“I cannot see where else three horses could hide.”
“Nor I,” Lothair said.“And that pair know more than they have confessed.You are wise to keep a closer eye upon them.”
“Better yet, I may dismiss them from service, should I find an excuse,” Quinn said.“I would be curious to know who they might tell of whatever they know.”
“And what of that second treasury?”Niall asked.
“When they are long gone, we shall leave a token within it,” Quinn said softly and Amaury laughed.“This task of administration is not so different from making war.”
“Not when there is a villain or a spy at loose,” Amaury agreed.Niall and Lothair returned to the mill, intent upon seeing all set to rights.Amaury gestured down the river toward the bridge.“Let us look for tracks.”
“Then a deer, if we can manage it.I see you brought your crossbow.”
Amaury smiled.“There is not so much meat in the larder.I thought to be a good guest, if my lord host were inclined to hunt.”
“Melissande told me as much this morn, but it was when she brought the stirrup cup.I did not fetch a crossbow.”
Amaury bowed and surrendered the weapon.“Your holding, Quinn, so you must loose the first bolt.”
“More than that, I would be of aid in seeing Annossy well-supplied.”
“You would win your lady’s favor, whatever the price,” Amaury teased.
“Can you blame me?She is my lady wife and her happiness is my sole goal.”
“You should tell her as much,” the other knight advised.
“I fear she would not believe me,” Quinn said.“Nay, I would tempt her affection with deeds not words.”
Amaury nodded and glanced back toward the mill.Bayard and the men-at-arms were out of sight.They two rode down the hill on opposite sides of the river, keeping their horses well back from the flowing water.“Here,” Amaury said, pointing to the ground at the same time that Quinn pointed down on the mill side of the river.
The hoof prints were evident on both banks, the steeds having gone down the river on the far side and returned on the side where the mill stood.Amaury and Quinn followed the returning tracks into the forest, lost them again, then rode back toward the mill slowly.Quinn dismounted outside the small barn beside the mill and crouched down, considering the tracks left by the three horses that had left for Annossy.There was fresh mud there and new tracks from the palfreys of the men-at-arms.
He indicated a nick in the shoe of one horse and the mark of a protruding nail in another print, then met Amaury’s gaze.The other knight nodded.The tracks were the same.
“You have your brigands,” Amaury murmured.
“But not their leader,” Quinn said.“There might well have been three.Let us speak to the miller for a moment before we ride to hunt.”
Chapter 11
Melissande could not give credence to Gaultier’s accusation.
She might not have wed Quinn of her own accord, but she could not believe that he would contrive such a wicked scheme.She was not even certain he had spoken to Heloise before the wedding feast, and he might not have even known that Tulley had a niece.As vexed as he had been with her, he had never injured her.Indeed, he had been gentle, and had introduced her to the marital debt with much patience.She could not imagine that he meant to ensure her demise.
It could have been readily done by now, if so.
It was curious that she already possessed such a strong conviction of Quinn’s sense of honor and his reliability.Truly, if he had not been Jerome’s son, she might have chosen him of her own accord.
There was a startling realization.
Melissande sat down hard in the great hall to consider how readily she abandoned the truths that she knew.Was she detecting the truth of her new husband, or was he deceiving her with great skill?
Berthe came bustling down the stairs in that moment, much her usual self in the knights’ absence.“Look, my lady!”she cried, shaking out a length of blue cloth.
Melissande was glad to be sitting down for the realization of what her maid carried was like a knife to her heart.
It was her father’s tabard, embroidered with the insignia of Annossy.The wool was blue of deepest sapphire and Melissande recalled her mother fussing over the hue in the market at Tulley, then choosing the deepest blue.Berthe came and spread it proudly on Melissande’s lap and she fingered it, with tears in her eyes.Her mother had embroidered the insignia and Melissande had been entrusted with the hem.
