“Not now, but there will be when my son marries Robin’s daughter. I’m sure there will be much to do then.”
That statement made Mathis want to throw up. But he held himself in check, bowing swiftly to Cirencester and turning on his heel. As he headed for the chamber door, he realized that he was shaking. With fear, with anger, with a lot of things. He kept his focus straight ahead and tried not to run to the stables where his horse was being cooled off from his ride there. Cheltenham and Cirencester were about fifteen miles apart, less than a half-day’s ride, but Mathis wasn’t going home.
He was going to the Welsh marches.
He was headed for Lioncross Abbey Castle.
The last he saw Roi, the man was at Lioncross. That had only been two days ago, so Mathis hoped—and prayed—that Roi was still there. Still enjoying his family, still enjoying his guests from the recent wedding. Nasty dealings were afoot, and Roi had to be informed that he had a viper in his family in the form of his wife’s father. But strangely enough, Mathis wasn’t doing this for Roi. He wasn’t doing it for the man who had married the woman he wanted because, frankly, they’d never been close friends, sothis wasn’t a matter of friendship. He was doing it for one reason and one reason alone.
He’d seen the way Diara had looked at her new husband.
He knew there was love there. Because he wanted to see Diara happy, and keep her happy, he was going to help foil the plot to murder her husband.
For her.
Mounting his semi-rested steed, Mathis fled Totterdown Castle as if the devil himself was after him.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Pembridge Castle
These were daysof sunshine and bliss.
That was the way Roi felt about them. After years of gloom, to wake up to Diara’s beautiful face every morning was something out of a dream. Every morning since their marriage, he’d woken up before dawn and simply watched her sleep. It gave him comfort and joy beyond imagining. He’d never been so happy, or so in love, with anyone or anything in his life, and if that made him a foolish man, then he was content being foolish. Every single day, he thanked God for being utterly, ridiculously foolish.
It had been almost two weeks since their return to Pembridge, and life was settling into a delirium of wonderful normalcy. Diara was finding her place as chatelaine, Adalia was her shadow and enjoying every minute of it, and Dorian was still playing with her horses, but giving more attention to cleaning up the fishpond and restoring the garden that had languished for so long. She loved animals and plants and flowers. She even loved the biting fish.
Dorian, too, was growing up.
The latest with the youngest de Lohr daughter, however, was her desire for a new horse. Roi had taken Diara and the girls intothe village of Pembridge, which was just to the east of the castle. It was a small village but a busy one, and it had a license for a market every Saturday. Roi wanted to introduce Diara to the villagers and for the villagers to realize there was a new Lady of Pembridge, but Dorian caught sight of a blond horse in one of the animal pens near the end of town and refused to leave it. It belonged to a merchant who wasn’t too keen on parting with it for less than an exorbitant price, something Roi refused to pay. That had left Dorian in a flood of tears and Roi feeling like an ogre.
As Roi lay next to Diara, watching her sleep as the sun rose, he smiled when he thought of his dramatic younger daughter, who was positive she was going to die from the pain of not having the horse she wanted. Diara and Adalia had gone to visit the spice merchant as Roi remained with Dorian and tried to convince her that she would indeed survive. That only made things worse. Not even offering to buy her sweets from the only baker in town eased her wounded soul, and once Diara and Adalia had made their purchases, Dorian wept all the way home.
What she didn’t know was that the next day, Roi’s guilt had sent him back to the village for a round of intense negotiations for the mare, whose name was Brillante. He and the merchant finally settled on a price, and Roi had arranged to have the horse delivered today. When he heard the faint sounds of the sentries at the gatehouse, announcing an arrival as the sun rose, he quietly climbed out of bed and pulled his clothing on. Thinking that the golden horse had arrived, he peered out of the chamber window to the bailey—only to see that an unfamiliar horse and rider had arrived. Pulling his boots on quickly, he went downstairs.
Kyne was waiting for him.
The man had just come up the stairs of the keep and entered the cool, dim foyer as Roi came down. The two of them came together somewhere in the middle of the entry.
“Who comes?” Roi asked. “I saw a rider.”
Kyne’s response was to extend a missive to him, and Roi took it, noting the seal. He lifted his eyebrows in realization.
“Cheltenham,” he said as he broke the seal and unfolded the vellum. “I wonder what he wants?”
Kyne didn’t say anything. He waited until Roi had read the missive twice before speaking.
“The messenger says that Cheltenham is mobilizing his army,” he said. “It seems that Cirencester has launched some sort of raid, and he’s already burned two villages. What does the missive say?”
“It is a request for aid and says that I’m to proceed to the village of Colesborne to intercept Cirencester’s army.” But then Roi shook his head as if greatly confused. “Mathis de Geld told us that Cirencester visited Robin last week. Although he did not know the contents of the meeting, he said that Robin was not troubled when Cirencester departed. In fact, the man seemed rather happy. I cannot imagine that Cirencester arrived to threaten him and Robin was joyful about it. That makes no sense.”
Kyne shook his head. “Nay, it does not,” he said. “But why would Cirencester visit him and then attack him only days later?”
Roi pondered that dilemma. “Unless Cirencester gave him an ultimatum,” he said. “But that would not explain Robin’s jovial mood when Cirencester left. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless Cirencester somehow lied to the man,” Roi said. “For example—what if Cirencester promised Robin something and then went back on his word?”
