Lady's Pursuit (Knight and Rogue Book 6)

by Bell, Hilari

  “We’ve still got some time,” I said. “Why don’t we all look around, and find...”

  Rupert’s lover was within reach and his patience had run out. He took a lantern in with him, but a single candle actually conceals more than it reveals. We saw nothing at the edge of the wavering light but a few broken casks, and the looming ghosts of machines that were too big to move or too old to salvage.

  It took him a while just to find the stairs — for of course this drama had to play out on the top floor, where it was easiest to fall to your death.

  “...find another escape route, or...”

  “If Rupert arrives alone, they can kill him without witnesses and claim ’twas an accident!” And before I could even begin to find some last ditch way to stop her, Katherine ran right after him.

  “...or a hiding place, in case we might need one. Or maybe a dozen or so thugs, waiting to ambush us.”

  But being the sole witness to Rupert’s demise was probably almost as risky as being Rupert. I didn’t want Kathy in that position, so I was crossing the room as I spoke. By the time I finished I was halfway up the creaking, and probably dangerously rotten stairs.

  The only good thing was that Wheatman wasn’t shooting at us. Yet.

  I couldn’t see anything on the second floor ... except for the light that glowed, ominously, from the third floor.

  Master Noye — assuming Rupert and Kathy were right about the identity of the man holding a knife to Meg’s throat — evidently shared my feelings about darkness and old wooden floors. Two lanterns, bright with burning oil, had been placed to either side of him and his captive, and a third lantern sat on the floor behind the stairs.

  This increased the resemblance to a stage, but I wondered what, or who, or at least how many, lurked in the deeper shadows beyond the light.

  Michael had better be one of them.

  The drama of the setting was heightened by the huge, open hatch behind the two central figures — it had probably been built to allow workmen access to the great wheel, turning slowly in the lantern’s glare.

  It was also the place where at least one young woman had taken a hard and final way out of her troubles, and you couldn’t help but remember that too.

  As Master Noye intended, no doubt. He even, in the best theatrical tradition, wore a mask that covered the top half of his face. It was made of shaped leather, with a long pointed nose that distracted attention from the shape of jaw and mouth. Looking closer, I could see dark stains where glass gems had been pried off it after some fancy dress ball. The rest of his clothing was neat, but nondescript.

  The lower half of Meg’s face was distorted by the gag in her mouth, her skirt was wrinkled and stained, and Noye’s free hand twisted tightly in her tangled hair. Judging by the wet cloth near her lips she’d been wearing that gag for some time, and probably the hobbles around her ankles and the rope that held her arms behind her back, as well.

  But the thing that told me most about her captivity was a plain wooden chair, now pushed off to one side. Noye had been waiting for a long time. No reason he shouldn’t make himself comfortable.

  There was only one chair.

  I’d already been inclined to dislike Master Noye, and this cemented my opinion — not that this mattered to anyone, him least of all.

  “Let her go.” Rupert’s voice was steadier than I’d expected, and firmer too. “Let her go now, and we’ll allow you to walk away. But if you hurt her, in any way, when I’m Liege I will set every sheriff and bounty hunter in the Realm on your heels, and never give up till you are dead.”

  It was usually easy to forget Rupert was the Liege Heir ... but he so clearly meant this threat, had I been Noye, I might have taken him up on his offer.

  “Set them on whose heels?” Noye was stupid enough to smirk when he said it. “I don’t believe we’ve ever met, Your Highness.”

  Rupert hesitated, weighing the options. But making a violent man desperate is never a good choice. Katherine was edging backward, out of the light — I was in favor of that, whatever the rest of her plan might be.

  At this point we needed plans, no matter who came up with them, and if she was going to be my partner in this adventure it was time to start supporting her.

  “We may not know your name,” I said, doing my bit to distract Noye’s attention. “But we got a good description of you from a beggar who watched you supervise Meg’s kidnapping ... and from Meg herself. Is the bite she gave you going to leave a scar?”

  His hand tightened in Meg’s hair so hard she flinched, her eyes glittering with tears of pain. She must have given Noye a hard time in more than just that bite. I was torn between admiration for her grit, and wishing she’d practiced enough meekness to keep him from holding her so securely.

  “You’re in no position to threaten me, Your Highness,” Noye said. “While I... Mistress Katherine, step out from behind that sifter and join your companions. I assure you, you won’t be able to sneak around behind us. There’s nothing behind us to sneak on!”

  Kathy scurried back into the light, and he cut off his nervous giggle before it properly started — but this man was a lot more scared, and less in control of himself, than he pretended. Which would have raised my hopes, except that it made him less predictable, and thus even more dangerous.

  “Where was I?” Noye went on. “Oh yes, I was about to point out that you have no idea who I am, and thus can’t threaten me. But I’m in a perfect position to cut your lover’s throat ... if you and your friends don’t throw down all your weapons and step away from them. Now.”

  He didn’t have to tighten his hand on the knife, but a thin red line appeared on Meg’s throat, anyway.

  Rupert’s staff clattered to the floor.

  “Knives too,” Noye said.

  “Wait,” I said. “Before anyone goes further, where are your men, Master Whoever? This should be their cue to step out of the shadows, swords at ready, to encourage us to obey instead of rushing you.”

  If we’d read Meg’s note correctly, there was at least one other man — and maybe more she didn’t know about. If there weren’t any more ... we were three to one, and the last thing we should do was throw down our weapons.

  Rupert, in the act of drawing his knife, hesitated.

  “They’re standing ready,” said Noye. “Waiting for my order to move.”

  Despite the grip on her hair and the knife at her throat, Meg shook her head furiously and made negative sounds behind the gag. I did like that woman.

  Rupert drew his knife and held it low, ready to fight.

  “No, they’re not. If you had that many men they’d already have moved in, and I’d be dead. We’d all be dead, since you can’t afford to leave witnesses that my ‘suicide’ was faked. I don’t think there’s anyone here but us. I think you’re bluffing.”

  I was beginning to think that myself — though surely Noye wouldn’t have tried this stunt without at least one man to back him up?

  But when Rupert stepped forward all Noye did was step back, taking Meg nearer to the drop behind them.

  “I’m not bluffing about this,” he said. “If you don’t lay down your weapons I’ll kill her. I have nothing to lose, you see.”

  The note of defeat in those final words was more convincing than all his bluster. The squeak Meg gave as the knife bit was even more convincing, and Rupert tossed his knife aside.

  But Noye had to have some plan for subduing us, so I kept my club in hand. Katherine looked back and forth between Rupert and me, uncertain.

  “I mean it,” said Noye. “I will kill this woman, now, if you don’t surrender.”

  This time Meg was expecting it and she made no sound, but a trickle of blood ran down the blade and dripped onto the floor.

  “He’ll do it,” Rupert said. “Put your clubs down.”

  “You know...” I sounded amazingly calm, given that my nerves were quivering like plucked strings. “...if he wants us to disarm, that’s the last thing we should do.
”

  The next stroke of the knife drew a splatter of blood — it wasn’t the fountain that would have erupted if he’d cut her throat, but I wasn’t surprised to hear Kathy’s staff clatter to the floor.

  “Fisk, he means it! He’ll kill her.”

  One small hand gripped my arm, the other tugging on the club. Her fingers were cold with fear.

  Jack would have shoved her off, and never dreamed of giving up his weapons. My father would have disarmed himself long since, and been helpless now. But this had nothing to do with Jack, or my father.

  I found that thought quite freeing. And disarming ourselves just wasn’t the smart thing to do.

  Rupert took a step toward me, and might have reached for my club himself if Kathy hadn’t been in his way.

  “Let it go,” he murmured. “When he lets go of Meg to subdue us we can all jump him together, even without weapons. Michael can jump him!”

  “Do you think he doesn’t realize that?” I said it loudly enough for Noye to hear, since it was mostly for his benefit. “He’s got someone else out there, who’ll come out to help him secure us.”

  Rupert looked at the shadows and back at Meg, clearly unconvinced. Kathy looked back and forth between him and me, then ran to pick up her staff once more.

  I found this vote of confidence gratifying, under the circumstances.

  “You’re sealing this girl’s death warrant.” There was a convincing note of panic in Noye’s voice.

  “Nonsense,” I said. “If you kill her we’ll capture you. And then you’ll hang. You don’t dare kill her.”

  “You don’t dare move on me,” said Noye. “Because if I let her go, we all know I’m a dead man. That’s why I have nothing to lose. And if I’m going to die, I promise you I’ll take her with me!”

  That, unfortunately, rang true. I really wished Meg hadn’t done such a good job of pissing him off.

  And at that moment, I heard the stealthy sound of a footfall behind us, almost lost in the waterfall’s roar.

  It might be Noye’s man, but it also might be Michael. It had better be Michael, but either way my best option was to stall...

  “So what do you want out of this?” I asked Master Noye, as sincerely as I could manage.

  I found my way through the low hills and into the abandoned village, before the Creature Moon’s soft light had completely replaced the sun’s. Some horses don’t mind traveling after dark, but Chant doesn’t care for it. True, on the other hand, was delighted at the prospect of a moonlight romp. We found a trail some way up the hillside that went from house to house, paralleling the old cart road below.

  I practiced silently for a bit and then whistled a nightjar’s call — I thought I did it pretty well, considering I must have been about fourteen the last time I tried.

  As my companions rode up the valley to the mill, Chant, True and I followed above and a bit behind them. I didn’t have to open doors to be sure the cottages we passed were empty, for True’s good nose would detect a human presence. His cheerful wagging told me only deer and rabbits walked this path, so I knew no one would burst out of the trees or some black-windowed cottage and attack my friends.

  The attacker who was most in my thoughts would be more interested in attacking me, and once again I cursed my carelessness in leaving that crossbow unguarded. However, that was one scent True would react to instantly, and he showed no sign of fear or anger all the way through the village to the mill.

  I was about to tether Chant behind an abandoned shack, but I hadn’t reckoned with Kathy getting the lanterns lit so quickly, or them all plunging into the towering corpse of the old mill before I could even get down the hillside.

  I sent Chant plunging down the slope, and reached the mill’s door mere moments after Fisk went in ... then stopped, abruptly.

  Candlelight marked their progress through the vast ground floor, where flour had been bagged and returned to the farmer — there was probably a gate on the other side a wagon could drive through — but they’d given me no time to find it, and were already starting up the stairs.

  What better way to find out if someone responded to their presence than to simply wait and see?

  I wrapped Chant’s reins around a post, pulled off my boots for silence and signaled True to stay with the horses — a command he knows well. Then I slipped through the door. Fisk had left it open, so I didn’t need to set the hinges squealing.

  The last of the candlelight faded as they climbed on up. I stood perfectly still, my back against the cold damp wall beside the door, not even breathing as I listened.

  I could hear their footsteps, on still more stairs, climbing up to the high third floor. The seconds slipped past, counted by the rapid beat of my heart. Then I heard it; first the whisper of cloth moving on cloth, followed by the soft pad of footfalls.

  My eyes had had time to adjust to the near total darkness, and the faintly lighter darkness where light from some source far above picked out the stairs. I waited till a slightly darker shadow crept up to the lowest stair, then hurtled forward, leaping as he started to turn, using the weight of my body to bring him down.

  We fell onto the stairs with a reasonably soft thump, and I was grateful he was on the bottom. But he wasn’t stunned, as I had hoped. A grunt of pain was followed by an indrawn breath. I pressed my forearm down on his throat, stopping that incipient warning shout, and drew my knife as he started to squirm.

  “I cannot let you cry out,” I murmured. The feel of my blade on his skin made the rest of the threat clear.

  He stopped squirming, and I managed to keep the knife at his throat as I dragged him to his feet and out the door.

  After a moment’s thought, and with True tagging at our heels, I hauled him into a nearby house, whose stone walls might at least muffle any sounds he made — I could not keep the knife in place while I bound him.

  “True, guard,” I said crisply. “I’m going to tie you up, sir. And you should know that my dog will attack if you make any sudden movement.”

  This was probably a lie. I have taught True to watch over my gear, but he isn’t trained to guard a man, much less attack.

  However, he sat down and stared at my prisoner as if he was a saddlebag full of sausages, and the man must not have wanted to take the risk — he did not shout when I slowly lowered my knife.

  “I didn’t want to do it,” he said. “We didn’t sign up to kill no one, much less the Heir.”

  “Then why are you here?” Binding a man, if you are alone and he is free to resist, presents a number of challenges. I solved the first of them by dragging his rough coat over his shoulders and half way down his arms. ’Twould not hold him long, but that, and True’s silent snarl checked him long enough for me to pull a thin leather thong from my pocket and catch it round one of his wrists. He resisted, as I tried to pull his wrists together, but the coat hampered him, and True was doing a really good imitation of a trained guard dog.

  “You can let me go,” he said. “I promise, I’ll slope off. This wasn’t in the contract, and even the wage he’s offering isn’t worth having the Liege after you.”

  “You should have thought of that before you took the job,” I said, briskly shoving him down so I could tie his feet.

  “Yes, but how were we to know she was the Liege Heir’s wench? She was the one who told us that, and it wasn’t till we already had her and were well out of town. So just hanging onto her seemed safer,” he said. “We didn’t know anyone was to be killed, till after the master had us kidnap the trapper’s girl. Then she escaped, and when the master came back he was talking about how ‘he’ had to die and I swear, I wanted no part of that. None of us did! If you let me go, I’ll take off running and you’ll never see me again. Honest. You let me go, and I’m gone. Just like the others.”

  “So your friends had the good sense and decency to run, when they realized Noye was going to commit murder?”

  I had his feet bound by then, and I sat down to remove my stockings. I had
clean stockings in my pack that would make a decent gag, but going back to get them would leave him free to make noise for too long, so I’d have use the ones I wore. I was sorry for that, but my options were running out ... and I had no idea what was happening in that mill!

  “It’s one thing to hold onto some wench for a few months,” he said. “Our original orders were she wasn’t to be hurt, anyway. I wanted no part of murder — but he offered me five men’s pay if I stayed. And it’s not worth it! If you just let—”

  “’Tis not worth it,” I agreed thrusting one dirty stocking into his mouth and tying another around it. “But you took that contract, and now you’ll pay whatever price the judicars mete out. You’d best pray I get there in time to prevent the Heir’s murder, or that price is like to be your life. True, guard!”

  I had some hope that even if he managed to spit out the gag, that threat would be enough to keep him silent, and it seemed Meg had been right — aside from Noye, there’d be no one to stop us from rescuing her! So now I needed to find a way into the mill and up the stairs to create a diversion — and away from the stairs, the darkness inside the mill was total.

  A faint murmur of voices came from above, but there were no shouts or screams — and in fact, it had taken me only minutes to bind the kidnapper ... probably because I rushed the job.

  So I took the time to strike a spark and light my own candle from the flaming tinder — and if I was faster than Kathy, the time this took still stretched my nerves more tightly. Cupping one hand to protect the flame, I was about to enter the mill when a soft whine stopped me.

  Fisk had left his dog tied to Tipple’s saddle, mayhap not wanting to expose the beast to the chaotic anger of a fight... But chaos was what we needed, to spring whatever snare Noye had laid for us — and I’d seen folks’ reaction to Fisk’s dog over the past few days.

  If that toothy monster came rushing out of the haunted darkness it would have made me flinch, even if ’twas running the other way.