“It isyourfault she escaped!”
Hallam remained calm. “I will only go so far in my duties as a knight and your father’s commander, but standing next to a woman as she relieves herself is where I draw the line,” he said, though his voice was getting louder as he spoke. “There was no way of knowing she would escape through the garderobe, but if I’d suspected she would, then I would have placed someoneoutside of the chutes to catch her. A pity I did not have the foresight you think I should have had.”
Marius’ lip curled menacingly and Hallam was fully prepared to throw a punch at the man. He didn’t care if he was Covington’s son or not. But Covington mercifully stepped in, pushing the two of them apart.
“Enough,” he said. “It is done. The fact remains that we must get her back, Hallam. I want her brother’s surrender. I do not agree that we should not send the army out to search for her. She cannot hide from so many men.”
At that point, Kevin stepped in. Watching Hallam deal with Covington and Marius was like watching a noble wolfhound surrounded by two jackals. They circled Hallam and they growled at him, unnerved and disturbed.
Kevin was always the pious and obedient one, different from the rest of the Executioner Knights in that regard, but he did not differ from them in the sense that he had a strong sense of right and wrong, and he was coming to loathe the de Wrenville men for their unerringly immoral and deceptive behavior.
And he didn’t like in the least how they treated Hallam.
“Hallam is correct, my lord,” he said, interrupting the building tirade. “Sending an army to search for her would only drive her into hiding, and if she was cornered, it might force her to do something… drastic.”
Covington looked at him with outrage. “Drastic? Such as?”
“Throwing herself into the river,” Kevin said ominously. “Pushing the blade of a dagger into her chest. Do you not care if she is returned to you dead? If that happens, then you must think of the consequences. Hawkstone will revert to the Crown and it is possible the king will not give it to you. I am sure he has heard about the riches on Hawkstone lands. He could very well keep it for himself or even give it over to another lord, a more important lord, as a political favor.”
Covington’s expression of outrage turned to shock as he looked at his son.
“Would he do that?” he asked. “Would he grant Hawkstone to another?”
Marius had been in John’s court long enough to know that the king had many favorites over him. He spent his days following the king around like a puppy when he was allowed near the man. Truth be told, he had never told his father that he wasn’t the king’s most favored that he’d pretended to be. It was true that he was a courtier, and he mildly amused the king from time to time, but he wasn’t at all sure that John wouldn’t give Hawkstone to a warlord he liked better if the situation arose.
It wasn’t exactly something he could, or would, admit.
He had wanted his father to think that he was greater than he actually was. In his father’s eyes, he was only worth something to his father as long as he could provide something to him. In this case, it was a relationship to the king. The more Marius told his father of his great position within the king’s court, the more his father loved him.
Therefore, he had never expected to tell him the truth of the situation. It was always something he intended to keep to himself. His father had been so happy when he thought his son was a favorite of the king, and when John had mentioned something about William Marshal’s family, and in that conversation, something about his unwed niece, that was when Marius had come up with the plot for his father to marry Lady Alice.
Marius had always let his father believe that the king had suggested it.
But that was not the truth.
Alice had only been a means to the end and, perhaps in some small way, it had also been a way for Marius to earn approvalfrom a father who had always been incapable of such emotion. At least, Marius had always thought so.
It seemed that the de Wrenville son had some secrets of his own.
“He most certainly would not grant Hawkstone to anyone but us,” Marius said, eyeing Hallam and Kevin. “Get out, both of you. That woman had better be found or you’ll both be in for trouble.”
Hallam had heard that before. Marius threatened a good deal, but it was rare when he carried through. But Kevin, surprisingly, actually snorted.
“You have no power over me,” he said to Marius. “If I were you, I would sit down and wait. It may take some time, but she will be found.”
Marius’ eyes narrowed at him. “And just who are you? I do not even know you.”
Before Covington could explain the situation, Kevin spoke loudly enough to drown out the father as he tried.
“My name is Sir Kevin de Lara,” he said. “Aye,thatde Lara. My father is Lord of the Trilateral Castles, which are not far from here, and you know my brother. He is the Lord of the Shadows, the king’s personal bodyguard.”
Marius did, indeed, know that name.Sean de Lara. That suddenly gave Kevin a whole new light in his eyes. “So your brother is the Shadow Lord, is he?” he said, a hint of approval in his tone. “The man is fearsome. Absolutely fearsome. But he serves the king. Whom do you serve?”
Kevin’s chin went up proudly. “I serve William Marshal and the army outside of the walls of Winterhold moves on my command,” he said. “Any further questions?”
Marius opened his mouth to investigate the loyalties of Kevin versus Sean, brothers seemingly on opposite sides, but his father tugged on his sleeve and shook his head, effectively shutting the son up. It was an unusually prudent move by Covington, but heknew the House of de Lara. Even he wasn’t stupid enough to provoke a de Lara son because the Lords of the Trilaterals were fierce. He didn’t need that trouble, at least not at the moment.
Marius, uncertain as to why his father had cut him off, nonetheless did as he was told. He simply eyed Kevin a moment before turning away in search of another cup for his wine.
