“De Lara,” the general said it as if he could hardly believe it. “One of our men trailed them from the castle into the town yesterday and saw them at the church. He married her yesterday.”
Hamlin’s surprise only increased. “Two days after a siege, he marries?” He looked at the men seated around him; they were still in the encampment in the woods where they had been for three days. It had been a relatively uneventful period until this shocking bit of news. De Roche was astounded. “De Lara must not have a care in the world if he is taking a wife at this time. A very strange move for a usually guarded man.”
The general shrugged. “Who knows why men do what they do? All I know is that he has indeed married. A very beautiful woman from what I am told.”
De Roche turned to his general, his mind working over the information. “And you trust the source?”
The general nodded. “The same man who tailed them to Cartingdon. In fact, he believes de Lara’s wife to be the Cartingdon heiress but he cannot be sure.”
For three days they had been mulling over their next move, sending out spies to see if they could gain headway on de Lara’s movements. So far, they had received nothing useful. Harbottle had been swiftly repaired and Warkworth’s army remained. There were reports that reinforcements were arriving from Alnwick, but so far, they’d seen no truth of that. The hope was that Mortimer’s army would arrive from the Marches before Alnwick arrived to support Harbottle. In either case, the impending battle would prove to be explosive. At the moment, they were playing a waiting game.
“So de Lara marries,” Hamlin stroked his chin and began to pace. He held up a finger. “This is good news, in fact. Here we sit, waiting for Mortimer’s reinforcements, all the while looking to find a weakness we can use against de Lara. If we can exploit him, then a battle will be unnecessary. Lives will be saved. That is a good thing.”
The general who had delivered the news sat next to the old vizier, trying to generate some heat back into his bones. The pouring rain outside had all of them wet and cold.
“So tell us why this is such good news?” he demanded as he took some wine for himself.
Hamlin smiled coldly. “A weakness,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “What motivates a man more than warfare?”
The others looked around like idiots, trying to glean an answer from vacant expressions. The old general finally spoke. “What?”
Hamlin looked at the fools around him and shook his head. “Love,” he said obviously. “Love motivates a man more than warfare. We can lay siege to his castle, burn his troops, kill his friends and de Lara will not falter. But take his wife and the man will bargain.”
The men in the tent continued to look at each other, some in understanding, some in disagreement. Hamlin threw the cup in his hand to the ground and tossed up his arms.
“Fools,” he snapped. “We get the woman and de Lara will give us whatever we want. This entire war will be over.”
The general finally shook his head. “There are no guarantees,” he said. “Perhaps de Lara was forced to marry her. Perhaps he does not care for her in the least.”
Hamlin put his hands on his hips. “He marries in the midst of a crisis? I would say this is more than a forced marriage. A man would only do such a thing in the middle of this hell only if he wanted to.”
“So you are saying use the woman against him?”
Hamlin nodded as if the man was a simpleton. “De Lara’s weakness. We have found it.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“For the very reasons I mentioned.”
“Then it will not be easy to get at her.”
“Probably not. But we will take whatever opportunity we can.” Hamlin reclaimed his cup and went for more wine, listening to the thunder outside. “Send out more men to hide in the shadows and watch de Lara. Watch Harbottle closely. I would wager there will be another opportunity, especially if he is bold enough to venture from the safe confines of the castle and into the village. If he does it again, perhaps we can catch them along the open road.”
“He will travel with an army for protection.”
“Or he will only travel with a few in order to not draw attention to himself,” Hamlin shot back. “How many men did he take with him to the village yesterday? Did you ask?”
The general nodded. “Indeed I did. He took two knights and six men at arms.”
Hamlin lifted his eyebrows. “You see? He only took a small contingent. Now he is overconfident. He believes he is not being watched at the moment.”
“Never. De Lara is not that stupid.”
“Nevertheless, you will put your best men on him. If an opportunity presents itself, we will take it. We will takeher.”
The general shook his head. “We cannot even get close to the king. What makes you think we can get close to de Lara’s wife?”
Hamlin paused as he poured his wine. “Your men will have to be clever and swift. I care not how she is taken, but get her. If we hold her, we hold the kingdom.”
