She should have told him about Nissa and Siward. She should have told him about Edmund and his demands for help and his plans. She should have told him.
He should have told her the truth about his hand in helping Huard’s runaways, but for now he would have to try to find a way out of this.
Brice had come to him with his reports about Lord Huard’s treatment of his people and the bodies he’d found. All Eudes needed was to find one runaway, dead or alive, on his lands and he could bring Giles before the duke’s justice and demand that his lands be forfeit. An easy way to break his claim and Huard stood to gain them by proximity alone. Until now, they’d managed to get those who had escaped him to the relative safety of the rebels’ camp a few hours from his lands.
Why had Siward returned? It mattered not now, for he was caught and Giles feared he would not have enough time or a way to help him escape again.
‘My lord bishop,’ Giles began without a clue as to what to say next. Eudes helped him.
‘No, my lords, with this mark as proof, we need not wait on any decisions or scrolls. Raoul, take this—’ he kicked Siward again ‘—back to Lord Huard’s keep.’
There was no way that the rebels could take down eight mounted knights if they were alerted to this, so Giles knew he must even the odds somehow. Two they could manage. He walked over to the bishop to try to gain his help. Eudes was not going to make this easy for him.
‘As Lord Huard’s man, I would say it would be within his rights to search the rest of the village for other escaped slaves now that we found this one, my lord,’ Eudes stated, staring him down. ‘Should I send this one back to the keep with my men or should I search the rest of your village,my lord?’
Damn! He knew! The only thing Giles could do was capitulate and hope to get word to the others. He leaned in close to the bishop, informed him about his suspicions over the dead bodies—whether they were his or Huard’s villeins mattered not—and asked that Eudes’s men be limited if they were travelling unaccompanied across his lands.
For reasons known only to the bishop, the former Father Obert agreed and gave the orders. Looking over the heads of the crowd, Giles found Brice, having arrived during this scene, and signalled him to move on their plans. By the time two of Eudes’s men left Taerford, Brice had already sent his message to the rebels to intercept them.
The crowd dispersed and Giles went in search of Fayth. Emma was just coming down and told him of the lady’s condition and he decided he would not upset her more now. With a word to Emma, he left the keep to find Brice on his return and to come up with a plan to find Edmund.
If only she could trust him.
Fayth lay abed the rest of the afternoon. Her stomach finally settled and she managed to keep some broth and watered ale down. She dared not leave the room lest Giles discover she had disobeyed him once again.
She considered her actions and realised that once more she had fallen head first into trouble. Before Giles had arrived, she had made nary a misstep, she had known her place and her duties and none could have called her incompetent. Now, she was nothing like the daughter of Bertram used to be. Not used to reporting her actions to anyone while her father was away, and not accustomed to asking for guidance, she had had her life turned upside down by this man.
However, these were dangerous times and never could she remember an action of hers resulting in someone’s death until she’d fallen in with Edmund’s plan. Now, in addition to the men who died fighting Giles, she must add Siward to the list on her conscience.
Fayth knew she must stop her rash behaviour and, if she was committed to her promise to Giles, she must trust him with the truth and allow him to choose the right course of action for them.
And that meant telling him where the outlaws’ northern camp was, and where he would find Edmund.
She had no choice, too much hung in the balance. If Edmund had heeded her warning he would be long gone from this area, seeking his relatives in Northumbria or beyond.
Reconciled to her decision, she waited for Giles to come to her so that she might prove her love and her trust to him. She’d nearly ruined it yet again, but she was certain he would give her another chance. He’d whispered all would be well to her and she could only hope it would be so.
Her head was still spinning from her bout of stomach sickness, so she lay back on the bed to rest. The sun was much lower and the room grew dark when she opened her eyes. This time the man who stood in the shadows of the room was not her husband.
The evening meal was laid by the time Giles could seek Fayth out to explain. The day had gone from bad to worse, then even worse, and each time he had thought to go to her another catastrophe had occurred requiring his attention. After the disastrous morning and then the incident with Siward, he’d been called to the training yards where a fight had broken out.
Like a melee, it had swarmed across the yard, men fighting with fists and kicks until just the guards along the walls had remained uninvolved. Since he could not use bows and arrows on his own unarmed men, he had had to wait for them to wear themselves out. Roger and Lucien were yet looking for the reason for the outbreak, but he did know that it involved Lady Fayth somehow, with some insults being bandied around regarding the debacle involving Siward.
And all of this under the watchful gaze of Bishop Obert.
The bishop strolled through the keep and yard, visited the village, spoke with Giles’s men, the peasants, Father Henry and anyone else he saw. And he said nothing.
He’d intervened when Giles had asked about retaining Eudes, but otherwise he seemed to take no action at all, other than saying Mass each morning and joining Father Henry in other prayer devotions.
Would he be given a chance to defend his actions before the bishop returned to the duke? Giles wondered. And how much time did he have?
Giles climbed the stairs, intent on first explaining his actions regarding Siward to Fayth and then bringing her down to the hall to eat. Her people, he was learning, became very nervous when they did not see her for several days in a row, as evidenced on his arrival, and then these last days. Hopefully her stomach ailment had ceased, but then even he had felt the need to empty his stomach when he had seen the marks on Siward’s chest.
Giles listened at the door, but he heard no movements inside. Mayhap she still slept? He lifted the latch and pushed slowly on the door. The chamber was dark, no candles were lit and it appeared that Fayth was not inside. Lighting a candle from the barely burning embers in the hearth, he looked around once more.
The room was empty.
He called her name and went to the storage room next, but the other chambers on the same floor were all empty.
