Aeron’s eyebrows lifted. “More beautiful and lush than Juliandra?”
Adan conceded the point. “I realize that will be difficult, but if you want your lady returned to you safely, then you will have to offer the Saesneg something equal, or better, in return,” he said. “Give him another woman in exchange for yours. Tell him that the woman we have is more valuable than Juliandra somehow.”
Unfortunately, Aeron wasn’t very bright. He thought in very simplistic terms, which meant he thought that such an exchange might be a good idea, not realizing that his cousin had only presented it to keep him from raising an army and turning this section of the Marches into a battlefield.
Adan was trying to prevent a bloodbath, that was true, but he was mostly trying to prevent a death – his.
He could only hope his cousin took the bait.
“Could it be that simple, then?” Aeron said, excitement in his tone. “We give him another woman and Juliandra is returned to me? But the woman we offer will truly have to have something outstanding, something that makes her more attractive than Juliandra.”
Adan was already nodding as if he had the perfect solution. “She will,” he said. “I am thinking of Yestyn’s wife, the woman who has provided him five children because he cannot keep his hands from her. You know the one – with black hair and black eyes, and breasts that are enormous and milky. The woman makes every man who meets her want to bed her. You can smell her female scent from a distance, like a siren’s call.”
Aeron knew the woman. She was bold and lush and curvy, with big, red lips that she never hesitated to put on a man’s privates, even after she spoke the words of marriage with one of Aeron’s biggest and toughest men.
He finally snorted.
“Rumor has it that the last two children aren’t even Yestyn’s,” he said, a lewd grin on his face. “She was down washing by the lake one day and I saw a man come up behind her and take her right there on the shore. And she let him. She is too much woman for one man.”
“Then let her seduce the Saesneg,” Adan said with a grin. “He could not turn her away. Juliandra is beautiful, but she is also pure. She’s not yet learned how to seduce a man. But Lilia… she knows. She unfurls herself every chance she gets and if she can control the man…”
Aeron was catching on. “Then we can control him.”
“Exactly. That is better than any siege.”
Aeron was starting to like this plan. It was far more subversive than the one he had in mind, but probably more effective. “She can also tell us of his plans,” he said. “We can plant her right where we need her and she can tell us everything.”
Adan was relieved that Aeron was seeing things his way. “She can tell us everything he is doing,” he said. “Who knows? One day, she may even leave the postern gate open and we can infiltrate the castle before they know it is happening. It will be too late by the time they realize we have come and Wybren will again be ours without a good deal of bloodshed.”
Aeron nodded, feeling calmer than he had moments earlier. Adan had successfully manipulated him into believing this was the right course of action.
“Then summon ap Hywel,” he said. “I would speak with Glynn about this situation and our plan to remedy it. If we cannot do it with force, then we shall do it with subversion. That ought to make him happy. He and I shall go to Wybren together and we shall make the Saesneg an offer he cannot refuse. But if he has taken Juliandra’s innocence, I shall demand amobr.”
He was speaking of the traditional compensation when a woman’s innocence was lost, marriage or otherwise. It could often be a hefty fine and, by Welsh law, the Saesneg was required to pay it unless he wanted great trouble.
Perhaps Aeron was hoping for that because in his view, the Saesneg commander of Wybren had stolen a personal possession – the woman he intended to marry.
And there was going to be hell to pay.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lord of the Sky.
It was an appropriate title considering that was exactly how Kevin felt. High in the tower of Wybren, looking over the green countryside for miles, he imagined that he was, indeed, the Lord of All.
A thousand shades of green.
Both Wales and England had that distinction, but he’d never been high enough to really see the truth of that feature. Nearly every morning since his arrival to Wybren, he’d come to this tower room to view the countryside.
It was glorious.
But he could see more than just the countryside. He could also see the entirety of Wybren, including the big outer bailey, the moat, the stables, the kitchens, and the crowded inner bailey. The only part of the castle he couldn’t see was a corner of the wall blocked off by the great hall.
Otherwise, much like God, he could see everything.
This morning, he could see something in particular that had his attention. He could see Juliandra down in the kitchen yard, standing over a big, iron cauldron that was bubbling over an open flame. He knew it was bubbling because he could see the steam, wispy white tendrils reaching into the air and then disappearing. Juliandra wasn’t tending to it, but she was instructing those who were.
Frankly, he couldn’t remember what it was like at Wybren before she came.
It had been two weeks since the woman had come into his life. Two weeks of watching her take over the castle for the most part in her gentle yet firm way, two weeks of watching the servants eagerly succumb to her direction, two weeks of watching her charm nearly everyone at Wybren, him included.
She was becoming a fixture.
And he was coming to feel incredibly guilty.
She was holding up her end of the bargain. She was doing as she was told, not making any attempt to escape, and answering any questions Kevin had about the land or the people. She’d done everything he had asked and when it was all over, he couldn’t do what he’d promised to do. He couldn’t release her father to her alive. Certainly, she’d get the body, so technically her father would be released, but Kevin knew that wasn’t what she expected.
He knew he was going to fail her.
And that knowledge ate at him, more and more every day.
He cursed himself for being deceptive in the first place. That wasn’t in his nature, yet he’d made the decision to do it and when his secret was revealed, he was going to lose everything he’d built. Most of all, he was going to lose Juliandra and after two weeks with the woman, she was already under his skin and digging deeper by the day. She was the first thing he thought of in the morning and the last thing he thought of at night.
He was in trouble.
A knock on the chamber door roused him from his thoughts.
“Come,” he said.
The heavy oak door creaked open, revealing Bannon. The older knight with the receding hair was puffing a little and he pointed to the impossibly steep and narrow spiral stairs outside the chamber.
“God damn you for being in this chamber every day,” he said, trying to catch his breath. “That means I have to trek up those damned stairs if I want to talk to you. It’s madness!”
Kevin openly snorted at the man’s discomfort. “Send Cal if those stairs threaten you so,” he said. “He can take them without effort.”
Bannon scowled. “To hell with Cal,” he said. “He’s in the armory repairing some crossbows that were left from the Lords of Breidden and he’s speaking about Lady Juliandra. He has his eye on the woman, you know. You had better speak to him unless you want trouble.”
Kevin’s smile disappeared unnaturally fast. “Why do you say that?”
Bannon took one final, big breath and eyed Kevin knowingly. “I do not know. I just pulled it out of my arse.”
Kevin scowled. “Make sense or shut your lips, Bannon.”
Bannon took a few more steps towards Kevin until he was standing next to the man. He could see what Kevin saw from that particular window, which had a view of the kitchen yard beyond.
And Juliandra.
He grunted.
“You are either going to have to tell Cal to put the lady out of his mind or you are going to have to make a move yourself,” he said quietly. “That is what you wish to do, is it not?”
Kevin stepped away from the window, moving to the other side of the small chamber where another window looked out over the southwest.
“You are delving into a subject that does not concern you,” he said.
Bannon kept his gaze on Juliandra as she worked with the servants in the kitchen yard, evidently boiling linens.
“It does indeed concern me,” he said. “If a woman is to tear apart your command structure, it is my duty to prevent it if I can.”
“You do not know what…”
Bannon cut him off, though not harshly. “Kevin, I know enough,” he said. “I have been watching you watch her for the past two weeks and I am old enough, and experienced enough, to know what’s on a man’s mind. If you are fond of her, you should make it known before someone else does. Trust me on this… I know.”
Kevin turned to look at him, immediately thinking of the rumor he’d heard about the man. Something about Wellesbourne’s daughter, he recalled. Looking into Bannon’s features, perhaps there was some truth to it.
After a moment, he shook his head.
“You were correct when you said I’d made a mistake in lying to her,” he said, changing the subject slightly. “I’ve never lied to anyone in my life, but I did with her. Now… now, I am already coming to regret it because when she discovers the truth, she will hate me for it and so will every other Welshman. They will know my word is not my bond. Christ, Bannon, it was a horrible mistake but there is no turning back now.”
Bannon watched him fidget. “Her opinion means a good deal to you.”
It wasn’t a question, but a statement. Kevin hesitated a moment before nodding. “She has behaved honorably,” he said. “I have not.”
He muttered the last three words and Bannon could hear the despair in his tone. He’d only known Kevin for two years but, in that time, he’d seen a knight who was as honorable as they come. He saw the world as either right or wrong, with limited areas that could be considered neither.
Now, he’d entered that area of limbo for the sake of his command.
It was a difficult road to travel.
Bannon thought he had a solution.
“I have a suggestion that would see you absolved in all of this,” he said. “Would you hear it?”
Kevin looked at him curiously. “Of course,” he said. “What is it?”
Bannon leaned back against the cold stone wall. “You can always tell her that you just received word that her father has died,” he said. “Make it sounds as if the man succumbed to a natural death while in your custody. It would be yet another lie, but it would absolve you from the first one. The problem with telling her that is that you would have to release her immediately. There would be no more reason to keep her.”
Kevin sat down on the big chair beneath the open window. “Christ,” he muttered. “One lie to cover up another.”
“Would you rather confess everything to her and take your chances?”
Kevin rolled his eyes miserably. “Probably not,” he said. “My instincts tell me to do precisely that, but I intend to keep Wybren indefinitely. I cannot establish my presence here with everyone thinking my word is not to be trusted.”
Bannon shrugged. “Then tell her one last lie and never do it again,” he said. “Tell her that her father has died in the vault and she may take him home for burial any time she wishes. But you had better do it sooner rather than later – he is in the vault, and it is quite cold down there so he is well preserved, but that will not last forever. She must not have a reasonable doubt that her father’s death was recent.”
Kevin hated himself for even considering such a thing, but he was desperate. This wasn’t something he was used to, weaving a tapestry of lies that he was fearful would unravel and expose him. God, he didn’t want to fail at this.
He didn’t want to hurt a woman he was desperately attracted to.
“I’ll consider it,” he said after a moment. “I appreciate the advice.”
Bannon simply nodded, pushing himself off the wall. “Any time, my lord,” he said. “But I did come here for another reason. Cal has several pieces of weaponry set aside for you to examine. Will you come?”
“Where is Gareth?”
“He’s gone into Pool with the blacksmith because the man needs to buy some raw material.”
Kevin nodded. He really wasn’t doing anything in his tower room other than watching Juliandra, so it was time to get on with his duties. He followed Bannon from the chamber, listening to the man curse and groan as he navigated the narrow stairs, but not before he caught a final glimpse of Juliandra from the window.
He couldn’t help the feeling that he was sinking deeper and deeper into something that was going to change, or end, his entire life.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Juliandra knew he was around, somewhere, because he always seemed to be lurking.
Not that she minded.
Kevin was around somewhere because she could feel it. Two weeks with the man and she had come to the point where she knew his routine and could sense his mood within the first few words of a conversation. It was odd because she’d never had this kind of a rapport with anyone.
But she liked it.
The lightning she felt when she looked at him had turned into a smoldering burn. Every time she saw him, it burned in the pit of her belly. It was a thrilling sensation, making her the least bit giddy and she felt like a horrible person for it. She was here to do her duty and have her father released.
It was coming so she didn’t want to be released at all.
She rather liked it at Wybren with Kevin.
Still, she couldn’t remain. She knew that. Even if Kevin wanted to marry her, to which her giddy self would be more than agreeable, her father would never permit it. It was a disappointing thought, one of many thoughts on her mind these days.
She was a woman torn.
Juliandra had been out in the kitchen yard all day, boiling linens because there seemed to be an infestation of some kind in them, and in the entire keep. Every bed had bugs in it that bit and drew blood, so she put the servants on boiling everything, from the coverlets to the mattresses. Every chamber was being scrubbed with lye and then wiped down with cloths soaked in vinegar. If she couldn’t kill the bugs, then she would at least drive them away. It made for a very smelly keep.
Kevin had permitted her to bring on more servants over the past two weeks because Wybren was a large place and she needed the help to properly maintain it. Therefore, she had a small army of servants scrubbing chambers and boiling linens while still others were working in the kitchens, preparing the meals.
That had become her domain.
The majordomo, as it turned out, didn’t do much. He was left over from the last Lord of Breidden and he mostly yelled at people and then retreated into his chamber to drink, so at Juliandra’s recommendation, Kevin released the man from his service. That meant that Juliandra was now in charge of everything and, much as she did with The Neath, she ensured that Wybren was run most efficiently.
Among other things, that meant two meals a day were prepared, one at sunrise and one after sunset. The morning meals were usually the warmed-over remains of the evening’s meal, and the evening’s meal was always some kind of boiled meat or stew because it was easier to prepare plentiful food for the masses by making something that could be stretched by adding a little water, if needed.
On this night, they were having boiled beef, having butchered a cow from Wybren’s herd of hairy, long-horned cattle. Two big cauldrons were bubbling away in the kitchen yard, cooking pieces of butchered beef, while a second simmering cauldron contained carrots and turnips. The ovens of Wybren were going full-bore and the smell of baking bread filled the entire yard and inner bailey.
After the sun set, men began t
o fill the great hall, greeted by bread and butter and drink. In Wales, it wasn’t usual for men to drink wine, as it was expensive and had to be imported, so they drank what they had – fermented fruit drink, such as cider made from apples or even pears, or mead, which was fermented honey. Wybren, like most castles, had their own brew wives, and they brewed a pear cider that was delicious and had a powerful kick. They watered it down for those who became drunk too easily, but there was also the full-strength version which was much loved by the knights.
All of this was waiting for the men as they filtered into the hall and began their meal, while out in the kitchen yard, Juliandra was overseeing the final process on the beef and vegetables. Stacks of stale trenchers, broken into two pieces so there were more to go around, were being loaded with food as Juliandra headed inside to see to the meal.
The night was in full swing.
To be truthful, she liked it. It was much bigger and much more exciting than The Neath, whose meals were generally limited to her father and any guests he might have. His men didn’t even eat with him. There was excitement in a castle filled with soldiers, from the stories they told to the games they played to the singing they indulged in.
In fact, Juliandra had learned a few songs she couldn’t repeat, one titled Tilly Nodden and the other one titled Alice Had A Phallus. They were naughty, but great fun. She was rather sorry she couldn’t sing them to her father when they returned home, for she was fairly certain he would have found them hilarious.
If his daughter hadn’t been the one singing them.
Juliandra was in the hall, making sure things were going smoothly, when one of the gate sentries approached her and told her that there were minstrels at the gatehouse asking for shelter and food. Traveling entertainment was rare and always highly desirable in the wilds of the Marches, so Juliandra invited them in. They were brought to her, five of them, and she put them near the hearth to sing for their supper.
Lord of the Sky (The Executioner Knights Book 6) Page 13