Unbidden (The Evolution Series)

by Jill Hughey

  “Yes sir, I will come to you right away.” He ducked his head with shy pride at already having a special assignment from the future master.

  David walked to Sewell who refused to meet his eyes. “That man,” he said, indicating Samuel, “is going to take you home. If he has so much as a scratch when he returns it will not go well for you. If I see you on this estate again, you will be dead before you can shed your first tear. And God help you if anyone sees you near Rochelle. Do we understand one another?”

  Sewell nodded in his wretchedness, lips and eyes puffed and bruised, blood and other foul excretions running from his nose.

  Samuel mounted the farm horse, then grabbed the rope of Sewell’s unfortunate pony. Sewell limped along behind, each step a painful reminder of plans gone awry.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rochelle lay in the darkness, staring at the ceiling. She knew she and her people were safe, yet still sleep eluded her. It had been all she could do to urge her mother out of her room two hours ago. The episode had frightened Marian out of all proportion, and her nervous fretting had nearly brought Rochelle back to the scatterbrained state she’d suffered after the attack. Only the assurance that she was exhausted, needing dark and quiet, drove her mother to her own bedroom from which Rochelle had heard muffled weeping for some time. She also heard the men coming in, heard with great relief David’s low voice in the hall below. And now, silence. But no sleep.

  She sat up in bed and threw back the covers. She didn’t need dark and quiet. She needed to understand more about what had happened to her. And she wanted comforting. Not the worried, wet kind her mother offered, but the strong kind. Of course, David was probably asleep by now and she couldn’t very well open the door to the men’s guest room. Even sitting downstairs alone, poking at the fire, would be better than lying here staring at nothing.

  Magnus waited at the door with a wagging tail as she wrapped her robe around her before quietly leaving the room. As if conjured there, she saw David sitting far below her on the next to the last step. He looked over his shoulder at her then jumped off the step to let Magnus pass and watch Rochelle pad down. She stopped at the bottom. “Can I join you?” she asked.

  “Of course. Perhaps I should add a few logs to the fire.”

  “You cannot sleep either?” she asked as he poked at the hearth.

  “I have not even tried,” he replied.

  She sat down on the step where he had been.

  When he finished with the fire, he turned, his expression confused. “You do not want to sit in a chair?” He gestured toward one in the circle of warmth in which he now stood.

  She shook her head. She did not know why but she preferred to sit outside the brightness, in the flickering twilight where she could sit shoulder to shoulder with him.

  There was an awkward silence as he returned to sit on the step next to her. Rochelle didn’t know how to begin to ask all the questions she had, so she was relieved when he finally started. “Do you mind if I ask you about tonight?”

  She shook her head. “No, you had said we could talk later. And…I would rather talk about it. I wanted to before, it is just that my mother….” She waved vaguely up the steps.

  “I understand. Can you tell me what happened at the very beginning, Rochelle?”

  She folded her hands in her lap and stared at them as she recalled the horror of the evening. “I was at the stable. I had paused for a moment at the door, just thinking for a minute, and then Sewell was there. He told me he’d come to rescue me. He told me to get on the horse. It was so odd, as if he thought I would want to go. He seemed genuinely surprised when I told him no.”

  “Why would he think you would leave with him?”

  “I do not know. I have not seen him since the palace. We saw him there, do you remember?”

  David nodded. “Has he ever visited you here? Before the palace?”

  “Not that I remember. We know him from various feasts and festivals, but he has never been to Alda that I know of.”

  “Strange.”

  “What is?” Rochelle asked.

  “He seemed sure you would want to go with him. And he knew where and when to find you alone.”

  “And he knew you were not supposed to arrive until tomorrow,” Rochelle added. “He said that when you came, remember?”

  “Someone gave him information since you returned from Aix.”

  “They must have.” Rochelle considered the disconcerting thought for a moment, then laughed nervously. “Why would someone bother to spy on me?”

  David stared toward the fire in the center of the hall. “You told them you were not interested in going. Then what happened?”

  “We argued for a few minutes. Something did not feel right. They were crowding me. I did not like it. So I got hold of my dagger, keeping it hidden, like you told me. Then Fardulf grabbed me from behind and I just…reacted. I stabbed him as hard as I could and the blade,” – she could not stop the shudder – “cut through his leg. It felt just like cutting into raw meat. Ugh.”

  “I know,” David said sympathetically.

  “He yelled like a stuck pig and that surprised Sewell. I tried to get my dagger back out in case I needed it. It was so bloody. It got so slippery. You did not tell me about that part. Fardulf fell down and Sewell grabbed me and tried to get me on that ridiculous horse. Have you ever seen a man with such a puny horse?”

  “Not often.”

  “Sewell had a hand over my mouth and was dragging me toward the horse and that just made me so angry. I kicked him as hard as I could in…well, in the place that men do not like to be kicked. He let go of me. By then I thought I had heard Magnus and I was yelling my head off. I knew help was coming but Sewell caught me again and tried to put me on his stupid horse. Then you came.”

  David exhaled slowly. “Something upset your mother when you were bathing.”

  “Oh.” She blushed. “It is a scratch on my leg. It is nothing. She always assumes the worst.”

  “And this?” David asked, his fingertips gently tracing over her cheekbone again. “How did you get this?”

  His unexpected touch made her breath catch for a moment. “I – I still am not certain. I think he – Fardulf – hit me after I stabbed him. Or maybe before. He had me from behind, and I tried to remember all the places you said to stab someone but –"

  “Hush,” he said soothingly, letting his fingers slide down her cheek to her jawbone before lifting them away. “You did very well. You held your own until reinforcements arrived.”

  David’s calm questions and responses, in fact his calm handling of the entire situation, had settled her mind significantly. Her memories of the attack were becoming much more coherent. “There is something I do not understand,” she said thoughtfully. “Why was the gate closed? I heard Magnus almost immediately and I knew you would come, but it seemed like forever.”

  “It was an eternity,” David agreed fervently. “When Magnus raised the alarm, we found the gate not only closed, but jammed in some way.”

  “Could Sewell have done it?” The thought of such premeditation unsettled her enough that she shivered.

  “It is possible,” David said thoughtfully, “though they would have had to have a plan for getting out. It was all Theo could do to get me over.”

  “You had to climb over to get out?” Rochelle asked, incredulous. He quirked a brow at her and she realized how stupid the question was. “Of course you did. You cannot very well sprout wings, can you?”

  “Theo gave me a boost. He claims his back will never be the same.”

  She smiled as she tucked her feet up under her robe and leaned toward him a little, until his warmth pressed against her hip and shoulder.

  “I want to explain something to you,” he said. “To hopefully make you understand why I did what I did.”

  Rochelle stared at his profile curiously, with no idea what he could be talking about. “What did you do?” she asked cautiously.

  “Tonig
ht, when I yelled at you to sit down and be quiet, I was not trying to frighten you or dictate to you. I needed you to stay where I could defend you. With your back in the corner at the gate, I knew no one could come at you from behind. Sitting down made you a smaller target for any bowman.”

  Rochelle raised her brows. “And quiet?” she asked, almost in jest.

  “I needed to hear what was around us. Sound will betray an attacker sooner than sight.”

  “I had already told you, there were only the two.”

  “Two that you knew of. I believed you, but I had already been careless once tonight at your cost. It was not going to happen again.”

  “Careless? How so?”

  David laughed bitterly. “I watched you walk out the door, alone, without Magnus or me. Then, while I sat here enjoying the fire, someone barred the gate and nearly abducted you.”

  Rochelle laid her hand on his arm. “I have made that same walk hundreds of times and nothing untoward has ever happened. You told Sewell that you were exactly where you needed to be tonight. Perhaps if you had been with me they would not have made the attempt. They might have waited for a more opportune time.”

  David shrugged. “I do not think they will bother you again.”

  “What has happened to them?”

  “Your tenant, Samuel, is taking them home. Do not worry,” he reassured her, placing his calloused palm over her hand, “they are tied and hardly in any condition to make trouble. I told Sewell I would kill him if he came near you or the estate again. I hope I have done the right thing.”

  Rochelle sighed. “I do not know either of them well enough to judge. Did Theo agree with you?”

  “It was his idea for the most part. He is fining them a few sous as well.”

  They sat silently for several minutes before Rochelle worked up the courage to ask what had been playing across her mind for the last hour. “Were they going to – to ravish me?”

  David’s jaw clenched and released. “It may have led to that, although I do not think that was the original intention.”

  “What was their intention?”

  “Theo thinks they wanted you to marry Sewell so you could not marry me.”

  “I told him in Aix that I was not marrying him. Or anyone else!”

  “Apparently he did not believe you. And there seems to be some local resistance to the idea of a Bavarian in your house.”

  She considered his words for a minute. “Why is Sewell home from Aix already? Did he return just for this?”

  “It is possible.” David shook his head sharply. “I should not have let Theo send them home. I thought it would be easier on your mother’s nerves, and perhaps reassure your neighbors that I am not a demon from hell. Now I think it would have been better to question them more.”

  They sat, thinking, for a few moments, until Rochelle stated, “The only really important thing we do not know is who gave them their information.”

  David nodded reluctantly, “Perhaps, but that is fairly important.”

  “Thank you for talking to me, and for being honest with me. I know men like women to be ignorant and helpless.”

  He snorted. “I think that statement is a bit too broad. I have never admired ignorance or helplessness in either sex. And I tend to be blunt.” He paused for a moment to gaze into her eyes. “I will always be honest with you,” he said softly, as though making a vow. He stopped again as if trying to make a decision, then he slipped an arm around her. “You showed a great deal of courage tonight. That is the straight truth.”

  Rochelle laughed with self-derision even as she gave in a bit to lean her head on his shoulder. “I did not feel very courageous. I screamed my head off.”

  “That was your battle cry. You fought them. As much as I hate that you were in the situation, you were very brave.”

  Rochelle bounced a loose fist lightly on the firm muscle of his thigh. “And you were fierce.” She turned her head up to look at him, their faces a hand-span apart. “Very fierce.”

  He leaned forward until their foreheads met. He closed his eyes. She imagined she could feel some of the tension flow out of his body just as it did from her own.

  They sat in silence for some time, eventually shifting so her cheek was against his shoulder where she could feel the steady motion of his breathing. His hand stroked her back. He showed her with every touch and breath that she was safe. He made no demands and they spoke naught of marriage or the future, content in the comfort they could give each other in the aftermath of averted disaster.

  Eventually, her eyelids became heavy, as they should have been hours before. She pulled away from him. “I should go upstairs.”

  “Yes.” He stood, then offered his hand to help her rise.

  “I will see you tomorrow,” she said shyly, her hand still gently clasped in his.

  He turned her hand to look at the palm. “That was quite a slap you gave Sewell. Does your hand hurt?”

  “Oh,” she breathed. “I had forgotten about that. Um, no, it does not hurt.”

  “I would wager he will not forget it soon.” He lifted her hand to kiss the palm. Her breath hitched in her throat. It was like a new beginning, where they could talk and be kind to each other instead of fighting. He raised his head to look in her eyes. She knew she was blinking back at him with no more coherence than a sheep. He smiled gently. “It is time for you to go upstairs,” he said in a husky voice.

  She nodded slowly. “Will you sleep now?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “You should.” And she found that, frighteningly, she cared about him.

  Rochelle woke at her usual early hour, not immediately recalling the harrowing event of the previous night. As she stretched, the muscles in her back and neck protested, and a yawn made her throat scratchy. The memory of Sewell and Fardulf’s attack swept over her like cold water. She pulled the blankets up tight under her chin to lie still for several minutes, sorting through what had happened, asking herself the questions that could not yet be answered, and realizing there was at least one important question that should be asked.

  As she played the chronological memories of the previous night, she finally came to her goodnight to David at the bottom of the steps. She smiled. They had conversed in a comforting way, both reassured by the solidity of the other. It was a different, soothing kind of intimacy. He’d never even kissed her, except for that warm touch to her palm.

  She rose from the bed, eager to dress against the chilly air. She looked across the hall from the gallery, not seeing the form she sought. Instead, Theo sat at the table, deeply engrossed in a plate heaped with breakfast. He pushed back from the table when she approached, his face etched with concern.

  “You have a bruise on your cheek,” he observed. “How do you feel?”

  “I am fine.”

  He pointed to the far end of the table. “David left your things there for you.”

  Rochelle saw her girdle neatly coiled. Next to it lay her dagger, cleaned, oiled, and sharpened to a keen edge. She walked over to stare at the blade, not sure she wanted to pick it up. She could feel the slickness of the blood on its handle and see the unconscious form of the young man on the ground near her gate.

  “It is just a dagger,” Theo intoned. He watched her carefully, his bread-filled hand poised midair.

  She decided to focus on the girdle instead. “Where was this? I had not even realized I lost it.”

  “Samuel said he found it near the stable. David pieced it together. Might be a few links missing, he said. He will look for them.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “Outside, figuring out how to make this place a fortress.”

  “And Doeg?”

  “Sleeping.”

  Remembering Doeg brought to mind her suspicions from the night before. “Can I ask you something, Theo?”

  “Of course.”

  “Do you trust Doeg?”

  He choked on his bread, beating his chest as he straightened in the chair.r />
  “I know it sounds terrible,” she said, fingering the heavy gold ovals shining on the table. Then she pinned him with her eyes, wordlessly demanding the truth.

  Theo pushed his plate away. “No, I do not trust him. He acted very strangely last night.”

  She slid onto the bench across from him, riveted by his statement.

  “What has raised your suspicions of him?” Theo asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Doeg met Sewell at the palace, so he knows him and of his interest in me. He was in the area for a day or more before Mother and I returned, doing I do not know what.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “He was seen. Many of my people were worried enough to mention a stranger on a brown horse. It had to be him, and he all but admitted it to me when I asked him.”

  Theo nodded, as if what she said made sense to him somehow. “What else?”

  “He learned from me when David was expected to come here, then disappeared on his own again for that whole day of the…attack.”

  He stared. “You think he convinced Sewell to come for you last night.”

  “You sound doubtful.”

  “I have known Doeg for years. Until recently, I would have told you you are crazy. Unfortunately this sort of distant deceit suits him of late.”

  “Is he really that evil?”

  “Doeg is not evil. There was a time when I felt almost as much kinship with Doeg as I do with David. Fought many battles together.”

  “What changed?”

  “Doeg changed. At first, when David and I were green soldiers, Doeg took us under his protection, so to speak. David became more successful, Doeg was the proud older brother, still able to claim some notoriety by association.”

  “But?” Rochelle encouraged, when Theo paused.

  “A few years ago, David became recognized as one of our best in his own right. Young men idolize him. Experienced men want to fight near him. He has surpassed his older brother monumentally in the arena of war."

  “But Doeg should not expect to compete with that!”

  “No one should expect to. David has lightning reflexes and an uncanny ability to quickly assess a situation.”