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 whathappened,” 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. “When 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 mefor the alliance with you, and he only wanted your army to destroy lands he coveted. It is as simple as that.”
