“Promise?”
“I do.”
She squared her shoulders. “Then we may leave now.”
Mathias knew how she must be hurting but he respected the fact that she was trying to be strong about it. He grasped her elbow gently and helped her to her feet, not saying a word. At the moment, he wasn’t entirely sure what to say. They were facing a difficult enough day ahead without the added sorrow of the missing pet. No, he wasn’t sure what to say to her at all.
The horse was waiting by the tavern, tied to a wooden post shoved deep into the ground. The dirt was surprisingly dry and dusty in the mid-summer season and the lower legs of the silver charger were already a dusty brown. As Mathias escorted her to the charger, they passed by a towering rose vine that grew up all around the south side of the tavern and was bursting with small white roses. Cathlina reached out and plucked a piece of the vine that had four or five roses on it. She held it to her nose as Mathias lifted her up onto the charger.
Mathias mounted behind his wife, collecting the reins of the charger and directing the animal onto the main road south. All the while, Cathlina sat silently in front of him, smelling the roses. When they took the bridge over the river, she didn’t look to see if Midgy was anywhere to be found. It was as if she had given up. There was too much on her mind and Midgy was the last straw. When they were about a mile south of the town, Mathias heard her break down into soft sobs. Whether it was for him or the otter, he didn’t know. He didn’t even ask, for nothing he could say would ease either situation. He didn’t want to make things worse. She withdrew completely, and Mathias let her.
He let her cry.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Tate de Larawasn’t simply astonished to see Mathias and Cathlina ride into the outer bailey of Carlisle Castle; he was bloody well shocked. He had been in the gatehouse, a squat, intimidating red-stoned building, when a solitary rider had been sighted coming in from the northeast. Tate had paid very little attention until he happened to see the rider at close range and realized there were two people astride the charger. Moreover, he recognized the charger. Mathias and Cathlina were returning.
He had sent a soldier running for St. Héver, who was in the great hall, before making his way to the gatehouse entry about the time Mathias and Cathlina were entering. He moved quickly to the horse, looking up at the exhausted pair with great concern.
“What has happened?” he demanded. “Why are you here?”
Cathlina looked as if she had been weeping and Mathias, drawn and pale, handed her down into Tate’s waiting arms. As Tate gently took Cathlina, Mathias dismounted behind her and handed his charger off to one of the many soldiers crowding around them. He followed Tate and Cathlina across the expansive bailey towards the enormous keep.
“Mathias, tell me,” Tate asked again, his arm around Cathlina’s shoulders. “What happened? Why have you returned?”
Mathias unlatched his helm and removed it, revealing damp dark hair beneath. “It is not safe for her in Scotland,” he said simply. “I found Pembury and we subsequently located de Beaumont, but the wars he is fighting are more than we imagined. He is planning a full-scale invasion and he wants meto help lead it. He has nearly eighty ships prepared to set sail from Yorkshire ports to help him gain the throne for Edward Balliol, who is now in residence with de Beaumont.”
Tate looked at him with surprise. “Balliol is with him? The last I heard, he was in France.”
Mathias sighed wearily. “He is here now,” he said. “He is very confident that he can wrest the throne from the infant David. He thinks the regent, the Earl of Moray, is one to be easily defeated. I am not convinced, however. I think the infant has more support than we realize.”
Tate was seriously listening to him and not paying attention to Cathlina at all. “Why would you say that?”
They were drawing near to the keep now and Mathias could see Toby emerge, shielding her eyes against the morning sun to see who was approaching. As Cathlina scurried forward ahead of the men, Mathias and Tate came to a halt and faced one another.
“Because de Beaumont is convinced that he will have superior numbers to reinforce him from England,” he said quietly. “The man is experienced and intelligent, but he does not seem to realize that he is in Scotland siding with Scots that are just as passionate about Balliol as Moray is about the infant. Moreover, Moray commands thousands and even now, de Beaumont cannot have more than eight hundred men. I have seen the thin numbers for myself.”
Tate listened to him carefully. When Mathias was finished, he sighed heavily as he pondered the information. “Is this true? I can hardly believe it.”
“It is true.”
Tate simply shook his head in disbelief. “I wonder if King Edward knows this.”
“If he does not, he should,” Mathias said. “But it will take weeks for the news to reach him. We cannot wait for direction. What is happening in Scotland is happening now, which is why Ibrought Cathlina home. Although I had hoped to start a new life with her in Scotland, it is too dangerous for my liking. I will have to bring her home and pray her father forgives us for marrying without his blessing.”
Tate tried to sound confident. “He will,” he said. “The man is not unreasonable, and he will appreciate that you thought of his daughter’s safety by bringing her back to England. Moreover, if the danger is as bad as you say it is, you would be ineffective because you would be worrying about her constantly.”
Mathias lifted his eyebrows in an ironic gesture. “Cathlina does not see it that way,” he said. “She thinks that I am abandoning her and that I no longer have use for her now that I am once again a knight.”
Tate was pensive. “Women do not often times see what it is that makes us do what we do,” he said. “It took Toby years to accept that I am a fighting man and that war is in my blood. It does not diminish my love for her.”
“I wish Cathlina saw it that way.”
Tate clapped him on the shoulder and turned him for the keep. “Leave her here with us,” he said. “Toby will explain what it is to be a warrior’s wife. Mayhap she would take it better from another woman.”
Mathias nodded. “I will admit that women are mysterious creatures,” he muttered. “Sometimes it is so simple to speak with her, then other times….”
Tate grinned as they prepared to mount the steps to the massive keep. Toby and Cathlina stood at the top of the steps, Cathlina in Toby’s embrace. Tate and Mathias gazed up at the pair with expressions of fear, awe, and respect.
