by Ria Cantrell
Chapter Fifty
Before Drew could ponder just how he would woo Bronwyn back into his heart, a screaming woman came running into the keep. As captain of the guard, Drew was on his feet in an instant. Throwing the mail hauberk back over his head, Drew sheathed his sword and rushed to the distraught woman. She shrieked as one mad. Drew knew this woman. She was a woman from the village. She had been to their wedding. What in the world could have happened to get her in this frantic state? Erik came in from the list yard and took the woman to sit by the fire. She was inconsolable. She wailed and sobbed. Drew was afraid the village had come under some sort of attack, from the magnitude of her shrieks.
“Michaela, for the love of God, what has happened? Try to calm yourself so we can learn of it.”
“My baby…not even weaned has been kidnapped. I only placed him down for a moment, while I brought in a lamb that had escaped its ewe. When I turned, my babe was gone. Stolen away….”
“Who would have done this? Did you see anyone that should not have been near your home?” The woman shook her head.
“The only person I saw was that woman who helps Rhianna with the sick.”
Drew piped up, “My wife has helped Rhianna from time to time. Surely you do not mean my wife?”
The woman wept bitterly and said, “Nay, nay….t’was not her. This one is English.”
Drew wanted to take offense at the way the woman said that, knowing that it would hurt Bronwyn to be thought of as an outsider, despite their false welcoming and niceties. His heart churned, thinking how very alone she must be, especially now that they were fighting. All the more reason to go to her as soon as possible, he thought.
“Michaela, Rhianna does not have a woman who helps her besides Bronwyn. Try to think who you mean.”
“That one…you know. That one who punished poor Nan. She used to work in your kitchens.”
Erik shook his head dully, but Drew knew. He remembered Bronwyn had said Dana had worked in the kitchens. As realization came to Drew, Erik had the same revelation.
“Daria,” they both shouted in unison. That evil bitch had stolen a child!
She would stoop to the lowest and most vile deed to get her way. Daria, the cause of all Drew’s heartaches; she had to be stopped. They had to get to the child as soon as possible. There was no telling what this twisted woman would do.
“Alright, Michaela. You must not worry. We will find her and get your babe safely home before his next feeding,” Erik soothed. To Drew and Rory, he commanded, “You both take to the road leading to her home. I will gather men and try to head her off on the North Road. Remember, safety for the babe is your priority. Michaela, stay here, with Rhianna.”
At that exact moment Rhianna had entered the hall and she asked, “What has happened? Is someone ill or injured?”
“Nay, Lady. Daria has absconded Michaela’s babe…I will find her. I vow it as my solemn oath,” Drew said.
Throwing her head back and rolling her eyes, Rhianna fumed! That evil woman! This was the very last straw. Rhianna’s usual kind and forgiving nature was replaced by an anger that was akin to a maelstrom brewing. Through clenched teeth, Rhianna said, “Show her no mercy!”
Drew nodded. With a clenched fist to his heart, Drew saluted the Lady of the Keep and set out to find the woman responsible for so much heartache and mayhem. With Rory in tow, the men quickly armed and found themselves on the backs of their warhorses, riding quickly out of the village to the places Drew knew the evil bitch kept to. Oh he would find her and when he did there was going to be hell to pay. She had gone too far this time. This last act was unforgivable.
~~~~~
Daria held the squalling brat with disdain. If it didn’t stop crying, she did not think she would be rational. As it was, she wanted to shake it into being quiet already, but she knew she needed it to lure Drew into her lair. She had succeeded in parting him from that disgusting little heathen.
It was rumored that they spent most every night apart and that he no longer visited her. It was only a matter of time that Drew would be back in her bed for good. Now if he believed she had birthed this baby, his baby, he would be hers completely.
“Come to me Drew…see your son…you cannot deny me now. Sir Erik will have to cast judgment and order you to put the simpering idiot aside. She bears you no children…where as I have birthed you a son.” Daria spoke to no one in particular, but she was lost in her musings and playing her role for the sake of herself.
She looked at her reflection in the shattered shards of the looking glass. She continued, “Look at your son. Is he not beautiful?”
But as she spoke the baby let out a particularly loud cry. Shouting in the poor little babe’s face she said, “Shut up! Do you want your father to reject you? He will you know. He rejected me for far less.”
That only set more wails erupting from the poor frightened and probably hungry little baby.
“Stop it. Stop it now. Oh God, make it stop. My nerves are already frayed.”
Daria set the child on the bed and she paced frantically around her room. Looking at the mess the room was in, she murmured to herself, “Oh, what an untidy house keeper I have become. Drew will be here soon…I should make it welcoming for him. Yes, that’s what I will do.”
Daria set things around the disheveled and moldering room. She would no sooner place something in one spot, and then move it to another. The entire time, the baby cried. It was nearly her undoing.
She looked around the room which once seemed so grand. It looked more like a hovel now, with tattered remains of clothing and broken bits of pottery and glass strewn about.
“It’s all her fault…she has done this to me…look at my beautiful things ruined. Just because she elevated herself over me. But now she is put aside. It will be well now, Drew. When you come home, we will set things to right. Won’t we? Surely you would not abandon your son…” She spoke to the child and went back to fussing about the room.
“You see Drew…she ruined all my lovely things. Now you know the truth about her…This is where you have always belonged.” As the baby squalled, Daria screamed, “Stop it! Be quiet you horrible little wretch or you will send him away.”
~~~~~
Bronwyn had wandered into the main hall. She spied Rhianna consoling some poor woman. She caught Bronwyn’s eye and she motioned for her to approach. Bronwyn still had not forgiven Rhianna for her part in the deception that had led to Drew’s and her separation. Still, she felt duty bound to see if she could help when and if she was needed.
Bronwyn approached the two women and offered a polite but cool greeting. Rhianna had one of the maids take the woman to get her something to drink to calm her down. Once the woman was out of earshot, Rhianna asked, “Have you spoken with Drew at all today?”
“Nay and nor do I care to. I dunna’ even know where he is.”
“He went to find Daria.”
All her suspicions came to head at Rhianna’s words. Even though it was as she suspected all along, hearing it for certain made Bronwyn’s heart plummet in her chest. She knew positively now, that this woman was no longer her friend. Bronwyn turned to go but Rhianna called her back.
“Wait. Let me speak. You need to hear what I have to say.”
“Why should I listen to anything ye’ need to say to me now?”
“Because I have held my tongue long enough! While I understand your anger and disappointment, you have caused most of your own heartache with your own foolish pride. I have kept silent, thinking it was something that Drew and you would address, but when you keep shunning him and locking yourself in your own childish pain, I must now speak and have you hear what you refused to do since your wedding day.”
Crossing her arms over her chest in a defensive stance, Bronwyn waited to hear what Rhianna was going to say. Rhianna tried to hold her anger in check. She could not really blame Bronwyn for her distrust and hurt, but the time had come to end this division. She said, “Drew and Rory went to find
Daria.”
“Rory? Ye’ must be joking. Even my brother, whose appetites in women are not always wise would not choose that slut to trifle with.”
Rhianna rolled her eyes impatiently. The babe caused her to be less accommodating these days. Taking a deep cleansing breath she said, “They went to find her because she has done something quite despicable. She has stolen a child from the woman you saw, being led to the kitchens. Rory and Drew went to find her to try and reason with her and to save the child.”
Bronwyn looked aghast at this information. “She…she stole a child? What manner of evil is this woman?”
“I suspect we do not even know the extent of the warp in her soul.”
“Do ye’ think she will harm the bairn?”
“There is nothing I would be surprised that Daria would do. She is a very bad person.”
Bronwyn looked down. Suddenly her heart seemed to open. She realized that someone who could harm a child could harm Drew as well. “Is Drew in danger?”
“I do not know. I do know that Drew was the most unhappy he had ever been when he was with Daria…that is, except now. I have never known him to be so sad, Bronwyn. When are you going to forgive him?”
“He betrayed me. He lied to me. Ye’ all were part of it. Ye’ all played a part in this humiliation and betrayal.”
“He did not betray you. I am certain of it. I was there when he found her in your apartments. He was outraged that she would have the audacity to cause harm to his relationship with you. His sin, all of our sins, was that no one told you. It was not up to me to tell you. I told Drew to tell you. Why he did not I will never know, but he did not do it to hide an affair from you.”
“But she was in our bed…a bed we had shared!”
“She did that. He did not invite her. I have never known Drew to be in love…but he was…he is certainly with you. He would never betray you. I swear it.”
Bronwyn shook her head and said, “I dunna’ know what to believe.”
“Bronwyn…she took someone else’s child. She is capable of the most immoral acts. Drew fights for honor. Drew believes in honor. Why would you believe a twisted, manipulative woman over the man you love; over the man who has always been honor bound, over the man who has done aught to honor you and your clan?”
Finally, Rhianna’s words sunk in. Why indeed? She had been such a stupid little fool. Drew had tried to explain but she would not listen to him. Trying to salvage the last shreds of her resolve, Bronwyn murmured, “But the babe…the one she bears….”
“Bronwyn, if it is Drew’s babe, it was begotten before he even met you. You are not naïve enough to think he was a celibate man before he met you?”
No, she was not naïve. She suddenly felt that all shards of her naiveté was long gone; a thing lost with her childhood, so long ago. She believed she would never have that innocence again.
With eyes downcast, Bronwyn said, “I think--mayhap I have made a terrible mistake--again. I have been such a fool.”
Rhianna frowned, but softened her expression. “The heart is a funny thing. It can make the strongest believe the worst. Can you forgive Drew, now?”
Bronwyn nodded, numbly. “Will my forgiveness be enough to heal this?”
“I know not. I only know that Drew needs to know you still love him and that you want him.”
Bronwyn felt panic rising in her breast. Suddenly, she felt that something could go terribly wrong with this encounter with Daria. It was as if her eyes had suddenly been opened. Bronwyn had not expected to encounter the evil that this woman represented and if Drew was going to find her, Bronwyn believed that Daria would not relent lightly or easily. Nay, she would do everything to gain for her twisted cause. Bronwyn knew that now.
“I need to go to him--I need to tell him. I fear he is in danger.”
“You cannot go to him. We do not know where he is. If he feels your love, he will know it in his heart. I can help you reach out to him.”
Bronwyn was perplexed.
Rhianna said, “It is time you embraced the Old Ways, in order to open your heart to Drew. You cannot run from it any longer. It is within you and part of who you are.”
Bronwyn’s eyes widened. Rhianna was right. She had been running from her heritage her entire life. She would run no longer. She had to embrace her past in order for there to be a future with Drew.
Chapter Fifty-One
Drew rounded the road to where he knew Daria had lived. She had told him that she was the bastard daughter of a lesser Earl; therefore, her abode was more opulent than those locals in the villages bordering Ragnorsen. Upon his approach of the place, he was amazed at how run down it had become. Weeds grew high around the entry. Shutters hung haphazardly from windows and there seemed to be refuse littering what was once a carefully tended garden. The house was bordered with a precarious outcropping of rock, which dropped off to a ravine cut through with a small river. Drew wondered why he had never noticed that before.
Drew had only been there once and he never had been inside, as Daria had said she needed to be discreet when it came to her “liaison” with him. He was, after all, a landless knight and she was the daughter of an Earl…albeit a bastard daughter of one. He had only been there to see her home one night. It had been dark except for the light of a waning moon, so Drew thought perhaps, he had remembered the place incorrectly.
His senses were on a heightened alert. He motioned for Rory to circle past the entryway and he would go inside to find her. Rory nodded in understanding and he made his way to the back of the dwelling. Jumping off his destrier, Drew thought he heard the cries of a small baby. She is here, he thought. He called out, “Daria, come out. I don’t know what you are trying to do, but nothing can be gained from this foolery. I demand you show yourself this instant.”
The sound of the child crying seemed to come from inside the house so Drew was prepared to take the entry door down. He tried the door and it was indeed locked so he shouldered it with all his might, expecting it to be solid and steadfast. Instead, he heard the splintering of rotten wood as he crashed through it with one pass. He looked about the room. It was strewn with broken and ruined things. His mind tried to take in what he was seeing. Furniture had been slashed. Pottery and cookery had been broken. He felt the shards of it crunch under his feet as he sorted his way through the room. It was as if someone had deliberately destroyed all these things. Dear God, could Daria have done this?
“Daria, where are you? Come out now.”
Drew instantly smelled the sickening scent of death in the place. He knew the smell well. He rounded a corner, with a deepening sense of foreboding. Drawing his sword from its scabbard, Drew followed the cloying odor, down a corridor. Before he even entered the room, Drew was assailed with the buzzing of flies and the sickening fumes of rotten flesh. Pushing open the door, Drew knew what he would find.
The gruesome image of a dead man with a knife protruding from his throat was the first sight Drew saw upon his entry. The man’s eyes were glazed over in death; horror frozen on his bloated and distorted face as he must have choked on his own blood. He had not died quickly. He was still dressed in the lavish robes of the privileged and from what Drew could determine; he had been a man on in years. What hair he had left was white, surrounding his pate. Folds of sagging flesh drooped over his thick and wrinkled neck, which was soaked in the black crimson of coagulated blood. The man’s hands were spotted with age. This must have been the old Earl. He had been dead for some time.
With dread, Drew had to leave the corpse at the moment. There was naught that could be done for the old man now. Drew was needed to find the innocent baby who was in grave danger.
It was then that he entered Daria’s sleeping chamber. It was much like the other room, ruined and destroyed. Gowns were torn to shreds. Broken bits of the looking glass littered the floor. The bedding had been slashed with some sort of knife so that the stuffing poked through the ticking.
Drew stared incredulously at the d
estruction of the place. Someone, probably Daria, had done this on purpose. Someone had seen to the horrible demise of the place and death of the Earl. This was not done on a whim. This ruin was done by someone who had been in a blind rage. It had to have been Daria, only where the hell was she?
Drew could still hear the baby crying in the distance and the sound pulled him toward the window facing the back of the house. When he leaned out of the shattered window, he saw Rory with a stricken expression on his face. He followed his gaze and saw Daria holding the screaming baby as she dangerously backed her way toward the ravine. Oh no, Dear God no! She was going to jump with the baby in her arms.
“Rory,” Drew called, but Rory was not distracted from his lot. He could hear Rory speaking to Daria, saying, “Lass, ye’ dunna’ want to do this. Come, give me yer’ hand.”
Drew ran through the debris underfoot and he came to stand beside Rory.
“Stay away from me, you heathen savage,” Daria railed at Rory. Drew could see she was cornered and there was nowhere for her to go. Nowhere, that is, but over the edge.
In seeing Drew approaching Rory’s side, Daria called out, “Look what your whore has done? She made me ruin all those things.”
“You did that. Not her. I saw what you did to the Earl.”
“He found out about our child, Drew. He called me a harlot. As if he should talk. He made my mother a whore and made me a bastard.”
Drew tried to focus on the poor little baby she was holding. It was wailing loudly. For the first time in his life, he felt completely helpless. He glanced at Rory. There was a strange look on his face. He was fixed on Daria and he kept trying to talk to her. “Lass, give me the babe.”