For the first time, her features darkened. “That is a lie.”
Marius shook his head. “It is not, I swear it,” he said. “Why do you think this all started? Because of The Roden Twins? Certainly, that escalated matters, but now that you and I are to be wed, it is time you know why this all happened. It started when your father could not keep his hands off my mother.”
She was out of the chair in a flash, her calm façade vanished. “That is a nasty lie,” she snarled at him. “My father was a true and noble man who loved my mother. He would have never carried on with another woman!”
Marius was enjoying her rage, pleased he finally had a reaction from her. “Ah, so you have fire,” he said. “I like that. And you. You shall be a tasty morsel upon my tongue, Woman. I had heard you were fine and now I see that the rumors were true.”
She stiffened, struggling to regain her composure. “And I heard that you were a beast,” she said. “I see that those rumors were true, too.”
His smile faded. “If you are trying to please me, this is not the way to do it,” he said. “Careful or I will do to you what my father did to your father. You do not want to end up in Winterhold’s moat. Nasty place.”
She looked at him with horror, which pleased him immensely. He dragged his gaze up her body, lingering on her breasts. He even reached out to touch them, but she slapped his hand away. Then she slapped his face as hard as she could. His response was to swing at her with a closed fist, catching her on the side of the head, forcefully enough to send her flying.
As Emelisse landed in a heap, Marius laughed and moved towards her crumpled form, preparing to stand over her and gloat, but a strange thing happened. He felt a breeze; just a faint one, but along with that breeze came something cold and painful ramming into his back. He could feel it sliding into his body.
Shocked, he opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came forth. More cold things were jabbing at him and he realized they were daggers. One was a broadsword. Blood was pouring as men swarmed around him. He caught movement out of the corners of his eyes, looking up to see Hallam standing in front of him with a bloodied dagger in his hand.
Marius didn’t even realize that it was his blood.
So this is where Hallam went, he thought.
But it was the last thing he would ever think in this lifetime as a massive blade carved into the side of his neck and his head went rolling.
And just like that, Marius de Wrenville was no more.
Caius stood over the man whose head he just cut off, but not for long. Sheathing Negotiator, he bent over Emelisse as she was pushing herself off the floor. He put his arms around her, lifting her up, holding her against him.
“Are you well?” he asked anxiously. “Did he hurt you? I am so very sorry I did not get to him before he struck you. God, tell me you are unharmed.”
Surprisingly, Emelisse was smiling at him, her hand on her stinging cheek. “I am not harmed,” she assured him. “I hit him first. I expected him to strike back, but I didn’t move away fast enough to avoid it.”
She said it with some irony, but he wasn’t over being mortified that she’d been struck and he hadn’t been fast enough to stop it. He pulled her into a crushing embrace, heaving a sigh of relief that the damage was minimal.
“God be praised,” he murmured, his big hand on her head as he held her against him. “You were magnificent, Em. I’ve never seen such bravery.”
She tilted her head back, looking up at him. “It was a simple thing,” she said. “You were here, Cai. I knew that I had nothing to fear.”
“And you never will, so long as I am around.”
“I know, my love. I know.”
“Say it again.”
“What?”
“My love.”
She smiled faintly, with the greatest reverence. “My love,” she whispered.
He cupped her face in his big hands, kissing her gently, before turning to Marius’ supine body.
At that moment, the rage he felt was indescribable.
Hallam, Maxton, Kevin, and William were all milling around the headless corpse. Maxton instructed William to find something to wrap the body up in and the mood was lightened when William gagged at the sight but gamely went in search of an old blanket or cloak or something similar. Maxton shook his head humorously at the pale-faced squire.
“If he wants to be a great knight, he is going to have to overcome the urge to vomit every time he sees blood,” he said. Then, his attention moved to Emelisse, who had fulfilled her role in this so ably. “Are you well, my lady?”
She nodded thankfully. “I am fine,” she said. But she pulled forth the small dagger Caius had given her, holding it up. “I wish I’d had a chance to use this.”
Caius smiled faintly. “It does not matter in the end,” he said. “He is finished and we shall never think of him again. For Rupert and Caspian, we were honored to do what we did in their names. And yours.”
Emelisse knew that. Her gaze moved to the headless body and she felt… free. Such a powerful sense of freedom now that the end to her family’s struggles had come so abruptly. By the swords of avenging angels, the end had finally come.
That was how she would always remember this moment.
Saved by Executioner Knights.
“Cai,” Maxton said, interrupting her thoughts. “How do we explain all of this to The Marshal when he asks?”
Emelisse looked up at her husband, who was still standing there with his arms wrapped around her protectively. He seemed to be deep in thought.
“We don’t,” Caius said after a moment. “Covington slipped on his wine and Marius was a casualty of an outlaw attack on his way to Hawkstone. That is all William ever need know.”
Maxton nodded. “Fair enough,” he said. “What do you want done with the corpse?”
Caius looked at him, then. “Put him and his father in the moat with all of those men they so gleefully tossed into it,” he said. “Let them rot with their victims. A fitting end for that pair, don’t you agree?”
Maxton grinned. “I do. Fitting, indeed.”
It was Hallam who ended up making one more trip back to Winterhold Castle with the army he’d sent back, only in Hallam’s case, he was carrying wrapped cargo that he explained to the soldiers was none other than the body of Caspian de Thorington.
They had no reason not to believe him.
Later that night, as the army feasted in the great hall and men began to speculate that Marius de Wrenville had run off to marry the de Thorington heiress, Hallam made his way to the outer moat in the darkness, pulling a small handcart with him. There were men on the walls, but it was so dark that they couldn’t see much of anything other than Hallam tossing chunks of something into the moat. Arms and legs of an enemy they assumed to be Caspian.
But it wasn’t.
And that was the last anyone ever saw of Hallam Chadlington.
The next morning, random pieces, including heads, were seen floating in Winterhold’s disgusting swamp of a moat. Some thought it was surely Caspian until another mentioned that one of the heads looked a little like Marius. By the time they fished it out, the rot and putrid fungus of the moat had eaten away at it, making it positively unidentifiable.
But most knew who it was.
They simply didn’t speak about it.
The moat at Winterhold kept its secrets… and dispensed justice.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Farringdon House, London
One Month Later
“And that’s what happened,” Caius said. “You now know the entire situation, my lord, as it happened.”
He was sitting in William Marshal’s lush solar, facing William, who had an odd expression on his face. Somewhere between shock and disbelief. As the fire in the hearth blazed on this cold winter’s night and the warm wine flowed freely, there was a stunned mood filling the chamber.
None more stunned than William.
“God’s Bones, Cai,” he finally said. “W
hen I received your missive in the middle of this situation, telling me what you had discovered so far and asking if I still wanted you to proceed with supporting Covey’s army, I had to admit that I was undecided. My worry was still for Alice. But now…”
“Now, you know everything that happened, Uncle William,” Alice said. “With God as my witness, it is the truth. Caius has not embellished in any way. Everything he told you about Covington and Marius was the absolute truth. Covington only married me for the alliance with you, and he only wanted your army to destroy lands he coveted. It is as simple as that.”
She, too, was in the chamber, along with Emelisse, Hallam, Maxton, Kevin, Peter, and Edward, who had trekked to London with Caius and the others when they stopped at Warstone Castle to inform him of everything that had happened after he had departed, including the fact that Winterhold was now without a lord because Lady de Wrenville refused to live there. Edward had immediately sent two of his most trusted knights and about five hundred men to secure Winterhold until a decision could be made as to who, exactly, would assume control of the property.
Even Edward was astonished by the mess that had occurred after he’d gone back to Warstone. It wasn’t a simple matter. In fact, it had never been a simple matter. What had started out as something that had been a seemingly straightforward dispute between neighbors had turned into bloody chaos.
“I should have known when I arrived just how volatile the situation was, William,” Edward said wearily as he poured himself more warmed wine. “Covington was bordering on madness from the moment we arrived. He truly felt there was nothing to stop him from using your army to destroy what was left of Hawkstone. The moment he was denied your army was the moment the situation started to turn. I could see it. We could all see it. But I had no idea just how entangled it would become after I left.”
William looked at the powerful Earl of Wolverhampton. “I did not expect you to personally become involved, you know.”
Edward nodded. “I know,” he said. “But I could not help but see the situation for myself when Caius came to collect the de Lohr and Pembroke troops. De Wrenville was my vassal, after all.”
William didn’t blame the man for personally seeing to the situation. He returned his attention to Caius, focusing on the man who had been sent to assist what they all thought was an ally, but who ended up having to go to extreme lengths to settle a situation that had grown into a monster of a mess.
“I suppose I am still trying to grasp all of this,” he said. “Of course, my only concern is for Alice and now that she is safe, I am satisfied, but what you have told me is quite astonishing. And there is nothing more you can tell me about Marius’ death? The king is going to know that my army was at Winterhold. You were seen by a great many Winterhold men, so someone is going to talk. I want to know what to tell John when he demands to know what happened to one of his courtiers.”
It was a dark secret the Executioner Knights shared, something they would never tell William. Not that the man would fault them, or even mind, but it was better for his sake if he did not know the truth. It was possible that John might become irate about the death of Marius and William could deny any knowledge of it.
What they did, they did for The Marshal’s protection.
“We were at Hawkstone when we received word of Marius’ death,” Caius said. “We can only assume it was outlaws. He was riding alone, on the road between Winterhold and Hawkstone.”
“What did you do with the body?”
Caius looked to Hallam, who had taken care of that particular issue.
He had insisted on it.
“Buried him with his father, my lord,” Hallam answered the question. “Lord de Wrenville and his son are together. That is the way they would have wanted it.”
It was the truth, though Caius found himself fighting off a grin at the perfectly appropriate and nasty ending for the pair. But William didn’t see his expression. He was fixed on Hallam, a man he’d never met before now.
“I do not know you other than what Caius and Maxton have told me,” he said. “You were Covey’s knight.”
“Aye, my lord.”
“Caius says that you served flawlessly through this situation and were of great help to him.”
“It was my pleasure, my lord.”
“He also said that in the event of Marius’ death, you have agreed to serve him at Richmond.”
“I have, my lord.”
“You must be a good man. Caius is very discerning about those who serve him.”
Hallam wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he simply nodded his head. Frankly, he was a little intimidated being in the solar of the great William Marshal, mostly because he felt guilty about being in on the plot to keep the total truth from William Marshal, but on the other hand, he was grateful for it. He wasn’t sure The Marshal would appreciate the fact that he’d dumped Covington and Marius into Winterhold’s moat.
“Hallam is an excellent man, Uncle William,” Alice spoke up in support of Hallam. “He gave me a great deal of comfort during my marriage to Covington. He was a horrible husband and the marriage was simply a sham. No woman should have to tolerate what I was forced to tolerate. It was most distressing.”
William genuinely liked his niece, who seemed more attractive to him since the last time he had seen her. She had a glow about her that was charming.
“You can take comfort in the fact that it is over now,” he said with surprising sympathy. “Do your parents know?”
Alice shook her head. “I have not yet had the opportunity to send them word, but I will before we leave London.”
“Why not simply tell them when you return to Winterhold? You are a dowager baroness now, Alice. You can take your time selecting a husband that suits you.”
“I already have.”
William’s bushy eyebrows lifted. “Who?”
Alice had been sitting down. But at her uncle’s question, she stood up and faced him.
“Hallam and I were married two weeks ago,” she said bravely. “I am now Lady Chadlington and I have never been prouder of anything in my entire life. Before you rage at me and tell me how foolish I am, I am going to tell you something that I promised I would not tell, but I feel it is necessary. Uncle William, Covington did not slip on wine and break his neck. His death was not an accident. He tried to kill me and Hallam saved my life. In the process, Covington was killed. I owe my very life to Hallam and I love him very much. I have, therefore, married him and we are going to live at Richmond Castle with Caius and Emelisse. I am happier than I have ever been in my entire life and if you scold me for it, I shall never speak to you again.”
By the time she was finished, she was clearly scolding him. William looked at her, wide-eyed with surprise, before looking to Hallam, who remained stoic and strong in the face of the news that he had killed his liege.
But it had been a noble action.
William understood that. Clearly, after what he’d just heard, Covington needed to be punished. The man had brought about so much wickedness that his death was justice served, in many ways. After a moment, he simply shook his head and chuckled, but it was not a laugh of humor. It was more a laugh at the bizarre nature of the entire situation as more and more of it was becoming evident.
It had been days of madness in Shrewsbury.
“I see,” he finally said. “Then I would say Covey deserved what he received for trying to harm you. Sir Hallam, you have my thanks. Alice, I shall not scold you for anything since you feel so strongly about it, but I cannot guarantee how your parents will react. In any case, it is none of my affair. And in speaking of marriages, Caius, you are now the Lord of Hawkstone Castle, are you not?”
Caius fought off a grin as Alice and Hallam looked visibly relieved that The Marshal had taken his focus off them. Now, it was back on Caius and he nodded his head.
“I am,” he said. “When I married Emelisse, the property became mine.”
William sighed heavily, shifting in h
is chair as he fixed on Caius. “And that brings about another question,” he said. “I had this same conversation with Maxton and Kress and Achilles and Sherry after they married. And now you. What are your plans, Cai? Do you plan to leave me now that you have married?”
Caius looked at Emelisse, who smiled at him. The light of a great future twinkled in her eyes, something he could not resist. But then he caught sight of Maxton from the corners of his eyes, smirking at him as if to welcome him to the Brotherhood of Besotted Husbands. Caius laughed softly.
“Once, I taunted Maxton and Kress and Achilles for finding love,” he said. “I viewed those men as weaklings for surrendering to something as common as an infatuation. But now… now, I understand why they did it. We are now all brethren in that we have wives we adore and, much like Alice, I do not think I have ever been so happy in my entire life. I will still continue to serve you, my lord, if you will still have me. But… but mayhap not as actively as before. I have lands and a wife now. I should like to devote some time to both. But if you have need of me, I will come.”
William had heard that before, from all of the men under his command who had fallen in love and married. He grunted.
“It seems as if love is catching, like a disease,” he said, watching Caius grin. His gaze moved to Emelisse, sitting in a chair as her husband stood next to her. “And you, my lady? I take it you are in agreement with this arrangement?”
Emelisse nodded. “Very much, my lord,” she said. “You did send Caius north to mediate the situation between Winterhold and Hawkstone, did you not?”
“I did.”
She looked up at Caius, reaching up to take his hand. “He not only mediated it, he settled it,” she said. “Hawkstone will return to the peaceful home it once was. Winterhold is no longer aggressive, and the land can heal. We can all heal. But none of this would have happened had you not sent an army to help Alice. Mayhap it did not turn out the way you expected, but the heart of what you sought was to help us all find peace. You did, in a most unexpected way.”
The Agents of William Marshal Volume II: A Medieval Romance Bundle Page 147