Mercenaries and Maidens: A Medieval Romance bundle

by Kathryn Le Veque

  She kept screaming even as the wagon bounced off the road and headed west, hoping someone would hear her and help.

  Praying for a miracle.

  God help me!

  *

  “Get back into bed! Are you mad?”

  Dolwyd was shouting at Kaspian, who had just risen to his feet from his deathbed. Thomas and Ewan were standing in the chamber, watching him, their expressions grim. It was grim news indeed that Ewan had just brought to Kaspian, enough to propel the man out of his bed. Even as he rose to his feet, he staggered and Thomas reached out to grab him. Dolwyd was flitting around, shouting.

  “You are not well, St. Hèver, not in the least!” he said. “You must get back into bed!”

  Kaspian was gray with pain and exertion, holding on to Thomas so he wouldn’t fall down. Ignoring the furious physic, he looked at Ewan.

  “I saw her in my chamber this morning, a mere few hours ago,” he said, hunched over with a hand over his injury. “Have you looked everywhere? She did not simply disappear.”

  Ewan shook his head, glancing at Thomas and conveying the fact that he was most reluctant to continue speaking. He’d entered the chamber with the news that Lady l’Ebreux was missing, but that was as far as he’d gotten before Kaspian was struggling up from his deathbed as if the news somehow meant something to him, deep and personal. Now, Ewan had to tell him all of it. The man was on his feet, demanding answers on the whereabouts of the missing widow.

  “She did not disappear, my lord,” Ewan said hesitantly. “None of the sentries saw her leave, but the cook said that Lady l’Ebreux passed through the kitchens sometime this morning before leaving from the postern gate.”

  Kaspian’s eyebrows lifted in alarm. “So she has left Lavister?” he asked. “And not one of my sentries saw this?”

  “I have not questioned everyone, but those I was able to ask did not see her.”

  “What of the cook? Why did she not tell us sooner?”

  “Because she is a drunk, my lord, and has been sleeping most of the day. You now that the cook drinks too much. She did not think to tell us.”

  Kaspian was quickly growing infuriated. “Damnation,” he growled. “So Lady l’Ebreux left us some time this morning and we are just now finding out about it? God’s Bones, she could be anywhere by now. Did she take a horse?”

  Ewan shook his head. “It was my impression that she was on foot.”

  Kaspian was genuinely at a loss. He was also quite concerned for Madelayne’s sake, for obvious reasons, but there was more to it than that. There was an odd fear in his belly, something he’d never experienced before. It was something that suggested his concern went beyond simple compassion. He shook his head, baffled.

  “But why would she leave?” he asked, a rhetorical question. “Why would she do it? She was in my chamber this morning and made no indication that she wanted to leave. What would make her leave and not tell anyone?”

  Thomas was still holding on to Kaspian as the man tried to gain his bearings. “You spoke to her at length this morning, did you not?” he asked. “What did you say to her that might cause her to flee?”

  Thomas didn’t say it in an accusing manner and Kaspian didn’t take it that way. It was a logical question considering Kaspian had been the last person to speak with her. He thought very hard on his conversation with Madelayne and of what he could have possibly said to upset the woman enough to cause her to run off. Usually a man of sharp recall, his mind was still muddled a bit from his injury and weakness. He struggled to recall every word.

  “I asked her to remain at Lavister as chatelaine,” he said. “It is the least I can do considering her husband met his death under my command. She seemed agreeable to it.”

  “Is that all you said to her?”

  Kaspian shrugged. “I expressed my sorrow at Cairn’s loss,” he said. “I asked her to remain as my chatelaine because it is a cruel fact that a widowed woman faces a bleak outlook on life without a husband to take care of her.”

  Thomas lifted his eyebrow rather dubiously. “Did you tell her that?”

  “I did,” Kaspian said, then noticed something odd in Thomas’ expression. “Why?”

  “Well….”

  Based on Thomas’ hesitant manner, Kaspian was beginning to catch on. “Could she have possibly been insulted by it?”

  Thomas shrugged, glancing at Ewan, who was still looking quite serious about the entire situation. “Mayhap,” he said. “It was probably not something she wanted to hear.”

  “It was the truth.”

  Thomas scratched his head at Kaspian’s blunt manner. “Truth or not, I would imagine it upset her to hear such a thing from you,” he said. “But in any case, it does not matter. The fact remains that she has fled. It matters not why. Did she give you any indication where she might go if she left Lavister?”

  Kaspian nodded. “She said she could return to her father,” he said. “I was with Cairn when he first met Madelayne and, at that time, her father lived in Wrexham. I do not know if he is still there or if that is where she would go, but it seems like a logical place to start.”

  “Then Wrexham is where we shall go,” Thomas said, motioning to Ewan, who fled the chamber with the intention of forming a search party to recover Lady l’Ebreux. “Thank God it is not far. Return to your bed, Kaspian. We will find the lady and bring her back.”

  Kaspian was shaking his head. “Nay,” he said. “I must go. You may have trouble convincing her to return and, obviously, I said something to send her away. I must be the one to bring her back.”

  Thomas glanced over at Dolwyd, who was standing by his medicament table shaking his head in distress. “Kaspian,” Thomas said, lowering his voice. “You have only just awoken from a grave injury. You are not well in the least. Exerting yourself in your search for the lady could make your injury far worse and you may never recover.”

  Kaspian ignored him for the most part. “If I can stand, I can ride,” he said flatly. “Where is my armor? Where is my sword? Bring them to me, Thomas. And have my steed prepared and waiting for me. We have no time to waste; a woman traveling alone could find herself in all manner of danger.”

  It was clear that Kaspian would not be kept down. He was stubborn that way. He was also brave that way. It seemed as if he were most determined to save Lady l’Ebreux from danger and determined in a way that Thomas had never seen from him before. The Kaspian he knew would have cursed Lady l’Ebreux for her stupidity but he would have done his duty nonetheless. But in this case, Kaspian wasn’t cursing the woman at all. In fact, he seemed quite concerned for her to the point of panic, which was exceedingly odd. But Thomas attributed that edginess to the fact that Kaspian felt responsible for the woman on Cairn’s behalf.

  As Thomas wrestled with Kaspian’s determined manner, Dolwyd was watching the scene closely. He wasn’t at all happy with what was going on, distressed that Kaspian should think of the lady’s safety over his health. He had a host of knights ready to ride to her aid but that evidently wasn’t good enough; he had to ride, too.

  “St. Hèver,” the old physic grumbled, a far cry from the shouting he had been doing earlier. “You will do yourself far more damage than good if you go. Your body needs rest, man. Do you not understand that?”

  Kaspian fixed the old man in the eye as he let go of Thomas and tried to stand tall, to prove he was fit to ride. “I understand,” he said steadily. “But this is something I must do. I cannot fail Cairn in such a way. His son was lost and now his wife is missing. Surely I must have sent her away with something I said.”

  “But you cannot be sure of that. Women are strange creatures not given to the rationalities of a man.”

  “Be that as it may, it is my duty to bring her back, Dolwyd. If you cannot understand that, then I cannot explain it any better.”

  Dolwyd sighed heavily and turned away, mostly because he knew there was nothing he could say to change Kaspian’s mind. In his opinion, the man was as good as dead. Thi
s trip to find Lady l’Ebreux was going to be the death of him and Dolwyd resigned himself to that fact. But there was nothing he could do. He could understand the man’s sense of responsibility towards his dead friend’s wife, but there was more to it than that. Dolwyd sensed that beneath all of that knightly duty and honor, something in Kaspian’s expression suggested that perhaps he wanted to go after the woman for reasons that had nothing to do with Cairn.

  Therefore, he shut his mouth. It wouldn’t do any good, anyway, to argue with the man. But he collected his worn, torn satchel and began piling stuff into it.

  “Then if you must go, I will go, too,” he said, thrusting a finger at Kaspian when the man lifted an eyebrow at him. “Like it or not, you are a sick man and if you intend to do this foolish thing, I will go with you to make sure you survive it. Do not argue with me, St. Hèver. If you go, I go.”

  Kaspian frowned, conveying his displeasure without actually speaking. Thomas was already at the man’s wardrobe, pulling out clothing he could wear considering he was still in the breeches he had been wearing when he was injured.

  As Dolwyd fumed and didn’t lift a finger to help, it was Thomas who helped Kaspian dress, very slowly, in a fresh pair of leather breeches and a clean tunic. Even though they kept squires at Lavister, Thomas didn’t want anyone to see Kaspian in his lowly state in order to preserve the man’s dignity. All the while, Kaspian kept trying to keep his bandage from slipping but Dolwyd still wouldn’t help. At that point, he seemed to be busy with something on his medicament table and by the time Kaspian was finished, the old man came to him with a small cup and handed it to him.

  “Drink this,” he told him.

  Kaspian did but the moment it passed over his tongue, he choked and sputtered. He handed the cup back to the old man, a disgusted expression on his face.

  “What in the hell is that?” he demanded.

  Dolwyd took the cup and set it down on the table, his manner casual. “Rotten tea,” he said. “I have been giving it to you since you were injured. It is what has cured you. Now I give it to you as a precaution since you are determined to go riding out to save a foolish lady.”

  Kaspian made a face as Thomas pulled a pair of boots out from the wardrobe and indicated for Kaspian to sit. “I think I recall that taste,” he said, lowering his body onto a stool next to the table and perching on the edge of it gingerly. “What a cruel man you are to force such poison down my throat when I cannot fight back.”

  It was unexpected humor, mostly to ease Dolwyd’s frustration, and it worked. At least marginally. The old man smiled, briefly, but it quickly vanished. He finished packing up his satchel and tied it closed.

  “I am going to fetch my steed,” he said. “I will leave you with Thomas and meet you down in the ward.”

  Kaspian watched the old physic shuffle out as Thomas helped him pull on his boots. Kaspian grunted in pain, more than once, but the pain was secondary to the thoughts rolling through his head, thoughts on Dolwyd and Madelayne. He didn’t exactly feel up to this duty, but he wasn’t going to let injury and weakness stop him. Secretly, he was glad the physic was coming along in case he needed the old man and his talents. He’d always respected Dolwyd for his knowledge but now he was coming to appreciate him just a little more. Something about this injury was making him come to appreciate everyone just a little more, including Thomas, who had helped him dress. It was a kind gesture from the loyal knight.

  “Dolwyd never left your side,” Thomas said as he finished with the ties on the boot, securing them because Kaspian couldn’t bend over. “He slept on the floor next to you the entire time. I am sure he is quite insulted that you are determined to go after Lady l’Ebreux and not heed his advice.”

  Kaspian sighed faintly. “I must go after her because she kept me alive,” he said quietly, glancing at Thomas and seeing the man’s odd expression. “Aye, I know what she did for me. I woke up and the woman was lying next to me. And I recall the times she fed me, although I thought I was dreaming them until Dolwyd told me otherwise. I would be far less of a man if I allowed her to run away and suffer danger without trying to bring her back. I owe her a great deal.”

  Thomas came to understand all of Kaspian’s motivation in that softly uttered statement. “I see,” he said, standing up and reaching out a hand to help pull Kaspian to his feet. “So you feel obligation to her, then.”

  Kaspian nodded, grunting at the pain in his groin when he stood on his feet. “Obligation and gratitude,” he said. “Moreover, she was Cairn’s wife. I already allowed harm to befall him. I cannot let it befall her.”

  So he felt some guilt for Cairn’s death. It was natural, Thomas supposed, but he said nothing more about it. Time was of the essence and they needed to be on their way. Slowly, he led the man from the chamber and preceded him down the narrow stairs, moving slowly and making sure Kaspian was able to keep his balance, before making their way out into the bailey of Lavister.

  The men were already gathered near the gatehouse, a party of twenty men, along with Ewan. Reece had been commanded to remain behind on guard. The mood around Lavister had been gloomy since the return from Beeston, gloom and doom because of the condition of Kaspian, but once the men saw him emerge from the keep, it was, to many, as if watching Lazarus emerge from the tomb. Everyone was watching, marveling at the strength of Kaspian, marveling at the determination that he should ride to the aid of l’Ebreux’s widow. Aye, they all knew about her escape and there wasn’t one man that didn’t feel guilty about it. Somehow, they’d missed a lone woman walking away from Lavister. But watching St. Hèver come alive to ride to her rescue gave them all a measure of hope and admiration.

  Hope for Lady l’Ebreux and admiration for St. Hèver.

  But, in spite of Kaspian’s appearance, it took both Thomas and Ewan to help him mount his horse. Once he was in the saddle, he was there for good. He sat like a stone atop his big, brown beast, ready to take charge. With St. Hèver in command again, every man at Lavister had all of the faith in the world that everything was right again. That Lavister was strong again. Watching the man ride from the gatehouse, the confidence of Lavister was restored.

  As Lavister’s men basked in the joy of St. Hèver’s return, Kaspian realized, about twenty feet from the gatehouse, that it was taking all of his strength not to fall from his horse and land in a heap. He was putting on an excellent front, but inside, he was struggling. As the horses were spurred into a gallop, Kaspian was slowly sinking.

  He prayed he could find Madelayne before his strength gave out completely.

  *

  Madelayne had managed to throw herself off of the wagon bed when it got stuck in some dark, slick mud near a lively brook. She had stopped fighting for a while as the wagon lurched across a meadow, away from the main road, lulling her abductors into a false sense of security by pretending to faint. But that act was cut short when the wagon became stuck in a quagmire of soppy earth. Feeling the wagon falter, she came to life, slugging her captor in the face and throwing herself off of the wagon bed.

  She had stunned the man enough so that she could get a good start on him but she didn’t head back towards the road. She ran into a grove of trees to the south, a thick smattering of foliage that the brook ran through, and tried to hide. She could hear two men coming for her, speaking angrily to each other as they drew near, and she hunkered down in the thick bushes, trying to stay low and out of sight.

  God help her, she was terrified. Moreover, her bruised body was rebelling and everything about her hurt desperately. Her thighs and torso ached from the exertion and she was physically incapable of running for very long and certainly not for very far. Walking had been difficult enough, but she feared she had truly hurt herself by fighting off her attackers. It was her own damnable fault and she knew it, but there was nothing to be done about it now. She had gotten herself into this situation and she was determined to get herself out of it. Wrexham wasn’t far off but she realized she wasn’t going to make it there
by dark. She was fairly certain her abductors weren’t going to give up on her so easily and she didn’t want to chance coming out of her hiding place any time soon.

  She was in a thick cluster of branches and bushes, tucked down by the base of a tree. It was the perfect hiding place, actually. It also gave her a chance to rest, something she desperately needed, so she sat low against the tree trunk, rolled up in a ball, and listened as her abductors began searching close to her. They were shaking bushes; she could hear them, which worried her when they would come to her bush. She was thickly protected but if they took a good look between the branches, they might very well see her. She was still in her black cloak, which was good camouflage in the dim light of the forest, but there was still a chance they might see her.

  Therefore, she couldn’t rest completely. Her ears were attuned to what was going on around her and even as her abductors moved in her direction, shouting and poking sticks into thick clusters of bushes, they suddenly veered off and headed away from her into an area that was evidently more thickly clustered with trees and growth. Madelayne could hear the men speaking of the perfect hiding place and they even began calling out to her, telling her to show herself because they would beat her if they found her. Relieved they were moving away, Madelayne considered moving out of her hiding place and making a break back towards the road in the opposite direction.

  But it was sheer exhaustion that kept her where she was. She was horribly sore and weary from the fight and from the walk, and her legs were cramping up from the position she was sitting in, but still she was afraid to move, afraid that she wouldn’t be able to run fast enough if the abductors happened to see her flee. They were still far enough away that she might have a chance to escape them and she seriously weighed her options at that point. She was afraid of what would happen if she left her hiding place and she was afraid of what would happen if she did.