She shook her head, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “Caspian has been to France, but he is not loyal to the king,” she said. “There is a nice Welsh girl he wishes to marry, soif anything, he has some sympathy for the Welsh. He has no interest in politics or French kings.”
“And you have no husband or suitor that could be in question?”
“No husband and no suitor,” she said. “I am not loyal to France, either, if that is your next question.”
Caius knew she wasn’t married or betrothed, but he wanted to hear it from her. He was rather pleased that she confirmed it, though he shouldn’t have been. He shouldn’t have cared, but stupidly, he did. A little.
Idiot!
“That was going to be my next question, actually,” he said. “Thank you for being truthful with me.”
She was gazing up at him with those big, blue eyes. Where there had been anger and sorrow only seconds before, now he saw fear again.
“What will happen now?” she asked. “You said that you brought an army to support de Wrenville against Hawkstone. Is that what you intend to do?”
His black eyes glittered at her in the weak light of the chamber. “It is a decision I will have to make at some point,” he said. “Your answers have helped me with the information I need to make the right one.”
It was an answer without giving her any real answer at all. Caius was clever that way. But Emelisse realized he’d dodged the question and she took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm.
“My lord, I beg you,” she said quietly. “If you support anyone, let it be Hawkstone. We have done nothing wrong and were set upon by an aggressive, greedy neighbor. He has made our lives hell for the past three years, beating down what was once a beautiful and peaceful domain. I… I wish you could have seen Hawkstone three years ago, before all of this happened. We had herds of black sheep to feed and clothe our people, andgreat gardens to grow vegetables. There were fowl that made their home in the moat of our castle. Oh, I realize the moat is for defense, but in the years my family has lived there, we’d hardly had any need to raise our drawbridge. In fact, the chains were rusted open when Winterhold began their attacks. They destroyed this peaceful beauty and never once told us why. It was truly… heartbreaking. Won’t you please help us?”
He listened to her gentle plea, feeling the angst and pain radiating from her. She seemed so bewildered by it all, helpless to fight back against a tyrannical neighbor that was stronger, militarily, against her peaceful home.
Truth be told, he could have scolded her on allowing the defenses of Hawkstone to grow so lax. He could have told her how foolish it was for her father to have allowed his castle, built for protection, to become a place of serenity and peace. From a man who had seen much battle and death in his lifetime, he could have told her all of this, but he refrained. It didn’t matter now, anyway.
What mattered was how to fix the situation and he had a lot to say on the subject, but not to her.
He had to speak with Edward.
“Thank you for being open with me, my lady,” he said. “I must depart now, but I will return and we will speak again at a later time.”
That answer seemed to discourage her. It was emotionless and noncommittal, which gave her no comfort. She averted her gaze and her shoulders slumped.
“Thank you, my lord,” she said quietly. “May I ask something more of you?”
“What is that?”
She took a deep breath for courage. “My father,” she said. “I do not know what has become of him. I am afraid they will throw him in that stinking moat and that is a horrible ending for so finea man. Would it be possible to send him back to Hawkstone for burial? My mother is buried at Whitchurch, close to Hawkstone. It was his wish that he should be, also.”
Caius watched her lowered head, thinking that Edward was probably already demanding that de Thorington’s body be brought to him, although he couldn’t help but remember that when they crossed over the bridge spanning the interior moat, there was a fresh body floating in it. He sincerely hoped it wasn’t de Thorington. But her request to send him back to Hawkstone, which was currently under siege, made her request impossible at the moment.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her.
“I will see what I can do, my lady,” he said. “If there is nothing else, I shall take my leave of you.”
She silently shook her head, still looking at her lap, and Caius quit the chamber.
There was something in her beaten manner that infuriated him.
He was a knight, and a damned good one, and part of the knight’s oath was to protect the weak and innocent. That was exactly what he saw before him in Lady Emelisse de Thorington– the weak and the innocent. It was true that her beauty had been the first thing that had endeared her to him, but speaking with her, even briefly, had opened his eyes to a few things, not the least of which was Covington’s lies and appetite for things that did not belong to him. A man who had grandiose dreams and would stop at nothing to achieve them.
There were bigger problems here than they’d all realized.
He had to get to Edward.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“And that iseverything she told me,” Caius said. “After speaking to her, it is my inclination not to allow Covington de Wrenville access to The Marshal’s army. In fact, I want to speak to the brother and hear what he has to say about all of this. It seems to me that the cause of all the issues is de Wrenville and his insatiable greed for his neighbor’s property. Denying him the betrothal between Lady Emelisse and his son was only the beginning. The man is as rotten as his moat.”
