Gowan looked around. “Most of these others are naught but swords for hire although I can see a few from houses I ken weel and have been watching for a while. They dinnae have the look of hopelessness your lot does so I am thinking they didnae disagree with what was asked of them. Some men think much akin to the laird they serve. But, we didnae get Sir Walter or your brother.”
“Nay. I suspicion they sent their men in first to test the water and have left now that they ken the way in was discovered.”
“Think they kenned the lass might have guessed about the bolt-hole?”
Having talked to Ilsabeth several times, Simon believed he now had the whole truth about all that had been said between her and Walter, and her and Henry. “Not Sir Walter because, fool that he is, he would ne’er think she had the wit to ken it, being a mere female and all that.” He nodded when Gowan snickered. “My brother, however, would have anticipated the possiblity after talking to her for a moment. He might think her unnatural, for Henry thinks verra little of women, but he would have quickly guessed at her intelligence.”
“So the men we set outside will have caught no one or will be dead.”
“Aye, I fear so. Henry may be mad enough to think he can kill the king and set his arse on the throne, but he is sharp-witted and a fighter to be wary of.”
“I want this mon, Sir Simon,” Gowan said in a hard, cold voice. “Him and that fool Hepbourn. I want them to pay full toll for this plan against the king.”
Simon was a little surprised by the vehemence in Gowan’s voice, but nodded. “Oh, ye will have them soon. Weel, if my brother doesnae kill Hepbourn first.”
“What do ye mean Ilsabeth told them of the way in?” Walter slid off the winded mount he had been riding hard for miles. “How could she have any idea about that old bolt-hole?”
Henry dismounted and stared at Walter. “Ye ne’er really kenned her, did ye? I said I wanted a lass to dangle before Simon, one he would feel the need to protect. Ye decided to play your own game and try to rid yourself of the Armstrongs. Wanted their lands, too, didnae ye?”
“And why not? They abut mine.”
“Of course. Weel, if ye had looked a little more closely instead of praising yourself on your cleverness, or trying to get beneath her skirts, ye might have seen that the lass has a verra sharp wit.”
“A sharp tongue, most assuredly. I cannae believe I didnae see that, but she was probably just on her best behavior so that she could catch me as her husband.” He screamed when Henry slapped him so hard he fell to the ground, and stared at Henry in fear.
“Dinnae be any greater a fool than ye have to be,” Henry said. “That lass is quick, and nay just with her sharp tongue. She kenned something was wrong and she thought on it. It didnae take long for her to realize we had come in the wrong way, unguarded. If ye had kenned her as ye claimed, I would ne’er have made such a mistake.”
“Weel, we have more men.” Walter cautiously got to his feet.
“And we had best get to them.”
“Why?”
“Because, ye fool, my cursed brother will be right behind us. He set up that trap because he had the sense to heed his woman when she told him something wasnae right about our being there. He will also have a plan ready to come after us because he wouldnae have set all his hopes on catching us as we tried to get back into the dungeon.” He looked back in the direction they had just come from. “Simon is coming and this time I will kill him. And then I will take his woman.”
“I thought she was going to be my woman.” Walter stepped away from Henry when the man stared at him. “Weel, she is yours then, although after feeling how deep her sharp tongue can cut, I cannae see why any mon would want her.”
“If I find her sharp tongue too much of an irritant and cannae beat it out of her, I will simply cut it out. Did that with my first wife.”
Walter stared at Henry as the man watered his mount at the small burn and then got back in the saddle. He hurried to do the same but he could not shake something Ilsabeth had said out of his head. She had warned him that Henry would get what he wanted and then kill him. Walter had scoffed at such a foolish statement but he did not feel like scoffing anymore.
Chapter 16
He thinks I can give him a son.
Simon growled as those words slithered through his mind yet again. He could not shake free of them or the power they had to make him angry. Not even reminding himself that Ilsabeth was right, that she was safe where she was, helped him regain the calm he needed to do his work. Henry could not reach her in her prison cell, he kept telling himself, but himself was not listening too closely. The fact that Henry had tried to return to the dungeons was enough, however, to make him eager to put an end to his brother’s freedom and traitorous games as soon as possible.
“Here comes Wallace,” said Peter, looking toward the line of trees to their left. “Ye were right about him. He is an excellent tracker.”
“He has always had the skill,” Simon replied. “I think he was born with it.”
“Aye. I had feared we had lost our prey when they had escaped the trap at the dungeons, but this lad will sniff them out.” Peter smiled faintly as he studied Simon. “Calm yourself, Simon. Ye are pacing like a mon awaiting his firstborn. This will be over soon.”
“Ye feel it, too? Feel that the end is close?”
“Aye. I do and verra strongly. The others involved in this plot are being quietly collected up so that their compatriots arenae warned that they have been discovered too quickly and then flee. Although I suspect a few will escape. Cannae help that, and Gowan has our men starting at the top of the list so that we can be sure to bring in the ones who had the most important part in all this. Nay your list, either. Gowan’s list.”
“Gowan had his own list made?” Simon began to wonder if Gowan had his eye on Simon’s place in the king’s household and then decided that he really did not care. “How did Gowan list everyone?”
