“I went out to see if the mon was between us and Scarglas. I left her alone and they found her.”
“’Tis nay your fault.”
“I left her alone!”
“For a good reason. Ye didnae want to ride right into the enemy’s grasp and we had decided they were headed to Scarglas. Without a look round, ye could easily have ridden right into them. They obviously got farther away faster than we thought they would. How far away were ye from here when ye stopped?”
“Mayhap an hour and a half of hard riding.”
“So they have already had her for a while,” Sigimor muttered. “They will nay have stayed close to where ye left her, either.” He glanced up at the sky. “If we are lucky we can track them to where they hold her before the sun completely sets. Dusk is a verra good time for creeping up on someone.”
“I did see where they had left the horses and which direction they went off in.”
“That will help. A shame we cannae ken exactly when they grabbed her as that would make it easier to judge how far they may have gone.”
“I was gone nearly two hours.”
“Ah, then they will have had time to get a fair distance away from where they took her. It may weel be dark ere we find her, but I have some skill in raiding in the night.”
Before Brian could say another word, Sigimor was signaling his men to mount. Brian quickly swung up into the saddle of his fresh horse. No matter how hard he tried he could not stop thinking about how long Arianna would be in the hands of a man who wished her dead before they could find her. He was pulled from his dark thoughts when Sigimor gave him a hard slap on the back.
“We will find her, cousin,” Sigimor said.
Staring blindly at the men preparing to go out and help him hunt for Arianna, Brian did not feel the confidence he usually felt when involved in a hunt of any kind. “What if he takes her right to DeVeaux?”
“Then we follow him until he stops long enough for us to take her back.”
“Ye make it sound so simple. The mon kens we will be hunting him.”
“Does he? I am nay sure the mon is as clever as ye think. It doesnae matter. He cannae ride at night unless he has a mon who kens the land weel. The dark slows us all down but he will have to stop and that is when we will have him.”
As the men mounted up and started out of the bailey, Brian could only pray that his cousin was right. Fear was a hard knot in his belly and failure a sour taste in his mouth. He would not rest until he had Arianna safely back in his arms.
Chapter 12
Pain greeted Arianna as she slipped free of unconsciousness, most of it centered in her head. She decided she was growing weary of it. She had done nothing to deserve it and wanted the ones who kept inflicting her with it to suffer. It was difficult to swallow her groan of pain as she struggled to open her eyes just enough to see where she was yet not alert her captors to the fact that she was awake.
She was inside a rough cottage. Arianna immediately feared for the safety of the ones the cottage had belonged to but pushed aside that concern. She could do nothing about their fate unless she got free, although she was certain it would only be to find some justice for the killing of innocents. Amiel would not have left anyone alive to tell where he and his men were. He was the one being hunted now. Despite her pain and dire circumstances, Arianna was able to find some satisfaction in that.
Crouched by the fire in the center of the cottage was her husband’s brother Amiel. There was also some petty satisfaction to be found in the fact that the ever-fastidious Amiel was mud-splattered and untidy. Beneath the dirt were clothes fit for an appearance at court and she inwardly shook her head over Amiel’s idiocy. Did the fool think he could just ride into the country and bargain bloodlessly for the return of two boys he meant to kill? It did not surprise her to see the other men glaring at him with contempt when they thought he was not looking their way.
There was no doubt in her mind that the man was indeed a fool, and not only in his choice of clothing. All he had had to do was wait and he could have gotten what he craved without getting any innocent blood on his hands. Claud’s family was appalled that their son and heir had married a common maid and did not wish the boys born of that union to claim anything. A little money and a few lies could make that embarrassing marriage disappear. It would just take time. Amiel, however, wanted it all now, with a ferocity that made her wonder yet again if he was in debt to someone. She wondered if some of the man’s hatred for the boys was because they were Claud’s. There had never been any love lost between the brothers but she had never thought the animosity would lead to murder.
The truth struck her so forcefully she nearly opened her eyes wide and had to swallow a gasp. It was something she had considered several times but now she had no doubt. Amiel owed the DeVeaux something or wanted something they could give him. He had become their pawn, although he was probably too blindly arrogant to know it. It was the only explanation for why he now rushed to kill two young boys who would undoubtedly, and unfairly, become disinherited soon. Legally made bastards by an annulment that would be bought and paid for by his parents.
Not only a traitor to his own blood but a complete, blind fool. Amiel ignored the long, bloody history of DeVeaux treachery if he actually thought they would let him live for long after he gave them what they wanted or they gave him what he sought. Every Lucette knew that the king may have forced a truce between the two families but it had not completely stopped the treachery the DeVeaux excelled at, it had merely made them more secretive. Amiel’s arrogance obviously made him think he could outwit his venomous allies. She could almost feel sorry for Amiel but for the knowledge that he wanted to kill Adelar and Michel. That ended any chance of her feeling even the smallest twinge of pity for him.
“I think she wakes,” said one of the DeVeaux men riding with Amiel.
Arianna silently cursed, wondering what had given her away. She had kept her breathing slow and even, was certain she had not moved any part of her body, and had kept her eyes shut enough that no one should have seen even a hint of wakefulness there. Fighting not to tense in fear and show the others the man was right, she waited.
“Nay, she still sleeps, Sir Anton,” said Amiel, his irritatingly nasal voice easy to recognize.
“Are you quite certain of that?”
“She has not even groaned, has she, and that knock upon the head has to hurt.”
There was the hint of pleasure in his voice and Arianna ached to beat him with a thick stick. Her head throbbed so badly it was difficult to restrain the urge to rub her forehead. Only the knowledge that it would do little to help ease the pain kept her from doing so. What truly mattered now was neither her pain nor her injuries, but the plans of her enemy. Knowing what they had schemed could aid her in escaping them, or warning the others when she was rescued.
