“There was nowhere for you to go?” Maria asked. “No other family you and Teresa could turn to?”
Valentine shook his head. “Perhaps at the beginning, but even then Enrique held the purse strings tight, and there was still some hope that he would be a benefactor as my father had. Once it could no be denied that he was nothing but evil, Teresa and I were also anathema.
“But even though Enrique was evil, he was no completely stupid, and he at last found a people who would join with him—the Muslims to the south. The head of a large and powerful family, a terrible warlord, visited our villa. He became infatuated with Teresa, and so Enrique bartered our sister and a large dowry for the dog’s loyalty.”
Maria gasped. “But wasn’t she still only a child?”
“She was ten years old,” he answered quietly, recalling vividly that terrible night when Enrique had announced that Teresa was to be married. “And the man she was to marry was more than two score, with many other wives.”
“What did you do?” Maria asked, a worried frown creasing her lovely forehead.
“I fought him, of course. I would have killed him, had my cousin, Francisco, not stopped me. Francisco had been right—killing Enrique would have done nothing to revoke the marriage agreement, and I would have been of no protection to Teresa if I was charged with murder. And so I waited. I made Enrique think that I was defeated. It was spring. Some of our family had traveled to our villa for Teresa’s wedding and so there were many people in our home. When everyone was asleep, I killed a pig and collected the blood. Teresa gathered her things while I found the box containing the last of our family’s wealth—the gold meant to be Teresa’s dowry. I poured the pig’s blood over Teresa’s bed, the floor of her chamber.
“And then Teresa and I fled Aragon,” he finished simply.
“I see,” Maria said. “You wanted it to appear that Enrique had killed Teresa, invoking the warlord’s wrath.”
Valentine nodded. “But I was no yet as skilled as I am now. Looking back, I can no believe I did no see the flaws in my plan. When Teresa’s bloody chamber was discovered, the missing girl, the missing coin, the missing brother . . .”
“They thought you killed her and absconded with the dowry,” Maria finished.
“Exactamente. The Muslim did no care so much what had become of his child bride, but he did want his coin, which Enrique could no give him.”
“Perhaps you can at least gain some satisfaction in the fact that the confrontation was uncomfortable for your brother,” Maria offered.
Valentine shrugged. “It was rumored that Enrique lost part of his tongue for his deception, but I do no know that for certain.”
“Did you take Teresa directly to Prague?”
“I did. The convent did no want a little Spanish orphan girl at first, but then I showed them the coin. It was the same when my friends and I arrived at Melk.” Valentine could at last give Maria a grin. “Gold opens many, many doors.”
She returned his smile with one of her own, albeit a sad one. “But how could you be sure they would continue to care for her?”
“I continued to bring her coin,” he said.
“All these years?” Maria asked with wide eyes.
He nodded. “And that is why I could no marry, Maria—you or anyone else. Enrique, Francisco, they have been searching for me since the night I left Aragon. Although they must know by now that the amount of coin I originally left with could no sustain a man this length of time, they still crave vengeance upon me. And if I am killed, there is no one to support Teresa. That is what I was doing yesterday—bringing her the coin I had managed to save since I last saw her three years ago.”
“You gave up your life for your sister,” Maria said, watching him with a keen, steady gaze.
Valentine shook his head, uncomfortable with the implications her statement left hanging in the room. “I am no hero, Maria. Of course I love my sister, and I could no stand aside while Enrique sold her innocence, her childhood. But I could never have stayed in Aragon any matter. My brother was destined to fail, and it would no have been long before I had no home there. Enrique would have eventually ejected me for constantly challenging him, or the estate would have been lost.”
“What happened to him?” Maria asked.
“I do no know,” Valentine said with a shrug. “He was still on my trail three years ago, nearly caught me once here in Prague. After some time, I worked my way through the Holy Land, knowing that he would never follow me there.”
“That was a narrow escape then, for Teresa.”
“And for Brennie as well.” When Maria’s eyebrows rose, Valentine supplied, “She had been a slave, a gift from the warlord for Teresa. I brought her to Prague with us. Now she has power over men that most never dream of.”
Maria’s expression carried an atypical smirk. “But you are no hero.”
“No,” he said, walking back across the room toward her. “I am no.”
Her gaze tracked him, her face tilted up as he passed, and Valentine had the sudden urge to kiss her again. “I wish you would have told me sooner.”
“I saw no reason to,” Valentine said, coming at last to sit opposite her at the small table. “Neither of us can change the past.”
“No,” she agreed. “But if you had come for me, perhaps you could have spared yourself the trials of Saladin’s prison.”
“Perhaps,” he said. He poured more wine, then raised his cup toward her in salute. “I am saving you to the best of my ability now, though, yes? To your future husband.” He drank, hoping that he could force the wine down his throat.
“I suppose,” Maria said, her gaze still unsettling in its intensity, as if she was studying him anew. “But what if I no longer wish for you to save me for him?”
Mary held her breath as she watched Valentine lower his cup, and she tried to gauge his reaction to her impetuous words. She was likely a fool for declaring such a thing to this man, who would want nothing less than to be saddled with an inexperienced innocent who seemed to do nothing right.
“You are caught up in our journey, Maria,” he said. “Our adventure. It is exciting for you. Now,” he added quickly. “But in three months, a year, you would find little novelty with me.”
His overly kind tone stung. “You mean you would find little novelty with me after that time, don’t you? You are used to variety, scores of women at your beck and call.”
He looked at her for a long moment and then shrugged, his gaze going to the cup he raised to his mouth. “Perhaps. Yes, perhaps that is what I mean.” He drained the cup and set it down on the table with a sigh and met her eyes again. “Is it no kinder for me to tell you this now than to allow you to throw away a certain future?”
Mary felt her cheeks heating with embarrassment, and she wished she would have simply kept her mouth shut rather than force Valentine to try to reason her naive and sudden declaration away. But she was no prideless wretch.
“You’re right, of course,” she said with a sigh, and forced herself to give him a smile. She hoped it was bright enough. “After all, I never considered you as a proper husband. Thank you for sparing me that humiliation.” Mary stood.
Valentine’s mouth thinned for an instant, and then he gave her a tight smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Certainly.”
Of course he was uncomfortable; they still had hundreds of miles left to travel together. He was probably worried she would romanticize over him the entire way.
She turned away toward the bed. “I think I shall lie down for a while. This morning has been a trial.”
“Of course,” Valentine said, and she heard the screech of chair legs behind her. “I shall leave you to your privacy.”
“You needn’t go,” she said, turning around again and holding out her hand. “It’s not as if I fear you will accost me in my sleep.” She gave a little laugh, although she felt a nauseous pit in her stomach. Somehow that declaration sounded more pathetic than her earlier plea.
He shook his head as he slung his satchel over his arm and backed toward the door. “It is no trouble, Maria. There are some things I must do, any matter.”
“Oh. All right, then,” she said lamely as he stood with his hand on the latch. “Good-bye.”
“Good-bye.” He stood there a breath longer, looking at her. Then his full mouth quirked with his now familiar grin. “You will feel happier after a rest.” He opened the door and was gone.
Mary stood staring at the door for a long time after she heard the lock scrape and his footfalls disappearing down the corridor. When she finally turned again toward the bed and crawled upon the mattress, it seemed all the joints of her bones creaked. She laid her head upon the silken pillow and stared across the room at Valentine’s feathered hat, hanging on the arm of the chaise.
Mary wondered if she would ever feel happy again once their adventure was over.
Valentine’s feet seemed to drag beneath him as he made his way to the Owl’s tavern, his mind seeing over and over the look on Maria’s face when he’d rejected her.
His act had convinced her, but the playing of it had cost Valentine a portion of his heart.
He pushed through the door and claimed one of the many empty tables—it was still early in the day, and the bulk of the Owl’s patrons had yet to free themselves from their obligations. The common room was quiet save for the middle-aged woman propped in the corner near the stone hearth, practicing a mournful tune on her small harp. It was one of the women employed there, although no one would have recognized her as such, clothed so modestly, her hair plaited, her eyes clear and sober.
Valentine slung his satchel over the back of the chair and sat down, propping his elbows on the table and scrubbing at his face with his hands for a moment.
Slender arms snaked around his neck and Valentine caught Brennie’s spicy scent before she murmured in his ear, “Good morn, mi amor.”
“It is past noon,” he remarked as she slid from his shoulders and into the chair next to his, her long brown arm propping up her closely cropped head, her deep eyes still heavy with sleep. She wore a long belted robe with wide sleeves that slid to her elbow as she held herself up.
Her smile was lazy and indulgent when she came out of her yawn. “Yes. And I said good morn. There was a time when you, too, would only venture out of your room once the sun was already on its way back down. But by the look of you, you have been about for hours. You’ve been to see Teresa, I suppose?”
Valentine nodded. “Something she said has me troubled,” he remarked, realizing Brennie would sense his mood, and not wishing to discuss Maria with her.
“Of course,” Brennie said. “I told her you would not easily accept the news. And then to learn that she wished to marry . . .”
“What?” Valentine said.
Brennie’s eyes widened, and then her lips quirked into a rueful grin. “Oh-oh. It seems as though my mouth is more awake than my wits. She didn’t tell you.”
“No,” Valentine said through gritted teeth. “I am to meet her again on the morrow, when she will reveal some mysterious news to me.”
“And now I have ruined the wonderful surprise,” Brennie said with an unconvincing pout.
“Who could she possibly have found that she wants to marry while cloistered away?” Valentine demanded, refusing to engage in Brennie’s play. “Some renegade priest?”
“Oh no, mi amor,” Brennie said, shaking her head. “You’ll get no more from me. You should hear it from your sister’s lips.”
“She can no leave,” Valentine said, as if it was the end of the thing. “I can no protect her right now.”
“Protect her from . . . ?”
“I have bigger predators on my scent now than Enrique could ever dream to aspire to,” Valentine said. “If it was discovered that I have a sister, and if she was no protected by her asylum, I do no know what could happen to her.”
“Nothing will happen to her,” Brennie said in almost a bored tone. “Her man would never allow it.”
“You know him?” Valentine demanded, and he leaned forward when she nodded her head lazily. “Who is he? Is he in the city? I will find him today and demand that he leave my sister in peace.”
“I will not tell you who he is, but yes, he is in the city when he is not plying his trade. Did you really expect her to live her entire life as a nun? Teresa is as religious as you are.”
“Brennie, had it been in my power to have chosen a different life for Teresa or myself, I would have done so long ago.”
“Would you have?” Brennie said, peering into his eyes. “Since you arrived here with the lovely Fleur, I wonder.” Before he could argue his point with her, she continued. “Any matter, now that you are in Prague, the man who wishes to marry your sister can at last ask your permission himself, and he and Teresa can be away from the city with your blessing.”
“Never,” he said, standing up from his chair and reaching around for his satchel, irritated that the day had seemed to hurry him from one disaster to the next. “And I shall make that quite clear when I see her on the morrow.”
Valentine and Brennie’s heads swiveled in unison as the heavy wooden entrance to the Snowy Owl burst open, and several men blustered through the doorway.
“Constable,” Brennie murmured under her breath, not in the least disturbed by their intimidating appearance. But Valentine’s spine stiffened. “Looking for runaways again, I’ll wager.” To the men now filling up the common room, she called out a friendly greeting, addressing some of the watchmen by name.
“Any new girls, Brennie?” the portly constable asked. “We’ve got a kidnap—an English lady by the name of Mary Beckham.”
Had Valentine not known Brennie, he never would have caught the twitch of her eyebrow or the knowing gleam in her eye as she slowly, slowly turned her serene face toward Valentine. “A lady, you say? I don’t know of any English girls at the Owl, and certainly no ladies. Did any come in last night?” she asked him, and then added pointedly, “Perhaps you could ask Fleur.”
“Who’s this now?” the constable demanded, eyeing Valentine.
Valentine shoved away his alarm to make a sweeping bow to the group. “Enrique Francisco, at your service,” he said, letting his accent thicken. “Procurer of the finest specimens of womanhood the world over.”
“A whoremonger,” the constable snorted. “Any English ladies in your depraved band?”
“I prefer to think myself more a curator of desire,” Valentine countered. “But no. They are much too reserved for a profession of such passion.”
The constable snorted again and turned to Brennie once more. “We must search, you understand,” he said. “There’s a baroness or some such shite paying a hefty price for the lady’s recovery.”
“Of course,” Brennie said and then looked up at Valentine again. “Go rouse the girls. I can’t bear to listen to the complaints this early in the day, and what good are you if not for the ugly jobs?”
“It would be my pleasure,” Valentine said with a short bow. “I shall refill the brazier in your room while I am about it.”
She waved a lazy hand at him. “As you wish.”
“Two moments,” the constable warned, “and we shall enter each room thoroughly.”
“Two moments,” Valentine agreed and then turned on his heel and walked deliberately across the floor and into the back corridor.
Once the door swung shut behind him, Valentine broke into a run, pulling the key from his pouch as he swerved around crooked corners. He unlocked the door and burst into the room, already barking orders.
“Maria! Maria! Get up! Get your things, now. Vamanos,” he said, trotting to the hearth while swinging his satchel from his shoulder. “Maria!”
“What is it?” She didn’t sound as though she’d been asleep, and he heard her rustling from the bed.
“The city constable is here with a band of watchmen, seeking you by name. They are searching the rooms.” He pulled forth the bag he ha
d tried to give to Teresa and then squatted down, lifting the lid of the brazier and checking that it was cool before dropping the bag inside.
“Oh my God,” she gasped from behind him, and he heard her scurrying about. “What are we going to do?”
Valentine replaced the lid and joined Maria as she looped straps over her arms, bent to scoop up her boots, her veil.
“We’re going to run,” Valentine said distractedly, giving the room a final quick glance. He swiped his hat from the chaise and placed it on Maria’s head. If they had forgotten anything, they would have to leave it. He turned back to her and nodded toward the door. “Open it slowly.”
Maria opened the door a crack and Valentine stuck his head out. He pulled it back in with a hiss as he saw the band of watchmen in the hallway, pounding on doors. “Damn!” He peeked through the crack again as he heard squeals and ribald curses in very feminine voices. Half the men disappeared into the first doorway they’d come to, and the second half of the group waited entry at the next. “Come on, come on!” If they didn’t enter before the first group came out . . .
“Now!” he said to Maria, pulling her into the hallway as the last man ducked inside. He left their door swinging and pushed Maria ahead of him, toward the rectangle of light where Brennie stood, holding the exit wide. “Horses?” he called out as loudly as he dared.
“Karl’s with them now,” Brennie said, when they were nearly upon her. “Godspeed, mi amor.” She smirked at Maria. “And Lady Mary. I do hope we meet again. Enjoy my Ballenteen.”
Valentine saw the cross look Maria threw over her shoulder as he shoved her into the alley. “It’s Valentine,” she said.
“Go!” Valentine said in exasperation.
“It is Valentine,” she insisted as they turned left and ran down the alley. “Your name begins with a V.”
“Not always.” Valentine pulled Maria by the crook of her elbow toward the stables just as Karl emerged into the bright sunlight, leading their horses.
He held his large arms out toward Maria as they approached, and Valentine was surprised and pleased when Maria jumped into them without question, allowing the large bald man to swung her into her saddle.
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