Edward sighed. “Were it later in the day and my patience more run out, I would have you thrown in the dungeon straight away. Without any proof—”
“I have that proof, your majesty!” a woman’s voice called out from the rear of the chamber.
Everyone in the hall turned toward the gilded double doors which now stood open. A guard pursued the woman now walking down the center aisle, half running after her, holding his banging sword against his thigh. The woman wore a blue perse gown and a monkey rode jauntily on one shoulder, and she paid the bumbling guard no heed. Her hair was the color of sun-bleached straw, her stature delicate and regal, her stride efficient.
Piers felt his knees spasm, as if he would fall to the floor before her, worshipping her.
On the dais, the agent called out in a threatening voice, “Declare yourself and your purpose before your king, young woman!”
She stopped in the aisle, standing precisely juxtapose to Piers, Judith Angwedd and Bevan, and the king himself. She didn’t so much as glance at Piers before sinking into a low curtsey, Layla clinging to her shoulder. She rose, and her chin lifted.
“Your majesty, I am Lady Alys Foxe. And I am hiswife.”
Chapter 24
Alys ignored the uproar from the assembled nobility behind them and at last turned to Piers. God, he looked terrible, pale, haggard—his appearance reminded her of how he’d looked at the height of his illness, before they had traveled to Ira’s treetop village.
Nonetheless, he would be held accountable.
“Traveling companion?”she said through her teeth.
“Alys,” Piers said in a choked whisper, and Alys liked the way his eyes seemed to be devouring her face. “I—I …”
“I am yourtraveling companion,Piers? Really?”
“Alys, I—”
Piers’s explanation—which Alys very much wanted to hear—was cut short by the king, whom Alys had very nearly forgotten was present.
“Lady Alys Foxe,” Edward said, in a tone that was neither pleased nor impressed.
Alys turned and bowed once again, taking that spare instant to compose her face. What she wanted to do was to throw herself upon Piers and kiss him, over and over.Gillwick is not more valuable to me. There is naught more important to me …
“I heartily beg your pardon for my unannounced appearance in your court, your majesty,” Alys said, hoping that her tone conveyed the proper deference and humility of a loyal servant. “I mean you no disrespect.”
“I will have a private audience with you when this business concludes—ken you my meaning?”
Alys swallowed and nodded, and Edward, placated momentarily by her meek cooperation, continued. “Is what this man—Piers Mallory—says true? Were you abducted and held against your will by Lady Mallory?”
Alys curtsied again. “Yes, my liege. All of what he claims is true. We were en route to London when I was abducted from our camp by Judith Angwedd and her son. They carried me to London, and I was kept prisoner in their suite here, in your home.”
Judith Angwedd screeched with rage. “I’ve never laid eyes upon you in my life!”
“They held me locked in the wardrobe, Sire,” Alys continued, as if Judith Angwedd had never spoken. “You need only bid a servant check the lock—Piers’s grandfather had need to break it in order to free me. And there is a basket within where they caged my girl, here.” Alys jostled her shoulder to indicate Layla.
Edward’s eyes flicked to Piers’s hand. “The purveyor of the bite, I assume?”
Piers bowed.
“If what you say is true, the charges of kidnapping a peer of the realm are serious enough,” Edward mused. “But you also said you have proof of this man’s claim to Gillwick Manor?”
“I do, my liege,” Alys said, and then at last turned to face Judith Angwedd and Bevan boldly. “At least, I know why Bevan Mallory is not entitled to one blade of grassbelonging to Gillwick. He is not Warin Mallory’s son, as evidenced by a birthmark he bears upon his chest.”
“Shut up, you bitch,” Bevan growled at her.
“Such a mark can mean anything, nothing,” Edward said mildly. “It is ambiguous at best.”
“Not this mark, your majesty,” Alys offered. “It is quite unique, so I’ve been told, to the man who bears its twin, as well as a descriptive surname.”
