So he drank to forget, he drank to forgive. William wasn’t a drinking man, usually, but tonight he was. The situation called for nothing less than complete inebriation as he drank, and brooded, and waited for Victor to return to him with blood on his hands.
As William drank himself to oblivion, back in the shadows of the hall, Gorsedd stood like stone. He was deeply disgusted with Salisbury, disgusted with Dorset, and fearful for Annavieve and Kevin. He didn’t know the duchess well but she seemed like a pleasant woman. Hearing what Dorset had ordered Kevin to do, to consummate his marriage, left a nasty taste in Gorsedd’s mouth. He wondered how a man could do such a thing, but given the things he had heard about Dorset in the past, he realized that he wasn’t all that surprised.
It seemed like such a confusing situation, with Kevin in love with the duchess, and so much of it was distressing. Gorsedd had instructed the soldiers who had been witness to Kevin’s arrest never to speak on it because information like that didn’t need to find fuel in the rumor mill. It was an intensely personal and private matter. As he stood there, fretting, he heard someone off to his right trying to get his attention.
“My lord?” a woman asked. “Are you de Bretagne?”
Gorsedd turned to see a tall, slender woman standing a few feet away. She was finely dressed and he thought he recognized her. He thought he saw her earlier in the stands that day.
“I am,” he said. “I am not sure if I know you, my lady.”
The woman took a step towards him. “I am Lady Vietta de Lohr,” she said. “The Earl of Hereford is my father.”
Gorsedd recognized her now. She had been sitting in the lists next to the duchess. “Ah, yes,” he said as he realized who she was. “I did indeed see you today. How may I be of service, my lady?”
Vietta was quite poised considering the gravity of the questions she was about to ask the man. Annavieve had asked her to seek Gorsedd out to see if he knew where Kevin was because, after five frantic minutes of searching for Adonis and Thomas that had produced nothing, Annavieve was desperate to find Kevin. It was a dire situation and Gorsedd had been the only knight Annavieve recognized. He was the only one who knew what had happened. Therefore, while Annavieve hid in the shadows outside of the meeting house, Vietta sought out Gorsedd.
“I was wondering if you know where Sir Adonis and Sir Thomas have gone,” Vietta asked politely.
Gorsedd’s pleasant expression faded. He knew where they were; everyone did. But he lied to the lady simply because he didn’t want to burden her with such sorrow. “I have not seen them lately,” he said, which was the truth. He hadn’t seen them in the past few minutes. “May I be of service?”
Vietta was in a spot. She had to help Annavieve and she didn’t know how to do it other than to consider trusting a knight she did not know. Annavieve had said that she suspected Gorsedd was sympathetic to Kevin but, of course, she did not know for sure. She needed answers and she was using Vietta to get them.
Still, Vietta wasn’t so sure she should say any more to Salisbury’s knight. Perhaps there was another way to locate Kevin.
“Nay,” she finally said, turning away. “Thank you very kindly.”
She quickly walked away. Gorsedd watched her, curiously, noting that she avoided going to her parents, who were on the opposite side of the room near the main entry. In fact, it looked to him like Lady Vietta was doing everything possible for them not to notice her. He wasn’t sure why it made him suspicious, but it did. The woman was asking for Adonis and Thomas and if she’d seen the fight between Thomas and the French knight earlier in the evening, then she would have known de Wolfe had been wounded and taken away. Curiosity prompted him to follow the mysterious Lady Vietta.
The lady had disappeared out of the side of the hall, out into the darkened avenue where all of the earlier commotion with Kevin and Annavieve had taken place. Gorsedd slipped out after her, almost losing her until he caught a glimpse of her slipping around a corner into a small alleyway near the livery.
Quietly, Gorsedd followed, sneaking up in the darkness and peering around the side of a poorly constructed home and into the dank, dim alleyway beyond. He could see that Lady Vietta was speaking with another woman, about her size, but he could not see who it was because of the shadows. When the women shifted in their conversation and the second lady stepped into the moonlight, Gorsedd caught a glimpse of orange fabric. He’d seen that color earlier in the evening, in fact, on Lady Annavieve.
He was on them both in a split second. He reached out and took hold of each woman.
Annavieve gasped when Gorsedd suddenly grabbed her by the arm. Vietta, not so subtly, began beating on the hand that held her.
“Let me go!” Vietta howled. “Release me!”
Gorsedd ignored the pounding, his focus on Annavieve. “What are you doing here?” he demanded. “Where is Victor?”
Annavieve was terrified, looking into the eyes of a knight who had been very polite and kind to her. But she had no idea what he was going to do so she immediately started begging.
“Please do not tell Lord William,” she pleaded. “I… I escaped Victor. I must find Kevin. Won’t you please help me find him?”
Gorsedd stared at her, finally wincing when Vietta smashed his little finger. He yanked his hand off of her, shaking out the sting, as Vietta ran to Annavieve’s side and took old of her, trying to pull her from Gorsedd. But Gorsedd refused to let Annavieve go.
“You escaped him?” he repeated, rather astonished. But as he looked at her, he could see that the left side of her face was swollen and her eye was starting to turn black. Sympathy filled him although he knew it should not. Still, he couldn’t help it. “What did he do to you, Annavieve?”
Annavieve didn’t even care that he called her by her given name. She could see that he was looking at her bruised face and a hand flitted up to it, touching the sore flesh.
“You can see what he did to me,” she said. “I fought him off and now I am here. Please, Sir Gorsedd… please do not return me to Victor or William. In the name of all that is holy and decent, help me find Kevin. Victor ordered him to do all of those things… everything I said he did. I swear upon my life that it is true. Kevin was only following orders and now Victor would punish him for it. Kevin is innocent. Won’t you please help me find him?”
Gorsedd’s burden was great. He held lives in his hands at the moment and he didn’t like it in the least. The righteous knight in him, the one who had served Salisbury for eleven years, told him to return the lady to her husband. That was the strict, obedient knight. But the man in him, the husband who had lost his wife those years ago, could not bear see lovers separated. He knew what it was like to lose someone he loved.
Gorsedd had spent several long minutes listening to Kevin beg for his help, help for Annavieve, and now he was in a position to do precisely that. He could help Annavieve and Kevin escape and no one would know he would have been responsible. He could simply let them go and hope they were able to get away. His head told him one thing but his heart told him entirely another.
His heart was stronger.
