Raleigh pulled out a damp kerchief and wiped the water from his eyes.
“’Tis time tae take back our castle,” he said. “The old witch from the tavern was tae convince them tae leave, but if she dinna, we’ll realize it soon enough. If they’ve left, then we’ll not need our weapons. But if they’re still there…”
“Then we kill them!” one of the men spat, holding up his wicked-looking dagger. “I’ve a hunger tae draw Sassenach blood this night!”
The others grumbled in agreement, a motley mass of men who stank of salt and the sea. They were out of place on land, and they looked like it – like creatures that had just crawled up out of the deep. With water rolling down their faces and the wind whipping through wet clothing, they were beasts looking for a kill.
And Raleigh knew it.
“Listen tae me, lads,” he said. “We may not have another chance like this. We’ll approach from the south and Alastair will take half of ye tae the mouth of the sea path. The wall that was there is damaged and it will make an easy breach. I’ll take the rest of ye behind the keep, on the path that goes along the cliff’s edge, and we’ll come up near the old kitchen. Do ye know where I mean?”
Heads were bobbing in agreement. As lightning lit up the sky overhead and thunder rolled, Raleigh glanced up to beseech the weather gods.
“Keep the storm, just for a little while longer,” he said to the sky before returning his focus to his men. “If the Sassenach have abandoned the castle for the sake of old Mawgwen, then ’tis all well and good. But if they haven’t, then we go tae the keep first. My guess is that the soft Sassenach commanders will be there, and we’ll slit their throats in their beds. Cut off their heads and display them tae their men, and, surely, they’ll run. Everyone knows the Sassenach canna fight without their knights in command. Cut off the head and we shall know victory!”
Bay of Fear (Battle Lords of de Velt Book 3) Page 18