Although she never would have thought it possible, Alys arrived in London before Piers. Carried through the city gates at dawn with her hood covering her face and a cold warning in her ear to not draw attention, she had been hesitant to assume she knew the identities of her captors. But once she was safely away from curious bystanders, the interrogation had begun, and she was left with no doubt as to who had kidnapped her.
“Where is he?” Judith Angwedd demanded, walking in a slow circle around the stool where Alys sat in the middle of the chamber. The gag had been removed from her mouth to allow her to answer the questions, but Bevan stood uncomfortably close by, his willingness to silence any outbursts dangerously clear by the way he watched her, his small eyes continually darting over her.
“I don’t know,” Alys said.
“You’re lying,” Judith Angwedd accused mildly. She had removed her riding gloves and was now smoothing them between her hands, over and over. “I would think you eager for your revenge—he gave you up to us to save his own skin, after all.”
Alys forced a laugh, although the comment struck very close to her heart. Where had Piers been when the pair had snuck into camp and stolen her away? Why had he not come at her cries for help?
But she would not let them see her doubt. “Why would you think he gave me up to you?”
“Oh. You poor, spoiled, naïve little girl.” Judith Angwedd cocked her head pityingly. “He led us straight to you. Even went so far as to set a beacon in the middle of the road a stone’s throw from where we found you—we could see the blaze of your camp even through the trees. Hewantedyou to be found. I’m certain that if he hadn’t thought you’d awaken and protest, he would have dragged your sleeping body to the road instead.”
Alys could not think of a thing to rebut this, her head was spinning so with the dastardly information being relayed to her. He had truly abandoned her. Why?
Because he doesn’t love you,a bitter voice in her head advised her.He had taken to the trail by the time you had begun to foolishly dream of him. He is well rid of you, at last. What he wanted from the start.
Outwardly, she held her tongue.
“Nothing to say for that, eh?” Judith Angwedd paused in her circuit to stand before Alys. “So you see, you may as well tell me what you know. He’s obviously not going to rescue you if he intended you to be captured in the first place. And no one knows your whereabouts now—not even that cold bitch, Sybilla.”
Alys looked away toward a bank of windows across the room. The blue sky stuffed the panes and mocked her.
“She doesn’t care, I should tell you. I went to Fallstowe looking for Piers, and when it was ascertained that youwere missing and could possibly have gone with him in your childish pique, do you know what she did?”
Alys refused to turn her head.
“Naught. She did naught. So no one is looking for you, and no one will know if you continue to disobey me and I am forced to …punishyou.” Judith Angwedd, obviously weary of addressing Alys’s ear, came to stand between her and the windows. Alys turned her head, but when faced with Bevan’s leering countenance, she dropped her eyes to the wooden floor below.
“Why would you protect him?” the woman continued in an interested tone. “You obviously know nothing about him, so let me enlighten you: He is no one. Worthless, common trash, that would steal my son’s birthright with his lies.”
“You mean your lover’s son, do you not?” Alys shot back, no longer able to control her tongue when faced with such outright slander against Piers. She didn’t know why he had left her, but she knew the things Judith Angwedd was saying were evil falsehoods. “I know about your cuckold of Warin Mallory, and how it is you who is trying to steal Gillwick. When the king finds out, it isyouwho will be punished, Judith Angwedd.”
The redhead’s already high set eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline before drawing down in warning slashes. “And who is going to punish me, hmm? You?” Her beady eyes looked Alys up and down with disdain. “I hardly think that likely.”
“Piers has the ring Warin had made for Elaine as proof.” Alys was pleased to see the white hot fury wash over Judith Angwedd’s face at the very mention of Piers’s mother’s name. “And I will tell everyone who will listen what I know.”
Judith Angwedd rushed her unexpectedly, struck Alys soundly in the face so that she toppled off of the stool and onto the floor, her hands bound behind her.“Then it is very unlikely that you shall leave this room alive!”
Judith Angwedd took several deep breaths, and in those moments, Alys realized too late the folly of her impetuousness.
“Pick up the pig and put her back,” Judith Angwedd commanded, once again in control of herself.
Alys was roughly shoved back on the stool. She flung her hair from her eyes.
“Piers would not intentionally lead you to our camp. He would never intend for me to fall into your clutches,” Alys said levelly. “And I know that he will come for me, because you see, he will not stand before the king as a common man. In truth, he will hold more sway with Edward than the pair of you could ever dream of possessing.”
“Lies. Foolishness,” Judith Angwedd scoffed on a braying laugh. “You’re only trying to buy yourself time.”
Alys shrugged. “Think that if you will, but it is to your own folly. Piers and I met at the Foxe Ring, after he had barely escaped with his life from the beating Bevan dealt him.” Alys let a smile crawl over her lips as Judith Angwedd blanched. “Yes, two unmarried people, at midnight, during a full moon, at the Foxe Ring. And in keeping with the grand old tradition of the land, we are now married. Your stepson is presently kin to the most powerful house in all of England, and he outranks you by leagues.”
Judith Angwedd turned abruptly away and for a moment, Alys savored her victory. Bevan seemed quite disturbed, his fists clenching and then unclenching, his heavy brow drawn down, his eyes flicking anxiously to his mother.
But when the redhead turned to face Alys once more, she was smiling, and Alys’s dread increased.
“Perhaps you are telling the truth.” She shrugged. “It matters naught. Piers could be married to one of Edward’s own daughters, and it would not change the fact that Bevan is still known as Warin Mallory’s first born. My husband never denied him, in all his many years. Bevan will gain Gillwick. The king has a love of the law, and he will uphold it.”
Judith Angwedd paused, and her expression became perplexed. “But if that whore’s spawn is now a husband of Fallstowe, why does he not simply give me back my husband’s ring and be content with the life of luxury you will so foolishly bestow upon him, hmm?”
