“Eynsford Castle, my lord,” she said.
Her voice was deep for a woman, but smooth and silky. Val rather liked it. “I know it well,” he said. “I know your lord, William de Eynsford. How long were you there?”
“Since before my father went to France,” she said, looking at her father. “Eight years.”
“I do not seem to recall your father mentioning he had a daughter in all the time we served together.”
“It is easy to forget girl children.”
McCloud snorted, a forced laugh. “I could never forget my daughter. You will have Val thinking that I am neglectful.”
The woman didn’t reply. She simply looked at her father as if she saw no humor in his statement. Val couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of her; the more she spoke in that deep, husky tone, the more he wanted to listen. He didn’t even notice that Vesper seemed to be looking at her father rather hostilely as McCloud gazed at his daughter with a mixture of anxiety and humor. It was an odd combination.
Had Val had eyes for the situation at that moment and not Vesper in particular, he would have seen the mixed signals between father and daughter. But he didn’t. His inspection of the lady was cut short when his men emerged from the livery with the prisoner, heading into the corral where their horses were.
“I am afraid that I must attend to some business at the moment, but please continue on this road until you come to a fork,” he said. “Take the fork to the right and that will take you directly to Selborne Castle. My mother is in residence. Tell her I have invited you both to feast with us tonight and she will make you comfortable.”
“We shall look forward to it,” McCloud said. “Thank you for your hospitality.”
Val smiled although it was clear he was distracted with his prisoner. He bowed briefly to them both.
“I am eager to return home and hear of your adventures since I last saw you,” he said. His gaze inevitably moved to Vesper. “My lady.”
With that, he excused himself, heading towards the corral where his men were gathered. McCloud and Vesper watched him walk away, a very big man with a brilliant smile. Confident, seasoned, he radiated power.
He was a man with the world at his fingertips.
*
He was alsoa man that Vesper wanted nothing to do with.
When the big knight was finally out of earshot, heading back to his men and their struggling prisoner, the lady turned to her father.
“Why did you accept his invitation?” she hissed. “We must go home, Papa. We cannot delay.”
McCloud’s gaze was on Val in the distance. “Nay, Daughter,” he muttered. “Not yet. Did you not hear the conversation? God has put us here, today, so that I could see my old friend, Val. This moment could not have been more fortuitous.”
Vesper sighed heavily, hanging her head. “It isnotfortuitous,” she insisted. “Why would you want to walk into the lion’s den? He is the law in this area. Or did you not hear him?”
“I heard him.”
“Then why must we sup with him?”
McCloud took his daughter by the arm and, together, they began to walk out onto the road. They had no horses to transport them; horses were expensive and they had not the money to spare on them. The only horse they had belonged to McCloud’sson and Vesper’s brother, Mat, and he needed the animal for his activities.
Unspeakably dark activities concealing a ghastly family secret.
“You are not looking at this as a great moment,” McCloud said. “I firmly believe that God put us here, today, so that we could meet with Val. I have not seen him in two years and, suddenly, here he is right in front of us. This is the answer to our prayers, Vesper. You cannot know how I have prayed for… help with your brother.”
Vesper shook her head. “It isnotthe answer to your prayers,” she said, coming to a halt and facing him. “And it is not help you ask for Mat, but absolution for his heinous deeds. Do you know why I am coming home, Papa? Do you even understand? It is because you and Mat have gotten yourself into a terrible situation that must be stopped.”
McCloud tried not to look too remorseful, guilty at his daughter’s scolding. “Mat is doing what he needs to do in order that we should survive,” he said quietly. “I have told you that.”
Vesper was growing angry. “You arenotsurviving,” she hissed. “What you are doing… Papa, it is horrific. We have had this conversation many times over the past week, ever since you came to Eynsford and revealed this horrible life you and my brother lead. Now, we must have this conversation again– are you so blind that you do not even realize that what Mat is doing is wrong?”
McCloud was having difficulty looking her in the eye now. “If you were starving, you would see things differently.”
Vesper threw up her hands in frustration. “Are you truly so complacent?” she asked. “Do you truly not know right from wrong? Mat is killing in order to survive and he is going to be caught. You will be hanged with him because you do not stop him!”
