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Short of saying a quick prayer, there was nothing she could do for the man. So she rose and stepped over him. Only to trod on what she knew would prove to be another body.
Fear slithered through her limbs. Not of the dead, for they could bring her no harm, but of the killer. What if he, or they, was still about? Rhian’s stomach twisted. Suddenly, the idea of slipping into the total darkness behind the stable held little appeal.
“Nay,” she whispered to calm her racing imagination. The corpses were cold and nearly stiff, surely they were murdered some time ago. Perhaps while everyone else drank and made merry in the hall.
She shook her head in disgust. Had Sir Hector placed guards about, maybe this would not have happened.
Guards.
She frowned. These men were in armor, could they be the absent guards?
She paused, listening to the shouts of Faucon’s men in the bailey. Their brusque cries of “Nothing here,” and “Nay, nothing,” made it obvious that they searched for something. She took another step and nudged yet a third body. Could this be what they searched for so carefully?
Rhian fisted her hands at her side and inched back toward the bailey—away from the dead men. “Holy Mother of God, what do I do now?” If she left without telling anyone of her discovery, she’d not be able to sleep nights. Yet, she’d have to give herself up along with the bodies. Nay. She stopped her retreat. There had to be a way around this dilemma.
While she was seeking to formulate a plan, a hand clamped down on her shoulder. Before she could force a scream past her suddenly constricted throat, a man asked, “Out for another breath of fresh air?”
She didn’t need to turn around to know whose fingers bit into her flesh. “I was seeking a way to avoid you, when I tripped over a few dead bodies.” She saw no reason to lie.
Faucon released his hold on her shoulder, bringing her a brief measure of relief before he grasped her wrist. After shouting for his men, he ordered, “Show me.”
“They are no more than two steps straight ahead, milord.”
Gareth took the torch from the first man who arrived and went to inspect Rhian’s claim, tugging her along.
Rhian was unable to stifle her gasp at the sight of the men. She’d been right—the stickiness she’d felt had been blood. The bodies were covered in it, just like the two men who’d been killed at Gervaise Keep after bringing her the amethyst pendant.
Her head spun. There couldn’t be a connection. Her stomach rolled. The only thing linking Gervaise and Browan was her. She fought to hold her fear at bay.
Faucon turned to his captain. “Edgar, see Lady Gervaise safely to her chamber.”
When his captain offered his arm as an escort, Gareth laughed before securing Edgar’s hand around her wrist. “Under any other circumstance I would not need to say this, but since she has already escaped twice now, let me make myself clear. On no condition are you to release your hold on her until she’s ensconced behind a locked chamber door that you will then guard until I relieve you.”
Edgar bobbed his head. “Aye, sir. You can count on me.”
Rhian wanted to rail against this ill treatment, but as the torchlight danced off the bodies, her throat constricted, effectively choking off her words. Perhaps there’d be a sense of security behind a guarded and locked door.
Gareth waited until Edgar led an oddly silent Rhian away before kneeling over the bodies. At first glance he’d assumed their throats had been slit. But their chain-mail coif protected them from head to shoulder.
While he tried to ascertain how they died, Hector arrived. “Milord, I heard that you—” The man’s sentence ended abruptly on a strangled gasp.
“Aye,” Gareth agreed with the man’s response. “Are these Browan’s men?”
“Yes.” While Sir Hector had regained control over his initial shock, the remnants of a tremor still shook his voice. “Who could have done this?”
“Have any strangers been permitted into the keep of late?”
“No.” The man seemed to reconsider his answer. “The only stranger recently has been the woman you called Lady Gervaise.”
Gareth didn’t doubt for one heartbeat that Lady Rhian would cherish slitting his throat, but neither did he believe she would do so to another.
“There is so much blood.” Hector studied the bodies, then asked, “How did this happen?”
“I’m not certain.” Gareth stood. “Perhaps a thorough examination will shed some light.”
Sir Hector turned toward Browan’s guards and ordered, “Take the bodies to the hall.” He then turned back to Gareth. “Have any more been discovered?”
“Nay. The others—”
Their discussion was interrupted by a hue and cry from the bailey. Both Gareth and Hector rushed toward the commotion.
Gareth drew his sword before pushing through the gathered crowd. “Hold! What goes here?”
The din subsided and one of Browan’s men limped forward. His torn and dirty garments hung from his frame. He glanced from Gareth to Hector and back, then explained, “We were attacked from behind before we could give warning.”
“By how many?” Gareth asked.
The man looked to his companions before shrugging. “I would guess eight or so.” The others nodded in agreement.
Sir Hector asked, “How many of you survived?”
The man’s eyes widened. “We are six here.” The others stepped forward. Each looked as beaten as the next, but at least they were alive.
Gareth answered their unspoken question. “Three were killed. One is still missing.”
Then he scowled in thought. Eight men had slipped into Browan undetected. The same eight men had done this much harm to Browan’s guard. Either the eight were highly skilled, or someone had helped to arrange this ambush. If so, for what purpose?
He turned his attention back to the guards, asking, “Did your attackers say anything?”
One offered a hesitant reply, “Aye, sir. They asked where the princess slept.”
“Princess?” Gareth and Sir Hector asked in unison.
The guard shrugged. “I told them there weren’t no princess here, but they just laughed and hit my head.”
Hector surveyed the bailey and turned to look at the tower. “What would a princess be doing here?”
Gareth followed the other man’s gaze. A multitude of torches lit the bailey and more blazed from the walls.
Far from a rich keep to begin with, the sparse light accented the poorly constructed outbuildings, weak sections in the curtain wall and the downtrodden appearance of the keep in general.
The daunting prospect of reconstruction was overwhelmed by one question. What princess?
A flicker of light from an upper arrow slit in the tower caught Gareth’s attention. Without turning, he issued an order to Sir Hector, “See that the bodies are taken to the hall and see that these men are cared for, too.”
“Milord?”
He heard the question in Hector’s tone. Instead of answering, Gareth only waved one hand in dismissal before leaving to seek answers to his own growing questions.
“You what?” The leader of this small band of men slammed an underling against a tree. He held his forearm across the trembling man’s throat.
“Milord, by the time we made certain the guards were well cared for, Faucon had arrived and we were unable to capture the woman.”
With nothing but a quick flick of the wrist, a razor-sharp weapon slit the underling’s throat.
The leader faced the others. “This will not happen again.”
Chapter Three
Rhian paced the floor of what could only be considered a makeshift cell. With a guard at the door, and the inability to come and go at will, what else could she call this chamber?
She surveyed the small room. Chamber? In truth it was little more than an alcove with a door. She’d seen larger storage huts.
But the size of her makeshift prison was the least of her concerns.
In the last sennight she’d gone from the Lady of Gervaise, to Faucon’s charge, to runaway, to servant and now to prisoner. Those would have been a great many changes over the course of a lifetime, let alone seven days.
What would she become next? An unwilling bride to some heathen devil worshiper?
Not if she could help it.
The question was how to prevent it from happening?
She paced back across the room. Each footstep she took across the cold, bare wood floor increased her sense of defeat.
Nay. She could not give up so easily, not yet. Not while she breathed. She would do whatever became necessary to regain her freedom and her peace-filled life. She would make any sacrifice, any compromise that would provide her a way out of the life King Stephen had arranged for her.
There’d been so much blood.
The unwelcome memory of the two messengers from her mother’s family stabbed at her mind and knotted her stomach. They’d given her the package containing the pendant and spoken privately to her father at length before taking their leave.
The next day, their blood-covered bodies had been found just outside the walls.
Rhian shivered.
Perhaps being in a guarded cell might be a good thing. Even though she chafed at the forced confinement, she knew a measure of safety. Although, that was not Faucon’s intent.
Then again, she could also understand Faucon wanting to make certain she did not escape him again. After all, he was only following King Stephen’s orders.
She paused by the lit brazier seeking warmth. Nothing stopped the spring’s night breeze from turning the chamber to ice. The small brazier would have to be kept burning many hours before its heat would fill the room.
Hours that Rhian did not intend to spend in this cell, or this keep. She clenched her teeth to hold back a scream of frustration.
The thought of being confined was nigh on unbearable. Yet, the thought of escaping into the forest held much less appeal than it had just a short time ago.
Even without these strange murders, she felt buffeted from all sides—King Stephen, her mother’s family and Faucon. Why could they all not just leave her alone? Or at the very least why could they not treat her in a manner befitting her father’s daughter?
Rhian stomped over to the pallet in the corner, plunked down on the lumpy mattress and sighed heavily.
Why? Because now she was nobody. Nothing.
With her father’s death she had ceased to exist. King Stephen had already given her home to another. Her possessions had been carted away with a promise to have them returned to her upon her arrival at her new home.
She’d been left with only what King Stephen had decided she required for her journey and little else.
Rhian absently touched her pendant. What would her future hold? She knew not her mother’s family. Were they truly disciples of the devil, as she’d heard whispered?
She closed her thoughts against the possibility. It mattered little. She’d find a way to escape the future.
The door to her cell banging open with a thud against the wall startled her out of her contemplation. Now that Faucon had arrived, she wondered what his mood would be.
Would he seek to make her pay for running away and thwarting his mission? Would he be angry that she’d hit his squire with the kettle?
He was a huge man compared to her father, or to any other man she’d ever known. She knew full well the distance her father’s wrath could travel. What about Faucon’s?
In all truth, he’d held his anger well so far. A shiver of dread snaked down her spine. With the unknown danger already stalking her, she wished not to deal with any more.
Faucon stared at the door, now half hanging from a broken leather hinge. With a curse he ordered his captain to find someone to fix it.
All of her emotions raced to the fore: dread, fear, guilt, and at his curse, they tripped out of her mouth as a nervous laugh. Rhian slapped a hand over her mouth hoping to stifle the sound.
Faucon spun around and glared at her. “I am happy I could amuse you.”
She arched one eyebrow, then returned his glare.
He inspected the small chamber, then walked across the room and held his hands over the brazier. “You will need more coals. And a bed instead of that pallet.”
Relieved that he was not roaring at her, Rhian patted the straw-and herb-filled mattress on the floor beneath her. “This will do fine for the short time I will remain at Browan.”
“Oh?” Faucon did not move from his position by the heat. Instead, he only shot her a look she couldn’t decipher. “And when do you plan on departing?”
“As soon as possible.”
“And where will you go?”
Rhian shrugged. “It matters little as long it is away from where you think to deliver me.”
Faucon crossed his arms against his chest. “Where I think to deliver you?” He shook his head. “Nay, milady. ’Tis where I will deliver you. What makes you think you have a choice in this matter?”
“It is my life you play with, Faucon. Not yours. Not King Stephen’s. My life.”
“Spoken like a spoiled child who knows not their place in the world.”
“Ah, that is where you are mistaken. I know full well my place in the world. It is nowhere.”
Faucon rubbed the bridge of his nose while he walked over to the narrow window opening. “If a king goes to such lengths to ensure your future is secured, I would say you have a place in the scheme of things.” He turned back to look at her. “Why do you not agree?”
Rhian scooted back on the pallet and leaned against the wall. “He sends me to a family who has not noted my existence since the day I was born. A family I know nothing about except what I’ve heard whispered in corners when they thought I couldn’t hear.”
